This year’s focus is promoting multilingual education, emphasizing the potential of literacy to foster mutual understanding and peace. Research highlights the cognitive, pedagogical, and socioeconomic benefits of a first language-based, multilingual approach—benefits you can bring to your community as a school leader and educator.

To support you in this important work, our learning tools and Learning Accelerators can help you personalize education and create supportive learning environments. These solutions offer features to enhance literacy for Multilingual Learners of English (MLEs), ensuring that every student can thrive. Additionally, Microsoft Copilot can help you develop inclusive policies and practices and empower you to cultivate lifelong learning.

Implement inclusive policies and practices for multilingual education

A first language-based, multilingual approach to education recognizes the linguistic diversity of students as an asset to learning and social participation, fostering greater equity in education. You can promote this approach by advocating for inclusive policies and implementing practices that value and include students’ culture and linguistic backgrounds.

AI-powered tools, like Copilot, offer powerful support in advancing multilingual education within your school. To get started, use Microsoft Copilot to refine and develop policies and practices that promote multilingual education. You can even upload your existing policies to get personalized recommendations and revisions. For enhanced data protection, sign in using your school account.

Here is a prompt you can personalize and use in Copilot:

Develop policies and practices to support a first language-based multilingual program, including timelines, active community involvement, and guide for implementation. Ensure that inclusive language policies are developed and supported by students, families, and staff and that the process fosters shared ownership and sustainability. Language diversity should be viewed as an asset and practices should be implemented that leverage students’ multilingual strengths. Consider programming that supports learners who are multilingual within the mainstream classroom through co-teaching and interaction in diverse groups.

As you explore the strategies from the Copilot prompt, consider which practices you can implement immediately to support MLEs in your classroom. You can also extend the prompt to think about how you might present these ideas to school leadership to support multilingual education in your school.

Empower MLEs with Microsoft tools for literacy

You can also promote multilingual education in your classrooms by leveraging the existing literacy skills of MLEs in their home languages to build on their strengths. Microsoft offers a variety of literacy solutions to support MLEs, helping you ensure that inclusive school policies translate into effective, day-to-day classroom practices.

Support access to text with Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader provides MLEs with literacy tools that help them access texts in their preferred language. This tool empowers learners to take charge of their literacy experience and customize their support.

Learn more about how you can use Immersive Reader to support literacy needs.

• Read text aloud: Build literacy skills by having text read aloud. As the text is read, the words are highlighted, allowing MLEs to follow along and match the word to the appropriate pronunciation and spelling. 
• Translate to home language: Translate individual words or the entire passage into students’ home language. This feature enables students with different levels of English proficiency to engage with the text in their preferred language.
• Visualize words: Use the Picture Dictionary tool to visualize text that represents a selected word. This tool can make it easier for MLEs to understand and retain new vocabulary.

To learn more about how to integrate these features into your classroom, check out the Immersive Reader Quick Guide.

Provide customized reading feedback with Reading Progress

Reading Progress, a Learning Accelerator, makes customized literacy instruction possible with immediate, personalized feedback, allowing MLEs to sharpen their individual literacy and pronunciation skills. Schools like the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle, United Kingdom, used Reading Progress for teaching Spanish as a foreign language and made significant literacy gains in Spanish:

• 22.43 words-per-minute increase in reading rate.
• 13.29% improvement in reading accuracy.
• A reduction of 7 average mispronunciations per task.

Learn more about how you can use Reading Progress to support the literacy needs of MLEs.

• AI-generated passages: Create personalized reading passages by selecting challenge words, topics, age, length, and language for your MLEs.
• Comprehension questions: Develop comprehension questions with the power of AI and edit them before sharing with students, providing a tailored reading experience. Customize the questions to the needs of MLEs to help students gain lifelong reading comprehension skills.
• Pronunciation sensitivity: Support your MLE with customized pronunciation sensitivity that accommodates your student’s speech pattern and accent. This tool can help your students develop nuanced pronunciation skills for challenging words.

Discover more in the Reading Progress Quick Guide and the “Support reading fluency practice with Reading Progress” training module on Microsoft Learn.

Offer opportunities for literacy practice with Reading Coach

Reading Coach Preview offers personalized reading fluency practice through AI-generated stories with customizable characters and settings, and options to choose your own path through the story. This innovative tool supports students with targeted word practice, motivational rewards, and includes Immersive Reader for a fully accessible learning experience.

Learn more about how you can use Reading Coach to support literacy needs.

• AI generated stories: Generate unique stories with the “Create a Story” mode that offers 26 main characters, from dogs to dragons, and 13 varied locations like castles or outer space. Students pick a character and location, set their reading level, and AI crafts a story with the option to choose a path through each chapter. Challenging words from one chapter are automatically included in the next chapter.
• Pick passages from a library or add your own content: Educators can help students pick leveled passages from a curated library of fiction and non-fiction passages or provide their own content to read.
• Practice pronunciation with coaching: Practice difficult words and explore their pronunciation through visual syllable cues, hearing the word read out aloud, and getting coached on the mispronunciation. This feature helps MLEs decode text and access content more effectively.

Reading Coach Preview is currently available for free in English to use at school with a Microsoft Entra ID (school account) or at home using a personal Microsoft account. Get started with Reading Coach online or download the Windows app.

Discover more about AI-generated reading passages in Reading Coach Preview with the Reading Coach with AI stories Quick Guide and the “Build reading fluency with Reading Coach” training course on Microsoft Learn.

Get actionable literacy data with Education Insights

Education Insights in Microsoft Teams for Education offers a wide range of actionable student data to help you make informed decisions to support each student’s unique academic and linguistic needs. With Education Insights, you can easily streamline your decision-making process, analyze academic and literacy trends, and identify students who may need additional support.

Learn more about how you can use Education Insights to support the literacy needs of MLEs.

• Analyze progress and data: Review individual, group, and whole class data efficiently to monitor reading progress and inform inclusive instructional decisions. This tool provides a clear overview that helps you quickly identify trends and address challenges that MLEs may be having.
• Practice challenging words: Create personalized or whole-class practice assignments to address MLEs’ reading and language needs. Education Insights analyzes challenging words and phonics rules from Reading Progress and Reading Coach data to inform instruction and create vocabulary activities that target areas where students need the most support.

To learn more about using Education Insights to explore actionable student data and support literacy, visit the Educator’s guide to Insights in Microsoft Teams from Microsoft Support.

Celebrate International Literacy Day 2024 with us and empower your MLEs through cutting-edge learning tools from Microsoft. Get started with Learning Accelerators and transform your classroom with a multilingual approach that meets every learner’s needs.

The post Celebrate International Literacy Day 2024 with Microsoft Education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Reading Coach, available in public preview, provides personalized and engaging reading fluency practice. It features safe, one-of-a-kind AI-generated stories, access to fully accessible Immersive Reader, targeted practice on challenging words, and rewards that keep learners inspired and motivated. Reading Coach can help your students practice reading throughout the school year—and all summer long!

How to use Reading Coach

Follow these quick steps to help students get started with Reading Coach online in any browser. Reading Coach is also available by downloading the Windows app.

