Starfall

Though at times the user experience can feel a bit slow and outdated, Starfall still does a good job of offering clear and useful early literacy lessons.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.