| Overview | How it Works | Reporting | Q & A | Demo |
Achieve Reading Proficiency with Reading Assistant – Reading Coach Technology
Reading Assistant Expanded Edition software combines advanced speech verification technology with scientifically-based interventions to help students strengthen their reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Reading Assistant acts as a patient, non-judgmental listener for emerging, struggling or self-conscious readers. Teachers receive assessment reports and can listen to audio samples of their students as if they had been sitting next to their students, listening.
Students will:
- Preview and read silently
- Listen to a model reading of the text
- Answer guided reading questions
Using research-validated speech verification technology, Reading Assistant "listens" to a student as he or she reads aloud. Monitoring for signs of difficulty, the program intervenes with assistance when the student is challenged by a word. Students re-read passages several times to build automaticity. Students are assessed to determine their level of comprehension by skill.
The software maintains careful performance records and the corresponding audio of each reading session for review by student and teacher. The program computes the students Words Correct Per Minute automatically.
Reading Content
Each grade band collection contains highly-illustrated selections grouped in topical clusters, many with a science or social studies theme. This organization helps students build a body of knowledge and also read common vocabulary in different contexts.
- Reading Assistant Grade Band K-3
- Reading Assistant Grade Band 4-5
- Reading Assistant Grade Band 6-8
- Reading Assistant Grade Band 9-12
Reading Assistant Web Enabled Version 4.1.2
- Students preview and read the text silently
- Students listen to a model reading of the text
- Students answer guided reading questions using reading strategies to scaffold to comprehension.
- Using research-validated speech verification technology, Reading Assistant "listens" to a student as he or she reads aloud.
- Monitoring for signs of difficulty, the program intervenes with assistance when the student is challenged by a word.
- Students re-read passage several times to build automaticity
- Students are assessed to determine their level of comprehension by skill.
- The software maintains careful performance records and the corresponding audio of each reading session for review by student and teacher.
- The program computes the students Words Correct Per Minute automatically
The Reading Assistant Expanded Edition for grade band K-3 contains selections that relate to young reader’s interests and experiences while building world knowledge and vocabulary. Drawn from authentic contemporary, classic, and multicultural literature, the selections include a variety of genre, from rhymes and predictable fiction to nonfiction.
The Reading Assistant Expanded Edition for grade band 4-5 contains selections that relate to the independence and broadening interests of upper elementary students. Drawn from authentic contemporary, classic, and multicultural literature, Clusters include a variety of genre—fiction, historical fiction, jokes, poetry, folktales, and biography—and range in reading level from Grade 1 to Grade 5.
The Reading Assistant Expanded Edition for Grades 6-8 contains selections that relate to middle schoolers' interests as well as topics from science, social studies, and literature standards. Drawn from authentic contemporary, classic, and multicultural literature,\ clusters include a variety of genre—fiction, personal narratives, jokes, poetry, eyewitness accounts and journals, expository nonfiction, and biography—and range in reading level from Grade 2 to Grade 5.
The Reading Assistant Expanded Edition for Grades 9-12 contains selections that relate to adolescents’ interests as well as topics from science, social studies, and literature standards. Drawn from authentic contemporary, classic, and multicultural literature, clusters include a variety of genre—fiction, personal narratives, jokes, poetry, eyewitness accounts and journals, expository nonfiction, and biography—and range in reading level from Grade 3 to Grade 12.
Reading content is available in two collections to meet the needs of students in grades 1-11:
- Reading Assistant Curriculum Levels 1-5 (692K PDF)
Reading Assistant Curriculum Levels 1-5 contains a collection of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry selections from Carus Publishing™ for reading levels 1-5. It also includes historical fiction & non-fiction chapter books from Lerner Publishing™.
- Reading Assistant Curriculum Levels 5-11 (732K PDF)
Reading Assistant Curriculum Levels 5-11 was designed specifically to improve content-area reading and learning among upper elementary, adolescent, and adult students. It includes authentic nonfiction selections chosen to address core topics in the National Science and Social Studies frameworks. The passages have been selected to range in difficulty from fifth through eleventh grade reading levels.
Students preview and read the text silently, including listening to a model reading. After answering guided reading questions, students read the text aloud and take a quiz.
Reading Assistant guides students through a comprehensive instructional sequence to maximize fluency, vocabulary and comprehension growth. Students are automatically assigned content at the appropriate reading level. Once assigned, the student will progress through increasingly difficult content.
Each selection has been carefully evaluated for readability. Selections are leveled using the Lexile Framework for Reading® readability as well as Guided Reading and grade equivalent.
