App of the week: LightSail

 

What it’s like: LightSail is an ereading “literacy platform” that helps teachers support their students’ independent reading. Students can use LightSail to check out texts from their school’s digital library and read the books directly on their devices. As students progress through a book, questions appear to gauge their comprehension, from simple multiple-choice questions to longer narrative responses.

Price: subscription

Grades: 1-12

Pros: Real-time opportunities for assessment and feedback make monitoring and encouraging student reading convenient and inviting. Teacher and student dashboards offer easy-to-read feedback on students’ achievements and needs.

Cons: Some embedded assessments are deeper than others, and some might balk at making pleasure reading quite so data-driven.

Bottom line: A powerful platform for developing engaged readers.