Let’s be honest: it’s exponentially more difficult in the digital age to keep students engaged! Because of the allure of apps, games and videos that are so easily accessible, many kids nowadays can’t quite summon the interest in picking up a good book.

What if you could leverage children’s love of technology to help build a lasting love of reading?

Does that seem like a paradox? You can make it a reality with these apps specifically for the purpose of making your students love reading.

1. Reading Comprehension – first, second grade non-fiction. It’s tough to motivate young learners to read non-fiction. This app makes it accessible and fun, providing a set of entertaining non-fiction stories, followed up with a comprehension check. You can easily use it to generate reports on the student’s progress.
2. Story Chaser. This app masterfully gamifies speed-reading for comprehension, perfect for students that need a little extra challenge. Different parts of the story become game levels, in which students can earn “Chaser Coins” as they go. Besides testing for speed, the app challenges them on decoding words that have multiple meanings.
3. Tikatok. Want to get students really excited about reading? Nurture their writing skills and this will give them a true appreciation for the written word. Tikatok gives them the opportunity to write and digitally publish their own books. They can illustrate them with their own pictures or choose from a selection of digital backgrounds.
4. Rainbow Sentences. This app supports grammar skills through visual cues, color coding the “who,” “what,” “where” and “why” parts of sentences. Students can enhance their appreciation of reading by discovering the meaning of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in an engaging way, and increase fluency through an understanding of basic sentence structure.
5. Inference Ace: Reading Comprehension Skills & Practice for Struggling Readers. This tool can support students’ inference skills with a variety of questions and examples to keep it fun. The multilevel structure and the Rewards Shop are guaranteed to keep kids engaged. As an added bonus, parents and teachers can easily access detailed reports of students’ progress.
6. Tales 2 Go. This audiobook app allows you to stream 6000 different stories. You can search based on age, interest or genre. You can also bookmark and add favorites. Subscriptions can be purchased by schools, parents or educators.
7. Kids Reading Comprehension Level 1 Passages For iPad. Short non-fiction readings hold students’ attention and are followed up by a brief comprehension assessment to measure progress. Readings are relevant and entertaining, and provide children appropriate praise and rewards for finishing.

Did we miss any?