Developing a Rubric for Evaluating Reading Applications for Learners With Reading Difficulties

Tablet devices, as assistive and instructional technologies, can be highly effectual pedagogical tools with multifaceted benefits, such as the ability to integrate multimedia and the ability to track student progress over time. The unique value of particular assistive and instructional technologies explains, in part, why they are more widely used to teach struggling learners, as well as learners in general who demonstrate a spectrum of strengths and weaknesses. Given the centrality of reading and the cultivation of attendant skills as a prerequisite for learning all subjects, assessing the quality of literacy-based applications for tablet use is important. No such evaluative tool currently exists, necessitating the creation of a systematic tool, for use by both parents and educators, to select appropriate applications for their children or students who are struggling readers. To address this need, this article distills the effective instructional components for reading and provides a comprehensive rubric for reading applications. Suggestions from practitioners informed this process and were also implemented to enhance the usability of the rubric for educational reading applications. Descriptions of each rubric item and examples based on the sample reading application are provided.