Below are two interesting tools to help your students develop their reading skills while staying at home. The first one is a platform that provides access to a treasure trove of open source reading materials that can be downloaded or added to offline library to be read anytime, anywhere. The second tool is an Android app from Google that offers students a reading buddy to help them make the best of their reading experience.
1- Storyweaver
Storyweaver offers a wide variety of illustrated open source storybooks for kids. Most importantly, these reading materials are available in over 200 languages making it thus an ideal platform for multilingual learners. Storyweaver allows users to download stories for later reading in three different formats:”a web-resolution PDF, an A4 print ready format, and a digital-friendly ePub format”. Users can also save their stories to their offline library and access them anytime they want. Additionally, Storyweaver also helps students create ‘their’ own stories and illustrate them with beautiful artwork. They can select from “thousands of openly licensed images from well known illustrators. So while creating your own storybook has always sounded complex, and daunting, StoryWeaver now makes it super-easy to write your narrative, pick your illustrations, and publish your very own story – in minutes”.
Storyweaver also provides translation services allowing users to translate stories from/into languages they choose. And to help students enhance their reading skills while staying at home, Storywevaer offers ” a host of grade-wise storybooks and activities that provide hours and hours of learning they will enjoy!”.
Watch the video below to learn more about Storyweaver
2- Read Along
Read Along is an Android app from Google to help studenrs develop thgeir reading skills. The app has “an in-app reading buddy that listens to your young learner read aloud, offers assistance when they struggle and rewards them with stars when they do well – guiding them along as they progress. It works best for children who already have some basic knowledge of the alphabet.”
