Soliloquy ships The Reading Assistant Manager
updated 01:25 pm EDT, Tue October 5, 2004
Soliloquy reading tutor
Soliloquy Learning today began shipping , a new network software program that works with children individually at their own pace to improve their reading skills. It provides a guided oral reading experience to students in grades 1.5 to 6 through the use of its propriety Speech Recognition/Reading Verification technology. The program listens to students as they read, provides intelligent intervention when they need it, and reports their performance to their teacher. Soliloquy says it "uses extremely accurate speech recognition that can be matched only by human reading assistants and teachers."
The Reading Assistant Manager extends the amount of time that students are able to practice reading aloud at school and supplements teachers' reading lessons. It provides students with quick and easy access to reading assignments from any computer on the network, enabling educators to manage oral reading resources in the classroom and providing on-going assessment and reports. The system also offers easy export of reading data to student information systems.
Students begin by choosing a story to read as well as a corresponding "Power Point" goal that students can see when making their selection. Higher point values are given to longer and more difficult texts. Power Points motivate students to challenge themselves and to repeat readings for extra practice. Appropriate, leveled content is provided from popular magazines used in classrooms, such as Spider, Ladybug, Click and Cricket. Literature selections include poetry, fiction, non-fiction and chapter books. They are organized into four libraries -- Anthology 1: Primary, Anthology 2: Elementary, Anthology 3: Intermediate, and Single Titles Collection. Teachers can choose stories by topic and grade range.
The software requires that students need to use a set of earphones and a microphone, which is included with the software. Each reading session begins with a microphone check and software-based adjustments allow teachers to adjust how strictly the program should evaluate the student's pronunciation. Students can either read the selection or listen to a model of fluent reading by having the computer read to them with a "Read to Me" feature.
The Reading Assistant Manager allows students to help themselves and work independently. When a student gets stuck on a word, voice recognition technology highlights the word on-screen, corrects the pronunciation, prompts the student to repeat the word, and encourages him to read on for comprehension. The computer tracks mispronounced and difficult words for later review. A context sensitive "Glossary" feature also lets students check the definition of any word underlined in a passage.
New reporting, network features
The Reading Assistant Manager provides teachers and administrators with reporting features and enables students and teachers to log into any computer connected to their schools' network to access their work. Teachers can also make automatic assignments for students and classes all in one place from their own computer. Reports include Usage, Fluency, ESL, free lunch, and other custom report options.
The Reading Assistant Manager draws from the content of Soliloquy's updated The Reading Assistant Version 3 library of CD-ROM programs and supports both No-Child-Left-Behind and Reading First legislations. It has also been reviewed by the Center for Applied Software Technology (CAST) for compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act supporting students who have special needs.
The Reading Assistant Manager is sold in packages for five to 50 users through Soliloquy Learning. This product includes the complete The Reading Assistant Version 3 library for grades 1-6, and a headset with earphones and a noise-reducing microphone for each user. The starting price is $2,000. The Reading Assistant Version 3 is also available now as a hybrid CD-ROM (without the reporting/central management features). It is $60 and includes a headset with earphones and a microphone. A free upgrade to Version 3 is offered to current The Reading Assistant users.
