Embedded Files
Free Literacy Tools
Alternate access to text can help student to access print materials. These books may be found in audio or eBook format. Audio books are recorded books students can listen to. EBooks are books that are electronic text formatted. Fonts are easily changed for visually impaired students. Background and text colors can often easily be adjusted for reading comfort. Many types of eBook readers have text to speech accessibility features. This allows students to see and hear text being read.
Reading Bears Reading Bear, is a completely free program online to teach beginning readers vocabulary and concepts while systematically introducing all the main phonetic patterns of written English. There are 50 presentations, covering phonics principles and illustrating over 1,200 vocabulary items. In each presentation—playable either as a video or as an interactive slide show—one or a few related “phonics rules.” are introduced. Presentations are available in seven different versions.
Audio Books
Librivox: LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain. LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net for free download.
Lit2Go : Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom.
Online Audio Stories: a collection of classic literature elementary audio books
Learn Out Loud: LearnOutLoud.com has over 5000 free audio and video titles. This directory features free audio books, lectures, speeches, sermons, interviews, and many other great free audio and video resources. Most audio titles can be downloaded in digital formats such as MP3 and most video titles are available to stream online.
Ebooks (electronic text)
Project Gutenberg: This sight has thousands of text of books in the public domain, can be used with text readers on a computer or mobile device.
Bookshare: a free subscription is provided with proof of a print disability.
Bookshare is an online library of digital books for people with print disabilities. It operates under an exception to the United States copyright laws that allows copyrighted digital books to be made available to people with qualifying disabilities. Members can download books, textbooks and newspapers in a compressed, encrypted file. They then read the material using adaptive technology, typically software that reads the book aloud (text-to-speech) and/or displays the text of the book on a computer screen, tablet computer or Braille access devices.
Multimedia (Books on-line)
The Mother Goose Club: Mother Goose Club is an educational, entertaining rhyme- and song-based multi-media resource for preschool-aged children. Stories in video format.
StarFall: Pre-K - 2nd grade online activities that promote literacy. Includes books that will read aloud when the words are clicked
CAST UDL Bookbuilder: Interactive book maker and reader site can be used to create, share, publish, and read digital books that engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills.
Literactive: This site has interactive primary reading activities Has leveled guided readers, comprehensive phonic activities and supplemental reading material. All the material is available for free from this site but you need to register
Inkless Tales : Listen to stories including Dolch words. (use the control + keys to enlarge the font size if students are following along) stories are in video format.
Children's StoryBooks Online : illustrated stories for young children, older children and young adults. Some include audio. The others can be read using a screen reader.
Browser Books : beginning readers books. Can click on each word to have it read aloud. The books are sorted by level and by subject.
Story Line Online: Stories in streaming video format. Books read by members of the Screen Actors Guild.
Tar Heel Reader : A collection of easy to read books that are switch accessible and speech enabled. Books may be downloaded in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format. Books are for beginning readers of all ages, including adolescents.
Pete's Powerpoints( http://www.pppst.com )- a great resource for teacher created text that can be easily accessed using screen readers such as power talk (http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk ).
Unite for Literacy original, non-fiction picture books support beginning readers of all ages. Features include predictable, rhythmic language; images with clear, familiar subjects; and text that ranges from one word up to a few sentences per page. These books provide unique audio support to families who speak (or are learning to speak) English, indigenous or foreign languages. Simple audio buttons on each page allow you to hear narrations by native speakers in human expressive voices and also has books in ASL for students who may be hearing impaired/deaf.
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