I have to give credit where credit is due. I read some of my fellow classmate’s blogs from last week, as well as, their social bookmarking lists. As I researched through the social bookmarking lists I found numerous sites that were perfect for my blog topic, technology and literacy. Honestly, some of the resources on my classmate’s lists were more befitting of my blog subject than my own resources on my social bookmarking list. Therefore, I am going to employ the Connectivism learning theory and discuss a superb website found by one of my classmates rather than a resource from my own social bookmarking list. In my previous blog I said I would discuss resources from my social bookmarking list, but this website is way too awesome to ignore. The name of the phenomenal website that combines both technology and literacy for students to learn reading skills is ABCya.com.
After studying ABCya.com, I had numerous ideas to implement this website into my instruction due to the benefits for the students. ABCya.com provides educational games for elementary students to play and learn, however this site is perfect for the struggling secondary student reader. As an exceptional education teacher I need literacy strategies like the educational games offered on ABCya.com to motivate my student readers that are below grade level. Most students respond to the fun aspects of the games and do not even realize they are learning reading skills. ABCya.com organizes the educational games by grade level. The educational games span from the kindergarten reading level to a fifth grade reading level. Therefore, choosing a particular game for one of my students is effortless. All I have to know is my student’s reading level and then I can direct them to the grade level of the educational games that fit their learning need.
Throughout the process of researching the educational games I decided to play a few of them myself (I actually played a lot of them). One example of the educational games is Ice Cream Talk which deals with identifying nouns and verbs. This game provided the option of finding nouns, verbs, or both nouns and verbs. Within the game a sentence is provided where a student clicks on an individual word if they think it is a noun or verb, depending on the version of the game a student is playing. If the word is a noun or verb then the monkey gets an ice cream scoop. If the word is not a noun or verb then the monster gets an ice cream scoop. The objective is to get ten ice cream scoops for the monkey and not allow the monster any ice cream scoops. Once this is accomplished a bonus round where the student gets to catch ice cream scoops with an ice cream cone occurs. The student then goes back to the game clicking on nouns or verbs until they get tired or have mastered the game. Overall, I found this game and website to be exceptional for the budding reader and I highly recommend it to any teacher trying to teach literacy in a fun technologically advanced way.
http://www.abcya.com/
Hi Brad,
ReplyDeleteI am officially sold on abcya.com! Wow, what a great find. I am delighted you shared it with us. I am going to pass it along, as soon as I finish this post. There were so many great educational games. I enjoyed the ease of use to select appropriate grade levels. The 5th grade games were as fun as the kindergarten games. I also liked the variety this site offered. I can’t remember ever seeing longitude and latitude games on a site with learning sight words. What a great advantage, especially for teachers who are in a computer lab setting with varied abilities. Accessed from the same website, every student could work on area of specific need in one computer lab visit. It is perfect for individualized learning. My top pick would be the Pac-man math section. It was very similar to the real game. I enjoyed the Letter Maker Game too. It is similar to a game I play using an app on my iPad. It will be a great version for my 4th grader to try at home. Lastly, I couldn’t stop playing the Cup Stacking Game. This is a great game to teach keyboarding to young students. Thanks again!
Brad, I am so glad that you found the ABCya.com website so useful! I found it at the beginning of the year and have used it almost daily with my students. I knew it was something that I wanted to put into my Social Bookmarking list to share with other educator colleagues. The variety of games that are offered are phenomenal! I love how you are able to choose the grade level for the games that you are selecting. This is one way I adjust the game for the various ability levels of my students. This site is one of the absolute favorites of my kiddos. My kindergarteners beg to play the "C-ya" game:)
ReplyDeleteIt makes me feel good to know that you truly benefited from one of my resources... because I too, have learned so much from my blog share group this semester. Thanks again Brad!