Categories:
Article published by MAGISTERIO
- Spain ranks 28th in reading comprehension in the PISA ranking, a poor result that reflects the need to personalize teaching to improve this skill.
- The Spanish edtech program adapts to each user, with multi-format resources selected according to their interests, encouraging reading habits inside and outside the classroom.
- The methodology used by ODILO in its plans to promote reading habits and improve comprehension is fully aligned with the academic curriculum and PISA.
Spain ranked 28th in reading comprehension in the latest OECD PISA report published at the end of 2023, the worst position since 2006. Our country scored 476 points in this section, a result that places us behind the OECD average (479) and the European Union (485), and which highlights the problems faced by the education sector in this competence.
Some teachers point to the personalization of teaching as one of the keys to overcoming this challenge. A redefinition of the educational model that implies moving from the standardization of methods and content to a paradigm in which each student has a training plan tailored to his or her abilities. At this point, implementing the latest technologies makes it possible to respond to this challenge and move towards the education of the 21st century.
In the case of the Spanish edtech company ODILO, with which all types of organizations create their own unlimited learning ecosystems, it provides schools with a specific reading comprehension program, tailored to the particular needs of each user, which is a key tool in developing this skill.
“Reading comprehension is crucial in our academic and human development. It helps us to grasp language and communicate and is the basis of knowledge, opening the way to information and training. It is a critical skill that structures thought and enriches the capacity for expression, critical spirit, creativity and imagination,” says Ainhoa Marcos, VP Education Spain and Global K12 at ODILO.
Multitude of functions and formats to improve comprehension and reading skills
The program has an extensive multi-format catalog of varied, attractive, and quality educational resources, among the 4 million contents from more than 7,300 providers, mainly selected to promote reading habit and improve student comprehension.
For this purpose, an innovative technology is used to continuously curate and update the content according to their interests and motivations. The reading plans promoted by ODILO are fully aligned with PISA, as well as with the current teaching curriculum, and have the option of being enriched with questions to work on vocabulary or grammar, reflect on the content or interpret the information and identify the meaning of the texts, among others. In addition, these reading plans offer extra audiovisual content to contextualize further, as well as annotations and questions that allow the teacher to evaluate students at all times.
In short, the platform has many features to enhance the experience and, therefore, the results obtained. From a read-aloud mode to improve pronunciation and fluency, enrich learning, and enhance the pace through recordings with which the teacher can immediately evaluate the student to artificial intelligence tools to directly support teachers to assess reading comprehension through tests on complete texts or selected chapters.
In addition, to promote reading habits, ODILO has created ‘Book Clubs’. A collaborative community of readers through which reading can occur at any time and place, sharing opinions and exchanging impressions with other members.
Facilitates a more collaborative educational experience
The platform also allows teachers to import their own content and create material within the platform. The ODILO ecosystem will enable teachers to become creators of their own content with an authoring tool to design their own lesson plans. Once finished, they can be shared with students and the rest of the educational community.
In addition, users can configure their own content lists, follow their favorite authors, which optimizes navigation and speeds up the time spent searching for new resources of interest, and contact other users to have a collaborative learning experience. They also can suggest new titles to be added to their personal catalog once they become available on the global platform.
It has three training phases depending on the level of training
The program is divided into several stages depending on the student’s level. In the first, initiation phase, the reading habit is encouraged through content segmented by age and organized into plans: ‘Read Along’, ‘Children’s Literature’, and ‘Youth Literature’. A first step to lay the foundations for an interest in reading.
Second, the consolidation phase encourages the consumption of resources that stimulate interest in reading among children and adolescents. For example, comics and graphic novels, juvenile classics, and newspaper clippings may be of interest.
Finally, in the specialization phase, more established readers further hone their skills with collections of poetry, classical studies, grammar, and literature texts, among many other materials.
Ensures equal access to educational content
The platform has features designed to eliminate friction and ensure that all students can enjoy available resources. These include helpful reminders for the most forgetful learners. In addition, it offers accessibility tools such as the ‘Text to Speech’ voice reader, available both online and offline, designed for people with visual impairments or reading difficulties. It also includes adapted fonts such as ‘Open-Dyslexic’, which have an exceptional thickness to facilitate letter identification and reduce reading errors in people with dyslexia. These features ensure equal access to content.