I am really excited about this latest release from Microsoft of Reading Coach. For anyone wanting to learn or improve their reading skills in any one of 14 languages, this is a fantastic, fun and functional way to learn. New in this release is streaks, something I mentioned in another post as a positive social media “trick” that is having a positive impact in the education space. Progress tracking is also new and welcome. Designed with kids, or rather students in mind, the story creation content is more than appropriate for our education environment and the entire tool is designed to help learners get the most out of independent reading practice. Apart from being free, the fact it can be used privately by parents at home or in school with the added functionality of reading progress for both class level and individual assessment and insights.
Before you practice reading, you can work your way through the text, clicking on it to hear each word. The pictorial dictionary is not available with Chinese and possibly other languages, but you do get to hear each character which is good enough.
