# data[].attributes.body
PD

# data[].attributes.body
PDF

# data[].attributes.body
Free 1 Year Premium Subscription

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you are a teacher, you can receive a premium license for both Read&Write and Equatio. Simply register here to get started

# data[].attributes.body
Video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Read&Write - Helping millions of students to read and write.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Millions of students around the world are already using Read&Write from Texthelp, the easy to use literacy software family that makes the web, documents and files more accessible, in the classroom, at home and on any device. Learn more at: https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/read-and-write-family #WithCaptions

# data[].attributes.body
Video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Read&Write for Google Chrome - Tutorial (2016)

# data[].attributes.body
Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
J.W. Harris, an eighth-grader at Schroeder Middle School in Grand Forks, North Dakota, has dyslexia, and has struggled in class until he began using Texthelp's Read and Write for Google, a program for the Chrome browser.

"If you can't really type fast, you can just talk to it," Harris said. "It helps a lot."

The program works by summarizing text and offering text-to-voice translation and "other support that's especially useful for English language learners and students with learning difficulties," reports the Grand Forks Herald. "Eventually, about 5,361 students in third through 12th grade will have access to the program."

"Grand Forks students are among more than 1.2 million students using the program worldwide, according to the district's vendor, as more schools incorporate technology in the classroom," Grand Forks Herald reports. "Student progress has been tough to measure because the program is new, said educators. But some rave over what they've seen so far -- it gives students newfound confidence, autonomy and unleashes potential some educators didn't realize students had, they said."

The program is multi-use, and has helped students with spelling, vocabulary, and typing. Teachers also report the program helps with testing. "All Grand Forks students will soon be taking a new test that's aligned with the Common Core education standards for math and English," reports Grand Forks Herald. "Unlike past paper tests, the Smarter Balanced Assessment is taken online and adapts to student progress -- it adjusts the difficulty level of questions based on student response."

To see how Read and Write works in the classroom, watch the video at www.grandforksherald.com.

Read the full story.

By Samantha DiMauro, Education World Contributor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Education World: Students Show Improvement With 'Read&Write for Google'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
J.W. Harris, an eighth-grader at Schroeder Middle School in Grand Forks, North Dakota, has dyslexia, and has struggled in class until he began using Texthelp's Read and Write for Google, a program for the Chrome browser. "If you can't really type fast, you can just talk to it," Harris said.

# data[].attributes.body
Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Free software for anyone at BU with dyslexia, learning disabilities

Daniel, a sophomore at BU, struggled last year with his reading assignments. He tackled them the first couple of weeks of class, but-because of his dyslexia and ADHD-everything took three times longer to complete than it took classmates. So he found himself tossing aside his books and relying heavily on lectures for information. But that meant he missed many of the finer details available in the texts that could have improved his scores on exams and papers. Audiobooks were useful, when available, but often arrived after class discussion had already taken place.

Then, in August, Daniel downloaded software recently made available by BU. Called Read&Write GOLD, it is designed to improve learning and comprehension. Daniel says the software's highlighting and read-back tools have proven so helpful that he uses them to complete all of his reading assignments.

"This is probably a game changer for my college career," says Daniel, who asked BU Today not to use his full name. "You have to manage your time and treasure those 15 minutes you have. It's all about being efficient, and Read&Write GOLD makes your life more efficient."

Boston University purchased Texthelp's Read&Write GOLD this year and in July made it available as a free download to everyone with a login and Kerberos password. Those familiar with the software say all students, faculty, and staff could find its reading, writing, and studying tools helpful, but that it's especially beneficial for people with learning disabilities.

"It's not just a little piece of assistive technology in the corner," in the Office of Disability Services, says assistant director Lorraine Norwich. "It's something that everyone can use and can benefit from."

