Power-User Tips for Teachers
There's much more that RapidReader can do for you. Let these "Power-User" tips take you to time-savings even beyond speed-reading.
RapidReader includes a powerful set of markup tools for Notes, Highliting Text and More
Below you'll find easy "step-by-step" instructions and "how tos" for a number of techniques that RapidReader users have shared with us that make their work or study easier, faster and more efficient. Each has a downloadable sample in the RapidReader (.r2d) format which you can open with RapidReader to use as a model.
For downloads for Mac OS X click here
For information on the benefits of RapidReader as an assistive technology for children with special needs please click here. 
Power User "How To" Topics
Spend
Less Time Keeping up with Your
Professional Reading:
As an educator
you no doubt spend a great deal of your
time trying to keep up with
all the reading required by your profession. This includes the daily communication from the district, school or department, procedures and polices, not to mention journals and news.
This is the critical information
you need to stay current in
your chosen field or just to keep up with your colleagues.
In today's information space, the ease
of electronic distribution has
had the effect of loading more
reading into the work week.
The good news is, that because
the material is distributed
electronically on the web or via email, you can now
use RapidReader to cut your
reading time to a fraction.
That means that instead of printing
it out and lugging it home,
the software can help you spend
less time reading and more time
putting that information to
good use. Of course anything
you can read in RapidReader
you can also annotate and Highlite in RapidReader. This will make
short work of later review.
NOTE: for information about
how to open files and web pages
in RapidReader please click here
Every
day, more and more professional
Journals and publications are
being put online. Some are these
are subscription or fee based,
others are free. Below is the
address for the Stanford "Highwire"
project which lists most online
medical and scientific journals.
http://highwire.stanford.edu
There are other library projects that offer a similar service of aggregating online journals. Hundreds are listed FREE RapidReader Library.
You can download a sample of a Journal Article in RapidReader below
NOTE: Many of the journals are formatted as HTML web pages. You can read these in RapidReader directly from Internet Explorer. Other online journals are only available in PDF format. These can be converted and read with RapidReader PRO*.
In this example:
You're going to open a Journal Article from an online resource in RapidReader
RapidRead the article
Place Notes, Markers or Highlites into the text of the article
Save the document and your markup to your computer as a RapidReader file to read offline
To read and save online journal articles in RapidReader:
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Access the journal web site as normal and navigate to an article
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In Internet Explorer Click on the RapidReader Icon on the tool bar. This will open the page in RapidReader ParagraphView.
NOTE: If you are using other browsers please see Troubleshooting in the Help Files -
If the page has navigation items and advertising that you don't want to read; scroll down to the beginning of the content of interest
-
Double-click on the word where you want to begin RapidReading
-
As you RapidRead add any User-Notes
Place Markers
or Highlites 
to the text. -
Save
the article and any Markup you've placed go to FILE > SAVE AS on the RR ParagraphView menubar -
NOTE: If you receive a "text not found", "clipboard failed" or "unable to parse text" message during this process you will need to click on the "printer friendly version" of the web page. From there you can follow the instructions above or simply Click on the RapidReader button on the toolbar to open the page in RR. Alternatively you can press CTL+A then CTL+C and FILE>read from clipboard in RapidReader.
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Finding Resources Online for Class Lessons.
Problem: You want some additional online news or information for students to use in a lesson.
Solution: Use RapidReader to streamline gathering online source material:
Obviously the Internet is an amazing resource for information. However the process of using that resource for finding just the right addition to a class lesson can be labor intensive. There may be dozens of web pages that hold promise for the material you may want. Now with RapidReader you can save the pages to your machine to work offline. Then you can RapidRead them for evaluation in a fraction of then add your Notes and even excerpt quotes and save them as RapidReader Files. In short, using RapidReader can streamline much of your work and cut hours off the time it takes to find, read and select relevant information for your class.
You can download the sample lesson in RapidReader with Notes and Highlites below
In this example:
you're going to gather together the web page information and save it offline
Then a "master document" for your source material
Then use the Notes and Highliter tools in RapidReader for your review, student instructions or for any excerpts you wish to save
Export your Notes and excerpts to a text file to use in class
Gathering, saving and annotating web pages with RapidReader:
Gathering Resources for use in class
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Access a web page. In Internet Explorer Click on the RapidReader Icon on the tool bar. This will open the page in RapidReader.
-
On the RapidReader menubar Click on File > Save As a RapidReader file (.r2d) to your desired folder or the desktop.
NOTE: Method 2 If the page has navigation items or advertising that you don't want to appear in RapidReader -
In the browser, select the story portion you want, "Click and drag" in the page over the desired text .
-
On the browser menubar Go to Edit / Copy (CTL+C) to copy the content on the clipboard
-
Open RapidReader by Double-clicking on the RapidReader Desktop icon.
