Write your story in OneNote (or copy and paste your writing into OneNote from Word, Notes, etc.). At the top choose ‘View’ and then select ‘Immersive Reader’ to open the OneNote version of Immersive Reader.
Once in Immersive Reader hit the book icon in the right top right hand corner and toggle on ‘Reading Practice’. You will know it is on when the tab turns from white to green.
Once it’s switched on the green button at the bottle middle of the screen changes from a play icon to a microphone. You can use the ‘Edit’ button to change the voice and settings of Reading Coach.
When you’re ready to start hit the green microphone button and then ‘Allow’ the app access to your mic.
You will now see a screen asking if you are ready to read aloud. Choose ‘Start reading’.
When the green microphone button turns red the iPad is listening to you. Go ahead and read aloud. When you have finished press the red stop button.
You will see your reading report which gives information about your accuracy, the time you spent reading, the correct words per minute score and how many words you have to practice. Choose ‘Practice words’. (Teachers, you may wish to consider having children screenshot their reading report for both their own records and yours).
You’ll see all the words you have to practice. Tap on one to start.
When you are ready tap the green microphone and practice saying the word. If you have pronounced the word wrong you will be asked to try again, if you get it right it will move on to the next practice word.
Go to https://coach.microsoft.com/en-gb on your internet browser and click on ‘Get Started’.
Choose your account or click on ‘Use another account’ and add your Glow username and email to the Microsoft log in screen.
The Microsoft login page will take you through to the Glow login page where you confirm it is you by logging into Glow.
You’ll be automatically taken back to the Reading Coach home page. From here you are ready to start!
Decide what to read
Once you are on the Home Screen you will see three options to access text to read. You can create a story using AI, read a passage from the Microsoft Reading Coach library or you can add your own passage.
Learners can use this option to create custom stories to read using Artificial Intelligence. To get started choose ‘Create a story using AI’ and follow the instructions on the screens.
Begin by tapping to choose a character for your story. (Greyed out characters are unavailable until unlocked by reaching reading achievements and goals in Reading Coach).
Next select a setting for your story. (Greyed out settings are unavailable until unlocked by reaching reading achievements and goals in Reading Coach).
Finally, pick a level for your story. This influences the length and complexity of the text the AI creates. Teachers, there is more information on the levels at the end of this page.
All of your selections will show together on the final page, when you are ready, tap on ‘Create my story!’.
Your story will open in Immersive Reader. Tap on ‘Allow’ when asked about your microphone.
Choose ‘Start reading’ and wait for the countdown. You will know you are in reading mode when the green microphone icon turns red.
When you are finished reading, hit the red stop button.
You will see your reading report which gives information about your accuracy, the time you spent reading, the correct words per minute score and how many words you have to practice. Choose ‘Practice words’.
You’ll see all the words you have to practice. Tap on one to start.
When you are ready tap the green microphone and practice saying the word. If you have pronounced the word wrong you will be asked to try again, if you get it right it will move on to the next practice word.
Learners can use this option to read a pre prepared story from the library. Choose ‘Read a passage from our library’ to begin.
Pick a level for your story using the blue number buttons at the top of the page. This influences the length and complexity of the text. Teachers, there is more information on the levels at the end of this page. Swipe up or down to see more stories. Tap on the story you want to read.
Your story will open in Immersive Reader. Tap on ‘Allow’ when asked about your microphone.
Choose ‘Start reading’ and wait for the countdown. You will know you are in reading mode when the green microphone icon turns red. Continue with the Reading Coach process which has been outlined in the sections above!
Learners can use this option to read add their own passage, this might be something they’ve written themselves or might be passages copy and pasted from the internet. Choose ‘Add your own passage’ to begin.
Add a title and then in the box marked ‘passage’ type your own story or copy and paste text into this box. Once ready, choose ‘Next’.
Your passage will open in Immersive Reader. Tap on ‘Allow’ when asked about your microphone.
Choose ‘Start reading’ and wait for the countdown. You will know you are in reading mode when the green microphone icon turns red. Continue with the Reading Coach process which has been outlined in the sections above!
Levels 1-2 : For readers who know basic letter sounds and phonemes. Readers may benefit from an educator or parent reading these out to them. Lexile range: 110L – 480L.
Levels 3-4 : For readers in the early stages of independent reading. They are comfortable with basic vocabulary and sentence structures. Lexile range: 430L – 800L.
Levels 5-6 : For readers with a solid foundation in reading. They can comprehend more complex sentence structures and are expanding their vocabulary. Lexile range: 620L – 930L.
Levels 7-8 : For readers who can comprehend sophisticated text. They can understand abstract concepts, infer meaning beyond the literal text, and analyse characters and plot development. Lexile range: 930L – 1190L.
Reading Progress via Assignment in Teams
Best for teachers monitoring progress and gaining detailed insights.
For those who use Teams as a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and have a class Team, you can set Reading Progress activities as assignments. Reading Progress uses the same technology as Reading Coach and the user experience is identical. It allows learners to record the and submit their reading activity for feedback. What is different is that you as the teacher receive very detailed insights for each child.
To use Reading Progress via assignments in Teams follow the steps below.
Teacher Actions
Go to your class Team and navigate to the ‘assignments’ section. Click on ‘create’ then ‘Learning Accelerators’ and choose Reading Progress.
Once it loads you will be presented with three options:
Import Word of PDF allows you to access existing files or documents to be read.
Generate Reading Passage allows the teacher to create a new piece of text using AI.
Browse Sample Library allows you to choose an existing passage from the library.
First you will be presented with the options related specifically to the Reading Progress activity. You can set time limits, change the pronunciation sensitivity, toggle on or off video mode and more. Hit ‘Next’ in the top right hand corner to continue.
Next you will set the assignment details including title, instruction and date along with some other options. When you are ready, hit ‘Assign’ (You must provide a title at minimum to be able to ‘Assign’ the activity).
Go to the assignments section on your Class Team.
Tap on the assignment to open it.
Tap on the box with the passage title underneath ‘My Work’ to open the Reading Progress activity.
Check your microphone and camera settings (you may get a pop up asking you to allow these). When you’re ready, hit the ‘Let’s go!’ button.
The passage will launch. Read the passage out loud, remember to scroll down and read the whole thing. When you reach the end, hit the ‘I’m done’ button.
When you’re finished you’ll be shown your practice words. Tap on one to practice it. When you’re finished, hit the ‘I’m done’ button.
Remember to hand in your assignment by hitting the ‘Hand in’ button in the top right.
Teacher Analytics
Once a learner has hit ‘hand in’ you can see they have ‘Turned in’ their assignment under the status column. Click on the learner’s name to open the analytics pane.
In the ‘Accuracy’ tab in the analytics shows you the passage with different features related to accuracy such as omissions, mispronunciations and insertions detected from the recording.
In the ‘expression’ tab of the analytics you get information related to expression features.
You can add typed feedback in the right hand pane. When you hit ‘Return’ the pupil will see their report as well as the feedback. Teachers can adapt how much of the report the learner can see by selecting the ‘edit’ button next to ‘Return full report to student’.
