ReadingCompanionTrainingManual

Reading Companion™
Training Course
Instruction Manual
Reading Listening Speaking Writing

Bogotá, Colombia
2013
© UNICA
This manual was assembled by UNICA in order to give users of the Reading Companion software a
guide that will allow them to instruct other teachers in the use of Reading Companion, as well as some
techniques and strategies to get the most out of the program when they introduce it to their students.
This was intended as a guide only; experienced teachers will undoubtedly find their own best prac-
tices and strategies when it comes to implementing Reading Companion in their classrooms.

Table of Contents
1 TrainingCourse 5
What is Reading Companion? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Frequently Asked Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Our ExperienceTrainingTeachers to Use Reading Companion. . . . . . . . . . . 6
Example Course Schedule (1Week, 30 Hours). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Program Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Reading Comprehension Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
UsingTechTools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Phonetics, including a basic story writing workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Practice and Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2 Follow-Up/LessonPlanning 29
Reading Companion:WorkingTogether, GrowingTogether . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Follow-UpVisits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Porftolio Explanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
SocializationWorkshops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3 AppendixA-Strategies,Phonetics,Writing&Assessment AA
CD with this document in .pdf format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .AA
Strategies Supplemental Materials- CDs with PowerPoint presentations . . . . . AA
Phonetics andWritingWorkshop Supplemental Materials . . . . . . . . . . . .AA
PhoneticsVowel Sounds in English Reference Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . AA
Worksheet, Minimal Pairs-Vowels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .AA
Worksheet, Minimal Pairs- Consonants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AA

Follow-Up Lesson PlanningTemplates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .AA
Entrance and Exit Exams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .AA
Protocolo de Aplicación Prueba Base de Inglés. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AA
Protocolo de Aplicación de las Herramientas de Evaluación . . . . . . . . . AA
Initial Reading CompanionTest (Entrance Exam). . . . . . . . . . . . . . AA
Reading Companion Question Booklet (Exit Exam). . . . . . . . . . . . . AA
Reading Companion Answer Booklet (Exit Exam). . . . . . . . . . . . . . AA
CD with audio of listening sections of Entrance and Exit Exams. . . . . . . . AA
Reference List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AA
4 AppendixB-PracticeandApplicationPortfolio AB
A New Video Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AB
A New Book with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AB
Pedagogical Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AB
Pre-Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AB
While Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AB
Post Reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AB

What is Reading Companion?
Reading Companion is IBM’s web-based literacy
grant initiative that uses voice recognition technology
to help children and adults learn how to read.
How It Works
Users log on to the Reading Companion web site and
are presented with material to read. An on-screen
mentor, or companion, “reads” a phrase to the user
and then provides an opportunity for the user to read
the material, using a headset microphone. (Depend-
ing on the accuracy of what was read, the compan-
ion provides positive reinforcement (e.g., “You sound
great!”), gives the user an opportunity to try again, or
offers the correct reading of the words on the screen.
As the user’s skill improves, the technology reads less
material so that the learner reads more.
(From readingcompanion.org)
Frequently Asked Questions
Can anyone use this software?
This software is available for f ree to public elemen-
1 Training Course
tary schools (for children ages 5-7) and nonprofit or-
ganizations such as public libraries, community col-
leges, and agencies that offer adult literacy services.
Individuals who wish to use this software must be
affiliated with a Reading Companion grant site.
What is the goal of Reading Companion?
The goal of Reading Companion is to help children
and adults around the nation and the world gain es-
sential literacy skills in English. IBM is promoting
literacy by donating this web-based technology to
schools and nonprofit organizations.
How does Reading Companion respond to readers who
have heavy accents?
Overall, Reading Companion does relatively well with
readers who have heavy accents. There are occasional
problems with the voice recognition software not cap-
turing the spoken words correctly, but our develop-
ment team continues to make improvements to the
speech engine to reduce these instances.
Further f requently asked questions can be found at
the following URL:
http://www.readingcompanion.org/ReadingCom-
panion/faqs.jsp