1. Go to https://coach.microsoft.com/webapp
2. Sign in with your Microsoft personal account as an individual learner at home or with your school account (if your school has enabled Reading Coach). Note: School IT leaders can enable Reading Coach by signing up for the preview and following the enablement instructions. Students or educators can then sign in with their school Microsoft account.
3. Explore, practice, and enjoy!

Try these features in Reading Coach to challenge and engage students:

• Let students choose what happens in each story chapter, charting their own reading journey through the AI-generated story.
• Provide choice through fiction and non-fiction passages in the leveled library.
• Support all learners by using the fully accessible Immersive Reader.
• Boost learning with coaching on challenging words.
• Personalize reading by adding your own content for students to read based on their interests.
• Watch as students check out their progress and earn badges, unlocking new characters and settings for the next story.

Learn more and get started with our Reading Coach with AI Stories quick guide.

Three modes in Reading Coach for endless reading possibilities

Reading Coach offers students three reading modes, including generating a story with AI, reading a passage from its digital library, or using text from an article or textbook.

• “Create a story” mode features 15 main characters, ranging from dogs to dragons, and seven diverse locations. Students choose one character and one location, then set their reading level, from kindergarten to middle school. With these selections, the AI generates a complete story with a captivating beginning, middle, and ending. AI-generated story content is moderated for content quality, safety, and age appropriateness following Microsoft’s Responsible AI Standard.
• “Read a passage” mode provides students with a digital library powered by Readworks. The library is categorized by Lexile level and word count, allowing students at all stages of reading proficiency to access text and improve their reading fluency.
• “Add a passage” mode enables students to add their own text from articles, textbooks, or other sources. This supports reading any passage and offers students practice on challenging words within that text.

Join the Reading Coach Summer Reading Quest

Looking for an exciting way to keep your students reading all summer long? Bingo! Encourage your students to take the Reading Coach Summer Reading Quest to meet their summer reading practice goals and earn exclusive stickers and posters!

Here’s how it works:

Download the resources.

• Access the Reading Coach Summer Reading Quest bingo card and related information, available in four languages, in the Reading Coach Materials OneDrive folder.
• Find everything you need to help students and families get started, including instructions, email templates, and additional resources.

Engage in summer reading.

• Have students read and complete tasks from their bingo board throughout the summer.
• Each task focuses students on a different aspect of reading including repetition, consistency, performance, word practice, and real-world reading.

Log your classroom’s activity.

• At the start of the new school year, fill out a form to log your classroom’s reading activity and request swag.

Stay tuned for more!

• To stay tuned for updates and get swag for completing the quest, join the Reading Coach Educator Community or the Reading Coach Family Community.

Whether you’re in the northern hemisphere enjoying summer break or elsewhere in the world, Reading Coach is an excellent tool to provide students with personalized and engaging reading fluency practice and real-time coaching. Join us in the Reading Coach Summer Reading Quest to support your students’ summer reading practice. Learn more about how to get started with Reading Coach in the Build reading fluency with Reading Coach training module on Microsoft Learn.

The post Boost summer literacy skills with Reading Coach appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

When all students can access learning experiences and content, the benefits impact everyone. Learn about six exciting Microsoft classroom accessibility tools for inclusive learning you can use to create more equitable education experiences for everybody.

1. Accessible versatility in Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is your AI assistant to support more accessibility in the classroom.

Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection is an AI assistant that can inspire creativity, support increased efficiency, and help you explore new ideas and concepts. It can also help you create a more accessible classroom for your learners.

Copilot can:

• Express ideas in various formats, like images and figures, from text descriptions.
• Provide alternative text for images in PowerPoint or Word documents.
• Extract data from images or PDFs and transfer it to Word document charts or Excel spreadsheets to better support screen readers.
• Draft translated text into multiple languages for students, families, and community members.
• Customize explanations to make content accessible, like simplifying complex topics for different age groups and incorporating student interests.
• Dictate prompt text using speech-to-text without using a keyboard, mouse, or trackpad.
• Utilize text-to-voice to listen to generated content.

Watch this video to learn how Microsoft employees access and interact with accessibility features from Copilot and Copilot for Microsoft 365.

2. Leveled-up resources with Accessibility Checker

Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker analyzes and offers recommendations for improving a file’s accessibility. As a tool inside of applications like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote, Accessibility Checker quickly scans files and offers immediate fixes for any identified issue.

Accessibility Checker helps identify and resolve common errors and warnings such as:

• Alternative text (alt text): Screen readers use alternative text to describe images and non-text content, helping users understand their purpose and meaning.
• Table headers: Users rely on table headings to understand the content that is read by a screen reader.
• Slide titles: Slide titles enable users to navigate within a presentation, including finding and selecting a single slide to immediately go to.
• Color contrast: High text-background contrast enhances accessibility for a wider range of users.
• Closed captions: Without captioning, the information in a video or audio segment can be entirely lost to people with disabilities.

3. Accessible literacy with Immersive Reader

Microsoft Immersive Reader is a text-to-speech classroom accessibility and learning tool that helps students access text. When students need assistance understanding digital text, they can launch Immersive Reader and it will read aloud words displayed on the computer screen. Immersive Reader is available in over 100 languages and built into Edge browser, Word, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, OneNote, and many other Microsoft applications.

Watch this video to learn how students like Sam can use Immersive Reader to access learning.

Check out the Immersive Reader quick guide for more tips. You can also read about how to use Microsoft tools to support dyslexic thinkers and how to enhance reading instruction with Immersive Reader on our blog.

4. Live on-screen captions and translations

Microsoft provides live captioning in Teams for Education and PowerPoint. This accessibility feature uses automatic speech recognition to show a written transcription of spoken content during presentations or meetings. Plus, it fully supports multiple languages including Spanish, Chinese, and more, making it accessible for emergent multilingual speakers too.

Check out this video to learn more about how live captions can help break down language and learning barriers.

Discover how to utilize real-time, automatic captions or subtitles to enhance your students’ learning experiences.

5. Improved speech-to-text with Dictation in Microsoft 365

With Dictation in Microsoft 365 apps like Word, you can help all students participate fully in learning.

Dictation in Microsoft 365 is a built-in speech-to-text accessibility tool that provides a range of ways to write and improve writing skills. People, including those who may have limited mobility, can use their computer’s microphone to dictate documents and presentations. Dictation also offers advanced spelling and grammar checks, word suggestions with Read Aloud, and is available in Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook.

6. Real-time translations with Microsoft Translator

Real-time translations with Microsoft Translator can help you create belonging among your students and families.

Microsoft Translator helps improve communication between students, teachers, administrators, and parents for multilingual speakers and those who need vision or hearing support. With the conversations feature, you can have real-time conversations with automatic two-way translation that helps you connect and communicate with families.

Read more about how to use Microsoft tools to accelerate learning for multilingual learners.

Join Microsoft in celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day! Foster a learning environment where all students, educators, and families feel included and have the classroom accessibility tools and resources they need to succeed. Explore the Microsoft accessibility tools page for even more resources and apps that you can integrate into teaching and learning to make accessibility a priority every day.

