For educators
Read-aloud questions your classroom can use tomorrow.
Built by two former Philadelphia classroom teachers.
Read-aloud guides that work at home and at school. Storytime Guru is a companion app, not a digital reader: every book carries a read-aloud guide with the questions to ask as you go and the response written for the reader, so a read-aloud becomes a guided conversation.
- Built for every stage of emerging literacy, preschool through fourth grade. Like a 3-in-1 bike, it grows with the child.
- The emergent reader is read to. The early and independent reader is read a book above their level, or buddy-reads one at their own.
In the classroom
Visualize how read-alouds fit in your day.
Read-alouds build vocabulary, literacy skills, and background knowledge, and they are the natural place to model comprehension strategies. Most of all, they build a bond and a love of reading. Storytime Guru makes the planning part disappear.
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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 read-aloud 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 read-aloud question is built from a question frame aligned to the Common Core (CCSS) 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 Standard 3
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
Empower your families to read at home like never before.
While you are working your magic with 25 kids, families can work magic with their own children. 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 read-aloud 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.