Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

TeachingBooks, Sora and Pear Deck Announce Collaboration to Expand Student Engagement and Learning

CLEVELAND –   TeachingBooks.net today announced a unique collaboration with  Pear Deck, providing expanded opportunities for student engagement and learning. In this new collaboration, Pear Deck takes book-specific supplemental materials from TeachingBooks and creates a custom, interactive lesson. When used with the  Sora student reading app, a complete interactive literacy experience is created that engages students of all ages and provides unique learning opportunities. All TeachingBooks templates, as well as Pear Deck’s other content, are available for free at  Pear Deck’s Content Orchard.

“By partnering with TeachingBooks and Sora, we’re bringing free, ready-to-teach literacy lessons to teachers and learners, furthering Pear Deck’s mission to create powerful learning moments for every student, every day,” said Stacy Yung, a former teacher and Senior Instructional Designer at GoGuardian, parent company of Pear Deck. “Reading is a strong lever in building a community in the classroom. We’re confident that this partnership will increase access to engaging lessons that help students connect with books, gain new insights and improve understanding, ultimately building deeper love of reading.”

With Pear Deck, now part of leading digital learning company GoGuardian, educators can transform lessons into impactful formative assessments and active learning experiences that seamlessly integrate with learning management systems. Templates, quick-start activities and ready-to-teach lessons connect students across all grades and subjects. TeachingBooks offers high-quality instructional assets such as author interviews and cultural reflection prompts that help educators bring books to life. The Sora student reading app is the leading digital book platform for schools that helps students read or listen to school-selected ebooks and audiobooks, 24/7 on any device. Sora offers the largest collection of premium materials used for instruction, novel sets and choice reading, including the most in-demand and beloved books and authors such as  Diary of a Wimpy Kid and  The Great Gatsby. All three platforms offer free access to a “starter set” or “introductory catalog” as well as paid content options. California educators already have premium access to TeachingBooks.net via the  State Library of California and the California K-12 Online Content Project.…Read More

Edsoma Partners With MetaMetrics to Report Lexile Measures for Oral Reading

DURHAM, N.C. & WEATHERFORD, TX –  July, 2022 –  MetaMetrics® and  Edsoma today announced a new partnership that will help children using Edsoma’s innovative reading app build their oral reading fluency skills. Edsoma readers will receive Lexile oral reading measures and the app’s books will have oral readability measures from the  Lexile ®  Framework for Oral Reading. Edsoma is an app designed to improve literacy through real-time data. 

Edsoma’s scoring system is used to identify strengths and weaknesses in children’s reading. Using the app’s live follow-along technology, parents can help children develop a love of reading while learning to correctly pronounce the words that they are reading. Edsoma allows parents to read with their children from any location and automatically keeps track of a child’s reading activities so that parents and teachers can track their progress. 

Given the sobering numbers on children’s decreased reading performance since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, bringing with it repercussions from school closures and the challenges of virtual learning, educators and parents are looking for the help of innovative educational technology…Read More

Sora App’s New Curated Bundles of Digital Comics Save Schools Time and Money

CLEVELAND – March 14, 2022 – In response to educators’ need for more digital content to engage students, OverDrive Education now offers popular digital comic books to schools around the world via the Sora student reading app. Schools can purchase age-appropriate and cost-effective curated bundles totaling more than 1,500 digital comic books. These titles include simultaneous use rights so all students can access titles for their age group instantly. Sora is the leading student reading app available in more than 53,000 schools worldwide.

An award-winning app known for assigned and choice reading of ebooks, audiobooks and magazines, Sora also provides a simple user experience for students to browse and read comics, even on phones. The “All Access Comics” bundles are grouped into three age ranges and contain the most popular titles for schools, including Avatar The Last Airbender, They Called Us Enemy, My Little Pony, Plants vs. Zombies, Samurai Jack, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Astro Boy, Hellboy, and Skyward. See the full lists of titles.

All Access Comics in Sora bundles also include Marvel titles that are not currently available in any other simultaneous use digital model for schools, such as brands or characters like Avengers, Spider-Man, Eternals, Star Wars, Hulk, X-Men, Thor and Venom.…Read More

Sora “Content Bundles” Feature Empowers Educators to Easily Reserve Digital Books for Specific Students

CLEVELAND – January 18, 2022 – Educators who are looking for more efficient ways to support reading outcomes have a new solution: Content Bundles. This new feature allows educators to reserve and bundle digital books from their school’s Sora collection, offering exclusive access for select students based on specific scenarios. Using a code, the students can then unlock and read the ebooks and audiobooks in Sora, the leading student reading app available in more than 53,000 schools worldwide.

