CARS & STARS posters now come in a new A3 size for easy placement. These sets of three colourful, glossy posters highlight four main reading strategies featured in the CARS & STARS series on each.
Learning a Foreign Language to Understand English Better
Learning Music Can Help the Brain
Studies have shown that learning music might help children when it comes to improving their attention; enhancing working memory; and developing better organisation and planning skills. There’s also reason to believe children who learn an instrument might develop coping skills that help them to control their emotions and even reduce anxiety.
Targeted Instruction with CARS & STARS Online
CARS & STARS Online is built on the core belief that no student learns the same way or at the same pace, and this knowledge informs the whole program – making it one built on targeted instruction and differentiation as its central concept, rather than something added later to complement existing, more rigid instruction
The Benefits of Peer Instruction
Research consistently shows that student achievement benefits from some form of peer instruction. In peer instruction, in its purest form, instructors pose a challenging question to students, and students answer the question individually. But students then discuss their answers with a peer or group of peers before finally answering the question again.
Reading in Science, and Everywhere Else
One of the most important skills a scientist needs is the ability to read, and to read well. One study found that scientists and engineers spend over half of their working time reading, interpreting and producing text. This makes high levels of reading comprehension imperative to the continuation of science as a discipline, not to mention as a profession.
Support When You Need It
The program might be entirely digital and paper-free, but the support you get with CARS & STARS Online is very much grounded in the real world. At any stage of your journey with CARS & STARS Online – whether you’re a new or returning user, or just deciding whether you want to give us a go – our staff and resources are here to help you and support you and your students’ success.
CARS & STARS Online and Parents
The CARS & STARS Online program uses technology to open doors for parents that let them better understand the context of their child’s learning and have a more engaged role within it. CARS & STARS Online gives parents an instant overview of their child’s progress that they can access at any time and from anywhere.
Homework that Works
Strategies and Student Memory
With its research-proven, strategy-based approach to teaching reading comprehension at every level, CARS & STARS Online facilitates instruction that teaches the way the brain learns and remembers, increasing student awareness of textual features and concepts, and providing a direct and understandable pathway to improving the comprehension of every student.
CARS & STARS Online and Special Education
Students That Can Monitor Their Own Learning
We know that it’s easier for students to comprehend their progress in an area if they know what they need to accomplish and how they will be assessed, and CARS & STARS Online is built with this in mind. Students benefit by being able to monitor their own data, and can use that data to move forward – being both more engaged in and conscious of exactly how they’re learning.
Technology for Learning That Gets Out of the Way of Learning
CARS & STARS Online is a digital reading comprehension program based around the repeated application of twelve core reading strategies to make students better readers who can analyse and interpret any text at a high level of understanding. Results are instantly recorded and corrected automatically, requiring no teacher marking. It also removes the need for students to remember their workbooks or homework at school the next day.
Stickers and Posters for Rewards and Motivation
Rewards for student effort and achievements such as stickers can be an important form of motivation, particularly in the primary year levels. It’s also important that primary classrooms be engaging, with decorations that reinforce elements of instruction and repeat concepts. While CARS & STARS Online is a purely digital program, the rewards of reading don’t have to be, and Hawker Brownlow Digital now sells stickers and posters to reward, motivate and reinforce instruction in classrooms.
Saving Time with CARS & STARS Online
CARS & STARS Online is all about saving time. Its automatic marking feature removes the need for teachers to manually check student work, while its automatic reporting function generates useful data on student progress that can be used to target teaching or suggest further steps for instruction. Suggested Pacing Charts help teachers allocate the time needed to cover each element of the program as needed, and the new Question Timer feature allows teachers to see just how long students are spending on every point of instruction.
CARS & STARS Online at Home
English Language Learners and CARS & STARS Online
For the students and their teachers alike, English language learners (ELL, EAL/D, ESL students) can present a unique challenge. CARS & STARS Online is designed to be able to help improve the reading comprehension ability of every student, and contains several useful features as standard that can be particularly helpful to English language learners.
The Benefits of the Wealth of Student Data that CARS & STARS Provides
Having a better grasp of student achievements and progress, as well as difficulties and areas of concern, has always been the difference between being an informed and switched-on teacher and one who is “flying blind”. Better use of student data means more effectively being able to inform teaching and assessment decisions, in ways that can benefit both teachers and students.
Improve Reading Comprehension – While Complementing Any Curriculum
Idioms, Figurative Language and Reading Comprehension
The strategy of Interpreting Figurative Language in the CARS & STARS Online program sees students tackle abstract language and the idea of thinking about text that might say something different to what it actually really means. The variety of texts that students are exposed to throughout the program means students undertaking CARS and STARS Online will have a healthy grounding in all types of figurative language as they progress on their reading journey.
