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Readingpen: Basic Edition K-12 Review by Stephanie D. Scarborough
Wizcom Technologies IncWestford, MA USA
888-777-0552
http://www.wizcomtech.com/
WizCom Technologies has created a personal reading assistant in approximately 1" by 7" form. "The Readingpen Basic Edition K-12 is a simple, easy to use, portable, discreet, device that provides immediate word support to the reader. It helps achieve a smoother and more continuous reading flow and provides quick and simple comprehension."
By gliding the pen over the printed English word you can:
- Hear the word read out loud
- View the word in large font
- View the syllable division of the word
- Hear the word spelled out loud
- View the dictionary definition
- Hear the English dictionary entries read out loud
- View synonyms from the American Heritage
- Hear the English thesaurus entries read out loud
- Translate the word to Spanish
- Hear the whole line you scanned read out loud
The uses in my home include but are not limited to:
- Allowing a student to independently read books a level or two above normal reading level
- Assisting a person with a reading problem so that he or she doesn't have to constantly ask for help
- Aiding lazy learners who don't bother to look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary
- Helping speakers of other languages who are attempting to learn English
Now you understand why I was so excited to preview and use this product.
The dictionary and thesaurus are two of my favorite books. In fact, I have more than 15 of each, but one of the problems for students facing a language deficit is that the definition often contains more words they don't know and will have to look up. The Readingpen instantly provides definitions for unknown words in the definition itself. This nesting process allows the student to be efficient with their time and limits the frustrating act of looking up multiple words just to define one word in their reading.
The best thing about this product is it actually works just as the makers describe, which isn't always the case, especially when a product makes such big promises in such a small package.
