Last Updated on October 4, 2023 by Editorial Team
Guided Reading is a practice conducted by educators and teachers to assist a small group of pupils in reading on their own. Students read a work that teachers have chosen at their instructional reading level in small groups during guided reading. It is an opportunity for children who exhibit comparable reading habits and have similar text-reading proficiency. Students gain the ability to participate in all aspects of the reading process through guided reading and apply that literacy skill to all educational contexts.
Guided reading is generally conducted by schools or personal educators. However, with the ever-growing technology, teachers and parents look forward to new ways of implementing the benefits of guided reading. That’s when guided reading applications come to the rescue!
With these apps, students achieve a sense of self-direction thereby making them authoritative. Applications also help set goals and targets considering the child’s ability to read. Parents, adults, and teachers can find multiple applications below that not only assess the performance but also suggest significant areas of improvement.
Guided reading apps: Supporting students in developing reading proficiency?
Guided reading applications are an innovative way to engage students in reading and help them build their communication skills. Students also learn to recognize new words, form sentences, and get higher recall values when words are associated with pictures in graphics.
According to significant research[1], it can be noted that students have a significant impact on internet reading. The research was conducted on 5th-grade students to assess their motivation level and attitude toward reading. Some students were given a traditional format for reading while others were given an electronic medium for guided reading.
According to the findings of the research, it was shown that there was no significant difference between traditional readers and e-readers. It was also noted that e-reading broadens educational opportunities and helps students develop skills. E-readers have shown an equally positive impact as traditional readers.
Another important research[2] was conducted to assess the usage and benefits of an application called Nearpod. The research was conducted to understand the impact of guided reading through a digital application. It was conducted on a group of students from the 4th grade.
According to the research, it was revealed that students were easily able to transfer their knowledge into the application through digital guided reading. The application was successful as it improved organization in the classroom. Students gained knowledge and received motivation as the application managed the interest levels and monitored the progress of students.
Relevant applications to encourage guided reading
The world wide web is full of information and one can get exhausted by an overload of information. Hence, the list of guided reading applications helps teachers and parents decide the best app for their little ones. These applications are designed for various age groups considering the global academic standards.
1. Starfall Learn to Read
Starfall Learn to Read is a useful application for guided reading. Developed by the Starfall Education Foundation, the application motivates children to explore words while engaging in different activities. With creative illustrations and animated effects, children love to hear, understand, and master the art of reading. The application is filled with different learning areas including short vowels, long vowels, Phonics, and chunking. There are various games designed in the application to make children understand the usage of words through racing, coloring, or memorizing words.
High-end graphics are also used to make children understand the sounds of different vowels and blends. The usage of illustration helps children recognize the relationship between a written word with its spoken English. The application is helpful for students to understand and pronounce words correctly. Interestingly, the application can be used on different devices and has more than 15 lessons to cater to the different reading needs of children.
App link: Playstore | Appstore
2. Epic: Kids’ Books and Reading
As the name suggests, Epic is a helpful application with more than 40000 + reading books for students. This application is a digital library of audiobooks and learning videos. Children can often engage with thousands of interactive learning videos and also learn pronunciation. There is also an option of Read-to-me books where children simply have to listen and understand the story. Interestingly, the application also offers multiple quizzes to test the knowledge and memory of students.
As children use this application, they also receive personalized recommendations according to their interest level, fluency, and reading capability. The application is also available offline thereby making it a useful app for guided reading. Teachers and parents can also track progress and inspire children to get special badges and rewards by reading. Such an application engages children, builds curiosity, and allows them to view high-end graphics. They also learn to identify different images with sounds and words developing overall vocabulary.
App link: Playstore | Appstore
3. Read Along by Google
Read Along by Google is a helpful initiative by Google to assist children with reading. The application has a reading buddy that is part of the Read Along app. The Budd listens to your children reading aloud, helps them out when they need it, and gives them stars when they do well. The application identifies reading errors and readily corrects children while reading. Such a feature helps them along as they advance. By providing verbal and visual feedback while they read aloud, this app helps them to read. The application uses Google’s speech recognition technology to support literacy development.
The application enables children to independently acquire and develop their reading abilities. The application buddy uses text-to-speech and speech recognition technologies to determine whether or not students face difficulty reading the piece as they read it aloud. With a selection of engaging and diverse tales from all around the world and activities interspersed throughout those tales, the app keeps young brains occupied. As they learn, children can earn stars and badges, which encourages them to keep playing and reading. Based on how children read, the application tailors the experience by suggesting the correct level of difficulty for the stories and games.
App link: Playstore
4. Readability – Learn to Read
The Readability application is designed to help students in reading and improving vocabulary. The application works for kids right from kindergarten to 6th grade. The application is curated in a way to provides reading as well as comprehension for children. It uses a personalized reading program supported by artificial intelligence that accurately hears and also recognizes faults in reading. Such a feature enables children to correctly pronounce each word. Children cannot move forward without understanding the actual pronunciation.
Another feature of this application is interactive voice-based questions and answers connected in every story. With high-end graphics, the stories also offer quiz formats. The application is set to automatically select the type of reading material depending on the children’s capacity and need for improvisation. This step minimizes struggle with reading and also engages children in interesting topics. Such an application of guided reading helps children unlock their trading potential and improves their spoken communication.
App link: Playstore | Appstore
5. Endless Reader
The Endless Reader is an application designed to make children explore the importance of sight words. Sight words are commonly used in schools and children’s literature programs. It enables children to develop fluency in reading by helping them recognize these words at a glance. It is designed with a monster theme thereby giving it a visually appealing touch for readers. The application is pretty helpful for beginners as sight words can be tricky to understand.
