In the realm of personalized learning with AI, BOOKR aims to provide individualized instruction and feedback at scale, similar to human tutoring. This approach tailors educational experiences to students’ unique needs, preferences, and learning pace.

BOOKR has achieved notable milestones in AI-powered content creation, specifically AI-generated animated books. The AI technology employed by BOOKR effectively resolves the consistency issues often associated with AI-generated visuals. This ensures the delivery of curriculum-based stories with a harmonious artistic style. Furthermore, the AI has been trained to replicate the artistic style of senior illustrators, heralding the arrival of an AI-illustrated and animated story, marking a transformative moment in content creation.

BOOKR’s commitment extends to developing advanced AI models for educational and production workflows. These models serve as the foundation for the company’s personalized software, BOOKR Class, guaranteeing tailored and enriching learning experiences.

To augment the learning journey, BOOKR places a strong emphasis on real-time AI-powered feedback and assessment. This approach enables the measurement of student progress, identification of areas requiring improvement, and ongoing optimization of learning materials.

Moreover, BOOKR has introduced pioneering AI-driven features, including comprehension tests, AI-generated word lists, and storytelling-based chatbot games. These innovations further enhance learning and assessment, fostering structured learning, providing instantaneous feedback, and ensuring universal accessibility. Ultimately, BOOKR’s personalised approach to education aims to empower students and educators, marking a significant leap toward a brighter future in education.

With the introduction of these additional levels, our educational team aims to bring a new level of nuance and depth to the BOOKR Class Library, creating a more tailored and comprehensive learning journey for each and every student.

So, why the switch to 9 levels, and how will it benefit you as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher? Let’s delve into the advantages and possibilities that this expansion brings to the classroom.

During the past 2 years since BOOKR Class 2.0 came out, we have learnt and experienced a lot about the functioning of the library, the habits of our users and the teaching practices. 

To better nuance the BOOKR Class Library, our educational team decided to extend the currently available 6 levels to 9 levels, introducing new “transition levels”.

The target age group will remain 4-14, and the proficiency level from pre-beginner to intermediate (pre-A1 to B2), but with more nuance and transition between levels.

Why switch to 9 levels and how does it benefit your work as an EFL teacher? 

With 9 levels instead of 6, teachers can provide a more nuanced and differentiated learning experience for their students. Different students have different levels of proficiency and progress at different rates, so having more levels allows teachers to better tailor the content to each student’s needs and abilities.

By increasing the levels, the content can cover a wider range of language skills, such as vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. This can help students develop their English language skills in a more comprehensive and structured manner, building a solid foundation for their language development.

More levels provide teachers with greater flexibility in lesson planning. They can easily adjust the content and difficulty level based on their students’ progress and needs, allowing for a more adaptive and personalized approach to English language instruction.

Having more levels allows for more accurate assessment and monitoring of students’ progress. Teachers can easily track students’ performance across different levels, identify areas for improvement, and provide targeted feedback, which can support effective assessment and monitoring of student learning outcomes.

How should you image the CEFR levels aligning with BOOKR Class’s classification of levels? Here’s a cheat sheat, save it, copy it, print it and have it handy if needed. 

Levels one by one

Level 1 was created for young learners who are encountering the English language for the first time. It aims to familiarize learners with the target language and establish basic skills. Some of the Level 1 books are recommended for ages 0-8 and are tailored to young learners who may not yet have reading skills.

The books

The games

Level 2 is designed for beginner learners to get familiar and comfortable with the basics of the English.

The books

The games

Level 3 for beginner learners to improve their confidence with the basics of the English language. 

The books

The games

Level 4 is designed for beginner learners who seek to improve their language skills.

The books

The games

Level 5 is designed for pre-intermediate learners to expand their basic knowledge and improve their language skills

The books

The games

Level 6 is designed for pre-intermediate learners to venture beyond their immediate surroundings.

The books

The games

Level 7 for intermediate learners who want to confidently engage with topics beyond their immediate environment.

