Reading Supports

Kent ISD Assistive Technology
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Stand-Alone Devices:
C-Pen Reader - portable, pocket-sized device that reads text out aloud with an English, Spanish or French human-like digital voice
Livescribe SmartPen -  digitize handwritten notes with recorded and synced audio capture


Ipad Apps:
​​VoiceDream Reader - listen to almost any text content outloud including Bookshare, Google Docs, web content and more with synchronized highlighting and note-taking ability
Claro Apps- ClaroScanPen, ClaroPDF, ClaroSpeak offer various features to read text outloud


Online and Digital Text Readers:
Read&Write - Chrome Extension (Office 365 also available) (request a free educator premium license)
Select and Speak - Chrome Extension

Speak or Read Aloud- built-in text-to-speech for Microsoft Word, PPT, Outlook and Office 365
NaturalReader - free text-reader available online (premium voices available for an extra fee)
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E-books and Digital Text:
Bookshare - data base of digital books free for students with disability
Kent District Library - search for audio books or e-books and check out online with your library car
MEL (Michigan Electronic Library) - Search Kids or Teens
Tarheel Reader - collection of PowerPoint style online books with voice output (password: literacy!)
East of the Web - collection of short stories, organized by genre (read aloud with text-to-speech)
Poetry4Kids - collection of poems and activities (read aloud with text-to-speech)
Gutenberg.org - free online access to out-of-copyright literature  (read aloud with text-to-speech)
Epic Books-  ebooks and reading supports, free for educators - sign up 30 students, track progress

Audio Books:
Story Online - stories read by members of the screen actor's guild
StoryNory - online audio books, read by professional actors
Unite for Literacy - over 100 children's books with various language options

Digitalbook.io - Public Domain audio books
Loyal Books (Books Should Be Free) - public domain audio and e-books
Lit2Go - online collection of mp3 stories and poems
Librivox - collection of books recorded by volunteers
Learning Ally    -Subscriptions available, for students with an identified reading disability or schools
Audible - subscription/fee based commercial audio books
Playaways - MP3 books available for commercial purchase

Sites with Scaled or Tiered Reading Levels:
CommonLit - Short stories, nonfiction, poems, news - includes built-in text reader and font adjustments
Ben's Guide- guide to US government by grade level

Starchild- space and astonomy
The Brain - the brain and it's behavior
Newsela - Current Events
Tween Tribune - Current events and content related topics
​Breaking News English - Current events and content related topics

Readworks - Articles, informational text and literature
Books That Grow - Subscription based content in all subject areas

Wikipedia-  use the "Simple English" link available in the language choices on the left.  Converts text to 'simpler' format.

Sites that Help Determine Readability of Text:
Juicy Studio - input a URL or website location and the readbility will be calculated
Using English - Cut and paste into this site for Readability stats.

Vocabulary, Dictionary and Thesaurus tools:
Mirriam Webster Visual Dictionary - online visual support
Snappy Words -online visual dictionary thesaurus
WordSmyth- look up words on any webpage, create quizzes, make a glossary, create a crossword puzzle. etc.
Vocabahead - vocabulary word videos
Wordia - video vocabulary hosted on YouTube
Harcourt Talking Dictionary - pictures and audio for elementary students

Spelling:
Spelling City -customizable online spelling that makes practice fun
ICT games - customizable online spelling practice
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