Does classroom reading instruction grind to a halt when you need to give one student some personal attention? LeapFrog’s Tag School Reading System can let reading teachers and coaches provide one-on-one help while the rest of the class reads along with special electronically tagged books.
The center of attention is LeapFrog’s Tag handheld, which is an off-shoot of the company’s Fly digital pen technology. At 3.1 ounces with two AAA batteries, Tag is about the size of a large marker and is a little bulky for the smallest hands. The guts include a 32-bit processor and 64MB of memory, enough to hold 20 books. A tiny infrared camera in the pen’s tip interprets a complex pattern of dots printed on the page to link audio to individual spots on the page.
The way Tag works is deceptively simple. Forget about instruction manuals because all the kids do is press the Tag pen on highlighted parts of the page of a special book. The pen reads the passage to the student, providing hours of read-along time. Many page elements, like illustrations and page numbers, are also active and add to the experience with sound effects and additional dialogue.
Despite its bright colors, Tag is not a toy. The reading pen has a USB connector, an on-off button and volume control. Its audio is surprisingly strong and clear despite its tiny speaker. There’s also a headphone jack, so an entire class can be working on different books without disturbing each other. On the downside, if it had dual headphone jacks, two kids could work as a team, halving the hardware investment for a class.
The curriculum is self-paced and students having trouble can have individual words, sentences or passages reread to them. Each page has simple comprehension games and at the end are interactive pages where key vocabulary words are available for review as well as reading tips.
I used LeapFrog’s “Ozzie and Mack” book with a student and found it not only occupied his time and helped him, but he enjoyed the experience. The books are nicely printed and look like they will last for several years of use. At the moment Tag has only a 22-volume library with titles ranging from “Olivia” to “Sponge Bob Square Pants.”
It’s just the start. LeapFrog will introduce texts for a wide range of readers from Kindergarten to middle-school. A big step in this direction is the company’s School Connect software which lets teachers download new material for use with Tag.
LeapFrog will also add a program for tracking student progress and reporting their reading ability. At $525 for an 8-pack that includes the Tag reader, books, headphones, cables and a storage case, Tag is expensive when you consider outfitting a classroom or an elementary school with devices. It’s more than worth it in the time that it liberates from reading teachers to spend face to face with students.
B+
LeapFrog Tag School Reading System
$525 for classroom 8-pack
+ Reads a book, passage or individual words to students
+ Included Games
+ Downloadable books
- Small number of books available
- Expensive
- Bulky for small hands
Tired of hearing the same old school bell over and over again? Despite its name, SchoolBell software can play a variety of tones or music over a school’s public address system. For instance, a school might play the reveille bugle call at the start of the day or any audio file as long as it is in the .mps. .wav or .mid format. The program can handle up to five different schedules with different sounds for different events. Free to try out, SchoolBell can be licensed for $30.
