MindPlay Virtual Reading Coach
Written report: Serido & Wilhelm (2008)

Summary

Descriptive Information

My Reading Coach is a applied science-based program that uses an interactive video teacher. 61 computer-based lessons are delivered directly to the student via an embedded Speech Pathologist and special needs instructor. Supplemental teacher-directed activities and support materials accompany the program. Students alternate between virtual on-line instruction and a series of upward to 9 activities that must be mastered before moving on to more avant-garde lessons. The order of the online lessons reflects a model of speech acquisition: sounds are presented based on ease of producing and blending sounds together. MRC™ instruction begins with sound production, and sound/symbol clan using written letters and emphasizing auditory and visual bigotry skills. Once the letter and its audio are introduced, the pupil begins a series of activities (due east.g., elevate and drop letters to build words, visual and auditory recognition of words/images, visual and auditory discrimination amongst multiple words/images). A 10,000-item feedback tabular array pinpoints each student's specific error allowing each to student receive unique targeted, specific feedback on his error to maximize learning. Comprehension is taught equally early as lesson thirty with decodable passages from graded from K – 10.v. In that location are 24 grammar lessons that are introduced equally early on as lesson 8. These lessons assistance students progress from reading words, to sentences, to paragraphs and finally at lesson 30 to comprehension with graded stories. The computer program groups students with similar skills so that teachers tin work with students in modest groups or on a one-on¬-one ground using offline comprehension exercises, called Adept Sheets. Each time students master a ready of four online lessons, reading 1 of the Expert Sheets is recommended. In addition to reading for accuracy, these sheets emphasize: inflection, proper pausing, to enable students to read with prosody. Prosody is also direct taught in the MRC program. Additional offline supplemental lessons and remediation activities are provided so that teachers tin work directly with students having difficulty mastering an online lesson. Fluent Reading Trainer (FLRT™) is an online program designed to systematically increase reading speed while ensuring good reading comprehension. FLRT™ provides individualized fluency practice to foster efficient eye move, center teaming convergence and efficient left-to-correct eye-tracking. Once students have completed the pre-reading activities, they practice reading passages to increase silent reading speed and comprehension. Students are presented with a series questions afterwards reading passages to assess comprehension. Once the student'due south initial reading speed and comprehension form level is determined past the program, FLRT selects passages that are challenging and doable for each student. Student performance is continually monitored by FLRT™ and subsequent passages are selected enabling every student to consummate 3 – v passages in a 30 minute time block. FLRT's pick of passages is dependent on course level, the text length, and the number of words in the passage. This algorithm enables each student to read an entire passage in 3 – 5 minutes. A student reading 100 words per infinitesimal would get a 300-350 give-and-take passage. A student reading at 250 words per minute would become a 750 – 850 word passage. Reading passages are presented to the educatee based on his/her current reading form level and charge per unit and advance to more complex passages as the student'southward reading skills improve.

Target Grades:
2, 3, 4, five, 6, vii, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Target Populations:
  • Students with disabilities just
  • Students with learning disabilities
  • Students with emotional or behavioral disabilities
  • English language learners
  • Any educatee at gamble for academic failure
Expanse(s) of Focus:
  • Phonological awareness
  • Phonological sensation
  • Phonics/discussion study
  • Comprehension
  • Fluency
  • Spelling
  • Spelling
  • Sentence construction
  • Other: Grammar

Conquering & Cost

Where to Obtain:
MindPlay®, Division of Methods and Solutions, Inc.
440 Southward. William Blvd. Suite 206 Tucson, AZ 85711
520-888-1800
www.mindplay.com
Initial Cost:
$299.00 per student
Replacement Price:
Contact vendor for pricing details.

