Website: Into the Book
Url: https://reading.ecb.org/index.html
Into the Book (https://reading.ecb.org/index.html) is a free online program developed in 2006 by PBS Winsconsin Education (https://pbswisconsineducation.org/) and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. This research-based resource was designed to expand elementary students' reading skills through their offered multimedia activities. The material on the website emphasizes eight reading strategies: using prior knowledge, making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, evaluating, and synthesizing. All content is offered either in English or Spanish.
Into the Book includes a student website, a teacher website, and a professional learning website to meet all target audiences.
Student Website. As students enter, a "Language" option box will appear. Students can select between English or Billingual (offers both English and Spanish texts, which students can switch between each activity) to tailor the material to their preferred language. Following the language selection, students will be asked to log in by entering their name. This option is only required to save their work on the site. They will then be taken to the main page of the website which presents the icon for each strategy. As students select the skill, they are automatically welcomed by a video lesson of the strategy. After watching the video, students can select "Try It Yourself" to receive independent practice with the new skill. Into the Book offers an abundance of multimedia options that have students interacting with a selection of texts while becoming independent in technology usage. The entire website offers a dialogue for easy navigation and comprehension of activities. Each strategy creates an equally engaging and effective instruction to broaden students' understanding of reading. Lastly, students' completed work can also be printed or emailed to their teacher for evidence of their participation.
Teacher Website. Teachers will find Into the Book relatively easy to navigate as well. As teachers enter the main page of the teacher's website, they are greeted by two key components (Reading Resources and Academic Standards) that would help guide their instruction when incorporating this tool within their classroom. Into the Book is entirely teacher-friendly. The eight strategies are organized in the toolbar on the left corner of the webpage. Once a skill is selected, teachers will be taken to a webpage that offers the definition of the skill, the Online Activity Teacher Guide of the student games, the breakdown of the Common Core Standards each activity meets, lesson plans to allow for extra practice of the strategy, suggested books from the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that will help introduce the strategy, educational videos that teach and model the strategy, posters for classroom décor, and a song with lyrics and sheet music created to help students understand the skill in a creative way. The majority of the material found on the Into the Book teacher website can easily be printed throughout their offered pdf files.
Professional Learning Website. The professional learning website focuses on the needs of educators. Here you can peruse through a collection of added resources that includes various videos of educators effectively demonstrating the teaching of strategic reading. This selection also highlights ways in which schools can use Into the Book to support their Professional Development Planning. There are two examples provided, Elementary PDP and Middle School PDP, that organize the planning of how this website can be effective at your school or district. Lastly, educators of both elementary and middle schools can find a section that suggests examples of how this website can effectively be integrated into their school's Student Learning Objectives (SLOs).
Overall, Into the Book proves to be an effective literacy website that offers an abundant amount of information, resources, strategies, and activities of eight reading skill components for students and all educators.
Student Website Homepage:
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