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Elementary School Reading Apps and Websites

Looking for the best reading apps and websites for your elementary schoolers? These tools get kids enthusiastic about reading by helping them explore their passions as they build literacy. Whether they're analyzing leveled news stories, finding books online and connecting to other readers, or taking assessments and monitoring their growth, students will be developing much-needed skills for comprehension and fluency. These top reading apps and websites offer content perfectly tuned to what elementary school-age students need so that they can develop into expert readers with a love of the written word.

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Connect Students with Other Readers

Bookopolis

Cute social network lets kids log books and connect with other readers

Bottom line: Kids-only social network gives students a safe space to connect, allows students to showcase and share their reading progress.

Grades: 1–8 Price: Free

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Biblionasium

Site for reviewing and sharing books makes reading a social adventure

Bottom line: This safe, simple social network lets kids share their reading success with friends, creating healthy competition and confidence.

Grades: 2–6 Price: Free

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Harry Potter Reading Club

The fun and fantasy of Harry's world plus literary discussion

Bottom line: With activities, discussion questions, and lots of free access to the books, this site is a great place for Harry Potter fans new and old.

Grades: 3–7 Price: Free

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LitPick

Tweens' reviews of YA literature great for classroom use

Bottom line: LitPick is a safe, fun environment for YA lovers to read their favorite books while learning how to discuss literature.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free

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Explore Current Events

Smithsonian: TweenTribune

Trustworthy tween news site has cool classroom component

Bottom line: TweenTribune's questions, quizzes, and educator tools can help kids follow and understand the news; its content may work best with younger users.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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News-O-Matic: School 2018-2019

Flexible, interactive daily stories for elementary school students

Bottom line: Engaging, high-quality news stories help students learn about the world.

Grades: 2–5 Price: $19.99 Volume educational discounts and licenses available.

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News-2-You

Draw kids into weekly news with powerful symbols and voice narration

Bottom line: Students can expand literacy skills, learn about the world, and get involved with discussion questions and activities.

Grades: 2–6 Price: $1.99 per newspaper; $54.99 per year New and archived newspapers can be purchased for $1.99. Annual access to all newspapers is $54.99.

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Newsela

Absorbing daily news stories offer kids just-right learning content

Bottom line: Up-to-date, high-interest articles meet students right at their level: Use this robust tool to bolster students' nonfiction reading practice.

Grades: 2–12 Price: Free, Paid There's a "Pro" subscription targeted at schools, but pricing information isn't public; interested teachers and districts can contact them for more information.

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Target Reading Comprehension and Fluency

HOMER Reading: Learn to Read

Interactive app engages beginning readers of diverse learning styles

Bottom line: Top-notch phonics program effectively balances and guides students through stories, activities, and games.

Grades: Pre-K–2 Price: Free, Free to try Teachers get access to HOMER for free.

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Hooked on Phonics

Well-known curriculum adapts well to fun, easy-to-use app

Bottom line: Thorough phonics program offers a nice mixture of learning, practicing, and reading.

Grades: Pre-K–1 Price: Free to try Free seven-day trial version includes one lesson and one ebook. After that, it's $8.99 per month. There's also a lifetime subscription available.

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Bookshare

Unique digital library gives access to those with print disabilities

Bottom line: This fantastic digital library service provides a powerful sense of independence for students with print-related disabilities.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free, Paid Free for students and schools in the U.S.

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Lalilo

K-2 literacy program offers comprehensive, adaptive activities

Bottom line: An easy-to-recommend tool thanks to its broad coverage of key skills and nice balance of student-driven and teacher-differentiated learning.

Grades: K–3 Price: Free, Paid The free version includes a basic dashboard and phonemic awareness and phonics exercises. Paid version (contact for quote) adds sight word and guided-reading exercises, weekly reports, lesson assignments, and an advanced dashboard.

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LeVar Burton Kids Skybrary School

Thorough lesson plans help teachers utilize an amazing digital library

Bottom line: Though it could use some updates, Skybrary School has a set of top-quality resources with great value worth checking out.

Grades: K–3 Price: Free to try The Classroom Plan (35 students max) is $179 per year and includes 40 lesson plans. The School Plan (350 students max) is $1450 per year. District pricing available. Title I schools are eligible for one free account.

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Raz-Kids

Solid choice for leveled readings and progress-tracking

Bottom line: Trusty -- if a tad dated -- tool for helping younger students become proficient in many aspects of reading.

Grades: K–3 Price: Free to try, Paid $109.95 per classroom for a one-year license. There are optional paid upgrades for the Learning A-Z suite of products (e.g., Reading A-Z), which are also offered as bundled collections.