Pricing: • Implementations in about schools are past concurrent connection (the number of students who tin can use the program at the same time), not past the total number of students entered in to the plan. • There are home-user product designed for families. This is limited to one specific student for one twelvemonth. That is the merely version available direct from MindPlay itself. • Technical support is free within the active lifecycle of a production. • Toll varies on implementation type. MindPlay develops the software, sales and independent representatives handle pricing. Included in the purchases: Support Materials: Consist of complete program software, instructor guide. The teacher guides offer a comprehensive description of the lessons and activities, and report details. In addition : MRC™ provides a colorful poster of key lessons, teacher manual with over 300 blackline masters for Phonics, Grammer and Comprehension - "Read-Like-Yous-Talk®" lessons. Blacklines are also printable directly from the program

Training & Technical Support

Staff Qualified to Administer Include:
  • Special Educational activity Teacher
  • General Education Teacher
  • Reading Specialist
  • Math Specialist
  • EL Specialist
  • Interventionist
  • Student Support Services Personnel (e.k., advisor, social worker, school psychologist, etc.)
  • Paraprofessional
  • Other:
Training Requirements:
iv-8 hours of training

The local vendor provides training from a certified MindPlay trainer. MindPlay has a minimum standard required training expectation to include: Initial Implementation for My Reading Coach (MRC™) - 4 hours and FLRT™- a Fluent Reading Trainer - 2 hours. Initial Preparation sessions are designed to set the site coordinator and targeted teachers with the ability to successfully implement these MindPlay products into their school. The goal is to provide the site coordinator and targeted teachers with the skills to effectively implement and integrate the technology programs into the school's existing curriculum. This includes using the management and reporting features of the programs. The training includes hands-on interaction with the software programs, strategies for using technology in the school effectively, written report and data tracking, goal setting and individual school needs. Follow-Up Grooming is bachelor per private site every bit requested and can include: o Visitation of classes/students/teachers utilizing the CAI programs FLRT™, MRC™ o Observation of teacher/student utilizing supplemental support lessons o Follow-up training with site coordinator on using U-ARC Management features. o Reports and data assay for each program o Meet with Site Coordinator and/or principal to look at data generated from benchmark assessments. o Create a Schoolhouse Data Snapshot that utilize data from criterion and/or school multiple measures to found and monitor goals. o Provide a schoolhouse wide instructor and/or parent presentation on Programs Overview and respond questions about programme goals, usage, etc. o Discussions o Teacher Options/Management Organization o Questions/Concerns

Training presentations and materials have been compiled into the electric current Professional Teaching Guide and Training Syllabus. Because staff preparation for My Reading Coach is mandatory, the materials have been used with thousands of teacher and students. Their feedback is the bases for revisions, which are incorporated into the manual and the programme. A Director of Education Services was hired in 2009 to assist in monitoring the effectiveness and consistency of training provided. The best practices learned from the My Reading Motorbus training have been replicated in the FLRT™ training.

Admission to Technical Support:
Educators may obtain professional and technical support through several methods, all of which are free. An in-house technical support staff is available past calling 800-221-7911. The squad members have been directly involved in the development, testing, and implementation of all products so they are aware of the instructional methodology besides as technical aspects of the plan. An due east-mail accost is dedicated to technical support, and the Web site offers downloadable updates, answers to frequently asked questions, and a support knowledge base of operations. Independent software dealers provide local, in-person support. All trainers and back up staff must be certified past MindPlay, Inc, are trained by company personnel, and must pass oral and written examinations.