It uses high-end teaching methodology so that kids experience a fun and comprehensive learning environment. The application is designed with creative animations to reinforce the recognition of words while learning. It also has different word puzzles where children get to learn the definition and usage of words in an interactive manner. Additionally, the application does not have any high score limitations or stress to score better. Such a feature makes learning fun for children.
App link: Playstore | Appstore
6. Starfall I’m Reading
This is another helpful application to assist children with reading. The application helps with comprehension, fluency, and phonics and improves spoken communication. With creative illustrations and visually appealing graphics, the application offers different reading methodologies depending on the child’s interest. Children are greeted with reading tabs consisting of short stories with the usage of rhyming words, opposite words, and correcting fluency. The application also offers various fiction and nonfiction stories that help children recognize their interests with respect to reading.
Kids also get exposure to comics, folk tales, and Greek mythologies. The application offers different quizzes to test knowledge with realistic images and positive reinforcement. Students shall love to complete engaging activities with concentration. It also features clip-and-drag words, puzzle blocks, clip-and-drag puzzles, Chinese fables, and stories with important morals. Such an application helps the overall development of children as they not only learn words but also understand different stories with the help of guided reading.
App link: Playstore | Appstore
7. Reading Eggs – Learn to Read
Reading Eggs is another useful application to foster reading skills for kids as well as teenagers. The application is a complete package for improving vocabulary and recognizing new words. The categories in the application are divided according to the age at wherein children can learn as beginners. Phonics skills, meanings of words, and numerical understanding is also highlighted in the app. It also features visually appealing alphabet and spelling games thereby engaging children in a fun learning environment. Word puzzles and nursery rhymes also make sure to engage children in learning with complete concentration.
The application has more than 3000 storybooks. Interactive gaming and guided reading lessons help children understand their reading capabilities in a highly motivating environment. It is a combination of phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, phonics, and vocabulary. The application is available on most devices making it easy to access. Parents and educators can also receive detailed progress reports which allow them to track the child’s growth. The application also suggests areas of improvement. With fun songs, characters, and engaging rewards, children are inspired in the reading process.
App link: Playstore | Appstore | Web app
8. Teach Monster
Teach Monster is an engaging application where children get to explore a magical village that encourages them to read. This application allows children to explore different facts and fascinating stories in a village-themed environment. They get to customize their own monsters and even build colorful characters with them. Children get an opportunity to collect more than 70 books simply by being engaged in reading. The books available in the application are perfect for home, school as well and playtime learning. Children get an option to read the books or also read aloud with the librarian in the application.
As they read these books, they discover different types of content allowing them to move ahead in the application. The application basically surrounds a story where a Goblin eats books creating chaos and children are supposed to save the village simply by reading! Children also develop a sense of empathy and understanding as they play the role of being the protector of the village. They understand reading from different perspectives including instructions, science, recipes, and various books. Such an application is a combination of learning and fun as children get to solve challenges and learn how the story unfolds to be ready for the next big challenge.
App link: Playstore | Appstore
9. Kids Book Reading App Library
As the name suggests, this application provides an amazing reading library for children. There are more than 1000 read-along books narrated in human voice for children to create an instant connection. This is an innovative application as it offers 500+ play activities and 100+ hearables including poems and stories. The application is ideal for kids and toddlers as it is a fusion of books, reading games, and sing-along songs. The application being a library offers different categories of books as per age.
Children get an opportunity to build their English literacy and improve their language skills. The application aims to strengthen reading and enhance retention skills. Children also learn word recognition as they engage with visually appealing pictures. There can be a significant increase in their focus and attention with audiobooks. Interestingly, the guided reading program encourages students to win badges and they can then shop for rewards. Such an application helps children learn difficult words and keeps them connected with the engaging content.
App link: Playstore
10. Let’s Read – Digital Library
Let’s read – Digital Library is an innovative application that makes use of community-based workshops to produce original content. This means children are exposed to relevant stories that they can create relativity with. The application is an initiative by the Asia Foundation Books directed at fostering the reading habit in young leaders. The application is available in various languages along with English thereby allowing children from different parts of the world to access it. This digital library has a wide collection of storybooks with different morals.
The storybooks are curated by multiple local authors and illustrators. Such a feature allows children to view content from different perspectives and engage in high-end graphics like never before! It is also accessible offline and the books are available in downloadable format. The application also allows readers to change different layouts. Children can set goals for reading and also create fun profiles. Such an application is an amalgamation of different languages, stories, and imaginations of different people across the world. It allows guided reading and helps children recognize words easily.
App link: Playstore | Appstore
Wrapping up…
Guided reading is a creative form of inculcating the habit of reading in children. However, it is important for teachers and parents to strike a balance between applications and books. Along with the above-mentioned applications, educators can also opt for reading aloud books, reading websites, and other study material to offer a comprehensive learning environment.
It is crucial to understand that more than one method offers diversity and keeps children entertained with a new phase of learning every day. Let children explore their preferences for content, story, illustrations, and the outlook of the process.
References
- Deanna Long & Susan Szabo | Sammy King Fai Hui (Reviewing Editor) (2016) E-readers and the effects on students’ reading motivation, attitude, and comprehension during guided reading, Cogent Education, 3:1, DOI: 10.1080/2331186X.2016.1197818
- Delacruz, S. Using Nearpod in elementary guided reading groups. TECHTRENDS TECH TRENDS 58, 62–69 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-014-0787-9
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,