The post 6 Microsoft classroom accessibility tools for Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2024 appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Education has evolved significantly over the past several years, and so have the needs of educators. In today’s diverse classrooms, it’s more important than ever to use the right education technology, find ways to support all students, and help create more inclusive environments. We recognize that educators need time-saving workflows, teaching tools, and resources to help everyone thrive and reach their full potential. 

Microsoft believes that education technology has a valuable role to play in supporting the needs of both teachers and students. However, we understand that it can sometimes be challenging to adopt new education technology and face the learning curve of mastering new teaching tools. To bridge this gap and make adoption smoother, we’ve pulled together a collection of free quick start guides for you. Our PDF guides for teachers are instructive and user-friendly, designed to help you easily get started with Microsoft Education tools in the classroom. 

Where can teachers find quick start guides for Microsoft Education tools?

Check out our collection of quick start guides, created by fellow teacher Heather Aird, a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIE Expert). Through vibrant colors, simplicity, and comprehensive coverage of our learning tools and Learning Accelerators, these PDF guides for teachers empower you to embrace education technology quickly and confidently.  

1. Microsoft Copilot quick guide
2. Reading Coach with AI stories quick guide
3. Reading Coach in Immersive Reader quick guide
4. Reading Progress quick guide
5. Speaker Coach quick guide
6. Search Coach quick guide
7. Search Progress quick guide
8. Microsoft Reflect quick guide
9. Immersive Reader quick guide
10. Math Solver quick guide
11. Live Captions for PowerPoint quick guide
12. Speech to Text (Dictate) quick guide
13. Microsoft OneNote quick guide
14. Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook quick guide
15. Microsoft Word quick guide
16. Microsoft PowerPoint quick guide
17. Microsoft Stream quick guide
18. Microsoft To Do quick guide
19. Microsoft Translate quick guide
20. Microsoft Lens (formerly Microsoft Office Lens) quick guide
21. Microsoft Editor quick guide
22. Microsoft Planner quick guide
23. Microsoft Bookings quick guide
24. Khanmigo for Teachers quick guide

Our quick start guides cover a range of teacher resources and where to find them, unlocking countless possibilities for personalized and interactive learning experiences. Each PDF guide provides step-by-step instructions, accompanied by clear visuals and diagrams, ensuring that you can navigate Microsoft Education teaching tools and education technology with confidence.  

Microsoft Education is dedicated to providing technology solutions that can save you time, individualize student learning, and set students up for future success. Explore these portable and printable PDF quick start guides—designed to equip you with guidance and support whenever you need them! 

Looking for more ways to quickly get started with Microsoft Education technology? Check out these free resources below, created specifically for teachers like you. 

• Meet your AI assistant for education: Microsoft Copilot
• Eight how-to guides for educators: Quickly get started with Microsoft Education 
• Reflect activities for student engagement 
• New ways to reflect and thrive on World Mental Health Day! 
• 4 new Teams updates to enhance classroom engagement 
• Transform assessment with new Forms updates 

The post Comprehensive quick start guides for Microsoft Education tools appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

On February 7, 2024, the power of reading aloud is celebrated with World Read Aloud Day. World Read Aloud Day was founded in 2010 by the nonprofit organization LitWorld to position literacy as a foundational human right. And, so far, the day has become a real page-turner, celebrated by millions of readers and listeners in over 170 countries! 

Why literacy matters

Reading aloud is an incredibly powerful way to help listeners of all ages build essential literacy skills. And student literacy impacts learners in every subject and grade level as well as outside of the classroom. Powerful learning tools designed to address the real-world needs of today’s classrooms are a smart and practical way to help students gain the crucial literacy skills they need to help them succeed in school and in life. 

Support student literacy with Reading Progress

While literacy is the foundation for all learning, each student’s path toward reading mastery may differ. This is why it’s so important to create personalized learning environments that address and support the unique needs of all students. 

Reading Progress, a Learning Accelerator, empowers students to practice their reading fluency skills, self-assess as they watch and listen to themselves, and receive customized feedback from their teachers that specifically targets their literacy needs. Reading Progress offers: 

1. Assignment creation: Quickly upload a reading passage or choose from a sample library, and customize activity parameters such as time limits, number of attempts, and codify the reading level and genre. 
2. Student reading and recording: Students open the assignment and can record themselves reading the assigned passage, helping to build confidence.  
3. Educator review: Automatically flags student mistakes, helps educators manually flag errors, and jumps to words in the video to streamline the review process. 
4. Powerful insights: View data such as correct words per minute, accuracy rates, and challenging words at the student and class level. 

Visit Getting started with Reading Progress in Teams for step-by-step instructions for using Reading Progress to help build literacy skills with your students.  

Personalize reading experiences with Reading Coach

With the latest AI technology, we have an opportunity to provide learners with personalized, engaging, and transformative reading experiences. Reading Coach is now powered by generative AI and does just that.  

Reading Coach was already providing learners with personalized reading practice, instant feedback about pronunciation and fluency, while also giving insights back to educators. Now we’re excited to share new features that will fuel student agency and motivation with dynamically created stories that adapt to their reading level and individual challenges. 

Reading Coach takes a unique approach to implementing generative AI with guardrails. Learners select the story’s protagonist, setting, and are provided with choices that alter the plot of the story as they read. Reading Coach combines these inputs with the learner’s selected reading level, and over time, words they mispronounce to dynamically create personalized stories. Students stay engaged and in the driver’s seat with the power to pick a path of a story while they progress through the chapters. The story content is moderated for quality, safety, and age appropriateness. 

Reading Coach intrinsically motivates learners to continue advancing their skills in several ways. They can unlock new story settings and characters, earn badges that reward their efforts, and see their pronunciation and fluency improvements in progress reports. 

We’re making Reading Coach more broadly available than ever, so that learners can read on the device of their choice, at home or school. To get started with Reading Coach, visit coach.microsoft.com/webapp (you may be asked to sign in with a Microsoft account) or download the Windows app. Learn more about how Reading Coach works on our support documentation pages. 

Dive into literacy with Immersive Reader

Microsoft Immersive Reader is an easy-to-use tool that that’s designed to improve reading comprehension and fluency for students of all abilities. Available for free in popular classroom applications like Microsoft Teams, Word, and OneNote, Immersive Reader incorporates research principles that increase access and is loaded with features to help students read.   

Immersive Reader can: 

• Support fluency for English language learners or readers of other languages. 
• Build confidence for emerging readers as they learn to read at higher levels. 
• Offer text decoding solutions for students with dyslexia and other learning needs. 
• Provide individual word or whole text translation into over 100 languages (over 40 of which can be read aloud). 
• Serve as scaffolding to ensure students with a variety of learning needs have access to grade-level texts. 

You can customize the learning experience for students, so whether it is reading at a slower pace or providing picture clues without narration, teachers can address a variety of activities in the classroom. Discover how every student can improve their skills and comprehension with Immersive Reader. 

Celebrate World Read Aloud Day 2024 with author Mia Armstrong

Flip is hosting a powerful event to honor World Read Aloud Day: a special reading of the popular children’s book I Am a Masterpiece by the author herself, Mia Armstrong. Mia is a prolific tween actor, model, and activist, born with Down syndrome. Her story is one of courage and inclusion, proving that disabilities and differences are no match for talent and determination. 

