Authenticity of starfall.com (it's great)

A great site for free printouts is
http://starfall.com

Web Site Evaluation

Does starfall.com meet the the five checks??

1. Authority - The authors of starfall.com are family. Dr. Stephen Schutz (phd), wife Susan Polis Shutz (who is a poet and former educator in NJ and NY City) and son Jared Schutz Polis (who served on the Colorado Boad of Education) got together and created this educational site. Why? Dr. Schutz was a stuggling reader as a child and wanted to create a place for parents and teachers to go to help children learn to read in English. Any sponsors? No, this site is not sponsored by any other corporations. However, Starfall.com does sell products that they have created and designed. What is great about this site is that you do not need to purchase anything to use the free resources designed by the Polis-Schutz family. The purchases are additional means to teach reading.

2. Accuracy - Starfall.com has 4 main heading - ABC's, Learn to Read, It's Fun to Read and I'm Reading. Within these four main areas there are various printouts and online activities. All of the activities that I tried were age appropriate for the kindergarten and first grade level and contained zero errors. There are so many games and activities to engage in that I couldn't try them all, but each one I did try had 100% great value.

3. Objectivity- This page is designed to inspire and help foster a love for reading. There is no "swaying" of opinion. Children learn to read by being enagaged in fun learning activities and that is exactly what starfall.com offers. Even though this site does have additional resourses to purchase, I was never exposed to any "offers." There are no advertisement pop-ups and games aren't stopped prematurely. I found myself feeling a little guilty that I was getting what I was getting for free.

4. Currency - Starfall.com is copywrited with a 2007 date. They also were name one of the "5 Internet Sites to Good to Miss" by The Reading Teacher (May 2006). There are some links to home schooling sites as it geared not only to teachers, but parents to. I did not check out the home schooling links to see their authenticity.

5. Coverage - The topics covered on this site are wide. Everything from calendars, writing a letter to grandparents, two styles of handwriting (each letter having its own printout), poetry, music, tongue twisters, riddles, story making and seasonal activities (Thanksgiving, snowmen, 100th day of school, pumpkins and Groundhog day) is included. This only covers the activities I tried....what else can you discover???