2 Techy Tools That Help Students Catch Up, Keep Up, and Get Ahead – #RocknTheBoat


I study nuclear science

Ever wondered what tech tools are out there that can maximize learning as we enter the era of Artificial Intelligence? Worried about reading or math gaps as we continue post-covid? In every district I have taught in, for the most part, there is a short period in the schedule, daily or 4 days a week, where students can catch up on work or receive intervention. While that is always a great idea, the reality is much different. Effective use of that extra shorter class period for intervention or to help students keep up with their classwork can be very challenging.

I love my classes

One of the biggest issues with a study hall type/intervention class period or time slot during the day is the additional work added to teachers with little to no additional accountability for students. Introducing Microsoft’s (MS) Learning Accelerator tools for students, specifically, Reading Progress and Reading Coach within Microsoft Teams. Not a Microsoft school? No problem!  I’ll walk you through what the MS Learning Accelerators, Reading Progress and Reading Coach, can do to help students improve their reading, and how to use your school Google accounts to create free Microsoft 365 Education accounts to get started!

I got a crazy teacher

You can use Teams for Education from most web browsers or by downloading the application. To download the Teams for Education app on mobile or desktop, visit the Microsoft Teams web application. You and your students can sign in with your school email and password. Before you try this with students, contact your school’s IT administrator to make sure you have access or contact IT if you do not have access to Microsoft 365 Education or Microsoft Teams for Education. Schools in which teachers, administrators, or other staff members who have Windows computers, laptops, or tablets will already have Microsoft Accounts, which are most likely the school email accounts, set up. Sometimes all the IT person has to do is add your students to the product or web tool, so start there.

He wears dark glasses

Now, let’s get back to how the MS Learning Accelerators, Reading Progress and Reading Coach, can help us with those study hall/intervention times many schools have built into their daily schedule. Reading Progress and Reading Coach combined help students work independently on their reading fluency. Why is this important? Students who can read fluently have more available cognitive load capacity to comprehend the complexities of the text they are reading than students who are not skilled in reading fluency. In most districts, at least that I’m aware of in the United States, learning to read ends in the third grade. Generally, by the fourth grade, students are now reading to learn, whether they’re ready to do so or not. As a high school teacher, I am often frustrated with my inability to help students who are testing below grade level in reading (Microsoft).

Things are going great, and they’re only getting better

I teach students how to analyze what they read, not how to read, so I was thrilled when I learned about MS Reading Progress and Reading Coach. Then, when I found out that the amount of oral reading practice in high school is correlated with reading achievement gains more closely than the amount of in-class silent reading practice, I was hooked (Stallings, 1980). According to the National Research Council report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998), it states “Adequate progress in learning to read English (or, any alphabetic language) beyond the initial level depends on sufficient practice in reading to achieve fluency with different texts” (p. 223). This is how using Microsoft Teams with Reading Practice and Reading Coach can help us use those study hall/intervention periods during our daily or weekly schedule to help students without causing undue burden on teachers. Using AI, Reading Progress gives students and teachers valuable data on their reading fluency, and Reading Coach selects the top 5 words that the student struggled with while reading for some additional work on those words. Students can work independently, get immediate feedback, and the data is invaluable to teachers (Microsoft). Here’s how that works.

I’m doing alright, getting good grades

Once you have a class Team ready to go, or perhaps you already use MS Teams with students, create a practice assignment with Reading Progress through assignments. To do this, click on the Assignments channel (on the left), and then click Create button on the lower lefthand side. Click “New Assignment,” fill in a title and basic (or specific) directions, and then fill out the options on the right. Select the due date and time, the Team it is to be assigned to, which students get the assignment (this is where customizing for individual students is easy because Reading Progress practice assignments can be assigned to specific students or the whole class), point value, etc.

The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades

Now click the paper clip icon to “Attach” a file. At this point, you will see the Reading Progress option. Select it. You can use your own Word or PDF file or you also have the option to select a passage by browsing the sample library. If you’re using the sample library, select the grade level first, then you can choose by non-fiction or fiction, the Lexile level, and/or the word count.

I gotta wear shades

If you are uploading your own file, make sure you know what the reading level is because the level you enter here will be tracked in Insights, so consistency will provide more meaningful data. You will select the genre, decide how many attempts students will have for this practice, whether or not there is a time limit (Student performance will only be calculated for words read before the time limit), and what you want for the pronunciation sensitivity. To limit frustrations from your students (I recommend you try one yourself as a student), I suggest starting with the “less sensitive” option when you choose how sensitive the Auto-detect (preview) should be when listening and estimating errors. You can always manually edit errors for accuracy when looking at the report after students complete the practice, so you can reassure any student who is unhappy with their results at first.

Well I’m heavenly blessed and worldly wise

The last two things you must decide prior to completing the assignment are whether or not you want Reading Coach turned on, and whether or not you want to require the assignment to be completed as video or audio only. Reading Coach identifies students’ 5 most challenging words and provides support for independent practice. This is great for helping students work on their reading fluency independently. As for the video option, most of the time it is best to use it with this option turned on. I have had students with IEPs (Individual Education Plans) or other documentation that prevents them from being on camera or video for any reason, so in those instances, turning that off and using audio only is a great option. That’s it! Now the magic happens.

I’m a peeping-tom techie with x-ray eyes

If you are able, use the study hall/intervention time for Reading Progress practice. If your building uses a testing platform to gauge reading levels, students who are below their grade level in reading can work on 2 or more practices a week. A separate study hall or intervention is not necessary. However, if it is already set up that way, this gives the teacher data that can be used to help the students show improvement and eventually move back to a regular study hall class once they reach their grade level for reading fluency. Students and the teacher can access the data, track student goals, and prepare to see improvement. With the new Expression view, teachers can now see expressive and monotone reading, missed punctuation, excessive pausing, and more. When looking at the data provided for the student once they’ve completed the assigned practice, teachers also have the option of returning the full report, a simple report, or a customized report to the student.

Things are going great, and they’re only getting better

With this amount of data available, the ability to customize the reading practices for each student, and the independence that the AI-generated feedback facilitates, this is a game changer for students who always feel like they are behind their peers when it comes to reading. We owe it to our students to do our very best to help them be successful once they graduate, and Microsoft Reading Progress and Reading Coach are valuable free tools that can help us all do our very best for our students. If you have a study hall or intervention period already set up, give this a try. If you don’t, pitch the idea to your administration, and don’t forget to talk with your technology department. Stay tuned for the next post where I’ll show you the mind-blowing power of Microsoft’s Immersive Reader. For more ideas on how to use Microsoft Teams as a Google School, see my post on using it for blogging with students.

References

Microsoft Education Blog. (2023, June). Building reading foundational skills: A guide to reading progress and reading coach in Teams for educators. Retrieved July 30, 2023, from https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2023/06/building-reading-foundational-skills-a-guide-to-reading-progress-and-reading-coach-in-teams-for-educators.

Snow, C. E., Burns, S. M., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Stallings, J. A. (1980). Allocated academic learning time revisited, or beyond time on task. Educational Researcher 9 (11):11–16.

Subheadings are partial lyrics from Timbuk 3’s The Future’s So Bright, I gotta Wear Shades.



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