Readinga-z.com is a resource web site that provides teachers with various instructional techniques and supplies to help teach reading to a variety of different types of student learners. They are a site where teachers can access and download "thousands of books, reading lessons, and supporting reading materials", for a fee.
Navigating the website is fairly easy, tabs at the top direct you to a variety of different subject based pages, such as vocabulary, phonics and the alphabet. The sheer amount of resources available makes it difficult to sort through the material though, as one feels overloaded. It would help if the teacher using the website knew what they were looking for first before searching the site for it. Under each topic tab there is an offer to try 30 free samples, all you have to do is enter your email address and they will send them to you. If you don't want to receive a lot of junkmail, be sure to uncheck the marked boxes on the page where you are entering your information.
As stated before, navigating the website is pretty easy, but the actual design and layout is a little lack luster. There is a great deal of type, nothing much that helps to draw your eye around the page. Again, the tabs are very useful, but the success stops there. Narrowing things down into further categories may improve this problem.
The target audience is definitely teachers, while the subject material is aimed at beginning readers, elementary, and ESL students. This is not a website I would direct students to, as it would be very difficult for them to use. I may recommend parents try it out, but if I were to do so I would have specific areas for them to look at and I would make recommendations on what they could use to help their child. This would require a lot of invested time in reviewing the website and searching for learning tools and packages that would be best suited to the child's learning needs.
As far as assessment goes, there is a whole tab devoted to it. the website expresses the great value in assessment, and provides a variety of tools to help do so. The assessment tab page has another link to "more about assessment" which is very helpful to show the variety of assessment tools the website has, as well as what types of assessment they believe to be the best, and how they would use them.
"Bob's Blog" is a nice addition to the website, offering the viewer more insight as to the intentions of the creators of the website. It is also informative, entertaining, and interesting to read. I wish it were a more prominent part of the website's home page, as it makes the viewer feel more welcome and increases trust in the products being sold. "Bob" seems to be genuinely interested in the education of children.
This web site does not strike me so much as an educational website, as it does a website that has a great deal of compiled resources available for purchase; more of a store than anything. While I was unable to access any of the materials (password provided did not work), they do seem to be legitimate resources. They often come in packages, with printable worksheets and ways to assess student learning. If I were a new teacher in an elementary school, I would definitely check this site out, if only for ideas. The fee for access is not very big, but there are a variety of similar materials available on the net for free. As well, the site has a a vast amount of resources, but they are difficult to sort through to see what materials you would want. All in all, this site seems very good, but would be time consuming to use.
(Later) I spoke to my mom, a resource room teacher at a local elementary school in Medicine Hat, and she said that her school utilizes this website on a regular basis. She says that once you know what you are doing and what you are looking for, it is an excellent resource.
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