About the More Choices, Greater Engagement Series
This series of articles introduces you to the exciting new product features and instructional content launched for Back-to-School 2018. Explore how these updates create more choices for students and engage and motivate them in new ways. Check out the other articles in this series to learn more!
The New Raz-Plus and Raz-Kids Reading Room
The New Raz-Plus and Raz-Kids Reading Room has arrived! The new design provides a fresh, intuitive interface and dynamically delivers level-appropriate content to make it easy for students to find books that interest them and challenge them academically.
What Is It?
The Reading Room, included in the Raz-Plus and Raz-Kids student portal, provides a digital library of differentiated resources for students to read for fun and for practice. By default, students have access to books three levels below and two levels above their assigned Learning A-Z reading level, and they have access to books in English and Spanish. Teachers have the ability to assign content to the whole class, small groups, or individual students, and can customize which reading levels and content categories their students see.
With an engaging new look, the Reading Room now organizes content into high-interest topics and categories. In addition, the home page now dynamically personalizes content for students based on their activity, interests, and reading level, and allows students to “favorite” books for easy access later.
Where Is It?
Students access the Reading Room by logging in to kidsa-z.com and clicking on the Reading planet.
Coming soon, students using the new, customizable portal design will be able to access the Reading Room by logging in to kidsa-z.com, hovering over the Reading navigation menu at the top of the home page, and clicking on the link to the Reading Room link.
How Do Students Use It?
The Reading Room redesign makes it easier than ever for students to quickly find level-appropriate books by topic, category, and popularity. The home page dynamically displays books students have accessed recently, the most popular books at their reading level (based on other student feedback), and books students have marked as favorites. In addition, the page displays specific topics aligned with their favorite books.
Topics and Categories
All leveled books in the Reading Room are organized into dozens of topics, including Animals, Strange and Wacky, Explorers, and more! Students are easily able to find leveled books by selecting the topics that most interest them. The topics presented on the Reading Room home page are populated dynamically. The content displayed within each topic is personalized based on the books each student has favorited most. Students can find a full list of topics by clicking the Topics icon.
Students are also able to find resources by selecting different categories of books, such as Graphic Books, Nonfiction Series, Passages and Packs, and more. Content collections are presented based on level range, ensuring students can easily access the content that is most educationally appropriate for them.
Recent Activity
Students can easily access books and quizzes they have opened recently in the “Recent” section of the home page, and continue where they left off.
Favorites
Students are able to "favorite" books by selecting the heart icon once they finish reading a book. All books that have been favorited can be found in the Favorites section on the home page. In addition, the page suggests books in Topics.
Popular
Popular books at each student’s reading level are displayed in the Popular section on the home page. These are books that other students have "favorited" from around the world!
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