Join Mia this World Read Aloud Day on February 7, 2024, at 10:00 AM PT to get a glimpse into the life of a child with Down syndrome, and help some readers see themselves in a book and help others understand those friends, classmates, and family members who are neurodivergent. Register for the Flip event Celebrate World Read Aloud Day with Mia Armstrong today! 

Ignite literacy on World Read Aloud Day

Before the written word, stories were shared and passed down aloud to preserve culture, knowledge, and insight. This is the tradition that sparks World Read Aloud Day: a proven history of building literacy, improving spelling through enunciation, increasing social bonding, and enriching empathy. Join Microsoft in celebrating World Read Aloud Day and showing the world that we all have the right to read. So, grab a book, find an audience, and read out loud!  

Looking to go deeper? Check out these Microsoft Learn courses full of practical strategies and insights for igniting literacy in your classroom. 

• Learn how to support reading fluency practice with Reading Progress 
• Learn how to improve reading for any student, regardless of age or ability, with Immersive Reader

The post Read ‘em and reap (the rewards): World Read Aloud Day 2024 appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

I think when we’ve got kids that need different support mechanisms to learn, the Microsoft assisted learning tools become really, really vital.

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPWD) on December 3 is an annual event that reaffirms the ideals of inclusion and equity for people of all abilities. Started by the United Nations in 2018, member nations continue to celebrate and uplift people with disabilities with the intention to protect their rights and dignity across the globe.  

Microsoft’s commitment to inclusion in K-12 education, especially those with disabilities, is an essential part of an equitable education. As a company, we believe that all learners deserve the same opportunities regardless of ability, income, language, location, or identity. Our best-in-class learning solutions and education technologies help all students accelerate their learning in and out of the classroom. When all students can access content, the benefits impact everyone. 

Microsoft accessibility solutions will help you:

• Improve reading comprehension for students with dyslexia 
• Support students with dysgraphia or physical impairments write assignments 
• Provide alternative display options for students who have auditory processing disorders 
• Create more accessible documents, slideshows, and spreadsheets for everyone 

Addressing dyslexia with Immersive Reader

Dyslexia is the most common neuro-cognitive disorder, impacting nearly 20% of the population and accounting for 80-90% of all learning disabilities. If you’re an educator, chances are you’re interacting with dyslexic students daily, whether you notice it or not. Dyslexic thinkers often excel at pattern recognition, spatial reasoning, lateral thinking, and interpersonal communication. Yet, students with dyslexia often struggle with reading tasks because of phonological processing difficulties. 

Microsoft’s Immersive Reader is a text-to-speech tool that helps dyslexic thinkers decode text. When students need assistance understanding digital text, they can launch Immersive Reader and it will read aloud the words displayed on the computer screen. It also includes features like word splitting, one-line focus, identifying parts of speech, and dictation so that dyslexic thinkers can attend to difficult areas like punctuation and grammar. Immersive Reader is available in over 100 languages and built into the Edge browser, Word, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, and many other Microsoft applications. See how to use Immersive Reader to enhance your reading instruction! 

Overcoming dysgraphia and physical limitations with Dictation

Students with dysgraphia or fine motor impairments often find it difficult to write and type words on a keyboard. Whether the root cause involves working memory issues, in the case of dysgraphia, or limitations using body parts, these disabilities make traditional activities like drafting an essay or composing an email both daunting and time-consuming.  

Dictation is a speech-to-text tool that’s available in Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. With Dictation, whatever a student says with their voice is written as words within an application. This allows students to freely convey their thoughts rather than trying to overcome cognitive or physical disabilities. Dictation also includes advanced spelling and grammar checks as well as word suggestions to help students while they are composing. All that’s needed is a computer microphone and a reliable internet connection to start dictating. 

Addressing auditory processing difficulties with Live Captioning

Auditory processing disorders (APDs) are disabilities that impact between 2% and 7% of all children. APDs aren’t conditions that cause hearing loss. Instead, students with an APD may hear words differently because of how the central nervous system processes auditory information. For example, a student with an APD might process “raise your hand” as “chase your lamb” despite understanding what it means to raise hands in class. In schools, misinterpretation becomes more pronounced in noisy classrooms or when listening to complex information. 

To help those who have an APD, Microsoft offers live captioning in PowerPoint and Teams for Education. Live captioning uses automatic speech recognition technology to display a written, on-screen transcription of whatever is spoken during a live presentation or meeting. The real-time display provides essential support for students who have trouble processing spoken words. Live captioning fully supports Spanish, Chinese, and many more languages so that non-native speakers can follow along as well. See how to use real-time, automatic captions or subtitles in PowerPoint and live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings to support your students’ learning journeys. 

Supporting vision impairment with Accessibility Checker

Students who are blind or have sight limitations often use a screen reader to navigate and understand content. They rely on their screen reader to describe images, understand table structures, and identify sections or slides while listening to printed text. Without properly labeled elements for images, tables, and headers, a student with vision impairments often hears a disjointed, confusing readout of whatever is being shared. Poor color contrast also impacts students with color blindness or low vision. 

Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker analyzes and offers recommendations for improving a file’s accessibility. As a tool inside of applications like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote, the Accessibility Checker quickly scans files and offers immediate fixes for any identified issue. Making these changes increases the likelihood that a student with a vision impairment can understand content in the same way as their peers. 

Empower all students with Microsoft’s accessibility tools

All students deserve the chance to create, engage, and fully participate in classroom activities. Microsoft’s accessibility solutions allow each student to unlock their own diversity, skills, and abilities with tools to promote a more equitable learning environment.  

Get started with the learning tools built into Microsoft 365 Education to foster a learning environment where all students and teachers feel included and empowered. Learn more by exploring the Accessibility and Inclusivity courses offered in the Microsoft Learn Educator Center. 

The post Supporting the needs of all students appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

October marks Dyslexia Awareness Month, dedicated to honoring these exceptional individuals, representing approximately one in five students. Their unique abilities encompass extraordinary creativity, problem-solving skills, and a talent for thinking holistically—an indispensable asset in today’s ever-changing world. Educators play a vital role in identifying, supporting, and empowering every dyslexic learner.

Dyslexic thinking a valuable skill

We’re excited to share that Microsoft Education has launched a new training on dyslexic thinking on Microsoft Learn, created in partnership with the global charity Made by Dyslexia. This training module aims to help you understand dyslexic thinking, a set of skills highly valued by employers and recognized on LinkedIn profiles. It will provide you with the knowledge and strategies needed to create a truly inclusive classroom where both you and your students can thrive. Explore how Microsoft Education can support you in unlocking the power of dyslexic thinkers in your classroom.

The new course covers:

• Understanding dyslexic thinking skills: Dive deep into the 7 essential dyslexic thinking skills found in children, unlocking their potential in your classroom.
• Relevance in the workplace: Discover why dyslexic thinking skills have become indispensable in the modern workforce, and how they can benefit your students’ future careers.
• Creating inclusive classrooms: Learn practical techniques and approaches to foster inclusive learning environments where all students, including dyslexic thinkers, can excel.
• The role of technology and AI: Explore the exciting ways technology and AI are revolutionizing dyslexic learning and teaching, giving you the tools to adapt to the digital age.

