Microsoft announces standalone Microsoft Reading Coach for classroom use

Microsoft has announced that its Reading Coach app is now available as a standalone application for classroom use. The app, which was previously only available in Microsoft Teams, can help students improve their reading skills through personalized and engaging practice.

With Reading Coach, students can access AI-generated stories that match their reading abilities and interests. The app also provides a library of leveled passages from ReadWorks, allowing learners to practice reading with a variety of content.

One of the key features of Reading Coach is its ability to generate unique stories for each student using AI. The stories follow Microsoft’s AI guidelines and are moderated for content quality and safety, which has been under, let’s just say, under the influence lately, due to the lack of a better word. The app also lets students read from previously written content and allows teachers to add their own story content.

It also uses speech recognition to analyze how students read and detect words they find challenging. After each reading session, the app provides an overall score and can generate word practice sessions with those challenging words. To motivate students, Reading Coach offers rewards such as badges and access to new characters and settings for future AI-created stories.

With the release of Reading Coach as a standalone app, Microsoft aims to provide educators with an accessible and engaging tool to support literacy development in the classroom.

More here.