Reading

[|BrainPop]: App and Website: Free

BrainPop is a free app that has a different animated movie every day. There are also topics divided by content areas: science, English, math, arts and music, health and tech. Students can watch a movie and then take a quiz. We noticed that there is text as well as audio on each movie. This could be an anchor activity for all 5th graders. We liked the idea that there is choice of a topic. We could not figure out if there was a grade level. There is a BrainPop Jr for grades k -3. Website: []. This could be an anchor activity for all 5th graders. We liked the idea that there is choice of a topic. We could not figure out if there was a grade level.

[|Scribble Press]: App: free

Scribble Press is a book creation platform that allows kids to create and write their own stories. It has easy to use drawing and writing tools. Kids can create a book from scratch or for a more reluctant writers, there are books that have a frame. For Readers’ Workshop, students could retell a story that have read, they could write the sequel to the story, or they could write about a character in a book.

[|Total Recall]: App: Free

 This is a mind map or brainstorming app. The size is unlimited and there are a large variety of colors that can be used for each section. Once a mind map is complete it can be sent by email or you could save it to the picture roll. In Readers’ Workshop, this could be used to assess prior knowledge before beginning a text, assess new learning from a nonfiction text, or a student could summarize the beginning, middle, and end of a story. Graphics cannot be added to this mind map.

[|Popplet Lite]: App: Free

Popplet Lite is a brainstorming app that allows students to use text, pictures, and graphics to organize information. In Readers’ Workshop students can use it to research a topic of interest, to do a character sketch (physical attributes, thoughts, relationships, etc), show new learning in pictures and text, and to represent a poem or story with pictures. This is good for students of all abilities. Students can go on the web for pictures and graphics, access from the camera roll, and/or take photos with the iPad. [|Assessment]: rubric for use with student projects

[|Animoto]: App and website: special prices for educators

 Animoto helps you create extraordinary videos from your photos, video clips, words and music. The photo and video clips can be accessed from camera roll, photo file, or Internet and the music can be accessed from the Animoto site. In Readers’ Workshop students can use this show new learning from novel and informational text, do a character sketch, summarize a story or book, and can research a new topic. The website: [] [|Assessment]: rubric for student work

Assessment 2: second rubric option

[|Blue FiRe 1.5]: App: Free

Blue FiRe is a professional quality audio recorder. It was suggested that this app could be used to support students in their fluency. Students record their readingthis app will time the reading as well show the intonations in their reading. It is not an educational app, but does look easy to use.

[|Scrabble Free]: App: Free

A scrabble game that can be played with an iPad. There are three choices: play random opponent, play with friends, and pass ‘n play. In Readers’ Workshop, we can see this being used as an Anchor Activity when all other work is completed with another student using the pass n’ play. There is an in-game word list and a built in dictionary. Also letters can be scrambled to assist a student in making a word. The game automatically keeps score. There are adds on this site, none have seemed inappropriate.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[|Popwords]: App: Free

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This is a fun twist to the game Boggle. Students will use their fingers to find words that are three letters and higher. The longer the word and the more words found, the longer the student has an opportunity to continue playing. Popwords says that this is a fun mental exercise to keep brain sharp. For Readers’ Workshop, this game could be an Anchor Activity that a student can choose when all required work is completed. This is an independent activity.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[|Bluster:] App: Free

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bluster is a word matching game that develops vocabulary and word understanding. You can collaborate with a friend in team mode, or play individually. You can match rhyming words, prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, homophones, adjectives, and more. This would be an anchor activity for Readers’ Workshop.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[|Weird Word of the Day:w] App: Free

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Introduces you to a new weird word every day. There are over 15,000 weird words. This could be used as enrichment during Readers’ Workshop.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[|Sonic Pics:] App: $2.99

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">SonicPics is a digital storytelling app which turns your photos into narrated slide show movies. Add your own images, arrange your photos, add a voiceover. Automatically synchronizes your images to the audio. Up to sixty minutes per session.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[|The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore] App: $4.99

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> This is an interactive narrative experience. The app provides an Oscar Winning short movie (apx. 17 minutes) with fabulous music and absolutely no text. Also included is the actual interactive book. Settings allow you to have the text read aloud, with the options of music and language. The interactive portion includes brief activities which align with the movie. During Readers’ Workshop, this app can be used to assess a variety of reading strategies. Students can interpret, predict, and infer throughout the entire book. These reflections can be used in Puppet Pals, Popplet, or other videography applications.