Effective Literacy Website Review #1 by Alison

Reading Rockets (http://readingrockets.org) is an extensive literacy website; it offers free information, resources, and research-based strategies for not only educators, but parents, librarians, administrators, and childcare providers as well. In fact, Reading Rockets also provides ideas for interventions for struggling readers. This website was launched in 2001 and is an initiative of WETA (Washington Educational Telecommunications Association), which is a widely known television and radio station in Washington D.C. The mission of Reading Rockets is to provide research-based and best-practice literacy material through the media, such as the Internet or television, in order to increase students’ reading skills and student success. With that said, the Reading Rockets project is comprised of online services through its website, professional development opportunities, PBS television programs available online and on DVD, and a large social community on popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. In 2016, the Reading Rockets project was privileged to receive the David M. Rubenstein Prize, the highest honor in the Library of Congress Literacy Awards program.

            Although the website layout is quite simple, it is well organized. Because Reading Rockets contains a vast amount of information, it is important to carefully explore and look at each tab located at the top of the website. The main tabs have different categories, such as Teaching Reading, Helping Struggling Readers, Reading Topics A-Z, and Children’s Books & Authors. As mentioned earlier, Reading Rockets provides information for not only teachers, parents, or providers, but basically anyone who is interested in literacy. Below the main tabs, you will find supplementary tabs that lead you to additional research and resources, PBS shows, videos, and blogs. Reading Rockets may contain an overwhelming amount of information; however, if you are searching for a specific literacy topic, you can always utilize the search bar located on the top right of the website. Overall, Reading Rockets is an informative and impressive website, so I believe everyone certainly needs to add it to their online toolbelt of effective literacy websites. In other words, bookmark it, because it is a great website for future reference!