Levelbook is not only my favorite app as a teacher, but the students and parents LOVE the app also. Levelbook allows you to record students while reading during a running record. You can mark student errors and self corrects and it will give you their accuracy, fluency rate, and self correction ratio. Their is a note section for you to record the errors or any observations you noticed. There are other apps that allow the same thing, but they don't let you SAVE the recordings. Running Record Calculator allows you to record and it will score for you, but it will not save the files. Both apps allow you to email the recording so you can email it out to their parents, yourself, an intervention teacher, etc. So, why would you want to pay to save the files when you could email them to yourself and then save them? Because the app saves them in date order and you can watch for progression. It's organized and in one place if you want to share with parents at a conference, to share with the student to talk about their progress or point out a strategy they are or are not using, and to share in Child Study or RTI (Response to Intervention) meetings.
Here are a list of reasons why I LOVE this app so much:
1. It helps me keep up with my higher readers during a running record. I have the hardest time keeping up with checking each word a student reads correctly and to mark errors when a student is reading 130+ words per minute.
2. It saves recordings to be shared with interventionists, students, teachers, and parents when discussing a child's reading progress. Ever work with a struggling reader? Sometimes explaining how they are still reading word for word, or how they get stuck on sight words, or how they need to sound out the same word repeatedly in a reading does not have the same effect as listening to a recorded sample of that child reading. It was very helpful to use to help get students into reading intervention programs.
3. ALL parents LOVE to hear their children read. Ok, maybe not all parents, but it is a good way to continue to communicate with your students' parents about their reading progress. I like to add a few notes to the email. Something like, "I can tell how hard you are working at home on fluency. You can hear the improvements and I am so proud of this student." Or, "we moved up a reading level today and your child is doing great!" It's a great way to keep parents in the loop.
4. You can use the emails to suggest things students can work on at home. "This book was a little harder for your child today. We will keep practicing reading phrase cards for time to increase her reading fluency. You can use her phrase cards at home to practice also."
5. Nothing is more exciting for a child than for them to hear themselves. They can hear their own progress and can feel that pride in their reading. Students will ASK to read to you. "Are you recording me today? Please? Is it my turn?"
6. You can set "benchmarks" on different dates and it will color code the students on level and below level. The teacher is the only one who can see this. It's just a quick glance for you to see how many readers you have below level.
7. It is easy to add students to your class list. Get a new student in the middle of the year? No problem, just add a student to the list.
8. It is easy to add your own books. It allows you to level books by DRA, Lexile, PM Reader, Fountas & Pinnell, Reading Recover, and Reading A-Z Systems. Regardless of what leveling system your school uses, this app will work for you!
9. You can view it from your iPad or iPhone (I have not tried it from an Andriod or Tablet)
10. It keeps you organized! The information is all a click away.
Parents would respond to emails that I sent praising their child and praising me for keeping them informed. The emails "made their day!" I had parents asking for the app name so they could use it at home or share with their own teacher friends. Parents even let my principal know about how much they loved getting emails with their child's reading level and a recording attached.
I personally keep a piece of paper to the side so I can write down the type of errors the student makes or take a written running record. The app will give you an accuracy percentage, but it doesn't code the errors for you. I usually keep the written running record in a binder with a tab for each student. If they read faster than I can make check marks, then I just record the errors and make a note that the running record was recorded. The app allows you to enter the errors and self corrects as the child reads, or at the end you can enter the number for each and then it will calculate the scores. If I have time, I enter the types of errors in the notes section so I always have the information with me.
Levelbook does offer a FREE version called Levelbook Lite. However, it does not let you load more than 10 students. The paid version allows for unlimited students. If you start with the free version and fall in love like I did, your information does NOT transfer over when you download the paid version. If you are only going to use it for a group of students, the free version does allow full access though.
Well, what are you waiting for? Go download Levelbook right now so your students will ask to come to reading groups and your parents will be on the journey with you! The app is currently $9.99 (It was only $4.99 when I bought it 2 years ago, but I would buy it again if I had to) Here is the image you are looking for:
