Read:OutLoud 6 Personal Review, October 14, 2011
By Reviewer from Illinois
Product Setting: Home setting/school setting (graduate school). Skill Development: Improve reading comprehension and speed in a student with dyslexia.
I received the version of this product that came along with a
Bookshare membership. Using it to "read" Daisy book downloads has been
very helpful. It took a little while to figure it out, and I know there
is probably a lot more that I could do if I spent the time learning all
what the program has to offer. However, for what I need it to do-which
is read allowed the page of writing while I follow along the words, it
works great. One of the of the most helpful things is being able to
change the background/word color as I have found that makes it much,
much easier to read it. I am in graduate school, struggling to keep up
with the reading load and this has been helping.
Using Read:OutLoud Bookshare Edition for Students with Learning Disabilities, January 29, 2010
By Hillary Brumer, Maine
Version: Read:OutLoud Bookshare Edition Product Setting: Inclusion Classroom. Skill Development: Increase student's comprehension of text, Increase student's ability to access the general curriculum by using Read:Out Loud Bookshare Edition to read the text to the student.
Having access to Read:OutLoud Bookshare edition has transformed the lives of our students. Once frustrated, now empowered, students are motivated to learn, and can keep up with the pace of the general curriculum. The Read:OutLoud Bookshare Edition can be installed on any machine. Both Macintosh and Windows versions are responsive and easy to use. I will never forget the first student I used Read:OutLoud with. We did some pre-teaching with the student on how to access books and read them. We downloaded The BFG by Roald Dahle. When he clicked on the speak icon and heard the text reading to him, his face lit up like a Christmas Tree. He did not want to stop reading!
On another occasion, a female high school student reported that her Reading test was a 93 after using Read:OutLoud to read her class novel. She uses Read:OutLoud in conjunction with her book for a multi-sensory experience, which she feels helped increase her understanding of the text, and improved her test score.
Read:OutLoud BookShare Edition, January 29, 2010
By Amy Garrett, Iowa
Version: Read:OutLoud Bookshare Editon Product Setting: General and special education classroom, Middle and High School levels. Skill Development: Increase independence for students who have physically limitations. Increase participation in general education curriculum. Increase access to print.
Students who are unable to hold books or turn pages are now able to independently access literature and textbooks with Read:OutLoud. The Bookshare (http://bookshare.org)collection and Don Johnston have enabled students to read without a teacher associate, friend or parent standing by to turn the pages. Text is quickly downloaded within Read:OutLoud. The text converting and preparing chores are eliminated, freeing staff to focus on instruction rather than technicalities. The students are competent readers and do not use the speech feature. I expect reading skills to increase as a result of exposure to print and quick access to topics of interest, which is a major difficulty for individuals with physical limitations. The highlighting and note taking features can be accessed with alternative input methods such as a joystick and an on-screen keyboard. The Read:OutLoud BookShare Edition is free!
