Literacy Tools

AIM Explorer - Simulation tool to help determine which auditory and visual supports the struggling reader needs.
AIM Navigator - A decision-making tool to guide the use of accessible instructional materials for individual students
PAR - Protocol for Accommodations In Reading. Use this free download to determine the appropriate reading accommodations a student needs.

Free Early Literacy Tools

Reading Bear -Learn letter sounds, great videos to learn the alphabet and beginning sounds, by the same people who developed WatchKnowLearn.org - great site for beginning readers.
Literactive- interactive primary reading activities
Doorway Online - Interactive literacy site.
PBS Between the Lions Early Reading Collection - This special collection provides a set of early Reading/Language Arts resources, organized by early elementary and preschool literacy skills.
StarFall - Pre-K - 2nd grade online activities that promote literacy

Free Literacy Tools

Learning Tools - Microsoft tools available in the OneNote iPad app (free), Office 365, or Office products.
- Immersive Reader- customize the visual and auditory presentation of text, Microsoft product with free versions.
Insert Learning - InsertLearning is a Chrome extension that lets you turn websites into interactive lessons.
Actively Learn - Provides scaffolded support to enhance understanding and comprehension of text. Embed notes, questions and videos into reading, students think, write and collaborate. Awesome tool! Discover what other teachers have created or create your own. Explore the Catalog here by category and filter.
- Explore ActivelyLearn accessibility features here.
CommonLit - Excellent resource for grades 3 - 12 fiction/nonfiction accessible text. Includes text to speech, highlighting tools, Guided Reading Mode and more. Must explore and use!
Read Works - resources for teaching reading comprehension to K - 6 learners.
- Learn a strategy to build comprehension using their Article-a- Day feature. Video explains how to do this and why.
- ReadWorks eBooks Gallery - Build comprehension using the tools embedded in this collection.
Newsela - Innovative way to build reading comprehension with relevant, daily news, non-fiction Can adapt to multiple lexile levels.
LitCharts - Review the library of over 690 literature guides. Explore the chapter summaries and character analysis (especially helpful for students with memory issues), the theme wheels and analysis and quotes. Essential to support students' understanding of assigned fiction (MS and HS). New books added frequently.
Rewordify - Cognitively rescale difficult passages instantly with this tool. Import text and rewordify simplifies the text for students who need it. Definitely check it out!
My Study Bar - a comprehensive set of portable open source and freeware applications to support learners with literacy difficulties. MyStudyBar is similar to popular commercial programs which use a floating toolbar to support literacy. The main difference is MyStudyBar is free. The toolbar includes a range of tools to support inclusion such as mind mapping, screen masking, word prediction, talking dictionary, text-to-speech, Save as MP3 and voice recognition. PC Only. (Speech recognition only works in Vista or Windows 7)
Literactive- interactive primary reading activities
Inkless Tales - Listen to stories including Dolch words. (Use the control + keys to enlarge the font size if students are following along)
Into the Book - Excellent reading comprehension resource - Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. K-4
Spelling City - insert the week's spelling list and students can play games, finish worksheets, and complete other interactive activities.
Doorway Speller - Online tool for Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
Word Magnets -
Cast UDL Book Builder - Check out a previous post to learn about this free online tool for creating digital books with embedded prompts.
UDL Editions - Leveled support for seven texts geared for ages 10 and up
Haiku Deck Build Content Area Vocabulary

Free Online Books

Unite for LIteracy - over 100 high quality picture books with human narration for beginning readers. Offers multiple language human narration.
Genie Books - Decodable books in Powerpoint
StoryNory - Free audio stories with human narration
StoryLine Online - Listen to stories read by Screen Actors Guild members - follow along with the text
Children's StoryBooks Online - illustrated stories for young children, older children and young adults. Some include audio.
Browser Books - "This website was created to allow beginning readers to read books on their web browser. Readers can click on the triangle in the lower right-hand corner of each page to turn the pages. If they are unsure of a word, they can click on it to hear a child's voice read the word to them. The books have been sorted by level and by subject according to the curriculum." (from the website)
National Geographic - For K and 1st grade students, listen to article read with highlighted text and human narration
Tar Heel Reader Here you’ll find a collection of easy-to-read books on a wide variety of topics. Each book is switch accessible and speech enabled. You may download the books as a slide show in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format. Appropriate for beginning readers of all ages, including adolescents.

Resources for grades 5 - 12

Newsela - Innovative way to build reading comprehension with relevant, daily news, non-fiction Can adapt to multiple lexile levels.
Actively Learn - Embed notes, questions and videos into reading, students think, write and collaborate. Awesome tool! Discover what other teachers have created or create your own (three of your own creations/month)
LitCharts - Literature Guides, Must check out the Theme Wheel
Spark Notes - 500 Study Guides and Counting. Similar to LitCharts with a simpler user interface
Shmoop -- Guides to about 200 classic school novels – Intro (includes a Why Should I care section) Summary, Themes, Quotes, Characters, Analysis, Questions, Photos, Quizzes, Best of the Web, Write Essay and Teaching. Includes a step-by-step essay writing tool. Includes ads but the site is so rich, we can overlook them.
Video Spark Notes - video recaps of classic literature books read in schools (24 books total - Shakespeare, Tale of Two Cities, Great Gatsby, etc)
60 Second Recap - (has ads) video recaps of classic literature read in middle and high schools. (ie. Beowolf, 1984, Adventures of Huck Finn, Lord of the Flies
CommonLit - Excellent resource for grade 3 - 12 fiction/nonfiction accessible text. Includes text to speech, highlighting tools, Guided Reading Mode and more. Must explore and use!
TextCompactor - When text needs to be summarized, use this online tool. Great for cognitive rescaling.
Planet eBooks - Free classic literature to download (middle school and up)
Poetry Foundation - free resource to find poetry by category, by name, by title, by author, or by first line. It's digital, attach a voice and it's now accessible

