Program Benefits
Oral language fluency is a strong predictor of reading success, yet far too many children start school with oral language gaps that hinder later reading achievement.
Johnnie Max systematically builds oral language fluency with explicit instruction for nonfiction content to give children the literacy and content foundation needed for their academic success.
Johnnie Max supports all children and complete English / Spanish equity across all student components, teacher materials, and family resources also supports English learners, bilingual children, dual-language immersion students, and families.
Explore Components and Features:
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Build the Foundations of Early Literacy! Johnnie Max supports the development of the whole child.
Oral Language, Literacy, and Content Knowledge
Developing oral language and building content knowledge is at the heart of Johnnie Max.
- Explicit dialogic reading strategies for eBook read-alouds in Teacher and Home Guides align with the Science of Reading and support adult-led interactions critical for oral language development.
- Lesson content built around standards-aligned topics in science, math, and social studies builds content knowledge and academic vocabulary.
- Strong oral language skills plus deep content and academic knowledge prepare students to comprehend academic content fluently by Grade 3.
The Johnnie Max social-emotional learning content aligns to CASEL’s framework and is seamlessly integrated throughout components and supported in Teacher and Home Guides.
- Video lessons present explicit opportunities for social-emotional development.
- eBooks feature Social-Emotional Learning Conversation Starters to prompt adult-child interactions with multiple conversational turns.
- Relatable characters, Johnnie Max and Sarabella, model social-emotional development as they learn and grow, just as children do, in The Adventures of Johnnie Max read-aloud fiction series.
Social-Emotional Learning
Global Awareness
Global awareness in Johnnie Max develops through photographs of people, places, and animals from every continent on the planet.
- World maps in eBooks locate each photograph’s origin.
- In The Adventures of Johnnie Max read-alouds, early learners follow Johnnie Max and Sarabella, who discover and share the unique beauty of each continent.
Multi-disciplinary Content
Integrated Across All Lessons
Introduce
Videos
Introduce core concepts and build background
Each lesson begins with an engaging video that introduces concepts and vocabulary. The Teacher and Home Guides provide discussion support at key teachable moments. Children can watch these information-packed videos over and over in school or at home.
Teach
Interactive Nonfiction eBooks
The eBooks are the instructional core of the program. The content aligns to literacy, science, math, and social studies standards and builds the foundations of digital navigational skills.
Designed to be used for whole class instruction, in small groups, and by individual students and their caregivers. ALL text is supported with audio.
- Explore academic concepts with standards-aligned nonfiction content
- Engage dialogic reading to develop oral language and vocabulary skills
- Advance English learners with strong text-to-picture support
Multi-disciplinary Content in Three Book Types
Label Books
Concept Books
Sentence Books
Assess
Vocabulary Games
Assess lesson content vocabulary with fun, interactive games that provide useful insights into children’s progress with automatically-generated reports.
Deepen Engagement
Fiction Read-Alouds
In the charming stories of The Adventures of Johnnie Max, the relatable characters, Johnnie Max and Sarabella, engage children in global exploration and teachable moments of social emotional learning.
Extend Learning
Hands-On Activity Videos
Actual teachers model hands-on activities related to each lesson for extended learning fun in class or at-home!
Learner Management
Assessment and Reporting
Easily track learner progress with Benchmark, Ongoing, and Summative Assessments.
- Oral language assessments provide benchmarks for literacy growth during the year.
- Automatically-generated reports track student activity and progress with ongoing assessment checks in each eBook.
Communication
School-Home Connection App
Easy communication for teachers and families!
The Johnnie Max Communication App comes free with the program and provides a direct line of communication between school and home. Available in iOS and Android.
Allison Shelley for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action
Additional Resources
Teacher and Home Guides
Phonological Awareness Activities
Animal Alphabet Book Activities
Animal Alphabet Writing and Coloring Book
Content and Academic Vocabulary Lists
Outdoor Adventures
Technology Integrations
Seamless rostering support, including OneRostering
SSO with ClassLink, Clever, Canvas, Schoology, Microsoft, and Google
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Our mission is to build the foundation of early literacy, empower child-driven learning, and expand children’s worldview with equitable and safe digital access for all young learners and their families.