For educators
Read-aloud questions your classroom can use tomorrow.
Built by two former Philadelphia classroom teachers.
Storytime Guru is a companion app, not a digital reader. Every book in the library carries a Reading Guide: questions to ask as you go, with the response written for the adult holding the app, so a read-aloud becomes a discussion. Built for children in preschool through fourth grade, it works whether a grown-up reads to the child or the child reads while you guide.
In the classroom
Where a Reading Guide fits in the day.
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Morning meeting and indoor recess
A read-aloud with the questions already prepared, whenever the day needs one.
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Turn-and-talk and study groups
The questions double as guided notes for partner and small-group discussion.
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Socratic seminar
Whole group or fishbowl, with one Reading Guide as the spine.
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Thematic units and literacy circles
Twelve themes group the library, so a unit can be assembled by idea.
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Close reading
Key Details and Interpret Words and Phrases anchor a second pass.
Question frames
Questions follow the standards.
Every Reading Guide question is built from a question frame aligned to the K-2 Reading Literature standards, in seven categories.
Central Idea Standard 2
What message, lesson, or moral does the author want the reader to take away?
Character Development Standard 3
How has [character] changed since the beginning of the story?
Character Relationships
How do the other characters make things better or worse for [character]?
Integrate Visual Information Standard 7
What do the illustrations tell us about [character] that the text does not?
Interpret Words and Phrases Standard 4
Why do you think the author chose the word [word] instead of a simpler one?
Analyze Point of View Standard 6
How do different characters see the same event differently?
Key Details Standards 1 and 2
What happens because [event]? What is the result?
Send it home
Reading that keeps going after school.
The way families use it grows with the child. At first a grown-up reads aloud and asks three or four questions; later the child reads the book to a grown-up or a peer and leads the discussion.
The Reading Guides are written for non-educators, so the families you send a book home with can support that reading without a teaching background.
The library is organized into twelve social-emotional themes, from identity and belonging to perseverance and courage, so a thematic unit starts with the shelf already sorted.
Classroom access
Bring Storytime Guru to your classroom.
Educators get access to the full app for their own use, with no purchase and no expiration.