Raz-Kids

What is Raz-Kids?

Raz-Kids is an interactive online reading website, that delivers hundreds of leveled eBooks that students use to practice reading in school, at home, or on the go. One of the unique features Raz-Kids has is the ability to look at many different reports about your students on the site. It directly helps students achieve content and literacy standards. Raz-Kids is an excellent tool for independent practice of reading comprehension skills, such as vocabulary and inference.

Raz-Kids is a service that is operated under the Learning A-Z. For those unfamiliar, Learning A-Z offers an enormous number of K-6 learning resources to help save teachers time and support student achievement.

When users engage Raz-Kids, they first select a book and Raz-Kids narrates it to them. Users are able to pause the narration on each page if they would like read it themselves or reread the page after listening to it being narrated. After reading a book, Raz-Kids presents users with a reading-comprehension quiz that consists of 5–10 questions. Users are able to flip between the book and quiz while using this option. As an alternative, the Epic app is the leading digital library for kids, where kids can explore their interests and learn with high-quality ebooks.

Teachers can view reports and track student progress every step of the way. They can assist students in selecting appropriate books leveled to their reading ability and help with a particular skill the student need to improve.

Is Raz-Kids good?

Many elementary schools have subscriptions to Reading A-Z, a resource that provides access to a wide variety of leveled books for students. Students can access the books on the Raz Kids website from school or home when given a login and password from their teacher.

Students have access to a library of interactive eBooks that students access in a kid friendly environment. They can listen to the content viewing highlighted words and phrases; read the book at their pace, using interactive tools and features that promote close reading and critical thinking; record themselves reading the book to practice and demonstrate fluency; and take a corresponding quiz to check comprehension. As students read and practice comprehension quizzes, they advance to a new reading level where they have access to lengthier and more difficult texts. Raz-kids also makes it easy for us as teachers to manage all of our students’ digital reading. The online teacher management portal provides different reporting options that allow you to monitor your students’ reading progress.

One way for students who are blind or visually impaired to access this resource is using the Kids A-Z app on the iPad, which is free of charge to download. Raz-Kids offers e-books that students can read (and record themselves reading) online. Teachers can assign and track which books students have been reading, see quiz scores, align progress to the Common Core Standards, listen to recordings of students reading, and assess which skills students are achieving or struggling with. 

Once the student is logged in (using login information provided by the classroom teacher), the student selects “Level Up!” to access the leveled books. A variety of fiction and non-fiction books will be available to the student. (The level of books available to the student will be based on the level the classroom teacher has assigned to that student).

For each book there are three options: listen to the book, read the book, and take the quiz.

The Reading A-Z app will advance students to the next reading level when they have completed all 3 items for a certain number of books (listen, read, and quiz). However, if the student does not complete all 3 options, the classroom teacher can manually advance the student to the next level under the teacher login.

Do Raz-Kids have free trial?

Raz-Kids offers a 14 day free trial. Once you've signed up for the free 14 day trial, the "Raz-Kids" greets you to help you get started. For teachers or families who have subscriptions to both Raz-Kids and Reading A-Z, also known as Reading Solution, the Kids A-Z app provides access to even more leveled reading content. 

How much does Raz-Kids cost?

Raz-Kids costs at $125/year for one classroom. Through the app, Raz-Plus customers have access to more than 2,000 leveled eBooks and corresponding eQuizzes as well as thousands of other resources for their students to access on a smartphone or tablet!

Pros:

• The students access the same books as peers in the general education classroom.
• Encourages the General Education teacher to stay closely involved in the students’ use of technology to access mainstream resources.
• The students get practice listening to stories and taking comprehension quizzes at his/her reading level.

Cons:

• The text of the books cannot be accessed through the Refreshable Braille Display.
• The reward portion of the app is not accessible with voice over.

Raz-Kids is a great app in the Learning A-Z family. It offers hundreds of titles, grouped into 29 different levels - with new ebooks and quizzes added every month. 

Raz-Kids tackles reading from all sides. Your child can read and take quizzes to show comprehension, record themselves reading aloud or listen to a recording with highlighted text. 

Overall, Raz-Kids has been a great resource for accessing a variety of age appropriate fiction and non-fiction stories. 

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