Supporting dyslexic thinkers in the classroom

Microsoft Education offers a wide range of tools designed to support students with dyslexia, empowering educators to provide flexible learning supports and assessment options. Let’s explore some of the learning tools and Learning Accelerators that can assist dyslexic learners in succeeding in the classroom.

Text-decoding options

Dyslexic thinkers often face challenges in translating their creative ideas into written form due to difficulties with spelling, punctuation, and grammar rules. This struggle can be evident in both the initial writing and editing stages, as they grapple with memory-based learning and applying rules.

Immersive Reader, available across Microsoft tools, supports students’ developing spelling and grammar skills by offering features like word splitting, one-line focus, highlighting parts of speech, and dictation in over 100 languages.

Change how text appears with Text Preferences in Immersive Reader.

LinkedIn has recently incorporated Immersive Reader as a new way to digest content. This new accessibility feature in LinkedIn is particularly useful among members with dyslexia, making it much easier for them to read and enjoy long form articles and content. With just one click, individuals can unlock a series of tools such as the ability to read content aloud, translate content in real-time, and change reading and text preferences on any article or Newsletter published on LinkedIn. LinkedIn Learning will also share a free course on Dyslexic Thinking later this month.

Multi-sensory reading practice

Reading fluency can pose challenges for dyslexic thinkers, as they often struggle with recognizing and working with sounds, letters, and individual words. In some reading programs, fluency is considered a prerequisite for comprehension and is given top priority for mastery. To help dyslexic thinkers, however, it’s essential to place equal emphasis on both comprehension and fluency. One way to do this is to leverage Reading Progress.

Reading Progress supports students’ reading fluency with independent practice, self-assessment, personalized feedback. Educators can use Reading Coach to identify challenging words and provide targeted practice. Both Learning Accelerators are integrated in Microsoft Teams for Education. Using Reading Progress and Reading Coach alongside Immersive Reader allows educators to individualize reading instruction for all learners.

Big picture thinking for math

To help dyslexic thinkers achieve success, harness their language-based strengths and broad thinking abilities. To support their learning, offer chances for students to engage their senses, through writing, hands-on demonstrations, or verbal discussions. Additionally, when it comes to math, these learners excel when they grasp the meaning behind symbols instead of relying on memorization of a function.

Math Assistant in OneNote offers equation reading in multiple languages, step-by-step explanations, various input options, and student-created practice quizzes which can benefit dyslexic learners.

Math Assistant in OneNote offers various tools to help dyslexic thinkers, including equation reading and step-by-step explanations.

Celebrating dyslexic thinking

The world increasingly requires the unique approach of dyslexic thinking—an approach that excels in problem-solving, information assessment, and learning. Research underscores how dyslexic thinkers possess the exact skills in high demand in today’s workplaces. The Value of Dyslexia report points to emerging roles and advanced tasks across industries that align with the inherent strengths of dyslexic thinkers.

Ready to learn more about dyslexic thinking? The Microsoft Learn platform offers training and modules built in partnership with Made by Dyslexia. Check out Dyslexia Awareness, Dyslexia Teaching, Dyslexia and Technology, and Dyslexic Thinking. These modules help educators identify, support, and empower dyslexic learners, while providing strategies and solutions to benefit all students.

Let’s celebrate the incredible potential within dyslexic minds and collaborate to create truly inclusive classrooms where all students can thrive. By doing so, we unlock the extraordinary capabilities of dyslexic thinkers and pave the way for a brighter future for all. Join us in commemorating Dyslexia Awareness Month and commit to fostering an inclusive and supportive learning environment for dyslexic thinkers and all students.

Lastly, Microsoft is proud to sponsor “Lessons In Dyslexic Thinking” the brand new podcast series by Made By Dyslexia. The podcast features conversations with the world’s most inspiring dyslexics where we find out what Dyslexic Thinking is and how each of us can employ it to change the world. Hear powerful stories from spies and sports stars, explorers, and entrepreneurs. Listen to the latest episode with HRH Princess Beatrice on Apple, Spotify, or Amazon, or watch the Lessons In Dyslexic Thinking playlist.       

Want to learn more?

• Watch Dyslexia Doesn’t Have To Mean Difficulty
• Take the available Dyslexia training, in partnership with Made By Dyslexia 
• Download the Quick Guide on Immersive Reader
• Explore Building reading foundational skills: A guide to Reading Progress and Reading Coach in Teams for educators

The post Celebrating dyslexic thinkers during Dyslexia Awareness Month appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Check out these easy-to-scan how-to guides to help you become more confident with Microsoft’s learning tools and Learning Accelerators. With these powerful tools, students can start practicing right away, and you can spend more of your time on active instruction.

1. Enhance reading instruction with Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader is an easy-to-use learning tool that’s designed to improve reading comprehension and fluency for students of all abilities. Best of all, Immersive Reader is available for free in popular classroom applications like the Edge browser, Microsoft Teams for Education, Flip, Minecraft Education, and Microsoft 365 products like Word.

Learn How to enhance reading instruction: A guide to Immersive Reader for educators.

2. Build foundational literacy skills with Reading Progress and Reading Coach

Review your students’ practice assignments in Reading Progress by jumping to words in the video or audio recording and listening to their pronunciations.

Reading Progress and Reading Coach, two Learning Accelerators available in Microsoft Teams for Education, are designed to enhance your students’ reading fluency. These reading assessment tools can simplify the process of creating, reviewing, and analyzing reading assignments, freeing up more time for active instruction.

Explore Building reading foundational skills: A guide to Reading Progress and Reading Coach in Teams for educators.

3. Accelerate learning for multilingual learners of English

At least 350 languages are spoken in the U.S. and, according to the National Education Association, by 2025, 1 out of 4 children in U.S. classrooms will be a multilingual learner of English (MLE). Microsoft and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) have joined together to provide valuable activities that strengthen language development using Microsoft’s free Learning Accelerators.

Read how to Accelerate learning for multilingual learners of English.

4. Develop students’ information literacy skills with Search Coach

Search Coach provides tips to students, shows them reliability, and allows them to apply filters to get more accurate results.

Information literacy—using critical thinking when finding and engaging with information—is a vital skill for students in both their current education and their future careers. Search Coach, a Learning Accelerator, not only simplifies the process of searching for credible information but also provides real-time feedback and support for your students.

Visit Develop students’ information literacy skills: A guide to Search Coach for educators.

5. Expand students’ information literacy skills with Search Progress

Search Progress, a new Learning Accelerator, is intentionally built alongside Search Coach to help students gain lifelong information literacy skills within a structured environment. Search Progress empowers you to create, customize, and assign research projects. It offers students simple and authentic ways to find, curate, and reflect on information throughout the research process.

Check out Expand students’ information literacy skills: A guide to Search Progress for educators.

6. Develop confident public speakers with Speaker Coach

Speaker Coach, another Learning Accelerator, helps students develop good public speaking practices when presenting ideas to a group—an essential skill in the classroom and the workplace. Speaker Coach is a virtual assistant that helps students become better, more confident public speakers by providing insights that are both private and tailored to their abilities.

