Tech Tools to Help Improve Reading Comprehension - HoET145

Feedback, Shoutouts, and Links

• New listener – Kirsten Thompson (Manitoba, Canada)
• The 2019 HOET Smackdown is almost here and I’m a little sad to report that I’ve only gotten two submissions. So episode 147 might be a very short episode. So if you were thinking I’ll get too many and wouldn’t include you, the door is wide open! I want you to share the tech tool, app, website, or strategy that you loved here in 2019. Gather your thoughts and send me an audio recording. You can vox me, my UN is mrnesi, you can call the HOET Feedback line @ 732-903-4869, you can click the SpeakPipe button anywhere on chrisnesi.com to send a message or you could record your self and send me an email with an attached recording. Send those to feedback@chrisnesi.com and put 2019 Smackdown in the subject. Be sure to include who you are, what your role in education is, and how people can connect with you. Remember…if you just sent me text you take your chances with the quality of the impression I do of you is. So you’re better off sending me audio.

#EdTech Thought

• Followup to episode 144 – Forget #FutureReady. Let’s Get Now Ready!

Featured Content

Students struggling to understand and remember what they’ve read — whether or not they have learning disabilities — can use tech tools to hear, map, annotate, and see their books, stories, and other assignments in new ways.

Rewordify.com

• A student enters hard sentences (or whole chapters) by copying and pasting. You can also enter a web site URL. Then you click Rewordify text and students will instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding. The reworded words are highlighted— click them to hear and learn the original harder word. Students can change how the highlighting works to match the way they learn!
• Rewordify will help your students learn more words faster. Their exclusive Learning Sessions actively teach words so students learn them. Any time you paste in a block of text, their software finds all the hard words, lets students pick which ones they want to learn, and then teaches them in a Learning Session.

Original Text

ROMEO

• Why, such is love’s transgression.
• Grief’s of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
• Which thou wilt propogate, to have it prest
• With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
• Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
• Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
• Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
• Being vex’d a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears:
• What is it else? a madness most discreet,
• A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
• Farewell, my coz.

Rewordify modification

ROMEO

• Why, such is love’s crime.
• Sadnesses (about death) of my own lie heavy in my breast,
• Which you will spread, to have it prest
• With more of your/yours: this love that you have shown
• Does add more sadness (about death) to too much of my own.
• Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
• Being cleared/cleaned, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
• Being frustrated and upset a sea fed with lovers’ tears:
• What is it else? a madness most quiet (so nobody else will know),
• A choking rude boldness and a preserving sweet.
• Goodbye, my coz.

Snap & Read

• According to their website, Snap&Read is the Next-Generation reading tool for Google Chrome, iPad and more, that can cover the most diverse reading needs. It reads both accessible and inaccessible text aloud, it levels vocabulary, and it translates, delivering usage data to teachers who then can more easily assess students’ reading needs individually.
• Created for students and teachers, Snap&Read Universal is a Google Chrome extension that reads language aloud (including text on Flash-based websites that typically can’t be copied and pasted) using integrated text-to-speech with synchronized highlighting.
• To aid in reading comprehension, Snap&Read allows students to use a text-leveling tool similar to the one found on Rewordify.com. Students can select the text that they have a hard time understanding, and the Web browser extension will identify and replace difficult words with simpler ones. The level of linguistic complexity can be adjusted in the Options tab.
• In addition, Snap&Read has a unique outlining tool that can also help with reading comprehension. After it is activated, students can highlight the main ideas of reading, and those passages are automatically extracted and placed into an outline located in the browser’s sidebar that can be easily edited. The outline can then be dragged and dropped into a word processor, like Google Docs, for students to integrate into a reading summary.
• Snap&Read is free to try and you can contact them about pricing for an individual, parents, educator, and whole school and district pricing.

Immersion Reading

• Immersion Reading takes you deeper into a story than ever before! This functionality allows you to read a Kindle eBook and listen to its professionally narrated Audible companion Audiobook – all at the same time. Not only that, but you get the benefit of real-time highlighting, making Immersion Reading a valuable tool to boost reading comprehension and overall retention of content.
• This would allow students to read books with their eyes and ears at the same time, leading to better comprehension and retention of the subject matter. Since it does not rely on synthesized text-to-speech and instead uses the vocal performance of a professional actor or broadcaster, it makes auditory reinforcement of written text a more authentic multisensory experience.
• The following devices support Immersion Reading:
  • Kindle App for iOS
  • Kindle App for Android
  • Fire Tablets 2nd Gen and above

House of #EdTech VIP

Lindsey Pietrocola

• Digital Literacy Teacher, K-3, in Piscataway, NJ
• She also serves as a Technology Coordinator
• Google CE and Apple Teacher
• You can learn more about Lindsey on her blog – https://eduplugged.weebly.com/
• https://twitter.com/eduplugged