Day 2
Time Activity Presenter
8:00-9:45 a.m. Implement-
ing Reading
Strategies
Instructor A
9:45-10:00
a.m.
Break ---
10:00-12:00
Book Builder
Instruction Instructor B
12:00-1:00
p.m.
Lunch Break ---
1:00-3:00 p.m.
International
Phonetic
Alphabet and
pronunciation
Instructor C
Day 3
8:00-9:45 a.m. Web 2.0 Tools Instructor B
9:45-10:00 a.m. Break ---
10:00-12:00
Activities to
Enhance Read-
ing Compan-
ion
Instructor D
12:00-1:00
p.m.
Lunch Break ---
1:00-3:00 p.m.
Reading
Companion
and Phonetics
Exercises
Instructor C
Day 1
8:00-8:15 Introduction Training
Leader
8:15-10:00
a.m.
Exploring Reading
Companion and
Reading Compre-
hension Strategies
Instructor A
10:00-10:15
a.m.
Break ---
10:15-12:00 Using Reading
Companion
Instructor B
12:00-1:00
p.m.
Lunch Break ---
1:00-2:00
p.m.
Introduction to Ap-
plied Phonetics
Instructor C
2:00-3:00
p.m.
Introduction to
application as an
assessment tool
Instructor D
Our Experience Training Teachers to
Use Reading Companion
Based on our experience, we recommend a compre-
hensive course of 30 hours, divided in five days of
hands-on instruction and workshops. We made the
decision to divide the material into essentially four
different areas:
1. Reading Comprehension Strategies
2. Using Tech Tools
3. Phonetics
4. Practice and Application
In order to specialize and manage workload, we as-
signed each area to a different instructor, who pre-
pared a short lesson for each day of the week.
Example Course Schedule
Reading Companion Training Course
Example Schedule
5 Days, 30 Hours

Day 4
8:00-9:45 a.m. Book Builder
Practice
Instructor B
9:45-10:00
a.m.
Break ---
10:00-12:00
Exploring
Reading Com-
panion
Instructors
AD
12:00-1:00
p.m.
Lunch Break ---
1:00-3:00 p.m.
Writing and
Pronunciation
Workshop
Instructor C
Day 5
8:00-12:00 Workshop All Instruc-
tors
9:45-10:00
a.m.
Break ---
12:00-1:00
p.m.
Lunch Break ---
1:00-3:00 p.m. Final Presen-
tations
All Instruc-
tors
Program Components
Component 1
Reading Comprehension Strategies
We understand that reading is an active problem-
solving process in which students are required to
put into practice a number of skills to determine
the message of the author of a stor y or other text.
In other words, in order to reach comprehension,
children need to get meaning f rom text.
The first part of the workshop is aimed at exploring
teachers’ views towards the process of reading and
teaching ESL- EFL and presenting a brief summar y
of what some research studies have suggested about
the teaching of English L2 reading.
For an introduction to this section, see PowerPoint
Presentation “Reading” in Appendix A
Suggested Readings:
How Psychological Science Informs the Teaching of Read-
ing (Rayner, Foorman, Perfetti, Pesetsky Seidenberg,
2001)

For the second part of the workshop teachers should
have read the following article:
The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing
Comprehension Instruction (Gill, 2008).
The article is then addressed using the strategy called
“Save the Last Word for Me” taken and adapted f rom
http://www.toolsforeducators.com/
(see PowerPoint presentation “Save the Last Word
for Me” in Appendix A)
Based on the readings and discussion we agree that
students need to develop a set of basic skills in or-
der to become fluent readers in ESL - EFL. On the
one hand, there are the ones called foundational skills
such as Phonics, High-Frequency Words and Flu-
ency and on the other the comprehension skills as
addressed in the above mentioned article. We think
skills should be taught somehow simultaneously and
integrated into ordinary English Lessons.
Teachers are suggested to adapt the matrix presented
in the article to think about, plan and design activi-
ties which are suitable for their students to enhance
the use of Reading Companion.
The following section presents a brief overview of
some strategies that teachers can carry on to comple-
ment Reading Companion. Exercises are presented so
that specific skills can be practiced before, while and
after reading the books.
Sounding Out New Words
This can be used as a before or during reading strategy.
This is an impor tant skill for ESL/EFL since it helps
students to reinforce or begin to form a lexical entr y
with the visual and auditor y image of the word that
improves their reading skill over time.
Board and Card Games
This can be used as a before, during, or after reading
strategy.
Work with word cards contribute to building up chil-
dren’s sight vocabular y of commonly used words in
English.
(see attached samples in Appendix B: Practice and Ap-
plication por tolio)
Click and Clunk
To identify words in English that are similar to words
found in the primar y language. Students are asked to
create two columns on a piece of paper and label them
“click” and “clunk”. They read a passage and then list
the words they understand (“click”) or don’t under-
stand (“Clunk”) in the two columns. Then the teacher
can lead direct instruction or student led group dis-
cussions as follow-up to clarify meanings of the words
(Sadler, 2001). Young underprepared students can use
a picture dictionar y. Teachers can point out the power
of cognates if applicable.
Matching Pictures and Words

