How to Help a Struggling Reader: Immersive Reader

Did you know you have a built-in screen reader right inside Microsoft Word and OneNote?

No matter a student’s age or ability, the Immersive Reader inside of Microsoft Word and OneNote is powerful!

 When you turn on the immersive reader it spaces out the text on a document and students have some settings options to choose from like changing the color of the background, the column width, and the read aloud option. With the read aloud option, it highlights words as it reads to the student, gives the student full control to pause and start again when ready, students can also change the speed of the reading to slow it down or speed it up. This built-in tool helps build reader confidence, reading speed, and fluency.

In Microsoft Word, the Immersive Reader is powerful, but you will find the Microsoft Word Online version of Immersive Reader to offer so many more options. The first big difference is the reading voice is much less like a computer a more like a human voice. The student will also get more options like highlighting just one line of text, or identifying specific parts of speech, or reading the text in another language.

Want a Quick Look at it? Check out this quick video all about Immersive Reader!

Want to try it on the Microsoft Word Desktop Version?

1.     Open up a Word document (on your computer or online) with text on it.

2.     Click on the View Tab

3.     Click Immersive Reader

Once inside of Microsoft Word, Click View, Click Immersive Reader

You can also get more information from Microsoft about the Immersive Reader using this link.