Reading Assistant Software

Frequently Asked Questions

Notice: At this moment, Reading Assistant is still only available in our Greenwich, CT learning center. We will be providing the program to parents at home later in 2011.

Who should use Reading Assistant?

Reading Assistant is designed to be used by any student who has attained basic word recognition and decoding skills and is now building his/her vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. This includes students as young as first grade, all the way up to adults.

Reading Assistant has solutions designed to implement with Response to Intervention programs for all student tiers.

When Does Gemm Use Reading Assistant?

We offer this program only to students have completed the cognitive skills training in Fast ForWord. It is offered in concert with the Fast ForWord Reading series. 

How does Reading Assistant support vocabulary?

Reading Assistant helps students learn and retain vocabulary word meanings by providing:

• Audible syllabification

• Dictionary definition

• Contextual sentence

• Picture representation in most instances

How does Reading Assistant build Fluency?

Reading fluency is the ability to read with sufficient ease and accuracy that one can focus attention on the meaning and message of the text.

Reading Assistant builds fluency by providing:

• Oral reading practice

• Supportive intervention

• Repeated reading

• Review words

• Feedback on fluency (words correct per minute)

How does Reading Assistant foster Reading Comprehension?

Reading Assistant ensures reading comprehension by providing:

1/ Question Answering. Comprehension questions are presented at the end of each passage. Students can not take the quiz unless they have read the entire selection.

2/ Comprehension Monitoring.  In material for grades 5-11, embedded comprehension questions ensure attention to meaning and comprehension in the course of reading.  Students quickly learn to focus their attention on meaning so that they can answer these questions without resorting to time-consuming reviews of the text they have just read. They learn that it is far more efficient and valuable to think while they read than it is to read quickly, but, without thought.

Question Answering and Comprehension Monitoring as research proven methods for ensuring comprehension.

Is Reading Assistant research-based?

Yes. According to the report of the National Reading Panel, "classroom practices that encourage repeated oral reading with feedback and guidance leads to meaningful improvements in reading expertise for students—for good readers as well as those who are experiencing difficulty." With Reading Assistant, the computer becomes the supportive listener that ensures all students can regularly practice oral reading while receiving immediate, individual feedback from Scientific Learning's advanced speech-recognition software.

Is Reading Assistant research validated?

Yes. The impact of Reading Assistant on fluency growth was evaluated with mainstream students in Grades 2-5.  Half of the classrooms in two schools used the software in thirty-minute sessions, once or twice a week over 17 weeks. Across all four grades, fluency gains were significantly greater for students who used the software than those who did not, averaging 43% (E.S.=0.91) greater than normative expectations over grades. Project sponsored by the Carlisle Foundation and NICHD.

How often should students use Reading Assistant?

Readers in grades 2 and up, who have attained basic word recognition and decoding skills, will benefit from two to five 30-minute sessions each week with Reading Assistant.

What do the quiz questions assess?

The comprehension questions are designed to review main ideas, key concepts, core arguments, and vocabulary from the passage. The question types include inferential and literal comprehension, analysis, prediction, and summary.

Sample quiz questions. The correct answer(s) appears in bold.

Reading Selection: Ah-Choo

Q: This poem takes place
A: on a farm.
A: in the city.
A: on a boat.
A: at the beach.

Reading Selection: From Smoke Signals to Newspapers

Q: Which word means burst into flame?
A: FLARED
A. LANTERN
A. SPURRING
A. INVADERS

Reading Selection: About the Brain

Q: An AXON is the part of a neuron that
A: sends signals to other neurons.
A: releases neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft.
A: receives signals from other neurons.
A: is covered with receptors that respond to neurotransmitters.

Does the software support ELL students?

Yes. In addition to the features of Read to Me, Show Vocabulary, Record My Reading, and Play My Reading, Version 4.0 allows the teacher to enable Spanish language support for a student. When this feature is activated, the glossary will contain an Español button which displays the glossary term in Spanish and plays a Spanish audio file.  In addition, the student can click on any word to hear the correct pronunciation of a word