Here are some examples:
Analogies
1. Shower is to bathroom
as dishwasher is to________________________
2. Curtains are to windows
as sunglasses are to _______________________
3. Boat is to water
as plane is to ____________________________
4. Smell is to nose
as touch is to ____________________________
5. Fish is to swim
as human is to ___________________________
6. Grass is to green
as sky is to _____________________________
7. Perfume is to nose
as music is to ____________________________
8. Sandwich is to eat
as milk is to ____________________________
9. Table is to dining room
as bed is to ____________________________
10. Foot is to big toe
as hand is to ____________________________
As a before reading activity this can help make stories
comprehensible by making predictions or prior discus-
sion about the gist of the stor y. Or, for example, it
can be used as a during reading activity just by show-
ing students the pictures or illustrations present in the
books. They can re-create the stor y by looking at the
images.
Connect Two
This can be used as a before, during, or after reading
strategy.
Given a list of words, students tr y to identify connec-
tions between any two words on the list and explain
the rationale (Cloud, Genesee Hamayan, 2000).
Variation: Teachers can arrange students into pairs or
trios and assign the role of “sor ter” while other stu-
dents are the “explainers” or “definers”.
Open Word Sort
This can be used before, during or after reading a tex t.
This can be done as a pair activity. The teacher gives
students words written on individual strips of paper,
and then has them categorize the words by identify-
ing and explaining relationships among them. Students
then read and reorganize the words in a way that would
be effective for teaching key information to each other.
Following the reading, they use their sor ted words to
explain the reading or answer questions (Cloud, Gen-
esee Hamayan, 2000).
Another way to help students make relationships to
develop thinking processes is to work with Analogies
or to Find the Mismatch.

10
Find the Mismatch
1. store, bank, furniture, hospital
2. kitten, cow, canary, dog
3. carrot, peach, potato, onion
4. lion, giraffe, cat, monkey
5. swings, blocks, slides, teeter-totters
6. baseball, bingo, football, basketball
7. window, carpet, chimney, door
8. bird, plane, car, balloon
9. guitar, clarinet, piano, violin
10. water, lemonade, ice cube, orange juice
Finding the Main Idea
This can be applied to any kind of reading so in this sense
it is one of the most important and basic skills teachers
should help students develop.
Contextual Redefinition
Generally this exercise is done before a reading selection
is begun and used as an introduction to the reading.
Its main purpose is to use context to determine the
meaning of words and to apply knowledge of sentence
and text structure to comprehend a text. This strategy
helps students realize the importance of having the abil-
ity to use context clues to derive meaning.
The teacher selects unfamiliar words from the text that
are central to comprehending important concepts, and
writes a sentence for each word on a transparency.
Student groups meet to read through the sentences and
try to guess the meaning for each word. The words in the
original text are then provided so students can compare
and verify in a dictionary if necessary (Moore and Cun-
ningham, 1998).
Memory Games
Generally this exercise is done before or after a reading
selection to fix structures and revise vocabulary. Us-
ing a given sentence to start and taking turns, students
must add one word to continue with the sentences; the
following student repeats the sentence, and adds more
information and so on until one student fails; teacher
and students may agree on a forfeit.
“I went to the market and I bought...”
“For my birthday I would like…”
“In my room there is…”
Quickie Graphs
This can be used after reading a text and to practice
speaking to develop fluency.
Based on a chosen topic students roam around the class
and ask classmates a given question. Then, on a matrix
(which can be provided by the teacher) they graph the
results.
Topics
1. Number of brothers or sisters
2. Number of letters in first name or last name
3. Month of birthday
4. Shoe size
5. Favorite recess activity
6. Favorite T.V. show on a specific day
7. Favorite sports
8. Favorite T.V. or sports star
All the strategies mentioned above have been taken/
adapted from:
Rojas, Virginia (2007). Strategies for Success with Eng-
lish Language Learners. Alexandria, Virginia, USA: As-
sociation for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

11
Component 2
Using Tech Tools
The work on the use of
tec hnolog y along with
Reading Companion
has t wo components.
First, there is a stage
to get acquainted with the f eatures and function-
ing of the website. S ince there is al way s the need
to maximiz e the use of the site in the English
c lassroom, it is equal l y impor tant to ac knowl-
edge the eff ective suppor t of other web 2.0 tools
to engage not onl y teac hers but students in ap -
propr iate pr actices be yond the actual reading of
the stor ies off ered of the website.
Reading Companion Website
Book Builder
The Book Builder is the applic ation the Reading
Companion site off ers teac hers to create or iginal
mater ial and thus expand the Reading Compan-
ion c atalog once it is re vised. Teac hers c an sup -
por t the text with the uploading of pictures and
audio files that aid the listening and speaking
pr actice the progr am entails.
Af ter downloading the Book Builder applic ation
f rom the Reading Companion website, whic h is
available in the ‘Author ’ tab on top, it is not nec -
essar y to go online to edit since the instal lation
inc ludes a desktop version that saves teac hers’
work pr ior to submission f or re vision.
W hen creating a book, teac hers are pro vided with
a separ ate co ver, an inter nal co ver and an author ’s
page as wel l as sets of pages where the stor y wil l
go. Author ing teac hers should keep the stor ies
shor t to ensure students are ful l y engaged and
are able to go o ver the stor y with the suggested
pr actice in one sitting –ten page sets are advised,
that is 20 pages. It is impor tant to indic ate that
if students are par t of an author ing team, onl y
their first names should be inc luded in the ref -
erence, together with the sc hool name and the
countr y the book was created.
Image uploading is another f eature Book Builder
off ers to suppor t the tel ling of the stor y. It is sug-
gested to take advantage of this f eature to help
students making sense of the stor y and engage
them in the reading pr actice. Author ing teac h -
ers c an work cooper ativel y with students in or -
der to create the pictures themsel ves, r ather than
browsing the Inter net to loc ate suitable gr aphics.
This wil l make the book more appealing to c hil -
dren and wil l also give more consistenc y to the
book design. In addition to that, authors are to
inc lude a picture of themsel ves in the page that
accompanies the Inside Co ver (IC) r ight bef ore
the stor y star ts.
Once the text is done, Reading Companion has
a team of editors that wil l re vise both st y le and
wording to make the stor y suitable f or al l the
sc hools that take advantage of the progr am. Au-
thor ing teac hers must submit the stor y to receive
f eedbac k and f ol low-ups to ensure the stor y is
ready to be shared. Af ter this stage, teac hers are
to audio record the words that constitute the sto-
r y ; Reading Companion wil l also break up the
text into phr ases that should also be audio re -
corded. These audios wil l be used as the ref erence
students have to receive f eedbac k of their own
pronunciation. In addition, the progr am pro vides
a set of audio recorded expressions that are made
to accompany students along the reading of the
stor ies and pro vide them with f eedbac k of their
per f or mance in pronunciation.
At the end, it is expected that author ing teac h -
ers enr ic h the Reading Companion c atalog with
their stor ies so there are more c lasses that c an
take advantage of their creativit y.
The f ol lowing are a ser ies of screenshots that ac-
count f or the way the Book Builder works and its
f eatures in more detail.

12
1. The first step is to design the cover.
2. Give a title to the book and identify the category it belongs to.
3. Both the category and the keywords will help other teachers locate and use the book once it is completed.
1. Continue with the In-
side Cover (IC) and the Author
Page (AP).
2. In case the title is
long, here there should be
enough space to include it.
If students are co-writers of
the story, they should receive
credit by including only their
first names.
3. Use the text editor to
change font type, size, and
style.
4. Upload a picture from
the computer to complement
the information about the
author.

13
1. The editing work can be continued by clicking on File. Book Builder will retrieve the draft.
2. Book Builder keeps a list of the author’s drafts.
3. Click to open and load the draft.
1. It is important to ensure the graphics are consistent in both style
and design and original, in order to avoid copyright issues.

14
1. Click on the Recordings option to see the job that is to be done in this final stage.
2. It is possible
to re-do the recordings
that guide and give
feedback to students to
gain consistency in the
voices they will hear.
3. Book Builder
breaks the narration
of the story into words
and phrases, which are
the ones students also
need to audio record.
1. Saving frequently will
guarantee time is not wasted.
2. Once the text writ-
ing is finished, it is sent for
revision before recording any
audios of the story.

15
1. Book Builder indicates whether or not a word or phrase has been recorded. This means it is possible to re-do
existing recordings of the story.
2. The recorder control panel is easy to manage. It is important to see the audio level of the recordings; the bars
below the control indicate how high/low it is.
3. It is possible to use these options to re-
cord series of words and phrases without having
to select them from the list on the left first.
1. When the book is ready, it is necessary
to send it to the revision team Reading Com-
panion has to ensure the book fits the require-
ments and guide teachers through the process.
The same will happen with the recordings
before making the new book available in the
catalog.

16
Web 2.0 Tools
The suppor t offered by web 2.0 tools in the use of
Reading Companion in schools can be addressed
taking into account both the teacher ’s lesson plan-
ning and deliver y. W hen planning, teachers need
to bear in mind the way the stories are going to
be linked to the course program in addition to the
students learning, reading, and linguistic skills.
For that reason, an appropriate training on the
use of Reading Companion should inc lude an ex-
ploration of vocabular y, mind mapping, and read-
ing tools that can effectivel y suppor t the teacher
along the way. Each tool description inc ludes a
series of screenshots to suppor t the exploration of
their features.
Vocabular y – Q uizlet.com
W ithout a doubt, Q uizlet has offered language
learners an incredibl y effective suppor ting tool to
enhance the vocabular y learning experience in a
fun and dynamic way. Q uizlet.com is a website
that offers a f ree ser vice to design vocabular y
flashcards where you can inc lude definitions, im-
ages, and audio in each of the words teachers want
to extract f rom the readings.
Teachers can create public word banks for ev-
er y reading in an organiz ed fashion. The ser vice
not onl y inc ludes the creation and review of the
flashcards, but the evaluation and practice of the
words with a repor t on the whole c lass activit y
and performance in the suggested dynamics Q ui-
zlet offers.
1. Create a free account either using your account
information in Facebook or filling out this simple format.