MITS Freedom Stick - "The MITS Freedom Stick is a portable, use-anywhere accessibility solution. Install this software package on any 4gb USB Flash Drive (full) or 2gb USB Flash Drive (lite) and you create a set of tools for your students that they can carry in their pockets which will make any Windows computer highly accessible."
My Study Bar - a comprehensive set of portable open source and freeware applications to support learners with literacy difficulties. MyStudyBar is similar to popular commercial programs which use a floating toolbar to support literacy. The toolbar includes a range of tools to support inclusion such as mind mapping, screen masking, word prediction, talking dictionary, text-to-speech, Save as MP3 and voice recognition. PC Only. (Speech recognition only works in Vista or Windows 7) Step by Step Guides
Synonym Support - Need a thesaurus? Right Click (on Mac - CTL + Click) on any word and then click on Synonyms for a list of alternative word choices. You must show this one to your students to help them with word choice. (Students with spelling issues will frequently use words they feel confident spelling. Unfortunately, this may limit the words they choose as their vocabulary is not reflected in the written product. It is essential we show students how to easily access Synonym Support).
Ginger Software - awesome spell checking tool
Google Docs/Drive - Google has an Intelligent Spellchecking feature. Looks at the context and offers one choice, "Did you mean,,,,?" More robust and accurate than the spell checking feature in Word although it doesn't flag capitalization error.
Grammarly- Online Grammar Checker, instant reports with no log-in necessary
Paper Rater - offers grammar, spell-checking and plagiarism detection. (middle school and above writing only)
Hemingway - Easy to use tool for editing support.
Language Tool - open source proofreading tool
Writing Reviser - Chrome Extension for editing support

Rhyming Support Tools - RhymeZone and PoetryforKids. Type a word and rhyming choices appear!
Spelling City - insert the week's spelling list and students can play games, finish worksheets, and complete other interactive activities.
Doorway Speller - Online tool for Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
Writing Checklists - generate customized checklists, develop these with your students. Great for K-12

Writing Tools - engaging tools to reach reluctant writers

In addition to the tools suggested below, it is important to rethink writing alternatives. Writing is often used as a method for demonstrating learning, but there are many other options. Think about what portable, tablet technology offers. Here are a number of apps to consider:

Screencasting Tools such as Screen Chomp, Show Me, and Educreations
Journal tools such as Emotionary, My Wonderful Days Lite
WriteReader - especially good for beginning readers/writers
Little Bird Tales
Story Creation Apps such as Story Creator, Little Story Creator and Story Kit
Lark by Storybird - Make and share beautiful, art-inspired poetry

Online Tools

Gone Google Story Builder - a fun Google Tool for beginning writers. Learn more here.
StoryBoard That - Fun, storyboard creation site. Add scenes, props, characters with facial expressions and poses. Plan and organize your writing with this interactive graphic organizer. Teacher Guides and Resources here.
Story Jumper - Story building tool with scenes, props and text with spell check support. Can add your own photos. Also allows you to publish your work for a fee. You do not need to sign in to create a book.

Little Bird Tales - story building tool, records audio/allows narration. very easy to use! Excellent for younger students

Storybird - collaborative storytelling, beautiful graphics.

Storybird Quick Tour from Storybird on Vimeo.

Comic Master - Create your own Graphic Novels!
Wacky Web Tales , Ambleweb Crazy Story Machine - online "madlib" tools, use to teach parts of speech or with reluctant writers. Everybody loves a silly story!
Bookr - create your own storybook using Flickr images. very easy to use, view examples in the archives.
Story Maker - Provides structured support with audio input. Use this with reluctant writers. When the story is finished, it can be printed or linked to a pdf. Excellent tool!
Suessville StoryMaker - Use characters from Dr. Suess' Horton Hears a Who to write a short story. When you are done, the story is played back.
Writing Fix - Interactive Writing Prompts
Read/write/think- Interactive digital activities (click the interactive links - there are many to choose from)
Story Starter, Jr. - Sometimes, determining where to begin is the obstacle. Story Starter, Jr. offers 729 one line story starters for students. Click the link, get the starter, copy and paste and you are good to go!
OurStory - online timeline tool
Scholastic: Story Starters for Grades 1-4 Story Starters is a bank of writing prompts. Student spins the lever to get a writing prompt. To allow for even greater creativity, the student can spin wheels to change any part of the prompt.

Comic Strip Creation Tools (online tools) (great for students on the autism spectrum - promotes perspective taking)