Update From Bookbot
Hi there Bookbotters,
I hope that the year is treating you well so far. Over the last few months, our team has been extremely busy making updates to our digital library, from the books themselves through to improving the experience. We would like to catch you up on some of what we have been working on.
You might have noticed that the text for all of our books has changed. This is because we have introduced a new system of phonics that will go through the sounds and rules of the English language even more thoroughly than our previous system did.
Our new system approaches the sounds and rules much more gradually, giving readers plenty of opportunity to practice the target phonemes for the level. Each page of the book now also includes an example of a word from this level, making for a more focussed and specific engagement with the levels.
The new progression of levels has been based off wide research across existing phonics programs and series. The content of the levels and the way in which the sounds and rules build is centred in scientific best practice for reading and retention. Every word in Bookbot books is categorised into these levels to make sure that readers can break them down with the tools that they are given at different stages.
We currently have books across 64 levels, and are working on our higher level texts for the next release. The books will span 145 levels, with many of these steps being set aside for a revision of core concepts or alternate spellings. We also have materials in the works that will help your little reader to understand and apply what they have learned.
Aside from our new system and texts, we have also introduced reading profiles in the app so that multiple users can have their own profile. This allows for a more tailored and personal experience, as it affects what will be recommended for the reader and keeps track of what they have read.
In the app, users are able to switch, add, and remove profiles, as well as change the level of the reader manually. By incorporating these functions, the app now allows the reader to have more of an understanding of their progress and a sense of achievement with the texts and levels that they have completed.
For teachers, we have also created the option to have the books sorted into collections. This will help teachers to give recommendations to students as the texts are sorted by level and theme. If you are a teacher, you can request to have your account switched into this mode so that this new function can help you to manage student interaction with the app.
On the technical side of things, we have been working on helping Bookbot to learn and improve its approach to voice recognition. Being able to read to the app is our feature that helps the most with a lot of different reading demographics, and we are very proud of the ways in which this element is progressing.
We will continue to work with Bookbot to make it the best listener it can be so that our readers can have exact and independent practice. We have also been working on fixing bugs that we encountered as we updated our systems.
That’s all for now, but we look forward to having new titles and additional materials ready for you soon! Thank you for being a part of the Bookbot community, and we look forward to seeing it grow together!