StarrMatica has been awarded a USDA SBIR Phase I Grant to develop and research a software platform that houses customizable K-5 digital science informational texts.

One of the cornerstones of a quality education is the ability to read and comprehend informational texts.  School and career success depends on our ability to comprehend informational texts.  Yet, nearly 44 million American adults cannot extract a single piece of information when they read an informational text if background knowledge is required.  The results of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that nearly 2/3 of American fourth-graders can only read at or below a proficient level, and when examined further, researchers found that on the 2009 NAEP test, fourth-grade students scored worse on informational texts than on literary passages—with students eligible for free lunch scoring the worst on informational texts.  Because beginning readers are exposed to primarily literary texts, when students enter fourth grade and begin to read more content area informational texts, they have difficulty with comprehension. Comprehending informational texts requires a different set of strategies and skills than they have previously developed.

Knowing this research, the writers of the Common Core have asked teachers to spend 50% of their ELA instructional time with informational texts; however, teachers often don’t have enough informational text resources in their classrooms to meet this requirement.  Being former teachers, we saw this problem and wanted to help.

StarrMatica’s grant will fund the creation of a platform that houses K-5 science informational texts to meet the Next Generation Science Standards.  Teachers will have the ability to customize each text to teach specific text structures, print features, graphic aids, comprehension skills, and Common Core ELA standards at multiple Lexile reading levels.  These customization options will allow teachers to differentiate comprehension instruction to meet the needs of all students and to support a variety of instructional objectives.  The System will be designed to both teach and assess comprehension skills and will be tied to a classroom-management system that records student data.

StarrMatica’s Customizable Informational Text System is expected to 1) allow K-5 teachers to more easily integrate informational texts into their science instruction, 2) make it easier to customize those texts and the accompanying reading comprehension instruction for students with different learning needs, and 3) integrate Common Core-aligned ELA instruction with NGSS-aligned science instruction.

The prototype will be ready for testing in early January and the full product is expected to be ready in 2019.  If you would like more information about this project or to be included as one of the prototype test classrooms, please contact us!

Educators often try to compare StarrMatica to other software programs, but once they begin the comparison, they quickly discover it is difficult to compare apples to oranges.

StarrMatica’s library of online digital interactive content is the only resource of its kind.

Being the only online library of digital interactive content makes us unique.  Being a company founded and managed by educators makes us unique.  Having content designed by classroom educators makes us unique.  But what makes us truly original is the assistance only StarrMatica can provide for our fellow educators.

StarrMatica leaves teachers in control of content decisions.

While at first glance it may seem easier to have a computer program choose activities for students, research has shown that technology, specifically instructional software, has been proven most effective when integrated into classroom instruction by a teacher.  Students who experienced teacher-led standards-based instruction with technology showed higher overall gains than students who experienced the same curricula and technology in an isolated lab setting.  This is because teachers have the ability to match computer instruction with a child’s development, the curriculum sequence, and the needs of particular groups of students.  Teachers must be involved, “orchestrators” of technology, rather than quiet observers of students in learning isolation.

StarrMatica provides teachers with a wide variety of content to address every student need.

When students use individualized software programs, the program assigns activities. These activities are typically limited in number, can be skill and drill based, use the same strategies over and over, and offer little learner choice.  If computer selected interventions are not effective, then teachers are once again searching for alternate resources.

With StarrMatica, teachers are presented with up to fifty digital content resources for a concept, so instead of relying on a singularly focused activity, teachers can try several interventions until a student succeeds. In addition, choosing interventions from multiple activities with multiple strategies allows teachers to match interventions to a student’s learning style, interests, strengths, and weaknesses.  And StarrMatica isn’t just  multiple choice practice activities.  Our library incorporates manipulatives for concept exploration; problem solving activities for addressing higher order thinking skills; and instructional animations for introduction, review, or self-paced learning. StarrMatica addresses multiple needs with one easy-to-use library.

As a company founded by educators, we know that it is imperative that every investment you make be of great value.   Instead of being a singularly focused software program that is only used by individual students on computers, or only offers multiple choice test preparation, or only shows animated videos, StarrMatica’s content variety provides exponential value through its flexibility.

Your school has probably invested a lot of money in technology hardware.  StarrMatica was designed to help teachers make the most of every piece of technology in their classrooms including interactive whiteboards, projectors, interactive pads, response systems, computers, and tablets.  88% of teachers say that simply having access to more digital content would allow them to use technology more often.  StarrMatica’s library of content meets that need, so teachers can make the most of your technology investments.

Our library of content also allows teachers to choose resources that are tailored to every learning setting including whole-class, small group, centers, and individual students both at school and at home.

StarrMatica helps further with:

• a built-in individualized basic facts program that automatically adjusts practice based on a student’s performance.  Reporting features allow teachers and parents to monitor progress towards fact mastery, and teachers can even view data at the class level to diagnose the most missed facts.
• individual student progress accounts.  These accounts allow teachers and parents to monitor student progress so they can make immediate adjustments to intervention or enrichment plans.
• the ability to create and share collections of content.  This makes it easy for teachers to share individualized content with specific students and to save collections of favorites from year to year.

StarrMatica helps teachers integrate technology effectively with a personalized approach.

Research has shown that students whose teachers use technology effectively in the classroom have higher test scores than students whose teachers do not.

