Success for Early Readers through the Magic of Stories
Bring research-backed methods to your ELA curriculum with award-winning, multilingual program for K-2 literacy.
- Reach every student, including ELLs, through engaging narratives
- Grow literacy skills by integrating stories with Science of Reading principles
- Measure and succeed with results — one story at a time
Discover interactive stories with multilingual scaffolds
Ideal for ELA, ELD, supplemental learning, afterschool, summer school, or tutoring.
Choose from 24 searchable themes covering science, social studies, and culture. All stories are leveled according to difficulty by Lexile®
Save time with printable resources for every storybook, wordbook, and letterbook
With StoryWorld, there’s almost no prep-time required. Every 30-min lesson is ready-to-go with companion printable activity sheets to extend learning off-screen and reinforce new literacy concepts and skills.
Reinforce new vocabulary through writing
Key words are emphasized to help students build confidence and master vocabulary.
Promote comprehension and reflection
Questions assure students fully comprehend the text. Exercises prompt students to reflect on the story and practice writing.
Build decoding and grammar skills
Students construct sentences from key vocabulary. Drawing activities support learning recall.
Develop creativity with original storytelling
Students are encouraged to think "beyond the text” as they outline, write, and illustrate their own related short story.
Engage all modalities: reading, listening, speaking, and writing
StoryWorld includes practice in all language domains to strengthen language proficiency and support a well-rounded approach to early literacy.
All student responses are recorded in our dashboard. These responses drive performance data and progress monitoring for immediate teacher review and scoring according to standards.
Throughout all activities, students collect motivating stars and points.
Reading
Students build reading skills by reading the story. Word-by-word highlights support reading fluency. Language scaffolds allow students to click any word to hear the pronunciation. ELL students can click the word again for translation.
After the story, students can practice reading the text aloud.
Listening
Students build listening skills by listening to the story narrated by a native speaker. This allows learners to absorb the natural cadence and richness of the language.
After the story, students are prompted to answer questions that measure their listening comprehension of the material.
Speaking
Students build oral proficiency through prompts that allow them to record their voices: retelling the story, reading a passage aloud, and responding orally to depth-of-knowledge questions.
When they are finished, they send their responses to the teacher for scoring according to standards.
Writing
Students build writing skills by responding to prompts online. These questions dig deeper into inference and opinion to ensure students fully comprehend the text.
Off-screen, print materials with each story reinforce comprehension and extend learning with creative expression.
Bring it all together by integrating stories with phonics
Rooted in the mastery of one story a week, our method follows Science of Reading principles to create an explicit, systematic, and content-rich approach to literacy development integrating all language modalities and phonics.
Gough and Tunmer, Simple View of Reading (1986.) Image inspired by Scarborough’s Reading Rope.
Get started with easy-to-implement 30-min lessons & plans
Rooted in the mastery of one story a week, our method follows Science of Reading principles to create an explicit, systematic, and content-rich approach to literacy development integrating all language modalities and phonics.
- Letterbooks build decoding skills
- Wordbooks build core vocabulary
- Storybooks build fluency and background knowledge
Each unit takes almost no prep time, with lesson plans to guide instruction every step of the way.
96 Weekly Units: Stories with Integrated Phonics
Units are designed for Pre-Readers, Emerging Readers, Reading Fluency
1 Storybook + 1 Letterbook + 1 Wordbook
6 Printable Activity Sheets with each E-book
5-day phonics lesson plans
Games support vocabulary and sentence construction
Keep students practicing with more than 1000 literacy games
- Games align with key literacy milestones, incorporating all letter-sounds, high frequency words and cover all Dolch and Fry words through 3rd grade).
- Whether its phonics, vocabulary, or constructing a sentence — every game matches sounds with words to combine language with literacy.
Why we’re different
The Learning Science behind StoryWorld:
Compelling narratives:
Stories light up our brains. They help children focus better, remember details more clearly, and understand concepts more deeply. (1)
Content-based learning:
Children are repeatedly exposed to new vocabulary in context, which promotes deeper understanding and retention.(2)
Captivating images:
Stories with engaging visuals help learners acquire knowledge and results in improved reading and writing. (3)
Audio supports:
Listening contributes strongly to phonological awareness (4)
StoryWorld works on all devices: laptops, tablets, and smart phones.
