"AisforApp bridged the GapThe overall aim of the A is for App project was to improve the literacy, and more specific the reading fluency, of struggling readers in primary schools throughout Europe. Its focus was to encourage the use of innovative teaching practices based on digital opportunities. A is for App supported primary school teachers to use diversified, ICT-based methodologies and reading-fluency apps in a classroom setting for the benefit of struggling readers. A is for App thereby bridged the gap between existing (academic) knowledge on effective methodologies for struggling readers, and the actual use of quality IT tools in the classroom. By exposing pupils with low reading fluency levels and their teachers to leading apps on tablets and by using testing results pre and post-test, this project not only explored new and more accessible methodologies, it also developed cutting edge e-reading tools for the future, based on real-life tests and user-input from teachers.A is for App’s specific objectives:(1) To define the typical characteristics of appropriate apps for reading fluency and to outline how to use these apps in a diversified approach to the advantage of struggling readers in the classroom.(2) To create hands-on tools with and for teachers allowing them to use this knowledge in their day-to-day inclusive teaching practice.(3) To raise awareness and to build an international community centred around the possibilities of literacy apps for struggling readers involving all relevant stakeholders, including app developers and policymakers.Target Groups:A is for App mainly targeted struggling readers in primary school and their teachers. Additional target groups were parents, national and European educational policymakers, teacher training colleges and in service trainers, literacy organisations, app developers and academic literacy experts.AisforApp outputs and results:A is for App developed several activities, resulting in 7 main intellectual outputs:1. A stakeholder engagement strategy report, used for dissemination by all partners throughout; 2. The design and release of an A is for App platform (www.aisforapp.eu) in three languages;3. App inventories and app evaluations for Flanders, the Netherlands and the UK; (see app selections per country in https://www.aisforapp.eu/teacher-toolkit) for App selection criteria, see the annex to the IT Literacy Framework, go to: https://www.aisforapp.eu/copy-of-resources;4. A teacher toolkit with hands-on tips for teachers on fluency apps and the use of apps in the classroom (in Czech, Dutch and English); https://www.aisforapp.eu/teacher-toolkit;5. A quality game-reading app in the Czech language, the first of its kind in the Czech Republic; go to: https://game.karaton.cz6. An IT literacy curriculum framework to guide schools wishing to improve their digital education for struggling readers (in three languages); see website, go to: https://www.aisforapp.eu/copy-of-resources;7. A final report for the dissemination of results; see tab ""results"" on website: https://www.aisforapp.eu/copy-of-toolkit-for-teachers.Conclusions and Recommendations:Bridging the gap between knowledge and practice, knowing good tools and knowing how to use them and the business of updating and tailoring what was already there in this fast changing digital world is a challenge that AisforApp is willing to continue taking. Our conclusions are that interventions are needed to aid reading, spelling and writing, including the use of educational technology. It important to keep designing and testing novel interventions via experimental methods. This means that: o Above school level, we need educational partnerships between software/app designers, schools and teachers, experts on literacy, parents and families, school districts.o At school level, implementation of IT interventions necessitates technological infrastructure, a monitoring system for student outcomes, professional support for teachers, the motivation of pupils, monitoring of intervention fidelity and evaluation of outcomes.o At school level, sustaining the use of IT necessitates an innovative school culture, an explicit reading policy including its practical implications.o At European level, there needs to be a transfer of knowledge between countries advanced in IT in schools, and countries only starting to go the IT route in education. Before AisforApp Czechia had no apps, now they have a quality game app that can be used country-wide. Jenny Thomson, (Sheffield University) to teachers: “We need you – our lofty ideas need to be adjusted, the on-the-ground-experience is vital. That way we start asking questions that we didn’t know to ask at the beginning.” Ella Duijnker, (Head Teacher Steigereiland Primary Montessori “AisforApp opened our awareness on how apps improve the learning environment in schools.”"