Administration

Recommended Assistants Formats Include:
  • Individual students
  • Modest group of students
Minimum Number of Minutes Per Session:
twenty
Minimum Number of Sessions Per Week:
iv
Minimum Number of Weeks:
10
Detailed Implementation Manual or Instructions Available:
Yes
Is Technology Required?
  • Reckoner or tablet
  • Internet connexion
  • Other technology: Appendix B: MRC™ Technical Requirements, Appendix C: FLRT™ Technical Requirements My Reading Passenger vehicle WAN Edition Arrangement Requirements Server (Windows) Hardware Requirements CPU Intel Pentium 4 (or equivalent) or better CPU, at to the lowest degree one processor for every 100 simultaneous connections RAM 512 MB RAM baseline, plus an additional 128 MB RAM for every twenty simultaneous connections (minimum 1.5 gigabytes of RAM) Deejay Infinite ane Gigabyte of costless hard drive space DVD drive Recommended: a RAID deejay assortment, tape backup, or other grade of disaster recovery for the server'due south hard drive containing the student data. Requirements listed are for a server defended to My Reading Coach. A non-dedicated server may crave more RAM and/or processing power, depending on what else is being used and the server load. Network requirements • TCP/IP network • The server must have a static IP address • The server must exist reachable (via TCP/IP) from all the workstations that will run My Reading Autobus. • The TCP/IP port used past the database managing director must not be blocked by whatsoever firewalls over the wide area network (the connections between the schools/sites and the commune/arrangement). MySQL uses TCP port 3306 by default. Microsoft SQL Server uses TCP ports 1433 and 445 by default. • A read-but network share visible to all workstations running My Reading Motorcoach. • Recommended: 100-megabit Ethernet on the internal networks. At least a T1 connection betwixt the district/organization and each of the private schools/sites. Software requirements • A Windows Server OS (Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003) • At least enough Customer Access Licenses (CALs) for Windows Server to match the maximum number of My Reading Coach connections. • A database managing director. Supported database managers are MySQL Server – supplied with My Reading Coach WAN Edition on the Setup CD with a license for use with My Reading Passenger vehicle only. Microsoft SQL Server – must be purchased independently and installed prior to the My Reading Coach WAN Server Setup. SQL hallmark is required. Windows authentication is non supported. Other requirements • Someone at the district-level needs to exist in charge of the programme as a whole—adding schools to the database, allocating connections to the schools and retrieving lost/forgotten passwords for the program administrators at the schools. Server (Macintosh) Hardware Requirements CPU Intel Core ii, i.5GHz or better RAM 1 gigabyte RAM baseline, plus an additional 128 MB RAM for every 20 simultaneous connections (minimum 2 gigabytes of RAM) Disk Space ane Gigabyte of complimentary hard drive space DVD drive Recommended: a RAID disk assortment, tape fill-in, or other course of disaster recovery for the server's hard drive containing the educatee information. Requirements listed are for a server dedicated to My Reading Omnibus. A non-defended server may require more RAM and/or processing power, depending on what else is beingness used and the server load. Network requirements • TCP/IP network • The server must have a static IP address • The server must be reachable (via TCP/IP) from all the workstations that will run My Reading Coach. • The TCP/IP port used by the database manager must not exist blocked by any firewalls over the wide area network (the connections betwixt the schools/sites and the district/organization). MySQL uses TCP port 3306 by default. • Recommended: 100-megabit Ethernet on the internal networks. At least a T1 connexion between the district/organisation and each of the individual schools/sites. Software requirements • Mac Bone 10.4 or better • MySQL Server – supplied with My Reading Coach WAN Edition on the Setup CD with a license for utilize with My Reading Passenger vehicle but. Other requirements • Someone at the district-level needs to be in charge of the program every bit a whole—calculation schools to the database, allocating connections to the schools and retrieving lost/forgotten passwords for the program administrators at the schools. My Reading Coach WAN Edition System Requirements Workstation (Windows) Hardware Requirements CPU 1Ghz (or improve) RAM 512 MB (1GB for Vista) Graphics Carte SVGA (xvi-bit color) Hard disk drive Gratuitous Space (Platinum) iii.five gigabytes (GB) Hard disk Free Space (Platinum/Spanish) 7 gigabytes (GB) HD Gratuitous Space (Gold) 3 gigabytes (GB) Likewise: DVD bulldoze; Audio carte with speakers (headphones recommended) Optional: Printer; Microphone Software requirements • A Windows XP or newer • Platinum: Direct X ix.0c (installed by setup if needed) • Adobe Wink ix (installed past setup if needed) • Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 or later on Workstation (Macintosh) Development of the native Mac version of My Reading Coach has been discontinued. In lieu of the native Mac version, nosotros are recommending installing the Parallels Desktop virtual machine, setting up a Windows virtual machine with either Windows XP or Vista, and installing the Windows version of My Reading Passenger vehicle in that virtual auto. System requirements for Parallels Desktop are CPU Intel processor only RAM 1GB Operating System Bone 10.4.9 HD Infinite (Parallels/Windows/MRC) five gigabytes