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Hi, Microsoft 365 Insiders! My name is Anoo Padte, and I’m a Principal Product Manager on the Education team. I’m excited to share all the ways Reading Coach can provide personalized, engaging, and consistent reading fluency practice for students this summer.

Gear up for summer reading with Reading Coach

Whether you’re a parent or an educator (or both!), you might be looking for ways to continue to support students’ reading development during the upcoming summer break. Recent studies highlight the importance of maintaining literacy skills throughout the summer to prevent learning loss. Reading Coach can assist with keeping students engaged and excited to learn!

Reading Coach is available in more than 80 languages, including 14 English dialects, and features one-of-a-kind, AI-generated stories, built-in accessibility support from Immersive Reader, and rewards that keep learners inspired and motivated. As learners read a story out aloud, speech-to-text artificial intelligence analyzes their reading fluency, detects words they find challenging, and records the readers’ accuracy, speed, and time spent reading. Reading Coach and Microsoft’s other reading tools were developed in collaboration with reading experts and are based on oral reading fluency research.   

How it works

1. Navigate to Reading Coach.


2. Select Start reading, then sign in with your personal Microsoft account as an individual learner at home or with your school Microsoft account.

Get tips for making the most of Reading Coach with our summer webinar

In June, we’ll be hosting two practical webinars for educators, parents, and guardians looking to champion readers of all ages, from elementary school students through to young adults. Each session will include:

• real stories from parents and educators who’ve seen Reading Coach transform reading time into a moment of growth and connection.


• a discussion around the importance of summer reading, and how to make it stick. 


• a lively panel of educators and librarians sharing tips for supporting ESL learners and struggling or dyslexic readers, bridging reading fluency with writing and critical thinking, and leveraging Reading Coach to nurture a love for literacy.

Choose a session

• June 3, 12–1 PM PT: Register here


• June 5, 12–1 PM PT: Register here

Scenarios to try 

Here are some other ways you can leverage Reading Coach this summer:

• Create AI-generated stories where you get to choose what happens in each chapter and chart your own reading journey through the story. Words you found challenging in the previous chapter are automatically included in the next chapter, making practice immediately adaptive.

• Choose fiction and non-fiction passages from a leveled library that supports reading through high school.


• Read in the accessible Immersive Reader that allows for customizing font, background, line spacing, and other formats to make reading more comfortable.


• Add your own content to read in over 80 different languages.


• Earn badges, chase reading streaks, unlock new characters and settings, trade characters and settings for a whole new collection, and see your progress over seven days, 30 days, or all-time in a progress dashboard.

• Educators can guide summer reading practice by sharing custom passages, setting time goals, and monitoring progress, or get familiar with Reading Coach by watching this tutorial video: https://aka.ms/readingcoachtutorial.

NOTE: AI-generated stories are moderated for content quality, safety, and age appropriateness following Microsoft’s Responsible AI guidelines.

Feedback 

We’d love to hear from you! Share feedback on your experience with Reading Coach at https://aka.ms/readingcoachfeedback.

Educators can join the Educator Community at https://aka.ms/readingcoach-educatorcommunity to share feedback and connect with other literacy educators.

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