Free Online Interactive Reading Resource Provided by the Ministry of Education

The Ontario Ministry of Education has recently purchased a subscription to Scholastic’s BookFlix for K-Grade 3 students. BookFlix is an interactive, online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks with related nonfiction texts. This engaging resource will help early readers (K-Gr. 3) develop and practice essential reading skills. Bookflix is quite intuitive and easy to navigate. Each unit includes the following elements:

· Watch the Story: streaming video of the story. A Read Along option can be activated to display the audio portion of the story, with word-by-word highlighting, as it plays.

· Read the Book: related nonfiction text presented in a flipbook format. The Read Along option can be activated to hear the text read aloud with word-by-word highlighting. Key content vocabulary words are highlighted in yellow. Placing the cursor on the highlighted word will display its definition, and the ear icon can be clicked to hear the definition read aloud.

· Puzzlers: interactive games related to the specific pair. Ear icons can be clicked to hear the game directions, as well as all statements and definitions, read aloud.

· Meet the Author: a profile of the author of the story. An ear icon can be clicked to hear the profile read aloud.

To access from home, use the following link, username and password:

http://www.scholastic.ca/education/bookflix_ontario

USERNAME: toroncdsb

PASSWORD: toro5988

Please use this resource at your convenience and spread the word about it  . . .  and where you learned about it.

Regards,


John McAteer
Chair, St. Agnes CSAC