17
1. Quizlet lists all the vocabulary banks (sets) you create and/or decide to use to study.
2. It is possible to group all the sets into different classes that students can easily join. This feature will help
keep track of the group’s participation and performance.
3. Simply click on the ‘Create’ option to start making sets.
1. Start with creating a title for the bank. The title of the story will fit perfectly.
2. Include a description of the type of vocabulary that is going to be set.
3. Indicate the
topics the set is related
to (e.g. literature, short
stories, EFL).
4. Arrange both
the visibility and the
access to editing the
set will have.
5. Activate the
use of pictures from the
big Quizlet database.
The free account does
not allow users to up-
load their own images.
6. Set the lan-
guage to be managed
for the entries.
7. Set the lan-
guage that will be used
to give definitions.

18
1. As the set is
created, it is possible
to access a set of
existing definitions
that can also be
edited. Images can
also be replaced if
necessary.
2. The entries
are managed indi-
vidually. It is not
necessary to have
both definitions
and images in all of
them.
1. At the end, Quizlet will display the title of the set on top.
2. The flashcards include options to enlarge the cards, study at random, and activate the audio for the entries.
3. It is possible to separate the way the information in the cards is displayed: entry and definitions separately
(students need to click twice per entry to see all
the flashcard information) or together (like in the
picture).
4. The service includes a wide range of activi-
ties to study, that includes a spelling stage, a word
writing stage, and a test, where terms are evaluated
in matching, multiple choice, and True/False exer-
cises. Teachers can keep track of the most difficult
entries for students in this stage of the practice.
5. There are two games that challenge users to
match entries and definitions, and to type the en-
tries as fast as possible after displaying the defini-
tions.
6. There is also variety in the way the study of
the sets can be extended. It is possible to even print
the cards to take the dynamic into the classroom
or the combination with other sets to enhance the
cumulative reviewing experience with the group of
students.

19
M i n d M a p p i n g – S p i d e r -
S c r i b e . Ne t
Mind mapping is an easy way to
help students focus on the con-
tents covered in class. W hen
reading, creating mind maps
helps to brainstorm and elicit
vocabular y in order to contex-
tualize students and lessen the
burden of finding unknown
vocabular y; thus, it increases
comprehension. In addition, it
helps to visualize concepts, in-
crease retention, and enhance
the learning experience.
SpiderScribe.net is a website
that allows teachers to create
public mind maps to share with
the group. In addition to the
text boxes to create the map, it
allows teachers to include im-
ages and other file formats like
Word documents by simply dragging the feature
they need f rom the left menu bar. The maps can
be exported as .jpeg or .pdf files to be printed and
1. The account displays all the maps that are both created by teachers and shared with them.
2. The button ‘Create Map’ is always available on the top left corner of the interface.
if teachers run websites, SpiderScribe.net provides
and HTML embed code to have a map that can be
zoomed, resized and full-screen viewed in the site.
1. When signing up, the ‘Personal’ plan includes free access to most of the
features Spiderscribe offers.

20
1. Simply select
the application the map
needs and drag it to the
center. It is possible
to activate text boxes,
document and picture
upload, as well as maps
from Google and a cal-
endar application.
2. After activat-
ing the Picture Upload
application in the map,
there is a prompt to
locate and upload the
file.
3. Spiderscribe
is compatible with the
most popular image
formats.
1. The applic ation that is ac ti-
vated, or that is to be edited, displays a
blue frame that makes it easy to recog-
nize.
2. All applic ations have specific
proper ties that c an be personalized.
3. The maps c an be big, so a navi-
gator is ver y handy in c ase the map
does not fit the screen while editing.

21
1. In case new connec-
tions are necessary, they need
to start from the father node.
If links need to be removed,
simply click on them and then
press the ‘Delete’ key.
2. Just in case, this is the
way the ‘Text Box’ properties
look like.
1. Spiderscribe offers the possibility to print the map and thus taking the work to the classroom as well.
2. It is possible to click on ‘Share’ and let others par ticipate in the prac tice. This is a screenshot of what
it looks like after doing it.
3. Spiderscribe provides map owners with a sharing link to send to and share with others.
4. Simply add people’s e -mail addresses separated by commas.
5. Other par ticipants in the map editing will be displayed below the map owner.
6. To join the editing team, new par ticipants will receive an e -mail notification.
7. Make sure the settings are appropriate to ensure other people find and use the map. (see nex t page)

22
Reading Mater ial – Rong-C hang.com/nse/ and
Rong-C hang.com/ne/#A
If teac hers want to access a great source of sto -
r ies in addition to a big amount extr a pr actice,
Rong-Chang.com off ers t wo sets of 200 shor t and
easy stor ies that c an be used as a ref erence to get
1. This is the just the first of two sites that provide access to the 400 stories and their extended activities that Rong
Chang offers users.
2. Every story can be accessed by clicking on its title.
other skil ls invol ved like voc abular y, listening,
and w r iting. Ever y stor y has c lear l y identifiable
gr ammar points to address and the sentences are
fair l y shor t and simple. The y are ver y consistent
with the reading c atalog Reading Companion of-
f ers.

