The new Reading Coach app on Windows empowers students to improve their reading skills. Learners can create their own story by choosing a main character, setting, and reading level. They can also select from a sample library of leveled passages, or add their own by typing or pasting one. To practice reading, learners can customize their text display before using their device microphone to record themselves reading. They'll get responsive feedback each time, like specific words they can use the app to practice right away. Over time, learners can unlock new story elements, earn badges based on their achievements, and see aggregate information on their fluency, such as total time spent reading and average accuracy.
This public preview of Reading Coach showcases the product team’s commitment to continuously evolve with user feedback. The team is dedicated to identifying bugs or experience improvements at this stage, in order to deliver a high-quality product that meets user needs.
General Overview
Educators, parents, school administrators and learners can access Reading Coach on the web or as a Windows app.
1. Educators and students: Your school's IT Administrators or technology team needs to enable the application for your use. If the app has already been enabled for your classes get started at the Learning Accelerators for individual practice webpage. Educators may also join the Reading Coach community here: Join the educator community.
Parents: Get started at the Learning Accelerators for individual practice webpage. Parents will be invited to join the Reading Coach community as part of signing up.
2. As part of signing in, you will have the option to download the Windows app or use the application on the web.
3. To directly download the Windows app, visit the Microsoft Store.
Reading Coach does not collect or store any data that can identify an individual user. The app does collect limited non-identifying user data such as usage statistics, general location information (e.g., city, state) and voice data (processed only on the user’s device and not shared with Microsoft or stored afterwards). Additionally, Reading Coach uses cloud storage to collect and store per-user app activity, such as total time spent reading. Of the above described, stored data is retained on Microsoft servers for 28 days on a per-user basis.
Reading Coach collects the above-described information so that each learner continues progressing over time. This allows each learner to see prior reading history and keep track of in-app achievements and badges they have earned. This information is essential to supporting their learning journey as they build up their reading skills, month over month.
The story content is moderated for quality, safety, and age appropriateness following Microsoft’s Responsible AI guidelines. Reading Coach uses Azure AI Content Safety models for detecting and filtering story content for hate, profanity, self-harm, sexual or explicit language and violence. In addition, a safeguarding word list filters inappropriate contextual use of words related to unsafe content for children, politics, specific cultural practices and so on. The dedicated content moderation models in Azure Cognitive Services also check for sexually suggestive and offensive content.
At times, a generated chapter may or may not be fully coherent with the rest of the story – the following chapter may have better quality. The Reading Coach preview uses beta software for text generation, and the quality will be continuously improved to ensure a great experience.
All of the sample passages are leveled texts distributed by ReadWorks, a longstanding educational nonprofit organization specializing in reading instruction.
It may be useful to paste in a list of specific words or a digital article that a learner could benefit from practicing on the accessible reading surface. For each passage, a learner can change their text font and coloring, increase spacing, and read full screen. For a given word, learners can play the pronunciation aloud or use the picture dictionary feature for a visual. Learn more about different reading modes on Reading Coach.
Provided as a free tool in Microsoft Teams for Education, Reading Progress helps students improve their reading fluency. Using Teams, educators assign reading passages to students, review their reading practice, and see insights to support them in their learning.
The standalone Reading Coach app engages students in independent, personalized reading practice. Reading Coach promotes motivation and engagement for independent learning. Educators find the tool useful to keep learners reading beyond assigned reading in the classroom.
To find out more about Reading Progress in Teams, visit this site.
For each reading session, a learner can access immediate feedback on their reading fluency:
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Time spent reading
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Time left to read to unlock a new story element
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Words to practice
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Any badges earned in this session
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Accuracy
Over time, learners see their progress through aggregate data shown on the app’s Achievements page:
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Total reading time
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Number of reading sessions
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Average pronunciation accuracy
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Average correct reading speed (words per minute)
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Any badges earned
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Any characters or setting unlocked
Reading Coach encourages young learners to lean into a love of reading through a personalized experience. Using the Create a story feature, learners craft an original story by choosing a character, setting, and reading level. Through this engaging, self-initiated kind of reading, learners build motivation to improve over time and even earn celebratory badges and new story elements to commemorate their progress. Learn more about engagement features for Reading Coach.
Using the Reading Coach app
Reading Coach is most useful for students ages 6-11, and also suitable for all ages 5-18.
Reading Coach can be accessed on the web from any browser and internet-enabled device with a microphone. To use Reading Coach as a Windows app, the app must be installed on a PC or tablet using Windows 10 or later.
With the Microsoft Immersive Reader built-in, Reading Coach enables users to customize content for readability, specific to their individual needs. For each passage, a learner can change their text font and coloring, increase spacing, and read full screen. For a given word, learners can play the pronunciation aloud or use the picture dictionary feature for a visual. These features are designed to support students with dyslexia, yet anyone who wants to customize their reading content can benefit. Learn more about accessible reading features on Reading Coach.
Reading Coach focuses on helping users build reading fluency--the ability to read aloud with understanding, accuracy, and speed. In order to read fluently, learners must be able to instantly recognize words, including words they can’t sound out. According to the National Reading Panel (NRP), a panel of reading instruction experts that was formed to compile the best evidence on reading instruction, “There is common agreement that fluency develops from reading practice” [1]. Oral reading fluency also strongly correlates with reading comprehension. This has been underscored by a recent analysis of reading comprehension scores on the US National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the national report card [2].
[1] National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.
[2] Sabatini, J., Wang, Z., & O’Reilly, T. (2019). Relating Reading Comprehension to Oral Reading Performance in the NAEP Fourth‐Grade Special Study of Oral Reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 54:2, 253-271.
Currently, Reading Coach supports only English as used in the US (en-us).
Users can choose a reading level per passage. There are no app-wide levels or difficulty settings. The levels in the “Create a story” and “Read a passage” experience are as follows, per the "Info” entry point available in the app:
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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.
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Levels 3-4: For readers in the early stages of independent reading. They are comfortable with basic vocabulary and sentence structures.
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Level 5-6: Readers who can comprehend sophisticated texts. They can understand abstract concepts, infer meaning beyond the literal text, and analyze characters and plot developments.
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Level 7-8: Readers comfortable with complex texts focusing on varied subject matter. The vocabulary, sentence structure and topics are generally more challenging.
Multiple students can use the app simultaneously on the same device, as the app allows each reader to choose a specific reading level per passage. However, this means that the aggregate reading data (Achievements on the home screen) will no longer pertain to a specific learner.
The current experience of Reading Coach requires an internet connection.
Reading Coach is available free of cost for all learners and educators using Microsoft 365 through their school, and all learners or parents using a personal Microsoft account.
To get support, visit Get support, as linked from the app footer. To share feedback with the team visit Share feedback, as also linked from the app footer.
If you have installed the Reading Coach app through the Windows Store and would like to uninstall it, follow the steps at Uninstall or remove apps and programs in Windows.
Reading experts typically recommend students spend 15-30 minutes per day reading outside of school.
Users can customize each story they create with their desired character, setting, and reading level.
