7 literacy resources you need to try

There are so many competing literacy resources available – many free of charge, others for a monthly or annual fee – how do you know which one is right for your school’s needs? And, more importantly, when you’ve found a literacy resource that you like the look of, is it any good?

With over 150 positive reviews between them, here’s our latest round-up of 7 top-rated literacy resources (listed alphabetically) on EdTech Impact. For a complete list, with the ability to filter by age, impact and price, visit our full literacy resources list – updated every week.

---

Authorfy – Masterclasses with bestselling children’s authors

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.65/5 from 3 reviews

With Authorfy, teachers are able to better boost reading and writing for pleasure, improve literacy skills, and bring readers and writers closer together. By quickly creating an account, you’ll gain access to videos, writing challenges, book extracts and cross-curricular schemes of work to decrease planning time and add creativity to the curriculum.

“Great resource, well made and clearly thought through,” says Mrs B, a class teacher at Farfield Primary and Nursery School. “Really engaging for children and a wonderful way for pupils to hear from real authors without the cost of a school visit. The new 10 minute challenges are great for anyone at home who wants to carry on enjoying writing with a great variety of authors.”

---

GoRead – A new way to log reading

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.85/5 from 10 reviews

GoRead is a digital reading record used by teachers, pupils and parents alike to log reading, with pupils having a full reading record across their entire journey through school. Reading records can be analysed and used for adaptive teaching. The reading app, meanwhile, supports parents with a simple login and provides children with a range of digital rewards and challenges for reading a wide range of books.

“[As] the English Lead at my school, I am able to obtain reading data from each class myself without taking up the time of the class teachers,” remarks Studham CofE Village School deputy head Sarah Dryden. “It was very easy to set up and use, and Russell Newman was very helpful and responded quickly to queries or questions that I had. 

“It gives schools the opportunity to use reading at home data to inform planning and for assessment purposes. To do the same using a paper system would require a huge amount of effort and time.”

---

Literacy Planet – Thousands of engaging literacy games

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.8/5 from 5 reviews

Literacy Planet gives schools access to high-quality graphics, gamification, data and reporting along with easy to use tools for the classroom. What’s more, there’s plenty of content covering phonics, sight words, spelling, reading, comprehension, grammar and writing.

“Students not only learn their spellings but along with it enrich their vocabulary,” explains Hira Prasad, headmistress at Birla High School-Mukundapur, India. “To top it all teachers are able to align the course modules to Literacy Planet.

“Teachers were very grateful to Literacy Planet because it helped them a lot in virtual classrooms during these turbulent COVID times. [For] those teachers who were techno alien, modules of Literacy Planet enhanced their teaching efficiency seamlessly.”

---

Lyfta – Interactive documentary platform

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.5/5 from 31 reviews

For those seeking to teach literacy with a global perspective, Lyfta offers immersive storyworlds and curriculum-based lesson and assembly plans. Their theme-based learning experiences are ideal for teaching literacy, as well as PSHE, global citizenship and art. What’s more, it’s ideal for fostering values and skills such as empathy, self-direction and critical thinking.

“It is such a rich resource with such potential across all of the curriculum,” praises Emma McGuinness, Year 3 leader/teacher at North Walsham Junior School. “It is of use to schools regardless of demographic, and enables teachers to ensure that children see themselves as part of a global community, but also to develop as individuals.

“The impartial world views and quality of the people and subjects means that children are informed but free to reach their own conclusions, without really feeling that they are being ‘taught’. Children with low self-esteem and inability to contextualise the values we talk about are being given independent evidence through the world of others.”

---

Night Zookeeper – Writing tool, class blog, interactive lesson library

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.7/5 from 52 reviews

With Night Zookeeper, students are aided in their practice of grammar, spelling and composition skills via gamification and healthy competition. For teachers, the platform gives the ability to send unique lessons – to be completed either at school or at home – to students using the interactive lesson library.

“Not only would my wife and I recommend it to friends, we HAVE already!” exclaims teacher and parent Bill Gauthier. “Our daughter loves math and reading, but didn’t like writing as much. Night Zookeeper made her much more interested in the prospect of writing and explaining, and she does it better and better every day. 

“She loves making up the creatures and telling stories about them. As a result, she’s using her imagination more and learning the functions of punctuation and spelling.”

---

Pobble – Digital tools for improving writing

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.65/5 from 41 reviews

Supported by the DfE as a recipient of the Edtech Innovation Fund, Pobble is all about improving pupils’ speed, confidence and enjoyment of writing, all while reducing teacher workload. Users connect with a worldwide community to publish work, share lessons, engage in peer assessment and moderate writing assessment judgements.

“Pobble motivates children who strive to become published authors,” commends St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School headteacher Vinny Turner. “They are recognised and feel accomplishment when they are, and this has a knock-on effect with other children. The new developments in the platform are another added bonus for teachers who are able to use it to build lessons that are exciting and challenging for children, whilst reducing teachers’ workload.”

Renaissance Accelerated Reader – Read a book, take a quiz

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.7/5 from 19 reviews

Renaissance Learning’s intention for their Accelerated Reader resource is for students to be put in the driver’s seat of their literacy learning, while teachers guide them. Engaging quizzes and activities on the book that they just read help hone students’ reading skills with authentic practice, galvanising enthusiasm and encouraging growth.

“It is an excellent programme where children are able to have access to a large number of books to read which cover a range of genres,” observes Kay Naughton, senior teaching assistant at Lionel Walden Primary School. “They are quizzed by the programme which ensures they are understanding what they are reading. Also the use of technology helps to encourage the reluctant reader to have a go.”

---

Got a literacy resource you’d like to add? List it here!