The time has finally come to unveil the latest breakthrough in science of reading-aligned digital learning! The eSpark Reading Lab combines cutting-edge speech recognition technology with evidence-based instructional practices to deliver highly personalized reading activities built for the students of today.
Enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing students are building their phonics and fluency skills without the traditional time demands of 1:1 guided instruction. The eSpark Reading Lab analyzes student speech, delivers real-time microinterventions when needed, and keeps teachers in the loop every step of the way.
Watch the video walkthrough
How it works
Each Reading Lab activity is aligned with a specific foundational reading skill. Students are given an opportunity to pronounce five different words throughout the activity. eSpark’s friendly Reading Lab host, Fennec the fox, listens to and analyzes those pronunciations.
If a student gets a word correct, Fennec will mark it that way and move on to the next one. If a student gets a word incorrect, Fennec will deliver a real-time “microintervention” to guide the student in the right direction. At launch, these microinterventions consist of Fennec breaking the word down to the phoneme level, modeling the correct pronunciation of each, and then blending the sounds together to make the full word. The student is then asked to do the same thing.
Once the activity is complete, teachers will be able to see how many words students answered correctly and listen to the audio recording of each word. If enough students have completed Reading Lab activities in a given day, teachers will also receive an email summary with student grouping recommendations and suggested Assignments for students who need more support.
Step 1: Find and Assign
Start by visiting the new Assignments tab in your teacher dashboard (formerly Small Group Skills). From there, type “Reading Lab” into the search bar. This will bring all Reading Lab activities to the top. Note: you can also search for the skill, e.g. “r blend” or “ch digraph.”
From here, pick the activity you want and follow the normal Assignment flow to assign it to one or more students.
Step 2: The Student Experience
Students will see the Reading Lab Assignment in the From My Teacher section at the top of their screen when they log in. The most recent Assignment will show first in the list. Once they click on the Assignment, the fun begins.
At launch, every Reading Lab Assignment features three parts:
- An instructional video introducing students to the skill they have been assigned (curated from the very best public videos on the web)
- A 2-minute explainer video to help students understand how the activity works. Note: explainer videos will be included with all initial back-to-school activities, but likely left out of future activities once students get the hang of things.
- The Reading Lab activity itself
Fennec will guide students through the activity, progressing through a list of five words. The activity adapts based on how students respond—if they pronounce every word correctly, they will breeze through the activity and a 100% accuracy score will be reported to the teacher. If they run into trouble, Fennec will deliver a real-time microintervention.
After modeling the correct pronunciation at the phoneme level, then blending those sounds to make the full word, Fennec will ask the student to do the same thing. If the student still doesn’t get it correct, Fennec will say the word aloud one more time before marking it wrong and moving to the next one.
After all five words are complete, Fennec will congratulate the student on their hard work and provide a recap of the full word list.
Step 3: View the Results
Once a student has completed a Reading Lab Assignment, teachers can view progress in the My Assignments area of their Assignments dashboard. Simply pick the Assignment you want to review to see scores for all students who have completed it. Click a student’s name to see which words they got correct/incorrect and to listen to audio recordings of each response.
Looking for big-picture insights with prescriptive follow-up recommendations? eSpark has you covered there, too. When your students complete five or more Reading Lab activities in a day, you’ll receive an email summary of which students are struggling and the ability to assign remediation lessons with just one click. These emails also include a link to schedule the next lesson in your scope and sequence.
FAQ
Which skills are covered by Reading Lab?
Before the end of August, we expect to have six full weeks of phonics scope and sequence for Reading Lab in grades 1-3, which additional support for end-of-year kindergarten skills for those students who enter the new year with learning gaps.
By the middle of the school year, Reading Lab will support approximately 200 skills spanning a full scope and sequence for grades K-3. We expect to have a full suggested weekly routine available for reference once all core skills are accounted for.
Will my students need to do this in an isolated environment?
Hopefully not. eSpark’s product team worked closely with real classrooms to ensure the speech recognition technology works with a typical amount of background noise. We are continuing to refine things on our end to account for sudden bursts of sound and other possible scenarios, but the results so far have been promising. We strongly encourage students not to have conversations with their peers while working on Reading Lab activities.
Is there any additional setup required?
The only unique consideration for Reading Lab is microphone permissions on student devices. In the explainer videos students watch as part of the initial batch of Reading Lab activities, we explain how to enable the microphone. This is something that may require teacher or tech department assistance. We are working diligently to put together support instructions that will work for most eSparkers and will update this article when available.
Is Reading Lab available with eSpark Lite?
Much like our other highly personalized, AI-powered activities, Reading Lab is an eSpark Premium feature. For more information on how teachers can advocate for an eSpark Premium Membership, click here. If you’re an administrator looking for a quote (or just more information), click here.
Still on your free trial? Perfect! Hop in and start assigning Reading Lab activities today.
