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Hi kids—this is Reading Bear. Reading Bear is a project of WatchKnowLearn. We want to
teach you how to read—for free! We’re starting the website with these presentations,
which are each around 15 minutes long. About 35 more are planned. Let’s look at one.
There are seven different kinds of presentation. The different kinds are different “ways
in” to the same words. You should start with “Sound It Out Slowly”; once you can
say the words easily, switch to “Sound it Out Quickly,” and later, “Let Me Sound
It Out.” Use the Flashcards and the Sentences for quick practice. When you’re done learning
the words from a presentation, try a quiz. After you’ve learned five presentations,
try the review, which will be different each time you open it. Let’s look back at a presentation
and its features. In the longest kind of presentation, “Sound It Out Slowly,” we sound words
out at two speeds, so you get very used to the sounds of the words. “s – o – ng,
s – o – ng.” Then we put the letters together, and say it slowly. “song” Next,
we ask you to say the word. “What does this say?” Then we read the word at regular speed,
and illustrate it with a picture. “song, song” Finally, we show the word in a sentence,
a video, and the word by itself one last time. “A song has words called lyrics. A song
has words called lyrics. Song” Let’s stop and look at the sentence. You can click on
any word, and we sound it out and say it. “h – a – s, has.” Next, let’s talk
about getting around Reading Bear. You can get around a presentation with these buttons.
The “auto button” is on. This makes the presentation play like a video. But if you
turn it off, then you can arrow back and forth. For this, you can use the player’s buttons,
but you might want to use your keyboard’s left and right arrow keys. The “HD” button
is on by default. But if it’s taking too long to download a presentation, press the
button, and it will load faster. Now, up on top, you can control the presentation size.
Next, let’s look at Settings. Reach settings using the gear button, down here. If Reading
Bear is used with smaller children, you might want to check this box: “Always show video
of word spoken.” Here’s what you’ll see. “p – a – n, pan.” Checking “Enable
interludes” will play a little 15-second art and music video, just a little break to
help keep things fun. Turn these on if you like them. That’s most of the features.
It’s a good idea to make a free account. You don’t have to, but we recommend it.
By the way, if your account confirmation doesn’t arrive, check your spam folder. Once you’ve
logged in, you’ll get a handy “Choose For Me” button based on what you’ve done
so far, and you can see what percentage of the presentations you’ve mastered, and how
many you viewed. Checkmarks, stars, and numbers let you track how many times you viewed a
presentation, or parts of a presentation, and also whether you’ve mastered the words.
On your account page, there are other numbers and quiz results. One last thing. Before you
start using Reading Bear, you should learn the sounds of the letters, especially the
consonants. To help you with this, we have put together some videos in a WatchKnowLearn
“Classroom.” You can get to it by going to our Getting Started page, and click “How
to Get the Most from Reading Bear”--here’s the link. You’ll find a bunch of good videos
here. Well, that’s it. We hope you like the site. Reading Bear welcomes you to the
site and wishes you happy reading!