Z3986 Requirements Detail

Desireable highlighting features: 1. The highlight accumulates on the screen as the reader progresses through the text. New items are in a brighter color than older items. 2. The rate of the highlight is controlable. 3. The highlight flows through the text, progressing one letter at a time. 4. As the student reads, specific words/phrases (pre-identified in the text by the teacher) are highlighted as a whole in another color as they appear. The flowing highlight continues over it. Scenario: The teacher loads a list of sight words/phrases into the player for specific books. The teacher sets an highlight rate for a particular student, knowing their fluency rate already. The student clicks the paragraph they want to read and starts reading the text by themselves with the goal of matching the highlight speed. As the student reads, the flowing highlight grows letter by letter across the page. The highlight color of older text fades. New text is highlighted in a brighter color than older text. When sight words/phrases are encountered, they are highlighted as a block. A different color should be used. The same flowing highlight goes over the sight word/phrase.

A problem of emergent/infrequent readers is that they can identify words in isolation but not in the context of text. To help them, teachers teach sight words and sight word phrases, e.g. "in the house", "on the tree", "the", "and", "it". It helps fluency by helping students move from word-by-word pacing to a more natural rate of reading. Highlighting sight words/phrases identify the boundaries of the phrasing. Controlling the highlight rate is an easy way to practice fluency. Connection to best practices in literacy instruction: fluency skills