(1) Boulenger & Nazir, 2010; González et al., 2006; Farrell & Nessel, 1982; Maguire, 1985; Wright & Dunsmuir, 2019; (2) Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; Hirsch, 2003; Pearson & Tierney, 1984; Short & Echevarria, 2004; (3) Carney & Levin, 2002; Biemiller, 1999; (4) Garcia & Cain, 2014; Verhoeven & Van Leeuwe, 2008; Yaghoub, et al., 2012
Switch languages at any time
Language learners advance more quickly when they understand what the text is communicating. Using a simple language toggle at the top of every page, our stories allow ELLs to first listen and read the story in English, then listen and read in the home language for comprehension, then go back to listening and reading again in English.
Word-by-word translations
For most language learners, vocabulary is key to early success. All of our stories include word-by-word translations - in context. Learners can click the word to hear its pronunciation in English, than click again to hear and read the translation in their native language.
Individualized vocabulary “Words Clicked”
Every word clicked for help is presented in bilingual form – with audio – at the end of each story. All words are also displayed in the teacher dashborad for follow-up.
“StoryWorld was a reinforcement of everything we were working on in class: sequential language, retelling a story, asking further questions, reading the story out loud, and then writing about it.”
— Teacher participant in WestEd Research
30% increase in language proficiency in 4 weeks
ESL students at Fairview School district improved over 30% in overall English proficiency (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) in only 4 weeks.
*Signore, K (2022). Utilizing Technology to Increase Language Understanding for ELL students
StoryWorld works on any device connected to wifi: computers, chromebooks, tablets, & phones.
Versatile for whole class, small group, and independent learning
StoryWorld can be used effectively in a wide variety of learning environments—no individual devices needed.
- Whole-class instruction
- Small groups
- Independent learning
- Push-in and pull-out
- After-school tutoring
- At-home or remote learning
Educator-friendly dashboard reports progress for all modalities
Our Formative Evaluation Dashboard displays at-a-glance insights to keep you updated on student progress.
- Review progress in vocabulary, reading, listening, writing, and speaking.
- Identify students at risk of falling behind.
- Download printable reports so students or parents can stay up-to-date on progress and reading outcomes.
* Standards alignment include: CA-ELD/CA-CCSS; CCSS; ELPA21; NY-ELA; ACTFL: TEXAS-ELPS; WIDA. Any standards not listed are available upon request.
Professional learning with every school purchase
We include a virtual 60-minute introductory Professional Learning session with every school or district purchase. Each session covers:
- Overview of program and resources
- Sample lesson: integrating stories with phonics
- When and how to incorporate print materials
- How to assign stories
- Monitoring progress through the dashboard
Backed by Research
“StoryWorld motivates students to read."
Students experienced statistically significant gains in reading outcomes in less than one month. (WestEd)
Developed with support from the U.S. Department of Education
StoryWorld was developed with R&D funding from the U.S. Department of Education with 3-years of research provided by WestEd.
Supports independent learning
“Students using StoryWorld performed as well as those with a book and teacher support...the program allows students to learn independently in formal and informal settings.” (WestEd)
Encourages a love for reading
“Students demonstrated statistically significant increases in their motivation to read, Self-Concept as a Reader, and Value of Reading. Students eagerly read multiple books in a single session, going beyond the prescribed requirement of only one book.” (WestEd)
Highly rated by teachers
“Teachers articulated that the StoryWorld product would be a very useful tool in their classrooms and could be integrated into their curriculum.” (WestEd)
Our prices are very affordable with discounts for larger orders. Contact: sales@storyworld.us
Here's what every school subscription includes:
- Over 100 stories & wordbooks
- Over 1000 interactive literacy games
- 700 printable & interactive worksheets
- 64 interactive phonics books with audio
- In-app practice on speaking & writing
- Dashboard to track the progress of each child
*All online and downloadable resources are in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Selected bilingual ebooks include: Arabic, Bengali, Dari, Korean, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Ukrainian, Vietnamese. All languages are included in one subscription.
Educators, sign up for a free preview!
(Must be a verified teacher or educator at a school or district)
Parents, please click here
Everything you need for language and literacy—one story at a time.