Microsoft's Reading Coach is one of Microsoft's new ai teaching tools that Deirdre Quarnstrom, vice president of Education at Microsoft, is most excited about.
Designed to help new readers through the summer, Microsoft Reading Trainer Parents and teachers can access through Teams. Its features include the ability to generate a story on demand, train students on specific words they might struggle with, and provide assessments on each student's overall reading proficiency.
Quarnstrom says the tool is aimed at providing more personalized instruction to new readers. “We know that when students are more engaged in reading, the content is more personalized, and they spend more time, that becomes a predictor of reading outcomes,” she says.
Read on (no pun intended) to learn everything you need to know about Microsoft's Reading Coach.
What is Microsoft Reading Coach and how does it work?
As Microsoft’s new reading coach, Reading Coach uses cutting-edge generative ai technology to create a personalized reading experience for each student/user. Students can choose a character and setting for the story, and the reading level they want to read at. Reading Coach takes care of the rest.
“We generate a story using ai and then the student reads it, and we use our ai and machine learning algorithms to then provide an assessment of that reading to the students,” Quarnstrom says.
Using speech-to-text technology, the reading coach will evaluate the words the young reader reads aloud and then provide feedback on accuracy and speed. Students also have the opportunity to continue the story they started. “They can choose from a couple of different paths they could use to create the next passage,” Quarnstrom says.
Reading Coach works in conjunction with Immersive readerMicrosoft's reading tool that allows readers to choose font size and color, and can also read text to students, aiding accessibility in the process.
<h2 id="beyond-ai-what-are-some-educational-strategies-reading-coach-uses”>Beyond ai, what are some of the educational strategies Reading Coach uses?
Reading Coach incorporates gamification into the learning process to help enhance ai lessons and drive engagement.
“Students can unlock achievements,” Quarnstrom says. “This is something I learn from my experience with Xbox, Minecraft, and game-based learning: When you present a student with something that allows them to participate in the learning process, and when it’s more personalized, more engaging, they spend more time with it.”
How much does it cost?
“It's available for free with a Microsoft account or an Xbox account,” Quarnstrom says.
To get started using Reading Coach, go to coach.microsoft.com. Click the “start reading” button. Then sign in with your Microsoft account. If it is a personal account, you will have access; If you are using a school account, the school account administrator must enable Reading Coach.
What are some of the best features of Reading Coach?
Some of the ai-powered-reading-fluency-coach” target=”_blank” data-url=”https://insider.microsoft365.com/en-us/blog/introducing-reading-coach-your-ai-powered-reading-fluency-coach” referrerpolicy=”no-referrer-when-downgrade” data-hl-processed=”none”>Reading Coach Features Recommended by Microsoft include:
- Create ai-generated stories: Choose your path through story chapters, unlock characters and settings to create new stories.
- Choose fiction and nonfiction passages from a leveled library.
- Read in the fully accessible immersive reader that makes reading comfortable for all students.
- Get advice on challenging words
- Add your own content to read
- Earn badges and see your progress
But as with any ai tool, Quarnstrom emphasizes that Reading Coach is not intended to replace the teacher; Instead, all ai tools are designed with the idea that the teacher or parent has complete control.
“We are focused on empowering educators with these tools and seeing how we can help them save time, give them more time to use in the classroom and also improve their well-being,” he says.