Digital tools on this page support learners that will benefit from the read aloud accommodation.
Is your student an auditory learner? Does your student suffer from a reading processing disorder? Do you have a student who can remember things more clearly when they hear them? Do you have a student who reads at one or more levels below their current grade?
General Administration Directions: Read Aloud, Repeat as Needed - These words are very familiar to any instructor who has worked with learners with specific learning disabilities in reading, as they frequently appear as required accommodations on IEP's and 504 Plans. Read-alouds and repeat as needed directions provide a challenge for teachers who have a classroom full of diverse students that they must provide instruction to with minimal disruption. It can also be an accommodation that exceptional learners dread taking advantage of because it often requires them to be singled out. The following digital tools provide options for instructors to accommodate learners who need read-aloud assistance in ways that empower their independence as students and build their confidence as life-long learners who can work at a level on par with their peers when provided with the opportunity.
Speak It!Google Chrome Extension - This tool is a simple extension to the Chrome browser that allows you to highlight text and hear it read.
Microsoft's Immersive Reader - Immersive Reader is now found in most of Microsoft's products. It's a fantastic part of tools like the OneNote Class Notebook. It also appears in partner products like Flipgrid. It allows students to hear text, but it also provides extended accessibility by allowing the learner to change the font, spacing, and color theme. Learners can highlight nouns, verbs, and adjectives to provide the maximum amount of comprehension while the student listens.
Digital Textbooks - In today's world we are seeing more often the replacement of traditional textbooks with digital versions. Many of these digital textbooks provide accessibility tools for learners. One example is Discovery Education's "Speak Text" feature that allows students to highlight and hear the text and the directions and questions included with in it, as needed.
Read Aloud - A Text to Speech Voice Reader (Google extension) - This particular extension does not require a student to select the text. It works with online articles and texts, and when selected simply begins reading until the learner stops it.
Teacher Recordings (Loom, Screencastify) - There are assignments and assessments that simply do not work well with text readers. They may include diagrams, formulas, charts, graphs, etc. that will not translate using a digital tool. In this case, the teacher may wish to record the text for the student. There are a number of great tools available including Screencastify and Loom. These recording tools allow for a teacher to read through an assignment or assessment for the student and tie it to online classroom tools such as Google Classroom providing maximum independence and accessibility for the learner.
Actively Learn - This site provides instructors with thousands of texts at various grade and lexile levels. It also allows teachers to upload their own text. Within this text teachers can embed extra support for learners, to include examples and explanations of difficult to comprehend words or sections of texts. Actively learn allows the reader to highlight text to have it read to them. When combined with extra support clues from the teacher this can become a read aloud tool that increases comprehension dramatically.
PowerPoint - Using the Mix tab tools in PowerPoint allows teachers to use a slide recorder that inserts a reader on each slide of the presentation and even allows the teacher to draw on the slides as they speak. There is also a screen recorder tool that allows you to recorder a video of you working on your desktop to insert in your PowerPoint. These allow students to self pace through a presentation, increasing comprehension and providing the student with a needed accommodation.
Read and Write is an amazing tool for student expression. It includes text to speech, screenshot reader, dictionary, picture dictionary, word prediction, and more. It works well with PDF's, webpages, google docs, and google slides. This tool would allow students to work through assignments and use the tools to help them respond. It's only downside is that all tools are only available in the paid version. There is a free version with some limited features and educators can get the paid version for free for a year by visiting. https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/read-write/free-for-teachers/
Snap and Read is a Don Johnston Inc. chrome extension. This is a paid extension available to districts who purchase the programs. (All CMCSS teachers have access to Snap and Read via Classlink.) Snap and Read offers a variety of read aloud possibilities! Students can have text on any webpage read to them from the top to the bottom, or select a small portion of the text to read using a highlight box. The program also translates text and reads it aloud in a variety of languages.