TumbleBooks
Access: Online, www.tumblebooks.com
Summary: TumbleBooks is a website featuring scores of children’s books. All of the books in the website can be accessed online. All of the books are narrated, meaning that students with difficulties in reading can listen to the story. The website also features text highlighting of the sentences being read at the time, allowing students who might have weaker reading skills to follow along. The highlighting can also help with decoding. The narration can be easily turned off it students want to try reading the book themselves. The pages in the stories automatically turn themselves, but this can be easily disabled so that students can click on an arrow to either turn one page ahead or turn back, if need be. This allows students to exert some control over the story, if they so wish. TumbleBooks also offers non-fiction titles, titles in languages other than English, such as French and Spanish, Korean or German, as well as a series of math stories that are designed to connect mathematics to reading. There is also a section of the webpage devoted to puzzles and games that emphasize spelling and vocabulary building.
Connection to UDL Guidelines: TumbleBooks keeps with UDL guidelines in a few ways. It allows for multiple means of representation in its presentation in the book material. It allows for some multiple means of action and expression in the games and puzzles it presents and the control it gives learners over the stories, if they so choose. It allows for multiple means of engagement in offering different stories and different ways of consuming them.
Reasoning: Adding TumbleBooks to our Toolkit was a relatively simple decision. Given our focus on reading in primary levels, providing a tool by which students could have access to books in multiple possible formats that support learning to read seemed logical. TumbleBooks first off provides digital access to a rather extensive library of fiction and non-fiction titles. For students who are still learning to read, it allows them to follow along in the story with the narration that accompanies every story, as well as the highlighting of words that are being read. Students can also decide whether or not to flip the pages themselves, and can also decide to turn off the narration to try reading themselves. This allows for both multiple means of representation and engagement for students just learning to read. Students who are experiencing problems with decoding can follow along with the highlighting and narration.
Summary: TumbleBooks is a website featuring scores of children’s books. All of the books in the website can be accessed online. All of the books are narrated, meaning that students with difficulties in reading can listen to the story. The website also features text highlighting of the sentences being read at the time, allowing students who might have weaker reading skills to follow along. The highlighting can also help with decoding. The narration can be easily turned off it students want to try reading the book themselves. The pages in the stories automatically turn themselves, but this can be easily disabled so that students can click on an arrow to either turn one page ahead or turn back, if need be. This allows students to exert some control over the story, if they so wish. TumbleBooks also offers non-fiction titles, titles in languages other than English, such as French and Spanish, Korean or German, as well as a series of math stories that are designed to connect mathematics to reading. There is also a section of the webpage devoted to puzzles and games that emphasize spelling and vocabulary building.
Connection to UDL Guidelines: TumbleBooks keeps with UDL guidelines in a few ways. It allows for multiple means of representation in its presentation in the book material. It allows for some multiple means of action and expression in the games and puzzles it presents and the control it gives learners over the stories, if they so choose. It allows for multiple means of engagement in offering different stories and different ways of consuming them.
Reasoning: Adding TumbleBooks to our Toolkit was a relatively simple decision. Given our focus on reading in primary levels, providing a tool by which students could have access to books in multiple possible formats that support learning to read seemed logical. TumbleBooks first off provides digital access to a rather extensive library of fiction and non-fiction titles. For students who are still learning to read, it allows them to follow along in the story with the narration that accompanies every story, as well as the highlighting of words that are being read. Students can also decide whether or not to flip the pages themselves, and can also decide to turn off the narration to try reading themselves. This allows for both multiple means of representation and engagement for students just learning to read. Students who are experiencing problems with decoding can follow along with the highlighting and narration.
Critique of the Tool:
Affordances
TumbleBooks offers multiple means of representation and engagement. Students can follow along with the narration and highlighted words and let the program turn the pages, or they can turn off the narration to read it themselves and turn the pages themselves. There are some means of action and expression, but those are within the category of games and puzzles, which are fixed and rigid. There js also a selection of stories offered in different languages. The library features up to 1,000 different titles, one-quarter of which are non-fiction titles, and the subject areas of the titles are quite broad and varied. The controls are very user-friendly and intuitive for users, and the website is straightforward to navigate.
Constraints
There is little opportunity, beyond reading and listening, for the student to interact with the story as it is being read. While the narration is good and the text offers highlighting as it is read, the highlighting is limited to entire sentences at a time instead of individual words. That might make it difficult for some students to follow along. There is also no capacity for a student to further query a word, such as clicking on it so that the program speaks it again. There is also no capacity for students to seek definitions of unfamiliar words within the program itself, as the story is being read. There is a significant cost to the school for the service at $799 per school per year for its premium package and $599 per school per year for half the collection of the premium package, but there are numerous website that offer access to it free of charge.
Supports: There are few supports for TumbleBooks on the website itself. There is a “Help” section that deals mostly with technical issues, and an “FAQ” section that offers answers to basic questions. There are no tutorials or videos on how to use TumbleBooks, but the navigation of the site and the use of the books online are fairly straightforward.
Affordances
TumbleBooks offers multiple means of representation and engagement. Students can follow along with the narration and highlighted words and let the program turn the pages, or they can turn off the narration to read it themselves and turn the pages themselves. There are some means of action and expression, but those are within the category of games and puzzles, which are fixed and rigid. There js also a selection of stories offered in different languages. The library features up to 1,000 different titles, one-quarter of which are non-fiction titles, and the subject areas of the titles are quite broad and varied. The controls are very user-friendly and intuitive for users, and the website is straightforward to navigate.
Constraints
There is little opportunity, beyond reading and listening, for the student to interact with the story as it is being read. While the narration is good and the text offers highlighting as it is read, the highlighting is limited to entire sentences at a time instead of individual words. That might make it difficult for some students to follow along. There is also no capacity for a student to further query a word, such as clicking on it so that the program speaks it again. There is also no capacity for students to seek definitions of unfamiliar words within the program itself, as the story is being read. There is a significant cost to the school for the service at $799 per school per year for its premium package and $599 per school per year for half the collection of the premium package, but there are numerous website that offer access to it free of charge.
Supports: There are few supports for TumbleBooks on the website itself. There is a “Help” section that deals mostly with technical issues, and an “FAQ” section that offers answers to basic questions. There are no tutorials or videos on how to use TumbleBooks, but the navigation of the site and the use of the books online are fairly straightforward.