Once content is assigned, the student will follow a prescribed learning path to maximize learning:
Preview and Read Silently
- Students are expected to read the selection silently, preview vocabulary through the interactive glossary tool and listen to a model reading. Read more about the interactive glossary tool.
- Students must answer guided reading questions that scaffold their comprehension. Read more about guided reading questions.
- Read more about Preview and Read Silently
Record My Reading
- Students record their reading
- Each selection is comprised of between 1 and 5 selection parts
- Each part is designed to be read orally in between 2 and 3 minutes. This is the optimal time for students to read aloud.
- Student re-read each selection part at least twice.
- Read More about Record My Reading
Take the Quiz
- Quiz questions focus on comprehension skills and assess overall understanding of the complete selection including level of thinking.
- Read more about Take the Quiz
Reading Assistant Web Enabled Version 4.1.2
The interactive glossary tool builds vocabulary in the context of the selection. Words that are critical to the meaning of the selection are defined. Glossary definitions include:
- Correct pronunciation, definition and contextual sentence
- Picture clue - Strong visuals to motivate learners.
- Spanish translation of academic vocabulary builds a bridge from Spanish to English definition
- “Did You Know?” adds depth to the vocabulary:
- Builds connections to other uses or contexts for the word
- Presents fun facts about the word
- Includes idioms and other expressions
- Reinforces cognate transfers from Spanish
- Highlights Greek and Latin roots to deepen understanding
Reading Assistant supports the development of comprehension skills. Guided reading questions support reading strategy development and scaffold student understanding:
- Each selection contains a minimum of 1 guided reading question per selection and a maximum of 10.
- Guided reading questions use reading strategies to build comprehension skills including: using prior knowledge, identifying a reading purpose, prediction, making connections, visualization, monitoring and clarifying, retelling, summarizing, using context clues for meaning, think alouds that spur students to make connections and build mental models, asking questions.
- If a student does not answer the guided reading question correctly on the first attempt the student will be prompted with hints guiding them using reading strategies.
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- The program fluently models the correct pronunciation, inflection and prosody of the text.
- The interactive glossary builds a vocabulary base in the context of the story including:
- Spanish translation builds a bridge from Spanish to English definitions
- Did You Know? Adds many layers of depth to the vocabulary including:
- Greek and Latin roots
- Fun facts
- Spanish cognate transfers
- Other uses and contexts
- Guided reading questions:
- Designed to support reading strategy development
- Include think alouds that spur students to make connections and build mental models
- Scaffold student understanding
Students read into a microphone headset. As the students read, the software:
- Provides immediate feedback from a supportive listener
- Lets students listen to their own reading to recognize trouble words and compare their reading to that modeled by a fluent reader
Reading aloud with help helps build fluency through repeated readings of the passage. The software highlights the words that the student needs to practice.
- Take the Quiz is designed to assess comprehension for the entire selection.
- Quizzes assess the comprehension skills of inference, sequence, story events, theme, character traits, figurative language, important information, compare and contrast, author’s point of view, fact and opinion, diagrams, charts and graphs, cause and effect and main idea.
- The comprehension quiz also assesses student’s level of thinking in the following dimensions: literal, inferential, evaluation and analysis.
Students listen to a model fluent reading of the passage, preview vocabulary, and read the passage orally. After reading, students, review problematic words they did not understand, and playback their reading.
Reading Assistant guides students through a comprehensive instructional sequence to maximize fluency, vocabulary and comprehension growth. Quizzes assess comprehension.
Readers are encouraged to re-visit unfamiliar text and re-read selections to build fluency and master each selection.
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Reading Assistant software provides reporting features to help educators continuously monitor student progress, customize instruction, and motivate students.
Progress Tracker™ Reporting for Reading Assistant
Reading Assistant aggregates student data centrally, providing analysis at the district, school, grade, class or student level. Reports enable educators to predict performance and benchmark student progress against national norms.
Fluency Report - measures fluency in words correct per minute for individual readings.
Trend Line Report - analyzes student fluency performance over time, and predicts future performance
Session Detail Report - listen to student recordings with color coding for errors
Comprehension skills and strategies report
Pinpoint student learning needs with in-depth reports on comprehension skills and strategies as well as level of thinking.
Participant Progress by Selection
Examine student performance for each selection with comprehensive reports on fluency, usage and comprehension.
Who should use Reading Assistant?
Reading Assistant is designed to be used by any student who has attained basic word recognition and decoding skills and is now building his/her vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. This includes students as young as first grade, all the way up to adults.
Reading Assistant has solutions designed to implement with Response to Intervention programs for all student tiers.
