Keeping your online therapy sessions engaging can be a struggle. It can require creative strategies to address literacy through a camera. But fear not! There’s a treasure trove of FREE online literacy resources waiting to be discovered at your local library. Websites like Internet Archive also provide these resources. These free online literacy resources offer a vast array of materials to target various speech and language goals. This keeps your students motivated and learning actively.

Online Libraries – The Best Free Tool for Reading

Now, we all know that books are one of the greatest tools to grow our students’ language, right? We can reach pretty much any goal  with a well-planned literacy unit: articulation, fluency, auditory skills, comprehension, memory, critical thinking, inferencing, prediction, and story craft. Also, story grammar, figurative language, vocabulary, prefixes and suffixes, and even pragmatics. Try getting all that in one breath!

Have you ever considered the library as one of the best-kept secrets in the world of online teletherapy for accessing free online literacy resources? Believe it or not, your local library – especially if it’s a large metropolitan one – is a treasure trove of FREE online resources just waiting to be tapped into! The online resources available have exploded in the past couple of years. So, if you haven’t checked yours out lately, do so.

Picture this: your middle school students engrossed in graphic novel versions of classics like The Odyssey, Anne of Green Gables, or Sherlock Holmes. Or, your emerging language learners delighting in interactive stories.

Boost Engagement & Stretch Your Budget:

• Cost-Effective Magic: Budgets are tight! Online libraries provide a massive selection of resources at no cost. This allows you to create dynamic learning experiences without breaking the bank.  Often, libraries offer reciprocal memberships. This greatly expands your selection of free online literacy resources!
• Content for All Ages & Styles: From interactive stories for beginners to captivating graphic novels for middle schoolers. Online resources cater to diverse age groups and learning styles.

Highlighting Powerful Reading Sites for Teletherapy:

• Local Library Gems: Your local library’s online branch is a hidden gem! Explore their website to unearth a universe of resources waiting to be used in your sessions. Explore the website or talk to one of the librarians eager to get these resources into your hands.
  • There’s more than just print books waiting for you – there’s audiobooks, graphic novels, and easy-read versions of the classics.  These free online literacy resources are incredibly diverse.
• Interactive Storytelling with TumbleBooks: For younger learners, platforms like TumbleBooks offer a delightful world of interactive stories. These bring learning to life. This platform is often a free offering from your local library system. 
• YouTube Read-Alouds: Many engaging YouTube channels offer high-quality read-alouds of children’s books. Find stories that target your students’ specific interests and age groups to add variety to your sessions. For video playlists, check out my YouTube channel – Mrs. Speech!
• Dive into the Internet Archive: This vast digital library holds a wealth of books and learning materials. Explore their collection of ebooks, audiobooks, and even teacher resources like curriculum materials and literature notebooks from top publishers.
  • Need a ready-made literacy lesson?  IA has the Teacher’s Editions of many Literacy Textbooks!  Plus, my middle school students can’t get enough of the classic short stories. These include ones by Saki, Poe, Thurber, Twain, O’Henry, and more. There’s a reason they’ve stood the test of time!
• Try ESL sites like Voice of  America:  VOA has a multitude of famous American short stories that have been simplified.  And bonus, they have an audio version and supplemental materials as well!

Empower Your Students with a Free Bonus!

View my curated list of 85+ FREE resources from the Internet Archive, featuring a variety of short stories and adapted novel collections! This list gives you a head start on incorporating these valuable materials into your teletherapy sessions. FYI – Check out my Lesson Guides to some classic short stories on TPT: Ultimate Short Story Comprehensive Lesson Guides Bundle.

Visit my other posts on using short stories in therapy:

• Why, and How, I Started Using Short Stories in Therapy
• Unlock Student Engagement: The Magic of Short Stories in Middle School Speech Therapy
• Activity Magic: Short Stories for Multi-Goal Mastery in Speech Therapy

Update 12/24

I recently found the free internet browser Brave and have been using it the past couple of weeks.  It was simple to move my Google bookmarks into Brave, and I am using it solely for use with the kids. This streamlines my therapy sessions too.  I haven’t had a single YouTube ad. Also, I haven’t noticed other ads popping up on websites.  I will say that, while it does block the ad on a website, there is often still the space where the ad would be.  Often, a reader extension like ReadBee will remove those spaces and focus on the text.

Stay tuned for more insider tips and resources to level up your teletherapy game!

Happy Teletherapy,

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