Simply providing teachers with a library of digital content doesn’t mean they will know how to use it effectively.  As teachers ourselves, we take the extra step to make sure that teachers are able to quickly locate content to meet individual student needs and are comfortable with integrating that content effectively into classroom instruction.

To accomplish this, we combine our library of content with a series of personalized professional development sessions, informational emails, and online support to assist every individual teacher.

Our assistance is tailored to the needs of each school by evaluating access to technology, teacher technology proficiency, and teacher and administration goals, so we can best help you move from where you are today to where you would like to be in the future.

So now you know the differences that make up StarrMatica’s secret sauce.  (I guess it’s not a secret anymore!)

Steve Couch loves to train children in good behaviors through music, videos and cartoons.

He has performed his “Be a School Superhero” Bully Prevention show and his “I Like to Read” show for thousands of children throughout the Midwest. He also has three Creative Child and Parents’ Choice award winning children’s albums: “The World is a Rainbow”, Dinosaur Rhythms” and “Stop, Think, Choose”; an elementary school counselor’s training manual; and his “Step Up” Bullying Prevention DVD – available on his children’s training website www.ethics4schools.com

Ever since high school he has been a comedian, musician and performer and strives to use those talents to teach young children about the importance of healthy habits like reading, exercise, sharing and friendship. In 2001, he created and managed an interactive online training and video department for the national OSHA safety training company American Safety Training, where he feel in love with researching how humans learn.

Now he helps StarrMatica create engaging songs that entertain while teaching. “We are entering a golden age of human leaning, and the importance of StarrMatica’s mission can not be overemphasized.” says Steve. “It is a great honor for me to be able to help such a fine company use the latest technology.”

Check out Steve’s songs in StarrMatica’s new K-2 Telling Time lesson!

Deanna Stoube loves challenging herself to create lessons that engage young learners in a story and teaches them a strategy/skill along the way.  When she was a classroom teacher she would use themes to create environments to support the lessons she would teach.  For example, in her last classroom, the school was building a new library just outside Deanna’s windows.  Instead of worrying about the distraction it might be for her class, Deanna turned construction into the theme for the year.  From Building a Story to Caution:  Falling Teeth her students were engaged in learning through their construction theme.

Deanna left her first grade classroom to become a teacher of future teachers.  During that time she had a future teacher in her class that would – years later – provide Deanna with an opportunity to return to her love of lesson writing.  That future teacher was StarrMatica’s CEO, Emily Starr.  In 2012 Emily asked Deanna if she’d be interested in developing K-2 Literacy lessons for StarrMatica.   Deanna jumped at the chance to once again challenge herself to create literacy lessons for young learners.  The added bonus of creating these lessons to be done online made the opportunity even more appealing.

It’s difficult for Deanna to pinpoint her favorite part of lesson writing.  She usually spends hours doodling ideas on legal pads and dreaming about possibilities.  Then it’s on to storyboarding how to make the lesson come alive.  Developing literacy lessons for StarrMatica has become a family project.  Deanna counts on her husband and three children to listen to her ideas and give their thoughts.  In fact, you’ll see Deanna’s children and their pets as characters in many of her lessons.

While Deanna loves the time she gets to spend working for StarrMatica, she continues in her role as a teacher of future teachers.  Helping future teachers of literacy see the opportunities they have available to them to enhance their teaching, brings her two professional loves together – teaching future teachers and developing lessons for StarrMatica.

In our Common Questions series, StarrMatica’s CEO, Emily Starr, answers some of the questions we are most commonly asked.

First of all, research supports teacher selected instructional materials.  While at first glance it may seem easier to have a computer program choose activities for students, research has shown that technology, specifically instructional software, has been proven most effective when integrated into classroom instruction by a teacher.  Students who experienced teacher-led standards-based instruction with technology showed higher overall gains than students who experienced the same curricula and technology in an isolated lab setting.  This is because teachers have the ability to match computer instruction with a child’s development, the curriculum sequence, and the needs of particular groups of students.

Secondly, when students use individualized software programs, and the program assigns activities, these activities are typically limited in number, are skill and drill based, use the same strategies over and over, and offer little learner choice.  If computer selected interventions are not effective, then teachers are once again searching for alternate resources.

With StarrMatica, teachers are presented with up to fifty digital content resources for a concept, so instead of relying on a singularly focused activity, teachers can try several interventions until a student succeeds. In addition, choosing interventions from multiple activities with multiple strategies allows teachers to match interventions to a student’s learning style, interests, strengths, and weaknesses.  A teacher knows that:

• John would like this activity because he has an interest in cars and this activity involves racing problems.
• Shoney is distracted by sounds, so I’m going to choose this soundless activity.
• Mason just completed two multiple choice worksheets and he guessed on every answer so I’m going to choose an activity where he has to think of an answer and type it in.
• Alex is a visual learner, so I am going to choose this learning animation that uses graphics to explain place value.
• Scott needs to work on his test taking strategies, so I am going to choose this multiple choice activity.
• Joaquin understands multi-digit multiplication problems using the grid method, so I am going to choose practice that allows him to use that strategy.

The bottom line is that teachers know their students best.  So, we strive to put the best digital content choices at the fingertips of teachers so they can choose what is best for their students.