Track Students’ Reading Progress in Microsoft Class Teams

Reading Progress is a tool in Microsoft Class Teams that supports teachers in tracking their students’ reading fluency and progress. The feature allows students to record themselves reading assigned passages and automatically generates data based on their performance. 

In this guide, we show you how to set up Reading Progress and tailor it to your marking and grading style. 

Note: Reading Progress is currently in the beta phase and due to be released August/Summer 2021.

Watch the full demo by Microsoft here:

How to set up Reading Progress in Microsoft Class Teams. 

Go to your Class Team and head to the Assignments tab. 

Select Create to open a drop-down menu. Select Assignment to create a new assignment. 

In New Assignment, fill out the details of your assignment, such as the title and instructions.

Below the instructions section, select Add Resources.

Select Reading Progress to start setting up the assignment. 

First, upload your reading passage – Word Documents are currently the only file types supported, but you can expect PDFs and sample passages in the future. English is currently the only language currently supported. 

Once you have uploaded your passage, you can change several settings, including reading level, genre, the number of attempts your students will have to complete the task and pronunciation sensitivity. 

Pronunciation sensitivity can be set to Less sensitive, Standard (default) or More sensitive, depending on your preferences. This can also be changed after the assignment is completed and you’re reviewing the assignment (see below). 

Teachers can toggle on and off Video Required to determine whether students need to record a video of themselves reading or simply submit audio.

When you’re happy with the settings, select Attach to add Reading Progress to the Assignment. 

As with all Assignments, you can add further details before assigning to students. For example, rubrics and points. 

Select Assign to assign to an entire class, group or individual students. 

How students can use Reading Progress.

Students can see the reading assignment in their Class Teams area. 

Select View Assignment to open the task. There is an icon next to the reading passage they need to record. 

Note: The first time students use this, they must allow Microsoft to access their microphone, speakers and camera. A dialogue box will appear. 

Hit Start when ready to read. 

Students can use Immersive Reader at this stage to change the way the text looks and assist their reading. 

Once the student has recorded their passage, they also have the option to Start Over, or select I’m finished when they’re done. 

When finished, they can return to the original assignment and select the Turn in button to hand it over to you. 

How to review assignments with Reading Progress.

Head over to your Assignments tab and select the student you wish to review. 

This will take you to the Reading Progress dashboard – the passage is marked up, with words per minute and an accuracy level. 

Microsoft’s autodetect highlights and colour codes mispronunciations, repetitions, omissions, self-corrections and insertions. 

On the left-hand side, you can toggle on/off autodetect depending on your preferences. 

Below this, a slider for Pronunciation sensitivity can be adjusted. 

Teachers can watch/listen to the recording and manually mark up the passage, as well as jumping to specific words of the passage by selecting Jump to word. 

Feedback can be given in the box on the right-hand side of the dashboard. 

Select Return to give the feedback to the student.

You can navigate to the next assignment from the dropdown menu. 

How to view Reading Progress Insights and Analytics.

Add an Insights Tab into your Class Team by selecting the plus button.

If set up, Reading Progress appears automatically in your Insights tab. In the future, there will also be a spotlight at the top of the screen for Reading Progress. 

Select Reading Progress to open up the analytics dashboard. 

Choose whether to bring up data for the whole class, a specific reading level, or individual students. You can also change the dates and timeframe. 

A graph is generated to monitor progress over time and, at the bottom of the dashboard, there’s a word cloud to highlight the most challenging words to students.

If you would like to learn more about how we can help your school or trust, please contact a member of our team today.