The books

The games

Level 8 is designed for intermediate learners to broaden their vocabulary and familiarity with different genres and registers of the language.

The books

The games

Level 9 is designed for upper-intermediate learners to dive deeper into various topics.

The books

The games

Bunnybear is a genuinely moving story about what it might feel like to be transgender, about identity, acceptance, friendship, and, more importantly, celebrating diversity. 

Later this month, as part of the Pride Month campaign, another three books will premiere, so stay tuned, they’re coming soon: 

A lovely story called Our Future discovers the topic of non-conventional life paths with an LGBTQ couple in the spotlight. The Story of Caenis reveals some exciting details of Greek mythology and the third title teaches students about the history of the rainbow flag and can be found as Rainbow People in the BOOKR Class Library application. 

Let us introduce you to some of the newly uploaded titles.

Gramedia is Indonesia’s largest and most complete online bookstore. Furthermore, the Gramedia Digital application is the biggest digital newsstand in Indonesia where any book lover can buy, download, and read more than 60,000 e-books from national and international publishers.

Exciting stories from exotic lands: Gramedia’s titles on culture and moral lessons truly enrich our collection, and we could not be more enthusiastic about having them in the BOOKR Class Library app.  

Do you remember Bob, the little dog who wants to be a detective when he grows up? In these ten new episodes he is busy solving mysteries with his sister and brothers: they find the thief in the village, they save the poor little foal and his parents. They even save some abandoned kittens in the forest. Of course, in these episodes they also have time for fun: they meet new friends at kindergarten, they organize a secret birthday party for their teacher Mr Paw, and they even make friends with a sweet little spider.

Mr Paw and Miss Daisy are kind kindergarten teachers, the puppies can always turn to them with questions. While Mr Paw teaches the puppies how to be brave and create, Miss Daisy’s empathy helps them through hard times.

Bob’s sister and brothers are curious little puppies too. They are ready to take part in adventures but safety first! They are there when a thief is in the village and they save the foal and the kittens. Rosy even helps Bob when he is ill! 

Diamond is Rosy’s best friend at kindergarten. On Rosy’s first day Diamond is the one who walks her around. When it’s about love: she is not afraid to ask Miss Daisy questions.

Jasper is a naughtly little puppy at kindergarten. His relationship with the others doesn’t start well: on Rosy’s first day he pulls her ear and runs away. Later it turns out that he had a reason. Otherwise, he is a sweet puppy with a good heart. 

We promise that Bob’s adventures will not end here, another ten episodes are coming soon. Who knows, they might grow up and go to school by then.

In the BOOKR Class English Library you will find form-focused as well as meaning-focused texts. What is the difference? 

Contrary to our meaning-focused stories, form-focused ones are usually written with a specific topic or vocabulary that best presents the grammatical structure in use. A great example is the present simple with daily routine or days of the week. 

In other cases, we rely more on the topic of the book, however as they are also created to teach a chosen vocabulary set, they also fall into the category of form-focused materials.

A variety of stories help the young learners become familiar with different grammar topics or lexis. Discover some of our newest form-focused titles:

Although stories are magic carpets that can fly us anywhere anytime, we also believe that sometimes it’s good to talk about our current situation and even call a spade a spade.

2020 was a little bit different for everyone because of lockdowns. What did the people watch? What did they read? Sam Bubbles conducts mini interviews to find out. 

The whole group and their teacher have come down with a bad illness. They cough, sneeze and some of them have fever too. Of course they stay at home so they cannot meet in person. What can they do instead? Well, the teacher has a great idea: she organises an online party for her students.

Nowadays it is more and more popular to socialise online, and some people hope to find the love of their lives there. What is it like to meet someone in person for the first time? Would the students feel excited, nervous or embarrassed? 

