For proof, look no further than the newly debuted PBS KIDS Island and www.readytolearnreading.org, its companion Web site for parents, teachers, and caregivers. The sites combine reading games and resources from beloved PBS KIDS shows like Between the Lions, Sesame Street, Super WHY!, and WordWorld. On PBS KIDS Island, kids play reading games in an immersive carnival world, earn tickets and win prizes. Along the way, their progress is tracked for grown-ups to check in on.

The sites are part of the PBS KIDS Raising Readers national literacy campaign, which in turn is part of the Ready To Learn Initiative. The initiative is focused on building reading skills at home, at school, in child care, and in the community, with special emphasis on a low-income, low-literacy audience.

With that audience in mind, we developed the sites to be as easy-to-use and accessible as possible. As we made decisions and revisions and completed countless rounds of testing for the sites, we stayed true to these hallmarks:

• Choice: Kids from low-income families need opportunities to make choices on their own, since so many of their circumstances have been dictated for them. We designed PBS KIDS Island with as much flexibility as possible – within each of the eight levels, kids choose the order in which they play the games. And when they’re ready to advance, they pick how the next level will look (each level lives within a carnival ride, like a Ferris wheel or bumper cars).



• Scaffolding: We balance the free-choice with a carefully scaffolded gaming experience, so the kids learn the appropriate skills for their age and ability. Using recommendations from the National Reading Panel, we mapped each of the PBS KIDS Island games to skills like letter identification, rhyming, and phonics. The 32 games hit on seven different skills, each a critical building block to reading.



• Reward: The games are fun in-and-of themselves, but we added a ticket and prize structure to encourage kids to achieve even more. Kids earn tickets by completing games (multiple tickets for the first completion and one for each completion of the same game thereafter) and can trade in their tickets for prizes like exclusive trading cards, videos, printables, and toys. The prizes live in each player’s customizable treehouse, another feature to help kids “own” their PBS KIDS Island experience.



• Tracking. It’s important for parents, teachers, and caregivers to see how kids are progressing. With the Child Progress Tracker, grown-ups see stats about which skills have been tackled, the last game played, number of logins, and more. Parents can keep track of multiple kids, and caregivers and teachers can organize multiple players into classes and groups.



• Teaching grown-ups, too. Speaking of the grown-ups, kids aren’t the only ones learning here. Many low-income parents – especially English language learners – may not be confident in their own reading skills. The bilingual readytolearnreading.org Web site has a glossary of reading terms (including the skills addressed in the Island) and preview versions of all the Island games. This way, grown-ups can play the games on their own and, once they’re comfortable, be able to offer encouragement and assistance to kids. On PBS KIDS Island itself, grown-ups can look to a small cloud in the upper right corner of the screen to learn more about the current game.



• Building a bridge between parents and teachers. Kids thrive when there’s good communication between the grown-ups in their lives. The readytolearnnreading.org companion site offers plenty of resources for parents, caregivers, and teachers. There are fun, bite-sized activities (to be done both on- and offline), lesson plans, and videos. Plus, at the end of a school year, teachers and caregivers can “send” a player’s account to the parent so the kid can keep playing and learning.

By late elementary school, students are expected to read to learn. To get there, students must first learn to read. PBS KIDS Island is here to help that happen – and make it fun for everyone involved.

Your Turn: How do you make reading fun for young students in the classroom? What online resources do you use, if any? Do kids enjoy online and media resources when it comes to learning how to read? If you’ve used PBS KIDS Island, what did you – and your kids – think? If anything caused confusion (or some non-fun moments), let us know!