Norwich looked for years for a way to give her students greater independence in their studies. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires all universities to make print resources accessible, which the Office of Disability Services did by purchasing and scanning required reading for students and making it available in house. Yet it's not always convenient for students to visit the office. Norwich wanted to find software that would allow students access to materials everywhere while using tools-like read-back features or MP3 converters-that would improve their overall comprehension.

In 2010, she approached Tracy Schroeder, vice president for information systems and technology, to brainstorm solutions. Instead of recommending software, Schroeder referred her to Pamela Andrews, an Information Services & Technology senior service delivery administrator. The two forged a formidable team: Norwich provided deep knowledge of students' learning needs and familiarity with existing assistive learning software and Andrews recognized the importance of finding a universally compatible program that didn't hog laptop or desktop memory space. Together, they searched for software programs, whittled their choices down to five, and ran a pilot study over summer 2011 to determine which one students preferred. Read&Write GOLD won out.

Norwich and Andrews still had to sell their recommendation to BU. They presented the software to various groups on both campuses, and IS&T and Mugar Memorial Library agreed to split the software's $13,000 cost, making it available to all students, not just those registered with Disability Services.

Read&Write GOLD can be downloaded onto any PC or Mac from the IS&T website, and is also available through the College of Arts & Science Lab Room 330, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, IS&T training rooms, and Mugar's research support desk. A web application is coming soon, Andrews says.

The software is unobtrusive, opening as another toolbar at the top of the screen, and packed with at least 30 tools and video tutorials to help users study, write papers, and read scanned documents, PDFs, websites, and graphics. One of the more notable features allows users to highlight sections within a document to be read back aloud at a speed, voice, pronunciation, and translation of their choosing. With other tools, users can copy and paste notes to a separate document for future study, check spelling, search for homonyms, or store facts in concept maps.

Gail March, director of instruction design and faculty development for the School of Medicine Office of Medical Education, says the software could help medical students and faculty who need to collate large amounts of research from various sources into one document. She also thinks the pronunciation feature could help foreign students. "For medical students who have English as a second language, they may experience challenges in communicating with patients and their families," she says. "RWG provides the opportunity for these students to build their medical vocabulary and interpersonal communication skills needed to talk to and understand patients."

Nia, a second year medical student, says she also struggled with reading assignments and often used features on her computer designed for the visually impaired. But for a student with dyslexia, they didn't quite fit her needs. Using Read&Write GOLD has allowed her to convert text into audio files that she can now take everywhere.

"I can listen to the MP3 files at the gym or on the bus," says Nia, who preferred BU Today not use her full name. "It's also great to see the words highlighted to increase recognition and help make connections between how a word sounds and how it is spelled."

Norwich and Andrews acknowledge that there are some drawbacks to the software. A computer must have the full Microsoft Office suite for the software to work (rarely an issue). There are size limitations for the conversion of text to MP3s. And pronunciation of certain medical and scientific terms can be strange, as Nia discovered. She says she continues to tinker with the pronunciation guide for certain words and likes the fact that her changes are saved for future documents.

Nia is sold on the software and pitches it to colleagues. "I've recommended it to people without learning disabilities just for the convenience of being able to do your reading on the go," she says. "I really enjoy the software, and I'm glad that all BU students have access to it."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reading Made Easier | BU Today | Boston University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Free software for anyone at BU with dyslexia, learning disabilities Daniel, a sophomore at BU, struggled last year with his reading assignments. He tackled them the first couple of weeks of class, but-because of his dyslexia and ADHD-everything took three times longer to complete than it took classmates.

# data[].attributes.body
Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Whether you're a classroom teacher, a parent, an administrator or a caretaker, seeing a student struggle with learning is one of the hardest things to endure. Immediately everyone wants to jump into action and help that student. Teachers want to devote as much time as they can to those that are struggling, it's why they got into teaching in the first place.

It's important for teachers to have all the best tools in their toolboxes. TextHelp is one of those tools.