23
1. All stories include the audio player on top to listen and read along.
2. The stories are topic and/or grammar based and very short.
3. The extension activity menu is displayed below all the stories.
4. There is a website Menu option to go back to the list of stories or simply continue checking them in a row.
1. All the extension practice opens in a dif-
ferent tab in the web browser to have the stor y
available in case extra suppor t to do the activi-
ties is necessar y.
2. The vocabular y list includes a link in
ever y entr y to revise an online dictionar y.
3. At the end of the practice, the tab is
closed after clicking on the button.

24
1. The instructions are provided on top.
2. In case help is necessary, there is a ‘Hint’ button to have the characters appear in the blank.
1. The crossword provides prompts related to the definition and/or the use of the word in the context of the reading.
2. The ‘Check’ button is located below the puzzle to receive immediate feedback.
3. The ‘Close’ button is on the bottom of the page.

25
1. The Mixed-Up Sentence exercise offers more options to ensure the user has a chance to feel more comfortable com-
pleting the task.
2. There is a button below to go to the following sentence.
1. Both capitalization and punctuation are really important in the dictation practice.
2. Both the player and the blank space are provided on the bottom left of the page.
3. The help and assessment options are also located below the audio player.
4. The control of the audios is in the middle of the screen. It is always possible to go back.

26
Component 3
Phonetics and Writing Workshop
A complete study of Eng-
lish phonetics would be
impossible in the short
time that we recommend
for the training course,
but it is necessar y to in-
clude a brief over view of
the most important and useful components of pho-
netics study in order to assure that users of the soft-
ware are pronouncing the sounds in English well
enough for the computer to recognize them.
For native Spanish speakers, the typical problems
are mainly the vowel sounds, so we recommend that
trainers focus on those initially. A basic under-
standing of the International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA) is extremely useful, both for clarity and for
skill when using dictionaries for reference. For
those unfamiliar with the IPA, the majority of the
symbols used correspond to what one would logi-
cally expect the sound to be, with only a handful of
exceptions, which can, with a minimum of effort, be
memorized.
O utline of Topics Covered in Training
S essions
Ba sics of phonetics, Interna tional Phonetic A lpha-
bet and pronunc ia tion- how to use this knowledge
to help students (and self )
Included Resources: S ee Appendix A
O nline Resources: excellent site to prac tice the
sounds of the International Phonetic Alphabet
http://w w w.uiowa.edu/~ac adtech/phonetics/
english/frameset.html
Also http://w w w.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-
soundsipa.htm
Examples of phonetics and pronunc ia tion e xerc ises
and how to merge them with Reading Companion.
Included Resources: S ee Appendix A
O nline Resources: too many to list completely.
M inimal pairs are excellent prac tice. These are ex-
amples of sites that include minimal pairs prac tice
and general phonetics:
http://w w w.englishexercises.org/busc ador/bus-
c ar.asp?nivel=anyage=0tipo=anycontents=
phonetics#thetop
http://w w w.manythings.org/pp/
http://w w w.shiporsheep.com/
http://w w w.englishclub.com/pronunciation/min-
imal-pairs.htm
Writing Workshop - how to write level- appropria te
stories to submit to Reading Companion.
The following is an outline of a shor t lesson that

27
c an be used to teach attendees to foc us on cer tain
aspec ts when writing stories for Reading Companion,
such as voc abular y, verbs, topic and theme, moral or
message of the stor y.
1. Write a shor t stor y. Tr y to keep it level-ap -
propriate. To begin, think of your stor y as merely
8-14 sentences that tell a stor y.
2. Read the book that you wrote.
3. In your groups, make lists of the following:
i. D iffic ult individual sounds you see in
the tex t of the book
ii. D iffic ult sounds used together in a
combination
iii. D iffic ult words
iv. Share your lists with your group
v. What patterns do you see?
4. A s a group, brainstorm possible phonetic/
pronunciation exercises and games you c an use to
help students who will be reading your book .
i. Can’t think of any? Use the internet
to find resources/ ideas
ii. D id you find a good webpage? Share it
with the class
5. Write an exercise or game using the diffic ult
words/ sounds from your book
Attendees’ Applic ation of and Resp onse
to Topics
What follows is an outline of what trainees accom-
plished during the workshop and consequently c an be
used as a model of what to expec t from future train-
ees in similar workshops.
1. Understood how to read phonetic spelling in a
dic tionar y in order to know how to pronounce words
without audio assistance
2. Understood and acknowledged “problem” pho -
netics/pronunciation and how to prac tice them with
students using anatomic al diagrams and exercises
such as minimal pairs
3. Created exercises and games using existing
Reading Companion books
4. Wrote stories with a theme (set of related
voc abular y words, verb tenses) to apply to Reading
Companion and integrate with classroom exercises
and games:
a. Voc abular y
b. Verbs
c. Pronunciation
5. Examples of “theme -based ” stories
a. S imple past tense
b. Teaching mathematics through the use
of English
c. The value of honest y

