I began my teaching career as a first grade teacher. One of my main goals was to teach my students how to read which isn’t an easy task. It’s like a puzzle! So many different pieces must click into place for kids to read. Now thanks to Google Play Books Reading practice, technology tools in thousands of children’s ebooks help new readers improve their vocabulary.
If you’re concerned about more screen time and using a technology tools to help your child become a better reader, please know Google Play is dedicated to creating products and services that have families in mind.
I love that they’ve been dedicated to helping kids learn and explore the best of what technology has to offer, but in a safer way. Google Play gives parents the tools and flexibility they need to encourage their children to read while building healthy, positive digital habits together.
About Google Play Books Reading practice
Designed for early readers, Reading practice is a tool embedded in thousands of compatible children’s ebooks (including no charge options) on Play Books. It provides lots of support to new and emerging readers. Reading practice helps new readers improve their vocabulary and comprehension skills using their phones and/or tablets.
Supporting New Readers with Google Play Books Reading practice
Using the microphone on your digital device, a child can read a text aloud and watch as the tracker highlights each word is read. This reinforces 1-1 correspondence between words on a page and spoken words.
Reading practice also offers the ability to practice skipped or mispronounced words at the end of the page. Receiving feedback in real-time support kids on their literacy journey and promotes reading confidence.
When more fluent readers come across unknown words, the Reading practice feature can pronounce a word, sound out a word, or provide a child-friendly definition. This helps readers build their vocabulary and increase reading comprehension skills.
Google Play Books Reading practice Features
- Track their reading position: They’ll see the text highlighted as they read out loud, tracking where they are in the book and helping them focus on the next word.
- Hear a word: If they’re stuck on how to pronounce a word, they can simply tap it to hear what it sounds like.
- Sound it out: With a quick tap, they’ll also hear a word broken down by syllable.
- Hear a sentence: For even more context, new readers can listen to an entire sentence.
- Define a word: To learn more, they can tap to see or hear a child-friendly definition of a word.
- Set a new reading position: They can tap any word to update their position in the book and start tracking from there.
- Practice a challenging word: At the end of the page, they’ll have the option to practice any words they skipped or mispronounced.
How to Find Google Play Books with Reading Practice
Reading practice is currently available on the Google Play Books Android app and in Google Kids Space.
To get started with Reading practice, check the hand-picked collection of kid-friendly reads on Google Play Books that includes some no-charge options. You can also browse thousands of English language books designated for younger readers. The majority of these titles have Reading practice enabled, indicated by a “Practice” badge on the book detail page.
You can also use the “Reading practice” filter in Google Play Books to narrow down your store or library searches to ebooks that specifically offer Reading practice.
Need help? Visit the Google Play Help Center to learn more about Reading practice and how it can help new and aspiring readers in your life.
No compensation was received for this post. All opinions are my own and based on my experience teaching reading as an elementary teacher.