How does Reading Assistant support vocabulary?
Reading Assistant helps students learn and retain vocabulary word meanings by providing:
- Audible syllabification
- Dictionary definition
- Contextual sentence
- Picture representation in most instances
- Spanish translation
- Did You Know ? includes background knowledge about the word, Latin and Greek roots of the word, other meanings or uses of the word, cognate transfers from Spanish and other languages as well as fun facts to deepen vocabulary acquisition.
How does Reading Assistant build fluency?
Reading fluency is the ability to read with sufficient ease and accuracy that one can focus attention on the meaning and message of the text.
Reading Assistant builds fluency by providing:
- Oral reading practice
- Supportive reading intervention: the program intervenes with a pronunciation of the word only when the student needs it.
- Repeated reading: students read each passage a minimum of 2 times.
- Review words: words the student needs to practice are highlighted.
- Feedback on fluency (words correct per minute)
How does Reading Assistant foster Reading Comprehension?
Reading Assistant ensures reading comprehension by providing:
- Most selections contain several guided reading questions.
- Guided reading questions use reading strategies to build comprehension skills including: using prior knowledge, identifying a reading purpose, prediction, making connections, visualization, monitoring and clarifying, retelling, summarizing, using context clues for meaning, asking questions.
- If a student does not answer the guided reading question correctly on the first attempt he/she will be prompted with hints guiding them with reading strategies.
- Take the Quiz is designed to assess comprehension for the entire selection.
- Quizzes assess the comprehension skills of inference, sequence, story events, theme, character traits, figurative language, important information, compare and contrast, author’s point of view, fact and opinion, diagrams, charts and graphs, cause and effect and main idea.
- The comprehension quiz also assesses student’s level of thinking in the following dimensions: literal, inferential, evaluation and analysis.
Is Reading Assistant research-based?
Yes. According to the report of the National Reading Panel, "classroom practices that encourage repeated oral reading with feedback and guidance leads to meaningful improvements in reading expertise for students—for good readers as well as those who are experiencing difficulty." With Reading Assistant, the computer becomes the supportive listener that ensures all students can regularly practice oral reading while receiving immediate, individual feedback from Scientific Learning's advanced speech verification software.
Is Reading Assistant research validated?
Yes. The impact of Reading Assistant on fluency growth was evaluated with mainstream students in Grades 2-5. Half of the classrooms in two schools used the software in thirty-minute sessions, once or twice a week over 17 weeks. Across all four grades, fluency gains were significantly greater for students who used the software than those who did not, averaging 43% (E.S.=0.91) greater than normative expectations over grades. Project sponsored by the Carlisle Foundation and NICHD.
What data are collected about the students’ work?
Scientific Learning’s Progress Tracker reporting engine includes detailed tracking of the student’s performance using Reading Assistant.
How much time does it take for my students to learn how to use the software?
While students of all ages independently use the software after just a few sessions, we recommend direct observation of student sessions as well as regular monitoring of the reports to keep students on task and using their time wisely.
How often should students use Reading Assistant?
Our recommended protocol is :
K-3 – a minimum of 20 minutes 3 days per week
4-5 – a minimum of 30 minutes 3 days per week
6-8 - a minimum of 40 minutes 3 days per week
9-12 – a minimum of 40 minutes 3 days per week
Where did the reading selections come from?
Many of the Reading Assistant texts were originally published in one of the Carus™ family of magazines or by Lerner Publishing™. These Carus magazines include: Appleseeds™, Ladybug™, Spider™, Click!™, Cricket™, Odyssey™, Cobblestone™, Calliope™, and Faces™. Many of the content selections were drawn from famous authors including Guy De Maupassant and O’Henry. Many more selections were written by great children’s authors.
How do students get placed in Reading Assistant?
The easiest placement option is to administer SLC’s Reading Progress Indicator. The RPI reading level will be used to place the student automatically at the appropriate content level.
If the school already established the student’s reading level, the teacher can use the reading level to place the student manually in the content.
Gateway provides for assignments based on Guided Reading level (D through Z) , Grade level Equivalent and the Lexile Framework for Reading®
The teacher can also assign content to the student based on content topics/interest.
How is the new Reading Assistant Expanded Edition content structured?