28
Component 4
Practice and Application
Open the Power Point
Presentation to introduce
the component. See Ap-
pendix B
The purpose of this compo-
nent is to give participating teachers the opportunity
to manage the contents proposed in this workshop.
This on the basis of instructors samples when guiding
them in the application of content. While showing
specific pieces of work f rom their previous classes, in-
structors will explain the process of how these prod-
ucts became a part of the application activities. This
will extend their learning capability through applying
concepts and skills in different ways. Furthermore,
through the application, they will, in a creative way,
shape with their own ingenuity what they learned in
the previous component.
Activities
As an example, the instructor will show new products cre-
ated by students in previous training. These include:
• Pedagogical activities to accompany the
book such as: “pre-reading activities”; “while read-
ing activities” and “post-reading activities.”
• A new book with audio
• A new video-book
The idea then is to motivate the attendants to create their
own new product. To that purpose the students will decide
which technology tools they will use.
After having gone through the process of familiariza-
tion, understanding and apprehension of what is Reading
Companion, we will present examples of previously created
audio books for students of beginner and intermediate
English language levels.
We will invite participants to estimate English proficiency
in each of the examples. Finally, the groups will convene
so that in groups of four participants, they design their
own audio-book related activities, as proposed in the pre-
vious components.
Benefits
In this part of the workshop, the teacher will offer practical
ideas for future projects derived from Reading Companion.
Note: According to their skill with technology, teachers will
decide whether to execute them on the computer or as a
tabletop game.
Materials
To create a video-book they can use a computer with pro-
grams such as “Audacity”.
audacity.sourceforge.net
For the ones who would prefer to create activities to ac-
company the reading or a book with a video they will need:
• Craft supplies such as cardboard, paper of
different textures, magazines, colored paper, scis-
sors, glue stick
• Blank cassettes or CDs
• A tape-recorder
• Computers with internet access

29
2 Follow-Up/ Lesson
Planning
Reading Companion: Working
Together, Growing Together
Reading Companion as an integrated project needs
to have a support for teachers who are part of the
project to make sure the implementation of the
program is realistic as well as motivating. There-
fore, an outsider team teacher should be in charge
of helping teachers with the implementation of the
project at the different schools which often have
diverse needs and expectations. The following is
an example of one such support program. It can be
used as a template for Reading Companion users.
After training teachers on the use of the Reading
Companion tool a set of visits were considered as a
follow up on the process. Each visit had a specific
objective in order to have ever yone on the same
page and to make the best of Reading Companion
in each school. V isits were designed to help teach-
ers walk through the process in a f riendly way by
sharing what was done and assigning doable but
challenging context specific activities for the next
visits. Below you will find the description of the
visits and their objectives.
Follow-Up Visits
FIRST VISIT
The first visit was focus as a starting point was a
way to make teachers feel comfortable with the “team
teacher” who was going to accompany them in the pro-
cess, therefore getting to know teachers, their context
and expectations was crucial.
Main objectives of the visit:
• Explore needs and expectations of the Read-
ing Companion tool and set communication
bridges in case help was needed.
• Guide teachers on how to make the Reading
Companion software intelligible for students by
sharing the software commands in a f riendly way.
• Guide teachers on how to select and e-book
according to their needs and curricula at schools.
This first step is essential in order to scaffold
books and activities for students.
• Help teachers to identify the kind of pre-
reading activities to approach the E-books in
class.
Also teachers were asked to create and assign
students accounts for them to get familiar with
the new English learning tool.

