The Independent Reading Coach is now generally available! Start with a personalized, AI-powered reading practice in multiple languages, with rewards and progress indicators.
As school holidays approach in many parts of the world, it is crucial that students continue to practice their reading skills independently. Standalone Reading Coach, now available to everyone, offers a great solution for maintaining reading fluency during these times. Whether at school or at home, students can engage in personalized, AI-powered reading practices that keep them motivated and on track.
Learners can discover the joy of reading and improve their reading skills, whether it’s practicing difficult words or co-creating stories with responsible AI. With support for multiple languages, reading sequence rewards, and the ability to track progress over time, Reading Coach is designed to help learners get the most out of independent reading practice. Your students can maintain their reading skills and stay on track, even during breaks, with Reading Coach.
What is the Reading Coach?
Reading Coach is free, standalone software Learning accelerator which builds reading fluency through personalized reading practice to engage learners of all levels. As students read aloud, it provides real-time feedback on pronunciation, syllabification accuracy, and reading progress. Independent practice allows learners to focus on acquiring skills at their own pace.
Reading Coach empowers students by providing instant feedback and access to inclusive tools. Learners can choose from three engaging reading modes:
- Create a story: Choose a character, a setting and a reading level to generate a story in chapters in which learners choose what happens next.
- Read a passage: Explore more than 110 ReadWorks passages, both fiction and nonfiction.
- Add your own passage: Students can read personalized passages from an educator, a favorite article, or even a story they wrote themselves.
It’s easy to introduce Reading Coach to your school with a zero-touch deployment with Microsoft 365 Education. It can also be used by learners with any personal Microsoft account to practice on their own at home.
Extensive language support makes Reading Coach a valuable tool for improving language development. Its user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are now available in 81 different languages. Additionally, Reading Coach supports 14 different English dialects, aligning real-time coaching with regional variations in pronunciation and usage.
Learners can create AI-generated stories in 14 different languages with consistent coaching and practice activities in each language. This helps ensure learners receive personalized and encouraging feedback privately on their device.
This personalized approach has proven to be effective. For example, in Ha Tran’s fifth grade classes at THCS Hải Vân in Vietnam, 150 multilingual English learner (MLE) students with limited exposure to English speakers showed remarkable improvement in their English skills. After using Reading Coach for three months, students gained confidence in their abilities. They even created videos to teach their peers how to use the tool!
The enthusiasm for Reading Coach is evident as students use it not only in the classroom but also at home. Their love for the tool showcases their dedication and the effectiveness of Reading Coach in enhancing their learning experience.
Similarly, Kimberly Niebauer’s third grade students at Loretto Elementary School in Florida, USA, no longer view reading as a chore. One student gained two reading levels after using Reading Coach alongside other interventions, and another MLE student improved his reading skills two years since he started using the tool. Plus, students love Immersive Reader in Reading Coach because it allows them to personalize their reading practice.
The benefits extend beyond English learners: teachers can also use Reading Coach to supporting foreign language learners. Reading Coach helps students develop fluency when learning a new language. Since its coaching is language agnostic, learners receive guidance to improve their proficiency in languages supported by Reading Coach.
An engaging practice keeps readers interested and excited
Reading Coach is designed to support independent reading practice, making it an ideal tool to use throughout the school year and during school holidays. By providing real-time feedback and personalized guidance, it helps learners improve their reading skills at their own pace. THE new ability to track progress over different time periods ensures that students remain engaged and continue to develop their reading fluency.
To keep learners motivated, Reading Coach offers encouragement through digital badges and rewards. Readers can now earn streak badges for completing three, five and seven days of reading. They can also unlock new characters and story settings for every 20 minutes spent reading. Rewards can be used in AI-generated stories or even exchanged with friends, gamifying the reading experience and inspiring curiosity for what’s next.
As readers progress, Reading Coach displays their growth in a dashboard they can easily understand. They will see information on reading time, accuracy rate and pronunciation errors, as well as goals for reaching the next achievement.
Learners can also track their growth over a week, a 30-day period, and at any time with summary statistics:
- Total days and hours read
- Stories started and finished
- Average accuracy and words per minute
- Badges earned and characters unlocked
By showcasing what learners have accomplished, Reading Coach encourages consistent practice and deeper reading, even during school breaks or when students are at home.
Get started with Reading Coach
Follow reading practice and maintain your skills with Reading Coach. It’s easy to find, access and use:
- Visit coach.microsoft.comsearch for the app in Microsoft 365 or download it Windows Reading Coach app.
- Sign in with your school-issued credentials (Microsoft Entra ID) or with any personal Microsoft account.
- Select “Get Started” to begin.
Reading Coach helps develop mastery skills through personalized, AI-powered reading practice. Get started with Reading Coach and get the most out of independent reading practice!