Explore How educators can use Speaker Coach to develop confident public speakers.

7. Build a culture of wellbeing with Reflect

An additional Learning Accelerator, Microsoft Reflect, helps students build important social, emotional, and academic skills. It’s research-backed and offers quick emotional check-ins, connecting age-appropriate vocabulary with the expressive Feelings Monsters. Accessible and engaging, Reflect check-ins can seamlessly be integrated into your class routine.

Read how to Build a culture of wellbeing: A guide to Reflect for educators.

8. Use data to support your students with Education Insights

Select a student from the list in Education Insights to quickly see and filter individual student data, trends, and reports.

As an educator, you recognize the importance of data in helping your students thrive. However, the abundance of data often makes it challenging and time-consuming to identify relevant and significant trends. Education Insights in Microsoft Teams for Education is an analytics solution that automatically connects with key apps such as Learning Accelerators and the tools in Teams to provide a more holistic view of student wellbeing.

Learn how to Use data to support your students with Education Insights.

Dive into these easy-to-scan how-to guides and explore how Microsoft learning tools and education solutions can be integrated into your classroom to build students’ skills and wellbeing.

The post Eight how-to guides for educators: Quickly get started with Microsoft Education classroom technology solutions appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

For nearly six decades, UNESCO has designated a new theme each year that focuses on specific aspects of improving literacy. This year’s theme is “Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies.” The goal for this theme is twofold: to boost progress toward making education accessible to everyone, and to “reflect on the role of literacy in building more inclusive, peaceful, just, and sustainable societies.”

What is literacy? Well, it’s much more than just the ability to read and write. Literacy is central to the creation of prosperous and peaceful societies and is crucial to what makes us human. Literacy helps us to organize and express our thoughts, build empathy and respect for other viewpoints, and helps us to conjure, capture, and convey ideas. It sharpens our faculties: activating our cognitive potential and unleashing our creativity. Ultimately, what literacy really is, is a powerful tool for good and progress.

Literacy matters

A significant benefit of technology tools—employed by skilled and compassionate educators and reading teachers—is to provide students with the opportunity to build skills and have more equity in their learning journeys. Microsoft Education believes that our literacy tools can help every student become a fluent reader so that they may enjoy success in school, career, and life. This is the mission that guides what we do and the learning tools that we develop.

A suite of powerful literacy tools

A student using Reading Coach to practice reading independently.

Microsoft Education’s foundational reading fluency and accessibility tools meet the literacy challenges of today’s educators and students. These solutions can help students learn, practice independently to become more fluent readers, and give writing and reading teachers the insights they need to provide individualized support. They also provide students opportunities to practice these skills in non-stigmatizing ways, anytime, anywhere.

• Immersive Reader: Immersive Reader is designed to improve reading comprehension for all students. Available for free in popular classroom applications, Immersive Reader incorporates research principles that increase access and is loaded with features that can read aloud or translate on-screen text. You can customize the learning experience for students, so whether it is reading at a slower pace or providing picture clues without narration, reading teachers can address a variety of activities in the classroom. Discover how every student can improve their skills and comprehension with reading and learning tools like Immersive Reader.

To get started with Immersive Reader in Word, select the View tab and then click on Immersive Reader.

• Reading Progress: Integrated seamlessly into Microsoft Teams for Education, Reading Progress simplifies the process of creating, reviewing, and analyzing reading assignments. With Reading Progress students read a passage aloud while recording video and audio, then turn in their recordings to you. Educators and reading teachers can also collect valuable data and visualize both class and individual performance and growth. Insights in Reading Progress offers the ability to easily create personalized challenge assignments, freeing up more time for active instruction. The Milton Area School District (U.S.) uses Reading Progress in Microsoft Teams to track students’ reading skills and focus on areas for improvement. Discover 5 Things to Know About Reading Progress and Reading Coach.

Reading Progress dashboard in Insights. Educators can collect valuable data and visualize both class and individual performance and growth.

• Reading Coach: Reading Coach is a tool in Immersive Reader that allows students to practice reading fluency and challenging words across the Microsoft tools they already know and love. And when students are finished practicing, they receive a high-level report to help accelerate their reading education and sharpen their literacy skills. Reading Coach helps build student agency and reading confidence, opening up a world of possibilities. The Philippine Department of Education partnered with Microsoft to incorporate Reading Progress and Reading Coach to help build the language proficiency, reading fluency, pronunciation, and digital literacy of all students. Discover 5 Things to Know About Reading Coach in Immersive Reader.

Reading Coach in Immersive Reader helps students practice and improve their reading fluency.

• Education Insights: Education Insights supports educators in meeting a student’s unique reading education needs, and it is built right in Microsoft Teams for Education! Education Insights is an analytics solution that automatically connects with key apps to help streamline an educator’s decision-making process and spot students who may be struggling. You can see student activity while spotlighted datapoints help you track your class’s activity and growth. Explore how to use data to support your students with Education Insights.

Class overview page in Education Insights. Scroll through the cards and use the dashboard to quickly see data for an entire class.

Use these Quick Guides for Reading Coach and Immersive Reader to get up and running with these powerful learning tools so that your students can improve their reading skills and comprehension today!

Spread the love of reading

We know that cultivating a love for reading is an important part of your students’ fluency journey. And a great way to spark this joy on International Literacy Day and beyond is to hear from authors of beloved books. Celebrate the power of literacy and nurture your students’ passion for reading by joining Flip’s live and on-demand author events.

Cultivate a love for reading by hearing from bestselling author Peter H. Reynolds at Flip’s Celebrate International Dot Day event on September 15, 2023.

Coming up on September 15th, join the Flip Team in a live global celebration of creativity, courage, and collaboration for International Dot Day. In the Celebrate International Dot Day event, students will meet Peter H. Reynolds—New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of The Dot—and his twin brother Paul A. Reynolds who will challenge everyone to believe in themselves and find the courage to “make their mark.”

You can also hear from celebrated actor and author John Cho in a Flip on-demand event. In the event Meet NYT Bestselling Author John Cho, students can hear John discuss his debut middle grade novel, Troublemaker, along with the inspiration behind it and how the book can be used in classrooms and libraries.

Register for Flip’s Celebrate International Dot Day event or watch Flip’s on-demand author events to help spread the love of reading to your students.

Get ready. Get set. Get reading.

As we celebrate International Literacy Day and highlight the critical role of literacy in building sustainable and peaceful societies, we also want to celebrate dynamic educators who help students develop skills and passion for reading with equitable and inclusive literacy practices.

Learn more and get additional information with these great resources!

• Building reading foundational skills: A guide to Reading Progress and Reading Coach in Teams for educators
• How to enhance reading instruction: a guide to Immersive Reader for educators
• Enhance literacy development with Reading Progress and Coach
• Accelerate learning for multilingual learners of English
• Celebrate the limitless power of Dyslexic Thinking

The post Fueling student futures with the power of literacy appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Learning Accelerators in Microsoft Teams for Education can help enhance language and literacy instruction and strengthen student independence in English language development. Immersive Reader, Reading Progress, Reading Coach, and Education Insights are four solutions you can use in your classroom to support all students’ reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Explore how each of these solutions can provide differentiated, individualized support for MLEs.