30
SECOND VISIT
The second as well as the third visit were intended to
answer teachers’ questions and monitor their progress
on the project. Teachers found the visits to be a suit-
able space to share concerns that were context spe-
cific, meaning that the personalized guidance helped
teachers and schools to develop their own action plans
to be applied in their immediate context.
Main objectives of the visit:
• Revise the pre- Reading activities designed
by the teachers and decide whether they were
realistic, meaningful and appealing for students.
• Decide when, where, and how activities were
going to be applied by setting clear, realistic and
assessable objectives. To do so, a template for
lesson planning was given to teachers. See at-
tachment. Also, as part of the accompanying pro-
cess, teachers were guided on how to implement
Reading Companion according to the curricula
and school year expectations.
• Explore and assign the design of “During”
reading activities which are meant to be used by
teachers to check for understanding of instruc-
tions and content of the E- books while students
work with them. Such “During” reading activities
required the teacher to keenly explore the e-book
chosen during the first visit in order to identify
challenging, doable, but still appealing activities
for students that could be answered in groups or
individually while going over the E-book.
THIRD VISIT
The third visit made sure teachers had worked on the
assignment of the previous visit – design of during
activities- in order to help them with the next step,
product. By this visit teachers had already designed
and applied pre-reading as well as during reading ac-
tivities. Therefore, the next step was to work on the
post reading activities where students’ creativity and
use of language learned was crucial.
• Help teachers decide how to approach the
Book-builder with students.
• Instruct teachers on how to put together a
Portfolio for reflection and lesson planning dedi-
cated to Reading Companion.
What Does a Reading Companion
Portfolio Include?
The idea of having teachers put together a portfo-
lio for Reading Companion is aimed at transforming
lesson planning and teaching practices for English
language teaching by opening a space to anticipate
and reflect upon results, and make decisions for fu-
ture lessons. Based on the belief that a portfolio fos-
ters learning about teaching by offering opportunities
for peer-supported growth future socialization work-
shops were planned and conducted. Also, in a teach-
ing portfolio teachers can record both final products
and teachers’ ongoing thinking reflections and de-
cision-making processes while engaged in teaching
tasks. Moreover, the portfolio is intended to be a step
by step guide to work with E-books f rom the Reading
Companion, and especially for a teacher who was not
trained in the Reading Companion tool but can fol-
low steps to reach meaningful products f rom students
in a second language.

31
The Reading Companion Portfolio has five main
sections that will be described below.
1. Lesson plan template (See Appendix A). Here
teachers had a simple designed template to set
objectives for the class, activities to reach the
class objectives, assess how the class went and a
reflection column to express interpretations of
what happen and possible decision to add, adapt
or omit instructions or activities in this phase.
2. Pre- Reading activities: in this section teach-
ers were supposed to keep all the activities they
designed for the E-book they were using in their
classes. This section helped teachers have plenty
of idea to introduce E-books and other topics in
class time.
3. During- Reading activities: Teachers kept
in this section all the activities designed for the
time students were in f ront of the computer us-
ing the Reading Companion tool.
4. Post-Reading activities: here teachers kept
all the mini- step- activities they designed to
encourage students come up with a product, an
E-book, on their own by following the Read-
ing Companion samples and recycling language
features learned in class through the use Reading
Companion.
5. Evidence: this section is the most rewarding
one where teachers kept evidence of the work
students came up with by following all the steps
of the process f rom the very beginning to the fi-
nal product. This section was included as a sam-
pler section for new teachers in the program and
to promote a collaborative work in each school.
Socialization Workshops
A series of socialization workshops were held after
each round of visits. The main purpose of having so-
cialization workshops was to help teachers share their
achievements and possible solutions for teachers who
were experimenting similar challenges during the
implementation of the Reading Companion project.
Below is a description of the workshops.
First Workshop: Best Practices
Based on all the information gathered during the first
visit which mainly helped teachers tackle connectivity
issues, doubts and fears on how to implement Read-
ing Companion in their classes a first socialization
workshop was held. All the best practices in terms of
solving connectivity issues, designing pre-reading ac-
tivities and team work solutions were presented f rom
teachers, by teachers and for teachers. This workshop
helped teachers opening their eyes to resourcefulness
and team work.
Second Workshop: Book Builder and Portfolio
This workshop was designed to motivate teachers to
create their own E-books that would fit perfectly in
their context and curricula at their schools. This was
done by going over the Book-builder tool f rom Read-
ing Companion, showing them how simple but still
creative they can be with it and how to make students
part of the creative process. Teachers were challenged
to create and publish in Reading Companion their
own E-book which would have all the strategies to
be used in class. However, teachers’ main worry was
about the voice recording part of the process; teach-
ers did not confident about their voice been recorded

32
for the E-books, reasoning that was understood and
solved by asking the native speakers volunteers of the
process to help teachers in this part of the process.
On the other hand, presenting how to make a teaching
portfolio and its components, which were mentioned
before, was also part of the second workshop and let
the connection to the third visit were portfolios were
going to be the main topic to discuss.
Third Workshop: Results
A last socialization workshop was designed to give
everyone the opportunity to show what they had ac-
complished during the implementation period with
their school. It was amazing to see how Reading Com-
panion had become part of many schools events such
as the English day, language day, love and f riendship
and many other important celebrations at school were
teachers were able to choose a book according to the
event, design pre-during- and after reading activities
and present an outcome with students.
The main objective of this socialization workshop was
to share all possible strategies to make Reading Com-
panion part of an English teaching-learning experi-
ence in public schools.

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