Starfall

Rovileen Rios-Aflague
ED638 Intercession 2017
Dr. M. Rivera
IRA Newsletter Project: Effective Literacy #7

Starfall (http://www.starfall.com/) is a multimedia resource for children learning to read. Children will learn in an environment incorporated with cooperation, amazement, and play. Starfall believes that with positive reinforcement, children will become confident, motivated, and successful. Starfall has a series of fun games and activities for the children to discover in order learn to read. The website is targeted for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, homeschool, and English language development.
            Starfall opened on August 27, 2002 and was founded by Stephen Schutz. Schutz was motivated to create a website to help children to read because like many others, he also struggled with reading. Through his adversities, he was able to create an environment where “Children Have Fun Learning to Read.” It took two years for the development to be completed and was offered free to the public. Starfall has expanded over the years and has fully developed a kindergarten English and Language Arts curriculum and a comprehensive Pre-k curriculum. It now provides low-cost membership programs for more interactive activities for children to appreciate.
            The Starfall homepage has a variety of activities for children to choose from. It provides activities for children learning their alphabets and those learning to read. For children learning their alphabets, they are able to choose any letter blocks on the page. Afterwards, it provides them with the sound of the letter and a picture. There is an option for signing the letters if the children are interested in learning it. There are also other activities such as motion songs and coloring books. For children learning to read, they are offered games or books to read with an indication of the skills pertaining to the story. When children open the story, they may sound out the words and listen if they read it correctly. There are also animations that are related to the story for children to understand and appreciate. Starfall offers other fun reading activities, such as art galleries, music, poetry, tongue twisters, and riddles. If children are interested in reading other types of books, they can go to the reading library where they can choose from different genres, which are plays, non-fiction, comics, folktales, Greek myths, and Chinese fables. Each genre will provide the children with free books to read.
            Starfall provides a Parent-Teacher Center for more resources. The center includes Starfall news, activities, and resources to use in the classroom and at home from Pre-k to first grade. There are free downloadable worksheets, curriculum, informative guides, and lesson plans for teachers and homeschooling parents to use. The center enables educators to use their resources for free to help children build their literacy skills.
            Overall, Starfall is a very effective literacy website. Children, parents, and teachers will appreciate all the entertaining features. They should also take advantage of the free resources on the Parent-Teacher Center to help their child or student become proficient readers in the future.