1. Support fluency with Reading Progress

Reading Progress frees up your time by streamlining the process for creating, reviewing, and analyzing individualized reading assignments. This solution can be used to support and track your students’ reading fluency. Students record their reading while their errors, accuracy rate, and correct words per minute are automatically analyzed. Learn more about how you can use Reading Progress to support the needs of MLEs.

Pronunciation sensitivity adjustment in Reading Progress in Microsoft Teams for Education.

• Adjust pronunciation sensitivity: To account for different speech patterns and accents when students read aloud, adjust how carefully pronunciation sensitivity in the Auto-detect feature analyzes results to make your review faster and more accurate. This feature predicts and marks mispronunciations, omissions, insertions, self-corrections, and repetitions. You can also manually edit errors for accuracy or turn off the Auto-detect feature.
• Chunk text: Use Reading Progress to break text into manageable sections which can help improve student confidence when reading in English. To do this, copy and paste (or transcribe) the assigned reading in Microsoft Word, creating a new document at an appropriate cutoff point. Then create an Assignment in Teams for Education and select Reading Progress from the Attach dropdown menu. Import the first Word file you created, then create subsequent assignments for the remainder of the week.

2. Provide personalized practice with Reading Coach

Reading Coach provides students with an opportunity to independently practice challenging words while providing real-time coaching. It automatically generates individualized exercises based on each student’s specific needs. By default, Reading Coach is turned on for all Reading Progress assignments. It can also be accessed through Immersive Reader via Microsoft 365 apps like Word, OneNote, and PowerPoint. Learn more about how you can use Reading Coach to enhance MLE’s language development.

Challenge word practice in Reading Coach in Microsoft Teams for Education.

• Practice pronunciation: Pronunciation can create obstacles for MLEs. Breaking words into syllables can help students decode text and access text more effectively. Reading Coach allows students to practice words that were identified as challenging for them, even providing them with the option to learn about word meaning using a visual.
• Analyze patterns and set goals: You can view how students perform on Assignments with Reading Coach at-a-glance. Analyze phonics patterns, sight word errors, and review the auto-detected miscue analysis to inform instruction and help students set personalized reading and language development goals.

3. Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader provides students with the supports they need to access text in English, regardless of language proficiency level, and promotes educational equity in the classroom. With a range of available options, it allows students to customize their learning experience and enables you to provide a variety of language scaffolds within one solution. Learn more about how you can use Immersive Reader to ensure that all MLEs have access to grade level text.

Word translation from English to Spanish and picture dictionary in Immersive Reader.

• Translate to home language: Students can translate the full text into their home language or use this translation support on a word-by-word basis. This allows students at varying degrees of English language proficiency to access the text in the language with which they are most comfortable.
• Visualize words: The Picture Dictionary tool in Immersive Reader provides a picture of the selected word, which helps MLEs to visualize the text.
• Learn parts of speech: Support understanding of sentence structure by using the Parts of Speech tool to identify and color-code nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
• Read text aloud: MLEs can build their listening and reading skills by having text read aloud. As the text is read, the words are highlighted so that students can easily follow along and match the word to the appropriate pronunciation.
• Encourage syllabication: To support overall fluency and pronunciation as well as gain a better understanding of how affixes impact word formation and meaning, students can use the Syllables tool to segment words.

4. Education Insights

Education Insights in Teams for Education aggregates student data to provide you with quick, actionable insights at the individual or class level to amplify student language development. This saves you time, so you can focus on what’s important – your students and their academic and linguistic needs. Learn more about how you can use Education Insights to inform your instruction for MLEs.

Generating a practice assignment from a challenging word cloud in Education Insights in Microsoft Teams for Education.

• Generate student practice: Develop individualized or whole class practice assignments that are tailored to the reading and language needs of MLEs in just a couple of clicks. Education Insights analyzes challenging words and phonics rules from Reading Progress and Reading Coach data to make it easier for you to look for patterns to inform instruction, create vocabulary activities, and ensure word exposure.
• Analyze progress and data: Review individual student, group, and whole class data quickly and efficiently to analyze reading progress and inform instructional decisions for MLEs.

Our Learning Accelerators offer you countless ways to support multilingual learners and scaffold instruction more efficiently. As an organization, we are committed to equity in education and deliver accessible, inclusive solutions that meet all learners’ academic, social emotional, and linguistic needs.

Learn more about Microsoft Education literacy solutions and download TESOL’s Guide to Learning Accelerators – Literacy Addition to explore activities developed to help you progress students’ English language development.

The post Accelerate learning for multilingual learners of English appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Whether a student needs Immersive Reader to read at a slower pace or only provide picture clues without narration, you can customize the learning experience and provide specific accommodations for your students. The features help students like Karrick Johnson overcome dyslexia and become confident, self-directed readers in the classroom.

Learn how to use Immersive Reader to address a variety of reading activities in your classroom.

Launch Immersive Reader whenever or wherever reading support is needed

Immersive Reader delivers built-in, non-stigmatizing help whenever students encounter difficult reading passages–like when they are asked to read and understand information in a Word document. Get started by opening Word for the web in the Microsoft Edge browser or looking for the Immersive Reader icon in another Microsoft 365 application.

Tip: If students can’t see the Immersive Reader button in the ribbon, maximize the window so that it is full screen. Select the arrow next to Immersive Reader to return to the word processor when students finish.

Adjust read aloud speech with Voice Settings

Immersive Reader reads aloud on-screen text while highlighting words, and it includes options like rate-of-speech for adjusting how passages are spoken.

• Voice Settings: Customize how Immersive Reader reads aloud passages
• Voice Speed: Increase or decrease the rate of speech
• Voice Selection: Choose the gender of the voice
• Play: Start read aloud
• Pause: Stop read aloud

Tip: Students with audio processing delays can reduce the voice speed to better understand spoken words. Others might benefit from listening to long passages at faster rates to quickly consume more content. If the voice is too fast or slow, students can return to Voice Settings and make further adjustments to completely control their reading experience.

Make on-screen text more accessible with Text Preferences

Immersive Reader allows students to change how text appears on the screen during independent reading activities. Options like line length and font spacing improve reading speed for struggling readers or those with learning disabilities like dyslexia.

• Text Preferences: Customize how Immersive Reader displays text on-screen
• Text Size: Increase or decrease character size and control line length
• Increase Spacing: Add padding between lines
• Font: Choose a font
• Themes: Change the background and font color

Tip: Adjusting options in Text Preferences causes the passage to immediately change. This helps students set up Immersive Reader so that it best displays text based on their own reading needs and improves recognition.

Use Grammar Options to integrate literacy activities into any reading passage

Immersive Reader breaks words into syllables and identifies parts of speech. Both features complement effective literacy instruction and support student reading development.

• Grammar Options: Customize on-screen text with grammatical conventions
• Syllables: Break words into syllables
• Parts of Speech: Identify and color-code nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs

Tip: Select and change the color drop-down menu to match the part of speech to an English textbook. When the color of the parts of speech in Immersive Reader corresponds to other sources, students are better able to form connections between grammatical concepts and in-class activities.