Catching a learner’s attention is an important objective when using storytelling in language teaching. Series tend to engage little ones more than a one episode story they allow more depth to the he characters, give space for growth and change. It’s exciting for students to see some of the same ‘faces’ again when learning with BOOKR Class, so don’t be afraid to exploit these English books by creating projects or group work around them. Learn more about some of the new additions to our series category and let your imagination run wild. 

Sherlyn and Johnny are teenagers in London and they get into adventures, mostly on The Tube. Hence their name, The Tube Detectives. They solve several problems with the help of their smartphones, GPS and other IT services, programs and devices. Do you know your gadgets well? If you’re interested in more, join Johnny. 

The series was created for Level 4 with a very strong focus on modals and vocabulary for modern technology.

Iryna, Mark and Mei go to the same school in Sacramento, California. They are good friends and with the new school year, these three musketeers grow into a funny group of five teenagers. The series follows two new students from the beginning of the school year until they all become good friends.

It was created for Level 3 with a strong focus on meaningful, functional language and the book prepares students for their first conversations in English. Exciting, isn’t it?

So many amazing stories to discover! Would you like to get full access to the BOOKR Class Library app for free? Request a 14 days trial now! 

The Education Alliance Finland evaluation process

EAF’s standard offers an academically sound approach to evaluating the strengths and development areas of a product through the assessment of three focus areas: learning goals, pedagogical approach, and usability.  An analysis using a contrary pair criterion determines how well the product supports learning of different skills.

The Evaluator uses the same slider to describe the best possible approach and gives a rate (0-100) on how adequate an approach the product offers. All diagnoses and ratings are carried out by two separate expert-evaluators. Skills are diagnosed through the criterion, evaluators discuss and form a concluding diagnosis from two separate evaluations.

The rating highlights the strengths and development areas, mirroring them with the educational needs and product development opportunities. After highlighting development areas, the analysis collates suggestions on how to improve the product. 

Beginning on the 1st of July, BOOKR Class implemented a new Lexile tool to help teachers identify students’ reading levels, so that they can assign the best books for them – narrowing options without limiting choices.

Lexile was developed by MetaMetrics®, an educational assessment and research company in Durham, North Carolina. The initial research for Lexiles was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The company identified a significant difference in how traditional readability formulas assess text difficulty compared to how words are actually read and comprehended by children at different ages and stages of development.

Lexiles represent what readers can comprehend based on their actual reading abilities rather than on arbitrary judgments about their grade-level or age. Lexile measures are not predicted probabilities of future reading performance, nor should they be viewed as limitations on what readers can learn.

Lexiles are always shown as a number followed by the letter “L.”The Lexile Frameworkis a developmental scale ranging from beginning learner measures below 0L (at most BR 400L) to above 1600L for advanced abilities. The higher the learner’s Lexile measure, the greater their ability to read  and comprehend text in English.

If the student’s measure or level (we recommend not to use the word ‘score’, so students get motivated to level up) is 150L, it means that the student is possibly capable of reading and understanding a text with a 150L measure. It doesn’t mean that the student will only be able to understand texts marked with 150L though. The Lexile measures shown for titles are approximations that reflect typical Lexile levels of students who will enjoy them most.

The BOOKR Class Library app is aligned with the Lexile Framework for Reading. In order to determine a student’s Lexile Measure, BOOKR Class app now features a free Lexile test for students as a placement test.

Upon first opening the library app, students have the option to fill out this Lexile assessment consisting of 30 short tasks that depict their level of English proficiency. Based on their score, the app will allocate them a corresponding BOOKR level. You can also find a note of the level in the Teacher’s Dashboard so you can use it as a guide for further assignments.

Placement test results are one of the factors that determine the book recommendations in the Library ( alongside interests and assigned books by the teachers) . Educators can also use Lexile® as a way to measure student progress because Lexile leveling gives an objective measure that can be repeated any time in the app.

Lexile Assessment is also a great tool for differentiation, as you can assign books with similar topics and vocabulary at different levels – a huge support for educators. 

We all know it is not always easy to find reading materials for students (especially language learners) that provide sufficient challenge to advance their reading skill development, but are also not so difficult that they discourage reading.