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Lexia Reading Core5

Interactive reading program promotes targeted, individualized growth

Bottom line: A good blended reading platform that offers students some choices, and teachers actionable data and useful offline resources.

Grades: K–5 Price: Paid Lexia doesn't publish pricing details. Contact them for more info.

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ReadingIQ

Great looking, free library has a reasonable diversity of titles

Bottom line: This is a reading app that focuses primarily -- and successfully -- on the reading; don't expect many bells and whistles though.

Grades: K–5 Price: Free, Free to try Free for teachers

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Epic! - Unlimited Books for Kids

Free, expansive digital library unlocks treasure trove of books

Bottom line: This large collection of books and videos on a wide variety of topics is an easy -- and free -- enhancement to any classroom library.

Grades: K–6 Price: Free to try Free to elementary school teachers and school librarians in the U.S. and Canada.

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Literably

Simple and useful reading fluency assessment tool frees up teacher time

Bottom line: Some districts may find this to be a cost-effective, time-saving option for reading records.

Grades: K–7 Price: Contact for pricing Contact for exact pricing. Pricing varies based on number of students and how frequently the school or district would like to find students' reading levels. Most plans are $6 to $9 per student with a minimum purchase of $1,000.

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Read With Me Fluency

Make assessing, tracking students' reading fluency a breeze

Bottom line: Easy-to-use paperless reading records work great but could use a few updates.

Grades: K–8 Price: $4.99

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Read&Write

Useful text-to-speech app and extension unlocks the written word

Bottom line: A valuable tool to make classroom use of websites and digital documents more accessible to all students.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free to try 30-day free trial. $145 per year for a single license and access to Read&Write across all platforms. School and district licenses also available.

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ReadTheory

Useful, adaptive tool for assessing, tracking reading ability

Bottom line: It's very utilitarian, but what it does it does well: getting students test-ready by effectively assessing and tracking reading ability.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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LightSail

Robust, full-featured reading tool measures meaningful literacy gains

Bottom line: A powerful, well-designed literacy platform for developing engaged readers.

Grades: 1–12 Price: Free to try Free trial available. Contact for pricing.

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Accelerated Reader 360

Boundless, flexible tools promote instructional, independent reading

Bottom line: A stellar literacy platform for assessing student reading levels and promoting further reading.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Contact for pricing Pricing is not transparent, and purchases are targeted at the school or district level. Interested parties must call or go to the website to live chat with a sales rep.

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Rewordify

Text-leveling tool gives every student access to complex readings

Bottom line: This utilitarian differentiation tool is useful enough to be in every teacher's toolbox.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

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StudySync

Superb ELA/EL resource is a complete package

Bottom line: StudySync continues to thoughtfully grow its already robust platform, offering a complete secondary ELA/EL program that cleverly bridges reading and writing, online and offline work.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free to try A one-year subscription starts at $21.42 per student. The print student reading and writing companion units cost $10.20 per student per year, and the print bundles (including two novels) start at $31.11 per student per year.

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ThinkCERCA

Well-structured lessons encourage deep analysis, thoughtful writing

Bottom line: This is a ready-to-go, research-backed resource that focuses intently on CCSS-aligned and AP-level critical reading and writing skills.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Paid Free Basic version limited to four grade band-based differentiation levels, short reading lessons, and multiple-choice assessments. Paid Premium version adds 10 levels of differentiation (grades 3-12), more in-depth and varied lessons, writing benchmarking, rubrics, data dashboards, and more. Contact for a quote.

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Whooo's Reading

Innovative take on independent reading ditches multiple-choice quizzes

Bottom line: A convenient, well-intentioned tool for supporting a quality, interest-driven independent reading program, but make sure to tweak the auto-generated scores and questions.

Grades: 4–8 Price: Free

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Find Lesson Plans, Activities, and Resources

ReadWriteThink

Excellent free resource for all things reading and writing

Bottom line: A language arts teacher's dream; lesson plans, professional development, and all-around quality support.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free

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ReadWorks

Differentiate reading instruction with high-quality texts and lessons

Bottom line: The quality and scope of texts, lesson plans, assessments, and supports on this platform can help facilitate targeted reading instruction in any classroom.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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TeachingBooks.net

Dense site collects resources on authors and books in one place

Bottom line: With time and effort, this database of literary resources can extend learning experiences with books and their authors.

Grades: 2–7 Price: Free to try A school-wide subscription starts at $400 per year. There are plans (each with unique pricing) available for homeschool caregivers, libraries, districts, and higher education institutions.

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