Tumblebooks
Reading through Technology
What's the big deal?
Tumblebooks is a great tool for getting children interested in reading! It has a library of over 1000 animated picture books with a wide range of topics. It is a tool that aims to help children engage in reading. The books contain bright images that are attractive to children and animations that bring the books to life. The books are narrated and the phrases are highlighted as the voice reads through them. Each book has different activities that can be completed that aid reading comprehension. There are also games and puzzles that can be used as incentives for the children. Many of the books have quizzes that can help teachers keep track of reading comprehension. There is also a cool book report tool that generates a simple book report by having the children answer questions regarding setting, themes and more.
The Strengths
* It makes reading more interactive and fun for children
* Bright colors and animations captivate the child's attention
* Quiz and book report features provide valuable information about reading comprehension for teachers
*Games and puzzles help reinforce the story that was read
* Nice variety of books (topics, genre, reading levels, etc. )
* Gives the option of choosing to have the story read to the child or have the child read themselves
The Limitations
* As the voice reads, it highlights entire phrases, not word by word, so it might make it difficult for some children to follow along and recognize the words being read
* In order for every child in the classroom to use this at the same time, each child would need to have their own set of headphones
* Some of the games and puzzles may be difficult for younger children
How could I use it in the field?
This website has a lot of great features that could greatly benefit both children and teachers. I would definitely be one to use it.
- As a teacher, I would use this website as a reading station in my classroom. Children would have their own time assigned to use the website to read a book, play a book related game and take a quiz. I believe that this would make the children look forward to their time in the reading station.
- Another way I could use this in the classroom is as something for the children to do when they have finished their work before the others. It would be something educational that would help the children and it would be much better than them just sitting around waiting for the other children to finish.
- This website could also be something that is given to children to practice reading at home with their parents.
- As a Speech Language Pathologist, I believe that this could be a nice tool to use to aid the development of receptive language. I would have my children listen to the story and then I could ask them WH questions to check that they comprehended what they read. I would make the games and puzzles incentives that could be played once a certain number of questions are answered correctly.