Raz-Kidz;
The
website where students
practice reading online
– anytime, anywhere
My favourite ICT resource when it comes to
teaching English is www.raz-kids.com. It’s a website where the children can
listen to animated leveled books, read aloud, read with or without support,
practice comprehension with quizzes and record their reading, all at their own
level.
As a teacher you assess the children and selects
level of reading that suits their needs. You create an account for each student;
the students can reach the account from any computer, home or in school.
The students have only access to their own
accounts with leveled books.
Advantages to the students.
* Learn new words and pronunciation by
listening to the books.
* Practice reading at the right level, when
they finish one level they step up to the next.
* Practice comprehension with quizzes that
comes with the books.
* Possibility to record and listen to their
own reading.
* A reward system encourages and motivates.
Benefits for you as a teacher.
* You can log the students reading and comprehension
in an easy way, it’s there in the teacher’s corner.
* Can be used as a benchmark system where you
select the level, the student then read the book and record it. You as a
teacher can at your convenience easily review the students reading and get the
result.
* You don’t have to find new books for the
students to read; the students find them in Raz-Kids. (They will not forget the
books at home…)
And best of all, all
above mentioned can take place wherever you have a computer and Internet access
and when you got the time, both as a student and as a teacher.
The system is very self instructed which
means that the students can handle it independently. Moreover, the students are
able to handle their reading by them self, even if the parents are not available.
The cost is $99.95 per class (36 student) per year; it’s about 18 SEK/year and
student.
Finally, on the same website you can find
Reading A-Z, more reading, Vocabulary A-Z, words, language art and much more,
Writing A-Z and Science A-Z.
Enjoy,
Christina Olsson
Dear Christina,
ReplyDeleteThis was the first time I heard about www.raz-time-com.
I do like the fact that kids can read along, listen to and watch the book ‘come alive’ at the very same time. I do not have the paid version and therefor my choice was a bit limited. However, I read/listen to “How the zebras got their stripes” and did the quiz afterwards. As much as I liked the reading/listening I must admit that the questions can be hard to understand for a young learner. Perhaps the questions are read aloud as well in the paid version? One very nice feature must be the possibility for the kids to record themselves.
It says on the website that it provides over 400+ eBooks. Assuming that your school or the local library doesn’t hold that many books in English if you live in Sweden, it must be a great resource to use in schools. Especially since it is leveled, offers reading, listening and writing. Practicing comprehension and a vast choice of different activities. Being able to manage students and having the teacher corner to the price of what you usually pay for one book alone. I guess that signing up for $99.95 / class seems like a bargain.
Thank you for showing me raz-time since we only use TumbleBooks where I work.
Regards,
Tina Zanoni
https://www.tumblebooks.com :
“TumbleBooks are animated, talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they'll love. TumbleBooks are created by taking existing picture books, adding animation, sound, music and narration to produce an electronic picture book which you can read, or have read to you. TBL also includes National Geographic videos and games. With a school licence, teachers and students have access to the Common Core Portal, quizzes and teacher materials/lesson plans!”