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TOP PICKS | 29 TOOLS
Elementary School Reading Apps and Websites
Top Picks
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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
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: 2–8
Price: Free, Paid The site is free. Schools can subscribe to an integrated version of Destiny Biblionasium.
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
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: 4–12
Price: Free
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
News-O-Matic EDU
Daily news stories and supplements keep elementary schoolers current
Bottom line: This highly useful current events platform can be a daily fixture of elementary school classrooms.
Grades: 2–6
Price: Free to try Contact for price quote. Volume educational discounts and licenses available.
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.
Newsela
Great stories, just-right leveled reading; now mostly by subscription
Bottom line: Up-to-date, high-interest articles will meet students right at their level, and help teachers bolster students' nonfiction reading skills.
Grades: 2–12
Price: Free, Paid Newsela News is free, but Essentials and Core Subjects subscriptions are paid; contact the developer for pricing information for schools and districts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Raz-Kids
Leveled readings with progress-tracking enhances differentiated reading program
Bottom line: It's worth considering as a supplement to your reading program thanks to the good variety of leveled books, easy assigning and assessing, and detailed progress reports.
Grades: Pre-K–5
Price: Free to try $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.
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.
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
Epic! - Kids' Books and Videos
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–5
Price: Free to try Free to elementary school teachers and school librarians in the U.S. and Canada.
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.
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
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.
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
LightSail
Powerful, flexible reading tool measures meaningful literacy gains
Bottom line: A powerful literacy platform with tons of customization features to support developing readers.
Grades: 1–12
Price: Free to try, Paid Free trial available. Contact for pricing.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
