ReadTheory is a free site that lets teachers create virtual classrooms for students to read short passages and answer comprehension questions — teachers can then monitor their progress. It’s very simple to set-up classes.
It looks like it might have some potential, though I’m not thrilled that they require students to do a fairly lengthy assessment before they can move on to the readings.
I’m going to try it with my ELL students tomorrow. If you do the same with your students, let me know what you think.
I’m adding the site to The Best Sites That Students Can Use Independently And Let Teachers Check On Progress.
Hi. I was interested to see you are looking at ReadTHeory. My grandson is aged 8, in a school in Australia. ReadTheory is being promoted by the school or teacher as a supplement to the classroom.
I guess it’s ok if we don’t take it too seriously.
I think the main point of a classroom is to allow opportunities for interaction and discussion. So I am a bit worried about a multiple choice question being seen as a way to judge process. It would be ok if students were able to join in class discussion about why they think their answer is good, rather than accepting the official answer. I tried 2 test questions from ReadTheory for grade 3 yesterday and thought the answers were controversial.
It doesn’t matter too much if the official answer is right or wrong, if it leads to good conversation.