Our new Reading Assistant Expanded Edition content is structured to build knowledge and reading skills simultaneously. Each grade band is designed to cover topics that are relevant to the national content standards in that grade band. Each grade band of content contains topics at struggling through on level reading levels.
| Grade Band | K-3 | 4-5 | 6-8 | 9-12 |
| Reading Level | 1-3 | 1-5 | 2-8 | 3-adult |
Each topic within a grade band is designed to introduce vocabulary relevant to the topic standard and allow for multiple exposure of the new vocabulary in different contexts. Some selections provide background knowledge or extend the ideas of another selection or present the same set of ideas but in different contexts or from different points of view. Many of the selections include content from science, social studies, or literature standards for the grade band.
For example, in our grade band 6-8, our topic on the Grand Canyon contains the following selections:
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G4 Mid |
The Grand Canyon | Earth Science: Geography and geology | These selections present history, geology, geography, and mathematics against the backdrop of the Grand Canyon’s vastness and beauty. |
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The Grand Canyon | Expository Nonfiction | Nonfiction; geology, beauty of Canyon |
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John Wesley Powell: American Explorer | Biography | Biography of J.W. Powell, 1st geologist to explore Canyon |
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John Powell's Grand Canyon | Journal | Authentic journal excerpts from J. W. Powell |
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Grand Canyon Math | Nonfiction | Nonfiction, math: Understanding Canyon statistics |
See how the topic of the Grand Canyon is explored from different perspectives and how relevant and important academic content is taught throughout the selections.
What genres are covered in the Reading Assistant Expanded Edition?
- Predictable text
- Realistic fiction
- Historical fiction
- Science fiction
- Poetry
- Folktale, myth, legend
- Expository nonfiction
- Biography
- Play
- Speech
- Jokes
- Short Story
- Point-counterpoint
- Personal Narrative
- Journal; eye-witness account
What do the quiz questions assess?
The comprehension questions are designed to review main ideas, key concepts, core arguments, and vocabulary from the passage. The question types include inferential and literal comprehension, analysis, prediction, and summary.
Does the software support ELL students?
Yes. In addition to the features of Read to Me, Show Vocabulary, Record My Reading, and Play My Reading, Reading Assistant Expanded Edition allows the teacher to enable Spanish language support for a student. When this feature is activated, the glossary will contain an Español button which displays the glossary term in Spanish and plays a Spanish audio file. The student will also receive all program instructions in Spanish.
The Reading Assistant has in-depth audio support. Students can click on any word to hear it pronounced. Advanced speech verification technology provides just in time coaching to students pronouncing the word when students are struggling.
Strong visuals throughout the Reading Assistant support mental model development.
Reading Assistant is focused on academic vocabulary development with over 10,000 terms defined in depth. Reading Assistant Expanded Edition contains the Did You Know? feature which includes many instructional resources proven to be helpful in supporting vocabulary development in English Language Learners including:
- Greek and Latin roots
- Other meanings and usage for the word
- Fun facts about the word
- Cognate transfers from Spanish
The Reading Assistant content is structured to build knowledge through repeated exposure to vocabulary. Each grade band topic builds knowledge and depth of understanding of vocabulary.
The Reading Assistant content is filled with US cultural content (Internet, skateboarding, US Constitution)
What Licensing Models are offered?
We offer two convenient licensing models to meet your school’s needs:
- Web-enabled model (Currently only available for Reading Assistant Version 4)
One annual subscription license is purchased for each student who will use the program during the year. Program is delivered via the internet. - School/ Hosted Model
One license is purchased for each workstation and/or site. The Program is supported by a local area or wide area network hosted server.
How do I raise funds to pay for Reading Assistant in my school or district?
There are a number of appropriate funding sources in every school and district including
Title 1 funds; Reading First funds; Special Education and Response to Intervention (RTI) funds; Technology funds (including the PTO grant); School discretionary funds; Professional Development funds; Curriculum funds for reading or secondary science and social studies; and Afterschool funds
View our complete listing of appropriate funding sources.
Is Reading Assistant Section 508 compliant?
Yes. What does this mean? Among assistive features: a) visual dialog boxes can be displayed whenever you hear an audio message; b) the colors in the application have been selected to accommodate people who are color blind; c) the preferences set by a student on his or her computer for text colors and size take precedence over those already set in Reading Assistant; d) the software will work in conjunction with a single switch device; e) there is high contrast between user interface elements and high rollover contrast for maximum visibility; f) the minimum font size used for all content text throughout the product is 16 point; g) tooltips are provided throughout the product; and h) the user can tab from element to element, and select the element using a key-activated shortcut.
Product Demo Grades K-5
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Product Demo Grades 6-12
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Reporting & Administration Demo
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Progress Demo
| Month 1 Dibels Grade 6 Passage 71 words correct per minute |
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| Month 4 Dibels Grade 6 Passage 128 words correct per minute |
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