Raz Kids is an online resource that assists children with the process of learning to read, it provides reading materials at different levels that children can work through to build upon their reading skills (Raz-Kids, n.d.). Children can earn stars by reading books and use those stars to decorate or design their own robot character, providing and incentive to practice reading regularly (Raz-Kids, n.d.).
While I personally did not use Raz Kids while learning to read, both of my younger sisters did and I remember it playing an important supporting role in building their reading skills. I thought it would be interesting to analyze this software using early childhood checklists because of how much of an influence it had on my sisters reading skills. I wanted to investigate if this is truly a beneficial resource for young children as they learn to read.
Raz Kids incorporates many points on the checklist of and creates useful tool for both children and educators. The DIG checklist mentions that certain pieces of media cater towards a larger group and often includes common experiences for that audience (Haines, n.d.). Raz kids is catered towards children from kindergarten to fifth grade and provides multi-level reading resources to support children across all levels (Raz-Kids, n.d.). This program includes resources that provide assistance for children over quite a significant age range and offers a variety of material to cater to each of those ages efficiently. The DIG checklist touches on quality media and what it’s purpose is, a main purpose mentioned in the checklist is teaching each child who interacts with the media (Haines, n.d.). Raz Kids is a piece of media that assists educators and parents with teaching their children to read by providing engaging resources that meet the child at the level they are currently at (Raz-Kids, n.d.).
Raz Kids provides resources for children to read and complete books at their reading level, it includes management tools so that parents and educators can access the child’s reading progress to track how they are doing and provide further assistance where needed (Raz-Kids, n.d.). Educators and families are very busy and hold a variety of responsibilities, Raz Kids provides an aspect of convenience as it allows the opportunity for children to work through reading levels independently and is beneficial for independent work periods in school or practicing reading at home when families are unable to immediately assist. However, this convenience provides room for limitations to arise, the DIG checklist mentions how beneficial resources for children provide the adults with clear resources to take the learning the extra distance and help scaffold the children’s progress to make it to the next step (Haines, n.d.). While Raz Kids does include those resources for the adults, the convenience aspect has the potential to make it so that adults offload the responsibility of the child learning how to read on to the digital program and make reading an independent learning process for the child rather then one where they are scaffolded and supported by the adults around them.
There are several recommendations to make for early years professionals who are interested in using the Raz Kids software. One main recommendation would be to ensure that they use the resources provided by Raz Kids to further students’ learning. As mentioned in the DIG checklist a high quality resource gives adults detailed, clear resources and instructions to support the child’s learning (Haines, n.d.). With this in mind, for educators interested in using the software it is important to use the resources provided to further build on the children’s learning.
References
Haines, C. (n.d.). The Dig Checklist for Inclusive, High-Quality Children’s Media. Kidmap. https://www.joinkidmap.org/digchecklist
Raz-Kids. (n.d.). About Raz-Kids. Raz-Kids. https://www.raz-kids.com/main/AboutRazKids/
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