"The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."
—Commission on Reading, organized by the National Academy of Education and the National Institute of Education and funded under the U.S. Department of Education
What are Magic Reader Classics?
Magic Reader Classics are children's books on video. No print accompaniment necessary, because every word is displayed. Gus, Angel, and Pinky follow the magic wand as Biblio reads from the magic scroll. Each title contains more than twenty original illustrations that kids will enjoy again and again. The mice read all the captions aloud, and kids can, too!
Matching written words to their sounds and meanings is how we learn to read, and early literacy is a great predictor of success in all subjects. We hope Magic Reader Classics will help many young learners, both those who have great access to education and adult attention and those who do not, to become fluent readers at an early age.
Age Range
There is a great deal of pressure in children's media merchandising to specify the age range for a product. This pressure is driven by economics, not the needs of young learners. As anyone who has kids or works with them knows, different kids learn different skills at different ages.
On the one hand, it is never too soon to begin familiarizing children with text. This familiarity is fundamental to written language acquisition. On the other hand, we are never too old to enjoy having someone read us a story. Magic Reader Classics are for anyone who might enjoy and benefit from them, from pre-textual toddlers, to active emerging readers, to English-language learners, to busy moms and dads.
Contextual Learning
We learn things more easily when they have context. For language, that context is narrative: stories, or sequences of words and events that make sense. Here is a simple sentence that tells a story: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." Here is the same set of words arranged in a way that makes no sense: "Fox lazy dog brown over quick the jumped the."
Imagine using the latter series of words to explain to someone what the words mean, or how to use them in speech or writing. It would be hard, because they don't bear any relation to one another! Learning phonics, the sounds of letters and letter combinations, is one important part of learning to read. The other important part is contextual learning, and that is what Magic Reader Classics are about.
Repetition
If you have ever read bedtime stories to a child, you know that children like to see and hear things again and again. This isn't because they can't remember what happened in the story they have heard a hundred times before. On the contrary, they remember amazingly well. This memory allows them to predict what's coming next—an incredibly satisfying experience, and an important part of the learning process.
For most kids, memorizing spelling words or being drilled with flash-cards is medium-fun at best. But "watching a movie" is always fun. We hope Magic Reader Classics will displace some of the electronic media kids already consume, and build a bridge to the world of books.
Commitment to Kids
We are committed to making Magic Reader Classics available to every kid, regardless of their parents' income or situation. Magic Reader Classics programs are free to classrooms and to any other groups focused on kids and learning. Selling files from our download center is how we fund our operations, and how we hope to finance the production of many more Magic Reader Classics titles. But if you or someone you care about can't afford to purchase our video files, or if you would like to try them out before purchase, please feel free to return to our download center and click the appropriate links to download them at no cost. They really are free, and won't "expire" or anything like that.
Magic Reader Classics on DVD
Right now Magic Reader Classics are only available in downloadable form, but we hope to announce DVD distribution soon.