Microsoft recently announced the launch of new digital reading tools that will help learners reach their full potential. We are excited to share an expanded literacy portfolio designed to address a diverse set of student needs, help close achievement gaps, and empower teachers as they support their students in achieving their goals.
The new Reading Coach experience in Microsoft Teams is a reading practice tool for students that automatically generates individualized exercises based on each student’s specific needs. It works to increase reading fluency—the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and meaningful expression. It also provides guidance on correct pronunciation and syllabification, shares visuals to help vocabulary recall, and positively reinforces students to help build their confidence as readers. Reading Coach, available this summer, comes built into Immersive Reader, our free reading tool that supports equitable education.
Microsoft also announced new updates to Reading Progress, the tool that helps educators create individualized reading fluency assignments with powerful insights easily used to inform instruction. Reading progress currently measures and identifies correctly read words per minute, accuracy rates, and challenging words, and the update will now also automatically detect prosody—the patterns of expression and intonation in a language. The updates also empower learners to work at their own pace in an encouraging environment while helping teachers provide just-in-time support. We’ll also be enabling teachers to see which phonics rules students are struggling with, providing more insights to help inform instruction. Guided by this data, educators will have the information they need to help ensure students’ emotional, social, and academic needs are being met.
With these updates, Microsoft is reinforcing its commitment to inclusive learning by providing real literacy solutions for students, teachers, and school administrators. Read more on the Microsoft Education Blog about how Microsoft is helping to accelerate reading fluency and creating accessible, individualized, and data-driven learning experiences.