Starting with a student’s Lexile measure is a great tool for finding the Lexile of the book and forecasting the comprehension rate – see the example below –

 Lexile measures provide a scientific approach for matching students with ability-appropriate texts.

When a student measure and a book measure are the same, the match is estimated to be ideal for the learner. The target range that is suggested for a learner is 100L below the student measure and 50L above, so learners with 500L would probably be able to comprehend and enjoy a book measured between 400L and 550L.

If the Lexile measure of the student is much higher than that of the book, this might suggest that it will be too difficult for the learner. If the Lexile measure is much lower than that of the book, it might not help them further develop their reading ability or get bored while reading it. 

If you’re wondering how to find the Lexile level of a book, it’s a straightforward process in the BOOKR Class Library app. You can easily discover a book’s measure by navigating to the Books tab, where you have the option to filter and order the books by Lexile Measure.

This feature allows you to efficiently select books that align with your students’ individual Lexile Measures and assign them directly to the appropriate students.

By tailoring the reading materials to their specific levels, you can effectively support their reading skill development and ensure they are presented with engaging and suitable content.

The benefits of this system are numerous and include the ability to provide an accurate assessment based on what readers comprehend rather than relying on arbitrary judgments about grade-level or age. If you want your learners to have better access to quality materials at appropriate reading levels but don’t know where to start, contact us! We’ll be happy to walk you through how our app works and show you why using Lexiles makes it easier for educators like yourself.

Judges will now commence the final round of evaluation so keep your fingers crossed for us until the ELTons Innovation Awards ceremony, on Monday 4 October. 

Read about all of the finalists in the five different categories for this year’s awards.

BOOKR Class is coming out with a brand new visual representation and feature set that contains these early years of experimenting and observing. Plus the valuable experience of our users who have helped us improve our product every step of the way. However, I am getting ahead of myself. You can’t get a picture of where we’re heading unless you know where it all came from. Let us take you away and travel back to 2015 just for a second with us – to when it all began.

We believe that through reading many skills are developed that are necessary to lead a successful and fulfilling life such as reading comprehension, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, cognitive, social and emotional capabilities. 

Storytelling is common throughout all eras, cultures and backgrounds – it is a shared experience. Everyone can relate to stories, especially children.

Narratives are engaging, and can catch and hold attention, are immersive and memorable. Whether through books, pictures, music, multimedia, or the spoken word – storytelling is a crucial part of early childhood education and beyond. 

Even though we started as a digital publishing company, following research in 2018 we realized that we could dedicate this unique know-how we developed to education. The research showed that our interactive e-book format is capable of raising and holding attention long term, and those who were reading with the digital books even performed 20% better on the reading comprehension tests compared to learners who were reading printed books.

In the past 5 years our team has grown from 3 to 40 employees and today consists of international children literature experts, psychologists, ESL teachers, editors, writers, illustrators, animators, developers, and so on.

Many things have changed around BOOKR Class, and our ESL/EFL app but the main pillars will always stay the same: storytelling, high quality and a mission-driven team.

So what is new then? – you might ask. Let’s go through some of the major innovations that users have never seen before. 

We cherish quality over quantity: all our books are meticulously created by our team of English teachers, psychologists, illustrators and animators. We always choose to give the best quality and experience to users rather than have low quality books in the system to boost the numbers.

However, for this launch we have worked twice as hard to provide 1000+ content to our youngest readers – more than 300 exciting new stories that will captivate students.

A placement test is crucial to know which level is best for your child or student – if it’s too easy, they might get bored or not improve much, and on the other hand if the level of a book/exercise is too high, they can easily become discouraged.

What is a Lexile placement test?

When students first log in to the all, they can complete a test that depicts their level of English proficiency. Based on their score the app will place them to a corresponding BOOKR level. 

It is a great tool for differentiation, as you can assign books with similar topics and vocabulary at different levels – a huge support for educators. 

