I love when I receive, “Is this true?” questions from teachers. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that high-quality content for educators is available for free. And I saw lots of tweets and messages posing the same question when I shared ABCmouse this time last year. ABCmouse is free for teachers, and the creators of ABCmouse have another free resource I’m excited to share with you too!
At ISTE this year, I met with the team at Age of Learning (creators of ABCmouse) to hear about some of the projects they’ve been working on. One of the announcements that caught my attention this year is ReadingIQ. If you haven’t heard of ReadingIQ before, it is a comprehensive digital library for students and teachers. With thousands of books to choose from, this resource is one you’ll want to check out!
Digital Library for Students
ReadingIQ is designed for children ages two to twelve with a variety of reading levels. There are thousands of books for students to explore. This includes more than one thousand titles with professional voice narration. There are popular titles your students are sure to recognize. Readers will also find partnerships with publishers like National Geographic Kids.
A big announcement last month expands the collection greatly. Readers now have access to titles from Disney Publishing Worldwide. This news now means students using ABCmouse and ReadingIQ can access books featuring Toy Story, Avengers, Frozen, and so much more.
The books in the ReadingIQ library are high-interest and cover a wide range of genres. Students can access them on desktops, tablets, or phones and switch between devices too. When students open up ReadingIQ, they’ll find award-winning titles (including Caldecott and Newbery Medal winners) as well as new books added regularly.
Using Digital Libraries in the Classroom
There are so many ways to use a digital library with students this school year. Having regular access to high-quality books on any device can be a game changer in classrooms with limited resources. Since teachers have lots of ways to incorporate reading experiences throughout the school day, I thought I would share a few ideas that fall into the following three categories.
Independent Reading
If your students have access to devices during independent reading time, you may want to provide ReadingIQ as an option. If you’ve read any of my books, you know that I value the balance between digital and analog experiences for students. S
ome of your students may want to read on a tablet during independent reading time. ReadingIQ provides students with access to lots of titles to choose from and the ability for you to set individual reading levels using Lexile, Guided Reading, Accelerated Reader, or grade level. I love how ReadingIQ provides book recommendations for every child based on their individual reading level too.
Blended Learning
Over the past few years, I’ve had an opportunity to work with schools that use blended learning station rotation in their classrooms. In this model, students work through a variety of activities for short amounts of time. One station typically uses digital devices in some way. In a blended learning station, you might have students choose a book to read in ReadingIQ related to an area of their interest.
Alternatively, they might dive into some of ReadingIQ’s informational text selections to conduct research on a topic. Students could pair their research within the books in ReadingIQ’s library alongside notetaking in other favorite apps, websites, or online spaces.
Whole-Class Read Alouds
Whether you’re introducing the ReadingIQ platform to students for the first time or simply want to engage in a whole-class read aloud together, this is a fantastic choice. When modeling strategies in a reading workshop, you can display a book on an interactive whiteboard and demonstrate to students how you would navigate the information on the page.
If you do read aloud a book from the ReadingIQ library to your class, students might also decide to pull up this favorite book during their independent reading time. You might choose books that have narration available to share with your class. So even if you read a book aloud first, then they can listen to it during another part of the school day.
Head over to ReadingIQ’s special website for teachers to create your free teacher account. For more ideas on how you can incorporate ReadingIQ into your classroom routines, you can watch their recorded webinars on Tech Tools for Daily 5 and The Power of Digital Books in the Classroom. I’m so excited this resource is available for students and teachers, and I can’t wait for you to check it out!
