Starfall is a children's

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

that teaches basic English reading and writing skills. The main demographic is

preschool A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school ...

ers and

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

ers. It teaches children how to read by using games and phonics. Methods used by the website are based on the research of G. Reid Lyon from the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

and Edward J. Kame'enui from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. Established in 2002, the website is free to use and does not use

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

to generate revenue. The cost of running it is instead covered by money from Blue Mountain Arts, as well as the money made from its workbook printouts.

History

Starfall was founded on August 27, 2002, by Stephen Schutz, his wife

Susan Polis Schutz Susan Polis Schutz (née Polis; born May 23, 1944) is an American poet, film-maker, and businesswoman who co-founded the greeting card and book publisher Blue Mountain Arts. She is the mother of Colorado Governor Jared Polis. Early life and educ ...

, and their son, Jared Schutz Polis. Starfall arose from Blue Mountain Arts, a publishing house in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

founded by Stephen Schutz. Starfall received this name because the founders believed that the name "evoked wonder and delight". Stephen Schutz had trouble reading books when he was 9 years old, so he decided to help young readers by creating this website. In 2006, Starfall launched Pumarosa, which helps Spanish speakers learn English. In May 2007, Starfall had 987,000 visitors, which was a 300% increase from the previous year. In 2011,

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

included Starfall on its list of "50 Websites That Make the Web Great".

4 reading levels

Starfall has 4 reading levels to teach children how to read. The levels, in order from the most basic to the most advanced are: "learning ABCs", "early beginning reading", "intermediate beginning reading", and "advanced beginning reading". The first level teaches preschoolers about the ABCs. At this level, the website provides learners with all the letters of the

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...

in the

upper case Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

form and in the

lower case Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

form. When the learners see words appear on the screen, they hear the sounds of all the letters that compose a word. In the early beginning level, learners create words through the addition of

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...

s to different word family. The letters in every word are highlighted while they are read to the learner. In the intermediate beginning reading level, readers can bring the books they will read to life before they read them. The learner can read about eminent artists and

magic trick Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It ...

s. In the advanced beginning reading level, children can read a variety of books, including

nonfiction book Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often ass ...

s, bird riddles, Chinese fables, and

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

References

External links

* {{Official, http://www.starfall.com American educational websites Education companies established in 2002 Internet properties established in 2002 Organizations based in Colorado Learning to read 2002 establishments in Colorado