Welcome to The Reading Realm, an educational app, where stories come to life…
Hi everyone! My name’s Ian Eagleton and I was a primary school teacher for 13 years. In that time, I was a phase leader, English leader and was awarded an NPQSL which focused on how to improve reading and writing outcomes across the school.
I’m a resource writer and work for The Literacy Shed and Authorfy as well as writing materials for lots of children’s publishers.
I’m now a children’s author and am very proud of the books I’ve created, which include Nen and the Lonely Fisherman, The Woodcutter and the Snow Prince, Violet’s Tempest, Glitter Boy and lots more to come!
But I’m here to talk to you in my capacity as the director of The Reading Realm and I’m thrilled to announce that….
You can now download The Reading Realm iPad app and The Poetry Realm iPad app for FREE!
Here’s a taster of what you’ll get below!
The Reading Realm iPad app is designed to:
- Support and encourage wider reading
- Encourage authentic, purposeful book talk
- Provide teachers with up-to-date resources
- Offer cross-curricular activities and ideas to deepen children’s understanding
- Support teachers in delivering whole class and guided reading lessons
- Encourage a life-long love of reading
The Discussion Realm
Each passage comes with a set of open-ended questions and prompts, for children to discuss. These are not designed to be test questions – these are about encouraging children to evaluate, share their opinions, likes and dislikes. Based on research, the questions promote authentic, natural book talk and encourage children to explore and interrogate the text, whilst prompting them to develop their reasoning skills. Each prompt has a letter next it it, relating to the type of question: retrieval, discussion, inference and cross-curricular activities to support and develop children’s background knowledge.
The Spelling Realm
This spelling game focuses on commonly mis-spelt words and spelling patterns, important vocabulary from the passage the children have just read and what Beck refers to as Tier 2 words. Press ‘Play again’ to muddle the words and make the game trickier!
The Muddled Realm
Perfect for developing children’s understanding of sentence structures! Tap, drag and place the words in order to make a sentence. Are there any clues to help you? Is there a word with a capital letter that needs to go at the beginning of the sentence, for example? Play again and muddle the words up once more! Afterwards, challenge the children to write out the words on some cards – can they make any other sentences with the words?
The Rainbow Realm
Great for learning about or revising word classes. Click on the words in black – are they nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs? Then, Challenge the children to thing about if the word could be a noun AND a verb. For example, rose could be a noun if referring to the flower, but it is also a verb in the sentence, ‘She rose from the chair.’
The Missing Realm
There are two games in this realm. The first asks the children to think about the missing punctuation in a sentence and the second challenges the children to think about tenses and homophones, by asking them to select the missing words in the passage. Both activities link to the story, poem or non-fiction text the children have just read. This is about grammar in context!
A LETTER FROM IAN EAGLETON, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF THE READING REALM
Throughout my life, books have been an escape for me. They offer a chance to voyage to different worlds, meet new friends, battle terrifying enemies, learn wonderful facts and offer comfort when times are difficult.
To the children who may be using this app… I designed The Reading Realm in the hope that this brand-new app would offer children like you a chance to escape into a world filled with books, stories, poetry and non-fiction. There are over one hundred exciting passages from a diverse range of publishers and authors plus games, interactive challenges and much more!
I very much hope that these passages will offer you a glimpse into new worlds. I also hope that these ‘book tasters’ will offer an introduction to lots of amazing authors and you will feel that you have met a new friend. Perhaps the app will inspire you to visit your local library or book shop, with courage and hope, in search of new stories, poems and non-fiction books.
For parents, The Reading Realm offers your children the chance to explore, without any pressure, a whole host of marvellous, informative, moving, rich stories, poems and non-fiction classic and contemporary texts. Perhaps a snippet from the first chapter of a brand-new book, a short, classic poem or an extract from a non-fiction book about boats, horses or mountains will be enough to awaken, rekindle, restore or strengthen your child’s interest in books and have them asking to visit the local library or independent book shop in search of new authors and books.
For teachers who may use this app, The Reading Realm offers support, guidance, inspiration and a wealth of resources to use and adapt in your class. There are discussion prompts, each linked to a range of reading skills. There are also interactive spelling, word and grammar games linked to each passage and extract. Children will also be offered book recommendations, have the chance to review the passages they have read and to take part in weekly reading challenges. The discussion prompts are there to give ideas for you to explore with their classes – there are no right or wrong answers; these are simply meant to facilitate book talk and offer a starting point for open, honest, authentic dialogue. The Reading Realm focuses on reading for pleasure and enjoyment, debate, thoughtful conversation and giving the children the opportunity to lead any discussions. The app will certainly be a wonderful addition in supporting children during guided reading, whole class reading, one to one reading, research and independent reading time. The app provides focus, depth, a wealth of rich and varied texts and the space and time for children to consider, reflect, learn and enjoy.
Reading is such an important part of finding out who we are and books undoubtedly help to shape our lives. Books teach us, challenge us, make us feel safe, help us empathise with others, make us laugh, cry, giggle, gasp and wonder.
I hope The Reading Realm offers you something and, with the click of a button, gives you the opportunity to escape from the comfort of your chair, just for a little while, into a magical word where words shimmer, stories weave their magic, characters come to life and exciting, strange and new adventures wait for you.
See you in The Reading Realm soon!
Ian Eagleton
Why not head on over to The Reading Realm Facebook group for more news on the app, giveaways and friendly book chat!