TextHelp is the nation's leader in improving academic performance with tools that support reading, writing and literacy. Whether students have a learning disability, a literacy challenge or any host of other reasons that they aren't reading, writing or speaking where they need to be TextHelp can help. They focus only on these main objectives, which happen to be the most important in a learning environment.

Through proprietary software tools like Read&Write, Equatio, FluencyTutor, BrowseAloud and their newest Speecstream, TextHelp makes sure that learning is accessible. "We add the accessibility and the know how" the company says.

Read&Write is their easy to use tool bar that lets anyone read, write and express themselves more confidently. The Read&Write tool bar includes tools that can read emails and documents aloud. It also includes picture dictionaries, summary highlighters and other tools that can help make literacy tasks simpler even for students that are English Language Learners or who may have learning disabilities like dyslexia. The tool is even perfect for students who just aren't reading at grade level, for whatever reason. The always on toolbar can help with homework assignments, research papers or browsing the internet.

Equatio is a Chrome browser extension that's like having a built in math tutor or assistant in your computer at all times. Equatio allows the user to type, handwrite or dictate equations, formulas and more directly on the users computer or Chromebook. Students can then add the expression to a Google doc with the click of a button

"With intuitive prediction realising that you mean 'square root' when you type 'sq'...It's also clever enough to ignore those 'umms' and 'errs' when you're dictating a formula aloud. And to save you even more time, there's a huge library of ready-made expressions, from simple formulas to complex functions." the company says.

SpeechStream is their newest exciting product. SpeechStream is a highly flexible tool bar for learning publishers and platform providers to embed directly in their online content. Once embedded SpeechStream is there for students with a variety of reading, writing and math support functions, taking tools from Read&Write, Equatio and more and making them accessible to students through other platform providers. Vocabulary list builders, talking and picture dictionaries, translation, text to speech and other valuable tools are all found in SpeechStream.

Find out how TextHelp can help you, help your students at FETC 2018 in Orlando Florida, January 23-26, booth #1044 and online at texthelp.com

Check out more of our FETC 2018 coverage here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
FETC 2018 Preview: TextHelp, Advanced Help In Reading, Writing, Math and Literacy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
TextHelp Offers The Most Advanced Text To Speech Platform For Students Whether you're a classroom teacher, a parent, an administrator or a caretaker, seeing a student struggle with learning is one of the hardest things to endure. Immediately everyone wants to jump into action and help that student.

# data[].attributes.body
Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Read & Write for Google is a fantastic Chrome app that was initially free then moved to a premium subscription model. Today, I learned that it is again free for educators.

Read & Write is a Google Chrome Web App that increases the accessibility of the text of documents in your Google Drive account. After installing the app you will see a Read & Write tab appear at the top of your browser window whenever you have a document open in Google Drive. Clicking that Read & Write tab will open a menu of accessibility options.

Some of the accessibility options include a picture dictionary and a talking dictionary. To use either dictionary just highlight a word then click on the dictionary that you want to use. The dictionary that you select will pop-up in your document. Read & Write will also read the text of your documents aloud. In the settings menu you can select from nine voices and three playback speeds. Learn more about Read & Write in the video below.

To get Read & Write for Google for free, follow these directions from the developers.
If you are a teacher, and do not already have Read&Write for Google installed, head to the Chrome Store and download it before registering for your free subscription. If you already have a trial or an expired trial, go torw.texthelp.com/drive/home/RegisterTeacher and register by filling out the Teacher Registration form with your name, email, school, administrator, and other details that confirm your eligibility. Note: Be sure the email you provide is the same as the one you used to download Read&Write for Google.
Click here to read the announcement from Text Help, the developers of Read & Write for Google.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Read & Write - A Great Chrome App That is Now Free for Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Read & Write for Google is a fantastic Chrome app that was initially free then moved to a premium subscription model. Today, I learned that it is again free for educators. Read & Write is a Google Chrome Web App that increases the accessibility of the text of documents in your Google Drive account.