A Decoding Practice App With Potential
Take a closer look at literacy learning apps with expert reviews by phonics.org. Keep reading to learn more about this week’s featured app: Blending Board.
What is the Blending Board App?
Blending Board is an innovative educational app designed to offer free dyslexia resources as part of Nadine Gilkison’s Google Innovator project.
Unlike a standalone gaming app, Blending Board serves as a tool for teaching reading through phoneme blending exercises. It is intended for use by educators who organize these exercises using ‘decks,’ which are collections of letter combinations that can be modified to help new readers practice sounding out words and nonwords.
Pre-created decks can be conveniently shared via QR code. Importantly, Blending Board itself does not teach letter sounds or blending; rather, it functions as a supportive tool for educators. It’s not an independent game.
How to Use the Blending Board App
Overall, the Blending Board app is easy to use but is missing some key features. Keep reading to see a more detailed look at the usability of the app.
Navigation
The Blending Board app home page is set up with six initial options:
- Create Deck: customize a new set of phonics patterns to practice
- Bl: takes you to a pre-created, standard deck
- My Decks: access to previously-created decks
- Mission: goal and purpose of the app
- Settings: customizable color options
- QR code reader: access other pre-made decks
The interface is fairly easy to navigate and intuitive to set up. A home screen button in the bottom left corner always brings the user back to the main menu. This design ensures that educators can efficiently manage and utilize the app’s resources.
Accessibility
Blending Board is a free app accessible to all, created specifically to support individuals with dyslexia but beneficial for anyone learning to read words (decode). This app has customizable decks that can cater to individual needs. The app’s neutral appearance ensures it can be effectively used with both young children and adults.
Editing Decks
Editing Decks on the Blending Board app comes with some limitations. Users cannot edit or delete just one deck. If there is a mistake, they must start fresh and create a new deck. Additionally, deleting a deck will result in all decks being deleted, which requires users to recreate any necessary decks from scratch.
Glitches
Blending Board has a few glitches that can affect usability. Sometimes, even when certain graphemes are unselected, they may still appear in the deck. Additionally, there are setup configurations where words cannot be properly formed, such as when the “short vowel pointers” option appears in the middle of a word. These issues can disrupt the intended learning experience and require users to be cautious when creating their decks.
User Engagement in the Blending Board App
These elements enhance the overall engagement when interacting with the Blending Board App.
Neutral Appearance
Blending Board’s neutral appearance ensures it is suitable for learners of any age without appearing babyish to older users. The design is practical and free of distractions, allowing educators and learners to focus on teaching phoneme blending effectively.
A Tool, Not a Game
Blending Board is a tool, not a game. In order to be effective, it requires teacher instruction, modeling, and pre-teaching. The app’s effectiveness and student engagement depend largely on the teacher leading the lessons.
Literacy Learning With the Blending Board App
How does the Blending Board app measure up when it comes to helping someone learn to read?
Important Purpose
Phoneme blending—pushing speech sounds together to read words—is a crucial skill for literacy. Teaching these skills in a specific order (scope and sequence) is also vital for effective learning. The Blending Board app supports both of these aspects, allowing educators to determine the order of phonics skills. However, it is important to note that the app is not designed to include other essential aspects of literacy instruction, such as letter-sound correspondences, comprehension, and vocabulary.
Elkonin Boxes
Elkonin boxes, also known as sound boxes, are a common and effective tool in literacy learning. They help learners segment words into individual sounds, with each box representing one sound. For example, the word “fish” would be divided into three boxes: /f/, /i/, and /sh/.
While the Blending Board app includes similar boxes, they do not always correlate accurately to the sounds. For instance, blends are often placed in one box instead of being separated into two, which can lead to confusion and reduce the effectiveness of this instructional strategy.
Chaining
The Blending Board app offers two options for modifying words. Users can change all letters around, creating a more challenging exercise, or they can tap on a specific grapheme (letter) to change just that one sound. Changing just one sound at a time is called “chaining.” For instance, the word ‘pat’ could be changed to ‘pit’ by tapping the middle letter.
Chaining serves as a helpful scaffold for new readers, reducing the demand on working memory by changing only one sound at a time. This makes it easier for learners to practice reading and spelling, highlighting a good aspect of the app.
Tips for Parents and Educators
To maximize the benefits of the Blending Board app in literacy instruction, follow these guidelines:
1. Scope and Sequence: Choose and use a scope and sequence for teaching phonics skills and create the ‘decks’ in the app according to this order. This structured approach ensures that skills are introduced and practiced in a logical progression.
2. Pre-Teaching: The Blending Board app is a practice tool. Direct, explicit instruction should still come before learners use the app to practice. Educators should introduce phonics skills before students use the app for reinforcement.
3. Discussing Meaning: Engage students in conversations about the words they read. Use the words in sentences to provide context and enhance understanding. The app can generate both real and nonsense words, so it’s important to discuss whether a word is ‘real’ or ‘nonsense.’ For real words, explore their possible meanings with the learners.
4. Parental Involvement: Parents should communicate with their child’s educator to understand which sounds and types of words their child is learning. This allows them to align the Blending Board practice with classroom instruction, ensuring consistency and reinforcement at home.
By following these steps, educators and parents can effectively use the Blending Board app to support literacy development.
How Does the Blending Board App Support Early Readers?
The Blending Board app is relatively easy to use and navigate, making it accessible for educators and learners alike. However, its functionality could be improved with better editing options for the decks, such as the ability to delete one deck at a time or edit a deck after it has been created.
With its neutral appearance, the app is suitable for learners of all ages. While it can be a valuable tool, it should not be used in isolation but rather in conjunction with effective, research-based teaching practices.
The Blending Board app is a supportive tool rather than a standalone learning format. Its primary purpose is to help with decoding real and nonsense words. It doesn’t cover multiple areas of literacy learning.
The app effectively incorporates chaining, which is beneficial for new readers. However, it could be further enhanced by aligning its boxes with the practices used in Elkonin boxes.
Overall, the Blending Board app is a useful resource for phoneme blending exercises but should be integrated into a comprehensive literacy instruction program.
Read more Phonics.org reviews and explore more literacy learning apps today!
The Blending Board App: Overall Ratings
Quality of Literacy Instruction: 3/ 5
Usability: 3/ 5
Engagement: 3/ 5