Provide individualized, just-in-time reading assistance with Reading Preferences

Immersive Reader includes line focus options, picture clues, and translation services when students need reading accommodations to understand on-screen text.

• Reading Preferences: Add tools that improve reading comprehension
• Line Focus: Show one, two, or three lines of text and mask other words
• Picture Dictionary: Show a picture and provide the pronunciation of selected words
• Translate: Choose from one of over 70 languages to translate on-screen text
• Translate (By word): Include language translation and pronunciation when using the Picture Dictionary
• Translate (Document): Convert all the on-screen text into another language
• Reading Coach: Assess fluency by recording and analyzing students as they read on-screen text

Tip: Provide varying levels of support for non-native English learners by using Document (more assistance) or by word (less assistance). Show students how Immersive Reader speaks on-screen text in another language when either option is chosen. Families can also use Immersive Reader to translate English into their preferred language provided they have a Microsoft 365 account.

Assess fluency and practice challenging words with Reading Coach

Reading Coach in Immersive Reader is a new feature that listens while a student reads aloud and automatically provides a fluency report and word identification activities.

TIP: Save time conducting assessments by using a Word document with a standard passage that all students read using Reading Coach in Immersive Reader. Encourage students to use a headset or find a quiet spot when recording for more accurate analysis. Ask students to complete practice activities and then re-record to assess growth in word identification. Learn more about using Reading Coach in Immersive Reader!

Download A Quick Guide to Immersive Reader and start using Immersive Reader today!

The post How to enhance reading instruction: a guide to Immersive Reader for educators appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Accessibility builds confidence and promotes inclusivity

We asked educators and parents in CEE how technology has impacted the lives of children with disabilities and learning difficulties. Eleni Kyriakouli, a teacher at the Rodion Pedia school in Rhodes Island, Greece, explains why she believes it has led learners to become more inclusive and supportive of others, “I think the major reason for using technology is to break down the barriers that exist between students with different abilities and promote inclusion and acceptance in the classroom.”

When a student with Asperger’s Syndrome was having difficulties communicating and interacting with the other children, she observed how using a notebook in class allowed him to have a more structured framework for collaborating with his peers, “This has led to significant improvements in his social skills, communication, and overall confidence. We see him becoming much more engaged in the classroom and making friends easily,” says Kyriakouli. Watch the video to learn more.

Learn to optimize accessibility in the classroom using Microsoft tools

When choosing the right devices for staff and students, school leaders must consider a myriad of important factors. Key among them is the need to address the challenges that many students face while pursuing their education. To learn how you can enable Microsoft accessibility tools and features, such as those provided by Windows and Teams, visit our clickable demo.

Windows is a fantastic resource for educators looking to broaden their students’ learning experience and create new support systems that enable them to achieve more. The latest version of the OS, Windows 11, features a smooth design with a focus on accessibility and ease of use. It includes a wide range of built-in apps and tools made to support learners with physical disabilities, learning difficulties, as well as the hearing and visually impaired.

One incredibly helpful tool that is often used by students of all ages to improve fluency, comprehension and focus is Immersive Reader. This literacy tool is available in Word, OneNote, Microsoft Edge and Teams and allows users to customize the reading experience according to their individual needs and personal goals. Readers can simplify page layouts, remove clutter, break text into syllables and increase spacing between lines and letters, all with a click of a button. Immersive Reader’s text decoding solutions encourage independent reading and are especially helpful for students with learning differences such as dyslexia and dysgraphia. The tool is free and can be used by anyone who wants to make reading on their device easier.

Another great tool, and one that is especially useful for students with physical disabilities, is Voice Access. It allows users to control their device and author text using only a microphone and their voice. Students can switch between apps, browse the internet, and compose emails, all without typing. This feature does not require an internet connection and can be accessed at any time. Similarly, learners can use the voice typing tool to enter text on their devices by speaking. The tool is powered by Azure Speech services, supports multiple languages and has an automated punctuation feature which allows for faster typing and increased efficiency in writing.

Narrator is a screen-reading app that enables visually impaired students to explore what is on their screen and navigate between menus. Users can choose from multiple languages and a selection of natural-sounding voices to guide them along. For students who are deaf or hard of hearing, the Live Captions tool provides an automatic transcription of any audio and displays it on screen in real-time. Live Captions integrates with the Windows desktop, so students can read the captions even while working in other apps. Users can also customize how the captions appear on the screen.

Using Microsoft Teams, educators can encourage and support students to become independent learners, freeing up more time for teachers to address students’ individual needs. The app serves as a hub for real-time collaboration, group projects, meetings, file sharing, and more. Chosen by more than 240.000 educational institutions around the world, it is a practical and versatile tool that has become the favorite of many teachers and students alike. Teams has a number of built-in apps that are designed to expand its functionality, help educators become more efficient and enable self-learning.

One of these tools is a free app that allows teachers to support and track reading fluency in the classroom. After receiving a reading assignment, students will record their reading on camera and submit it back to the teacher. Reading Progress will detect the student’s reading level, pronunciation, and fluency, and highlight the results. As the work is being reviewed, data is automatically collected and organized into actionable insights, enabling the teacher to spend more time with the student and less time analyzing data.

Reading Coach is a Teams integrated app that builds on the success of Reading Progress by identifying the words that each student struggled with the most and presenting them again, prior to the assignment being turned in. This allows the student to continue practicing and to pursue their reading goals independently. Being able to see the progress they are making in real-time can help boost the child’s level of confidence as they continue to improve their reading.

Students using Reading Progress and Reading Coach

How new technologies continue to fuel accessibility in the classroom

In a recent episode of the Edu TechKit Podcast, a series exploring the latest in education technology for teachers and students, host Denis Chiurtu and guests discuss the growing interest in assistive technology solutions, “This is a very important topic, in my opinion, especially when we see [that] a lot of people and governments are taking steps towards making education inclusive,” says Diana Ghazaryan, K-12 Industry Executive for CEE and member of Microsoft’s Steering Committee. She notes that companies, and society at large, are missing out on a considerable talent pool when schools fail to engage students with disabilities by providing an inclusive learning experience.

In addition to Microsoft’s unique product offering and built-in assistive solutions, there is one other project that she believes holds great promise for the future. AI for Accessibility is a Microsoft initiative involving researchers, academics and developers around the world working together to build intelligent solutions powered by Microsoft’s cognitive services. “The grants are provided to those who develop the application for disabled people, with disabled people,” says Ghazaryan. This ensures that each team has a fundamental understanding of the needs of its intended audience. Listen to the full podcast episode.

Accessibility in the classroom is about using the resources at our disposal to reflect and support the differences of everyone. Technology can be a great catalyst for creating equal access to learning and empowering students of all ages and abilities to achieve more. Find out more about Microsoft’s accessibility tools for learning here. Join Microsoft’s Supporting Accessibility in Education Webinar in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day and find out how to broaden your institution’s reach using Microsoft tools for accessibility.

The post Celebrate empowering students to succeed on Global Accessibility Awareness Day appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.