“Content Bundles is the very feature we have been looking to implement in our Sora shared collection,” said Ken Zimmerman, Supervisor of Educational Technology at Lancaster-Lebanon IU13 in Pennsylvania. ”This provides us with so many options to filter content to meet specific district, classroom and learning needs.”

Content Bundles are a flexible tool that can serve as an effective solution for many common education scenarios, both inside and outside the classroom. For instance, educators can:…Read More

New Sora Showcase Turns Any Touchscreen Display into Kiosk for Student Discovery of Digital Books

CLEVELAND – October 29, 2021 – As schools embrace the digital shift and rely more on digital books to support learning outcomes, educators are searching for creative ways to drive awareness and usage. Now, educators can use Sora Showcase, free touchscreen software that promotes student discovery, adoption and usage of their school’s digital book collection. Sora is the leading student reading app available to over 50,000 schools worldwide.

Sora Showcase is free customizable software that lets schools turn any touchscreen display – large or small – into a promotional kiosk that highlights books in their Sora collection. Students can browse their school’s collection of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines, enjoy samples of titles, and generate QR codes to  easily borrow titles in the Sora app. The display also includes a QR code to immediately install the app on their own device and start reading.

“Sora Showcase couldn’t have come along at a better time since we are getting ready to roll out our new digital collection,” said Sally McAlexander, Librarian at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Missouri. “Sora Showcase is generating so much excitement in our students, and we plan on having it rolling during parent-teacher conferences to connect our community with our digital collection. The step-by-step instructions allowed me to get this operational in just a few minutes.”…Read More

Sora reading app extends no cost ebooks and audiobooks to remote learners

Sora is a K-12 student reading app through which students and educators can access ebooks and audiobooks from OverDrive Education’s extensive catalog of digital titles for schools.

Get Access Now

Educators can complete an online form for no cost access to the Sora Remote Reading Book Bundle, a collection of 200+ premium, simultaneous use digital titles from publishers like Abrams, Britannica, Bellwether Media, Live Oak, and Orca, in addition to classic required reading titles like Emma and Call of the Wild. Titles will be available through 6/30/20, with specific title availability varying by region.…Read More

App of the week: Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Classroom Edition

Ed. note: App of the Week picks are now being curated with help from Graphite by Common Sense Media. Click here to read the full app review.

 

hooked-phonics-appWhat it’s like: Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Classroom Edition includes 12 steps; each teaches rimes and letter sounds to help kids build words. Within each step, videos with catchy songs introduce letter sounds and sight words, and games help kids build words using onsets and rimes. Kids practice reading immediately, starting with step one, using the three ebooks that correspond with each step.
Price: $49.99
Grades: Pre-K-1
Pros: Rich resource includes a full phonics curriculum for an entire class of students.
Cons: Hefty price tag could put it out of reach of some teachers.
Bottom line: Thorough, high-quality phonics program offers impressive benefits for emerging readers.
…Read More

Can an app help foster good reading habits?

‘Subtext’ app can help personalize reading lessons for K-12 students

reading-skillsWhen I taught literature, I often found myself trying to break free from the “teacher triangle” class discussion, where a question is initiated by the teacher, answered by a student, and then bounced to another student for more detail or a different opinion. In this model, I became the reluctant valve through which every part of the conversation had to flow.

I wanted my class discussions to be more organic and authentic, with students debating genuine differences of opinion with one another. Yes, their limited background knowledge or vocabulary frustrated their understanding of the text. However, I didn’t always do a good enough job scaffolding their experience so they could build these understandings and connections. Furthermore, my lessons weren’t always designed to encourage the types of conversations I wanted to see.

Because I understand these challenges, I was thrilled last year when our sixth grade English teacher began to experiment with Subtext, an eReader app for the iPad. Unlike other eReaders, Subtext was designed specifically for the K-12 classroom.…Read More

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App of the week: Tales2Go

education-appName: Tales2Go

What is it? Tales2Go is a kids’ mobile audiobook service that gives teachers and parents unlimited access to thousands of name-brand audio titles from publishers and storytellers to play on Apple mobile devices. Stories range from fairytales to classics like Curious George Rides a Bike to popular series and characters such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and How to Train Your Dragon. There are also popular parenting titles. New stories are added continually.

Best for: Younger students and children.…Read More