Having difficulty getting students reading in class? I recently came across a new feature in Microsoft Teams where teachers can now assign reading passages for students based on their lexile levels. Not only that, Teams will also measure the students’ words read correctly per minute score after each passage is read. This would give teachers the ability to provide multiple passages throughout the year to collect data showing students improving their reading fluency!
As students read aloud the passage to a device with a microphone, Microsoft Teams will measure the students words read per minute score, as well as, the number of mispronunciations, omissions, and/or insertions. The best part about this new feature is that it gives teachers the option to upload their own reading samples or to choose from a template library of reading samples based on lexile scores.
To be able to use this feature with your students, teachers and students will need to use their Microsoft 365 accounts provided by your county. Once students login to their Microsoft 365 account, they can open Microsoft Teams and work within the platform.
How To Get Started
First, teachers can open Microsoft Teams by logging into their Microsoft 365 account. When teachers click “create a team” it will create a class for their students. They can create a team for each period or create a team for all of their students.
After teachers have created their class, they can invite students from the students’ Microsoft 365 emails provided from the county. Student names will start to populate once the teacher begins to type the students’ first and last names.
After students have been invited to their “Teams” class, teachers can create their own assignment. Teachers can title the assignment the name of the passage with instructions. Then, teachers will click “attach” and “reading progress” and will be able to choose between uploading their own reading passage or choosing from already uploaded reading passages by clicking on “browse sample library.”
The browse sample library feature is AMAZING! It provides many different reading passages based on lexile level or grade level. Once the teacher chooses a passage, they can preview the passage to see if they are interested in assigning it to their students. Then, they can choose the number of attempts that students will be able to record and whether or not they want the students video to be on or off.
After the teacher has uploaded the passage they can continue to edit the assignment by assigning a rubric, points, and due dates. This feature also gives you the option to assign the reading passage to a select group of students rather than the whole class. This option will help with differentiating the reading assignments based on different lexile levels.
Student Perspective
For students to access the reading passage assignment, they will have to login to their Microsoft 365 account. Then, they will select Microsoft Teams from the apps provided on their account. After they open teams, they can find your class under the teams button on the left side panel. Once they open the teacher’s class, they will see the assignment with the due date. When students open the assignment they can click on the title of the passage. The computer will then ask if the Microsoft Teams can access the microphone and camera. Students will have to press allow to both.
Students can begin reading as soon as the passage appears. If students want to change the screen’s appearance, they can choose different text sizes, spacing, font, and color themes. It will pause the reading while they choose their options so that it doesn’t affect their words read correct per minute data.
After students finish reading the passage, they will click on the “I’m done” button at the bottom of their passage. Then, they will click next and turn in assignment.
Teacher Perspective
The best part about this is the data that the teacher will receive! Teachers can listen to the recording to make sure the errors were accurately recorded. If the teacher clicks on the word it will fast forward in the video to that specific word so the teacher does not have to listen to the entire video clip again. The data will provide a words read correct per minute score, mispronunciations, omissions, insertions, repetitions, and self corrections. As students begin to upload several passages, each student will have a graph over time showing how their reading has changed over time.
Saved By the Beldin 