We are dedicated to helping teachers give that extra nudge to students to practice as much as possible and work on implementing gamification techniques into our Library App. Gamification is the use of game elements in applications that are not games. Our user experience experts have borrowed elements from games, such as coins and badges to motivate users by giving them small awards for their achievements – in our case, achievement is when a child finishes reading a book. 

There is one area that is a challenging one when it comes to learning a new language: pronunciation. As an exciting new feature, all the learning cards are supplemented with voice recognition so that the kids practice the pronunciation and receive instant feedback.

The Teacher’s Dashboard assists teachers in preparation, time optimization and differentiation with real-time reading statistics and book assignment. Via this platform teachers can track overall engagement, reading habits, assignment completion, level progression and language skill development.

Therefore they can understand their students’ performance and differentiate. In the new version, there is an even more detailed search engine and the opportunity to register all of your students with just one click that will save teachers even more time with administrative tasks and class preparation.

They can then spend more time doing what they are best at – educating the next generation of English readers. There will also be preview videos to further help teachers when selecting books, assessing how suitable the book is for students and the purpose of the class. What is more, in addition to the downloadable and printable Activity Tips and worksheets, the flashcard sets in the app are now printable from the new Teacher’s Dashboard.

Now children are free to add their own personality to the app by choosing an avatar for themselves, selecting their interests and marking their favourite books as well. This not only adds a more personal touch, but also allows our system to recommend books that a student is more likely to be interested in based on their interests and level of English. Then again, the ultimate benefit here is motivating children to learn and read more. 

Design plays an important role in the experience that children have while using an application – and has cognitive benefits as well. We have made BOOKR Class even brighter, more colourful and with a more dynamic, playful BO bunny who is there for children every step of the way: giving them feedback or navigating through the learning process. 

We need to be aware of environmental changes so we can stop and even reverse them. Raising awareness of these issues is crucial even at a very young age. We are responsible for raising an environmentally-conscious generation who reduces waste, recycles, reuses things and even upcycles. For this, we need to teach our kids the value of nature, good health, responsible behaviour and critical thinking.

Without these skills and knowledge they might not address ethical issues such as pollution or wildlife conservation which can cause serious damage to mother nature and the human race. By taking small measures to protect the environment, we can encourage a conscious lifestyle and leave a legacy of a healthy planet on which future generations can live. Who wouldn’t like to take part in such an important initiative?

Bob is a little dog who wants to be a detective when he grows up. One day, he smells something strange and decides to find out where the smell is coming from. In the story we follow Bob and his Dad, Tango, on their adventure. Even the Forest Police are involved! On their way to the crime scene they see that all forest plants and animals are being affected by illegal waste dumping. Will the team be able to uncover the identities of the criminals? Will they get their just deserts?

Bob wants to be a detective when he grows up. When he heard the lorry and smelled that strange smell, he immediately knew that something was up. He wants to save the forest and is determined to catch the criminals.

Tango is a great role model for his puppies. He is smart, brave and supports his precious puppies no matter what. He takes care of his family, is protective of their lives and wellbeing whilst allowing them to grow.

Lara is a wonderful, caring mother, who loves her family. She takes care of the puppies and supports them to achieve their goals. She is also worried when Bob and Tango leave to save the forest, but that’s what mothers are like!

Chief Cherlock is the captain of the Forest Police. He is a serious person! He likes to keep everything in order and environmental protection is very important to him.

Saddle Sam works part time at the Forest Police, and part-time at the Forest school. He teaches environmental protection and safety. He is also said to be the best detective in the forest.

Hacker Harry’s job at the Forest Police is to help to workflow and give hints to the people’s police. As the head of the forest IT group, he protects the forest by looking for clues on the Internet. Exciting! – internet safety.

Bunny Bella, Teddy Tom and Fox Franky are Saddle Sam’s students at the Forest School. They enjoy Mr. Saddle’s lessons about environmental protection and crime prevention. They are smart, brave and ready to help.