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MamaLingua Go!
Pros: Some digital books have adjustable readability settings, making the text more accessible and reader friendly.
Cons: The text-to-speech feature highlights words and syllables as they are read aloud; however, it lacks Spanish language accuracy and fluency.
Bottom Line: The sequence of books exploring concepts and vocabulary in Spanish are useful, but a tutorial would help users take full advantage of the resources.
How Can I Teach with This Tool?
Teachers can use MamaLingua Go! to expand the selection of Spanish language books in their classroom. The platform offers digital books for a range of readers: beginner readers, intermediate readers, and advanced readers. Add this platform to literacy centers or make it available during independent reading time. In addition to borrowing books to read, students can watch videos in Spanish to develop vocabulary. They can access short little clips on days of the week, numbers, colors, and more. Teachers can also use these digital books to differentiate text for students. Under readability settings, you can adjust the font size, line spacing, and background color to increase accessibility. The platform also has a text-to-speech feature to support readers; however, teachers should preview this feature and check for Spanish accuracy. For instance, the word "y" in Spanish is often read as the letter "y" in English.
Teachers can also use this platform to supplement Spanish language curriculum. Here you'll find unit timelines, general learning objectives, lesson ideas, aligned book collections, videos, and activities to teach basic vocabulary. Those activities focus on words relating to colors, numbers, and body parts or explore age appropriate topics, such as the solar system. The biggest perk of these self-guided units is that they sequence books in a meaningful way to help students build vocabulary and content knowledge. Although some units offer videos, comprehension prompts, and activities, teachers may want to add more hands on or collaborative experiences to reinforce learning. The platform does offer a system that allows teachers to monitor reading progress and reading responses; however, the design isn't too intuitive and without any user tutorials, it will require a trial-and-error approach. The site can also be glitchy: Some pages didn't load at all during the review period.