Reading Rainbow is a family reading app, not a classroom reading instructional tool.

This is a wonderful app that can be effective for a variety of students. Students are able to select the books they would like to read by putting them in their virtual backpack. I have used this app in a whole group setting while streaming through Apple TV. I have also used it for a center with small groups. If you have an iPad for every student, you can have every student reading a book of their choice at the same time. One of my favorite uses was with a student who had severe behavior challenges. He loved this app, and I used it for his reward time. It was motivating for him to behave and to complete the required work needed to be able to have time on this app. Experiences with each book are scaffolded, so various levels of learners can be successful. There are short videos and games that accompany each book. The free version has limited resources. The paid version is much better.

This is a good tool to keep kids occupied to themselves while reading a book or having the app read it to them. It is kind of like a kindle with a large variety of books. However, it asks the child's interest and age, thereby pulling reading books that the child may be interested in reading. For a teacher, it has a search feature so the teacher can enter the topic and it will pull up some books. It is a good library source and makes it easier find topics to read about as opposed to looking through your physical library. The child will visit many different floating islands which has a library of common topics and it will also throw in a non-topic book that causes curiosity. It also has a video library that involves children telling the story or someone reading a book. The child is awarded a figurine to add to the world, such as a palm tree, a house, a dinosaur, etc. after reading or viewing videos. Overall this is an excellent app. I used an iPad however, I believe that it can be used on an android as well

Reading Rainbow is an excellent individual reading motivator however, I could also see using it as a class teaching tool for whole groups as well. It would be an excellent way to bring a story into social studies or science by projecting the story and reading it together and then going on a virtual field trip. It would be an excellent way to introduce a topic or reinforce a subject you have been teaching. Skybrary for school does require an account purchase but they do offer it free to Title I schools, it was only offered free while they were in BETA. That is the only downside I see to Reading Rainbow's Skybrary.