The Starfall site is a literacy website designed for first graders but is also applicable for pre-kinder to second graders. The reading level of the text and stories in this website is very appropriate for the grade levels it was created for. The graphics chosen are relevant to the goals of this program. For example, the “ABCs” page is for learning letter sounds and the page looks like this:
Each block clicked on takes you to a section that teaches that sound with simple pictures and voice narration. Some letters include an activity to reinforce the sound.
The section called “Learn to Read” has a very systematic approach to reading, introducing vowel sounds and blends with a simple, interactive story. It starts off teaching short vowel sounds, then moves on to long vowel sounds. This page also gets into blends and r-controlled sounds.
All the text on these pages have accompanying visual clues that help learners understand concepts and navigate easily around the site. Starfall places its clickable links in consistent places in their pages. There is just enough information on each page to be informative without being too busy or overwhelming. It would be wonderful if there was a similar site in Spanish!!!
On Interactivity
This is the best component of Starfall: it is so easy to navigate around! Pre-schoolers could easily find their way throughout this website! There are green arrows that point in the direction students should be heading as well as clickable links that sparkle!
To navigate around the site, students either click on the green arrow that takes them to the next page, the green arrow that takes them to the last page, or the “x” that navigates them back to the home page. All the buttons are large and easy to find since they are set at the same place on each page. Rarely do students navigate away from this site accidentally. As many times as I’ve had our students use this site, we have never run across a link that didn’t work.
On Screen Design
The home page for this site is a bit wordy for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners. I would bookmark the site to the “ABCs” page of this website, which is very attractive to that grade level. The colors used in this site are age appropriate and attractive.
Lay out – Starfall uses a simple layout to enable preschoolers to easily navigate the website. The “Learn to Read” section has a column for activities, a column for stories, and a third column for movies. The layout is very straightforward. Another wonderful feature of Starfall is if students don’t know how to read a word, they click on the word and the computer reads it out to them…in a regular sounding (as opposed to robotic) voice! The students are taught to click on words they’re not sure about. Very helpful, especially, to second language learners!
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