Critical Review on LearninPage

LearningPage.com

1. WHAT IS LEARNINGPAGE?
LearningPage is an online source which is reached by clicking on http://www.learningpage.com/. As it is clear from its name, it is a website for learning, and it includes some basic sheets, theme sheets, monthly sets, books, and clipart for the beginner learners, especially children, of English. It is possible to be member and sign up the website without paying for it, so everyone can get benefit from it. There is no need to download anything in order to use the website expect for Adobe Acrobat 4 or higher installed in order to use the PDF resources provided by learningpage.com.
Creators of the website are not directly mentioned; however, there is some information about them. As it is given in the website, the developers of LearningPage.com have been producing educational materials for major U.S. publishers since 1989, and LearningPage.com is among the family of Learning A–Z websites. As the creators of it described, LearningPage provides a huge collection of professionally produced instructional materials which the users can download and print, and lesson plans, books, worksheets, and much more can be found there. LearningPage is designed to provide free teaching resources for both learners and teachers.
2. HOW TO USE LEARNINGPAGE?
It is very easy to use this software. As it seen in the Figure 1, everything is categorized and clear on the page.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/menu_basics/alpha_zaner.html )
Figure 1: Categorization on the page


Basic sheets part includes some sheets related to alphabet, calendar, money, senses, time, measure, and numbers. (http://www.learningpage.com/pages/menu_basics/alpha_zaner.html )

Alphabet sheets are categorized into three as Zaner-Bloser, D’nealian, Cursive, so it is possible to reach much more types of sheets. All of the sheets can be downloaded as PDF because they are opened in this format. It is possible to download the sheets one by one are as a whole. In the Calendar part, there are twenty types of sheets including days, weeks, and months. The sheets under the title of Money are categorized into different subjects such as Pennies, Dimes, and Dollars etc. Senses, Time, and Measure parts include twenty types of sheets like Calendar part. In the Numbers part, there are twelve types of sheets to write the requested numbers on them as it is seen in the Figure 2.
Figure 2: Numbers- a sheet sample

In the Theme Sheets, Ocean, Zoo animals, Dinosaurs, Reptiles/Amphibians, Inspects/Spiders, and Space parts are included.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/menu_wkshts/fact_oceans.html )

Each of the parts consists of fact files, fun sheets, murals, cut outs, lesson plans, teaching notes, and recommended reading. Fun sheets and lesson plans are categorized according to the grades of the learners.
Monthly Fun Sheets part include a collaboration of monthly fun sheets sets, and only members can get benefit from this part.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/monthly_sets.html )
In the Books part, there are "Ewe Books" which are all downloadable. In printable version part, it is possible to see the version with pages in sequential order and “make your own book” version. There are 38 parts of teaching notes to supplement each story, 37 Worksheets with activities relating to each story, 37 and Fact Files for all the characters that appear in the story in addition to some Clip Arts and Cut Outs. There are also Spanish and color versions of some stories to read online.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/ewe_books/ewe_home.html )
Figure 3: Categorization on Books part

Lastly, Clipart part includes different selection of clipart. The images in the clipart are related to dinosaurs, oceans, zoo animals, insects/spiders, reptiles/amphibians, and Tommy Tales.
(http://www.learningpage.com/pages/member_home.html )
3. WHAT ABOUT LEARNINGPAGE?
LearningPage is pretty easy to use in terms of both the content and the general usage with computer because it does not require a newer computer or a high speed connection. The website does not include very complexly animated images, videos, or audio files, and there is no need to use a head set or webcam. The only thing required to download is Adobe Acrobat onto your computer if it does not exist.
Teachers can the most benefit from this website because there are many opportunities for them to use in their classroom. They can use worksheets in order to reinforce and practice what the students learn, and s/he does not to prepare worksheets for every subject they teach because the subjects of the worksheets are so various. By using theme sheets, teachers can sum up what they teach just on one page according to the subject and the theme sheets with pictures can be very attractive for the students. Like worksheets, the subjects of the theme sheets are various, so they can be very helpful for the teachers who teach different subjects. Monthly sets give the teachers a chance to reach a wide range of collection of old sheets which they can be use whenever they want, and they can adopt the sheets upon being more suitable for the students in order to design and prepare new sheets for every lesson. Books are also so beneficial because reading improve the students’ language performance and increase learning speed. The teachers can download the books from the books page of the website, and distribute them to the students in the class instead of buying new books. The books in the website looks are much more attractive from the books which are sold on the bookstores because the website provides not only the books but the teaching notes, worksheets, fact files, cut outs, and clip arts of them also, so the teachers can use the books actively in their lessons by the help of these extras which can increase the comprehensibility for the students. As there are many books in the website, it is possible for the teachers to have the students read much more books.
In addition to the teachers, the students can also get benefit from the website. When they want to practice what they have learnt, they can use this website in order to improve especially their vocabulary knowledge. They can download the thing they are interested in from the website, and they can print them. Moreover, they can choose the books they like from the list on the books part of the website, and they can enjoy themselves with the work sheets, fact files, cut outs, and clip arts after finishing their reading. Thanks to joyful worksheets, theme files, books, and clip arts, the students can improve their knowledge of English own their own.