Learning to read is a complicated thing. Recent research has shown that there is no one approach to teach reading correctly. Brain research shows that learning to read is a complicated task that involves processing in many different parts of the brain at the same time. Technology is not THE answer to helping emergent readers, but there are some ways that it can help.

PHONEMIC AWARENESS

There are a great number of software programs designed to help students with early reading skills. Care needs to be taken when choosing software because often children do not use the software the way that adults think they will. Sometimes the entertainment can get in the way.That does not mean that the software is unuseable. Teachers are still responsible to design meaningful lessons.

Here is a site that gives software reviews:

Children's Software Review

http://www.childrenssoftware.com/

INTERNET

Using the Internet with Emergent reader is difficult. These readers rely on graphics and have short attention spans. At this time the World Wide Web in most schools is too slow to make the use of many of the web sites created for this age useful. Technology is advancing quickly and teachers are beginning to create more content aimed at this age. In the near future the World Wide Web will be a useful resource.

For now there are a few sites worth mentioning.

The Children's Literature Web Guide

http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html

This site has been around for a while and will lead a teacher to excellent Children's Literature resources on the web.

Hazel Jobe's Page in Education World

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr150.shtml

Education World (the address up to the first slash) is a site worth exploring. This particular page is aimed particularly at beginning readers. Hazel Jobe is a very creative teacher who worked in Chapter 1 reading for many years. There are some good suggestions on this page for using technology.

Adventures of Max the Koala

http://www.scribbles.com.au/max/jump.html

Stories written by a 5 year old in Australia with the help of his Dad. Read by students all over the world.