Starfall

Starfall is an early learning website featuring interactives, games, songs, and supporting resources for reading and math. The heart of the site is its reading program, categorized into four sections: ABCs, which introduces letter sounds through videos and interactive games; Learn to Read, which teaches some of the more common sounds through interactive games, books, and videos; It's Fun to Read, in which students learn to read in context; and I'm Reading, in which students read short books, comics, and plays. Students can progress through these four sections however they like and move on to other sections as their reading skills improve and mature. The bulk of the content is geared toward pre-K and kindergarten, but there's a small collection of activities that touch on more advanced concepts, such as grammar, and are relevant for older grades. In addition to these interactives and activities, there's a Parent-Teacher Center that has printable worksheets, pre-K and kindergarten curricula, detailed lists of Common Core State Standards alignments, downloadable songs, and other resources for teachers. There's also a store with extras like books and stuffed animals for purchase. And check out the dedicated accessibility section to learn how to use Starfall to support students with special needs.

A limited amount of Starfall's large content base is available for free. To unlock all content, teachers need to purchase a subscription. With Group Access, teachers can give students sign-in credentials to use at home. There are also several associated Starfall apps, including Starfall Learn to Read and Starfall ABCs, some of which are entirely free and some of which offer limited content for free.

Though at times the user experience can feel a bit slow and outdated, Starfall still does a good job of offering clear and useful early literacy lessons. The effective sound-it-out approach helps students identify each individual phoneme, or sound, in words. When they see the word "bat," students hear it sounded out ("b-a-t") several times, faster and faster, until they hear the whole word. The experience also personalizes as a students' reading skills progress. For example, students choose words to insert into sentences, and their choices influence the direction of the activity. 

While the activities aren't that interactive, students do engage with the site. Students can make simple choices (not getting punished if they get something wrong), click on words to hear them read aloud, or click to advance videos. There's often a mixture of text and audio, and activities are well paced. Unfortunately, there's not an option to hear an entire passage read fluently, and some things, like songs, are missing captions. There's a lot of mouse navigation to get through the site, so young children or children with special learning needs may face a few challenges. That said, there are some adaptions that make navigation easier (such as a large cursor, icons) and an accessibility section that outlines a variety of possible usability adjustments (such as compatibility with screen readers or setting up for keyboard controls). And, for better or worse, students are free to access any of the site's content at any time. Students are very much in charge of directing their own journey through the learning material. This may work well for some students, whereas others may need some supervision to keep on track. Ultimately, the best implementation will involve diving into the Parent-Teacher Center and using the curricular guides, downloadables, and extras like books. With these, a clear plan, and a nice mixture of work on and off the website, Starfall could be a relied-upon tool in your classroom.