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In the RapidReader window click Paste (ctrl+V). This will place the text in RapidReader.
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Proceed with Step 2 above.
Now you have opened and saved the page as a RapidReader file: -
To save any User-Notes
or Highlites you've placed you must savethe RapidReader file go to FILE > SAVE AS on the RR ParagraphView menubar -
You can also save all your Notes and Highlites as a separate text file to for use in the classroom. (For more information, please see Using Notes and Highliter)
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Save Time Grading Essays, Term Papers and Book Reports Using RapidReader
Grading student writing assignments can be one of the most time intensive tasks that a teacher faces. RapidReader can help lighten the load.
As education moves toward requiring that papers be submitted in electronic form, the job of grading actually becomes more difficult for the teacher or professor. You have two choices, slower reading speed on the computer screen or printing out the document and dealing with stacks of paper. RapidReader dramatically enhances the inherent efficiency of electronic documents by delivering the power of the computer to accelerate reading and streamline the grading process.
When you're reading at RapidReader speeds, it's amazing how obvious poor writing or factual errors become. At several hundred words per minute, awkward language, grammatical errors and even "filler and padding" stand out in high relief as a result of the way the flow of language is displayed with the RapidReader "speech mimic" algorithm. RapidReader is a powerful time saver, reducing review and per paper grading time without sacrificing thorough evaluation.
If your student has RapidReader you can also communicate your comments to the student with imbedded User-Notes and Highlites.
Finally, with RapidReader there's a way that being in the electronic domain delivers the teacher the assistance, speed and efficiency that the medium promises.
You can download a sample of a graded paper in RapidReader below
In this example:
You're going to open a student paper in RapidReader
Then use the Notes, Dog-Ear and Highliter Tools to make comments and mark where improvements are necessary
Then export your RapidReader markup as a text file as commentary when you return the graded paper to the student
Or if the student has access to RapidReader save the document in RapidReader with your markup intact to return to the student
Grading and annotating writing assignments in RapidReader:
-
Open the student's paper in RapidReader (for more info about opening documents please click here)
-
Save
the paper as a RapidReader (.r2d) file (File> Save As) -
Use the Notes,
Dog-Earand Highliter Tools as you read to mark and record the comments you want to add to the original. -
Export your Notes and Highlites as a separate text file. (for more about exporting your markup please click here)
Then you have have two choices -
Copy (Ctrl+C) your comments from the exported text of your Notes and Highlites and Paste (Ctrl+V) them into the original students paper for return as part of your grading.
-
Or if the student has RapidReader, Save
the paper in RapidReader format with your markup intact for return to the student. -
Re-open the document in RapidReader to continue proofreading and see the changes.
-
Repeat the process as necessary to fine tune your paper.
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Helping Students Expand Their Vocabulary: Create RapidReader "Flashcards"
Problem: Memorizing vocabulary, dates and places, terminology for placement exams
Solution: Use RapidReader to streamline to create high speed practice:
RapidReader's accelerated display helps retain attention while speeding through practice.
One of the major requirements of any kind of learning is practice. When it comes to knowledge building, the psychophysiology of learning tells us that there is simply no substitute for repeated exposure to the information we want to remember. This is particularly true of vocabulary building and other rote learning tasks. That's why "flash cards" were invented in the first place. To create a time efficient tool for practice. RapidReader uses computer assisted technology to build on this premise. When you're able to sit back and read at several hundred words per minute, multiple exposures to words becomes easy and learning is accelerated.
As an example when using RapidReader for vocabulary review, you can easily be exposed to each entry three or more times in the time it previously took to read it once. This of course means shorter study time. In addition to the benefit of multiple exposures in less time, the speed of the dynamic display helps you maintain focused attention which in turn increases retention.
Below you'll find an optimized format for creating RapidReview for vocabulary. Of course the same principle applies with any memorization task such as science terminology, historical data etc.
In this example:
You're going create a "master list" of vocabulary words formatted for maximum efficiency in accelerated learning.
Then from those items create your "flashcards" document containing multiple repetitions of each item in the sequence you wish.
Then open the document in RapidReader add any further comments or Highlites and save it as a RapidReader file.
Spend a few minutes a day RapidReading your "flashcards" to boost your score.
Download the sample RapidReview vocabulary "flashcards" for you to use as a model
To build a RapidReview prep sheet with multiple repetitions of the material:
-
In a standard word processor document create an entry in the following sequence.
Word
Word
Word
Use in a sentence
Definition
Definition
Use in a new sentence
Use in a new sentence
Word
Definition
Word
Word
Word -
Using the above format for each word, create a sequence of however many vocabulary words you wish to contain in a practice session.
-
Once you have the sequence and order of the vocabulary lesson completed, Select All (ctrl+A)/ (ctrl+C) Copy the entire group to create a duplicate.
-
Then Paste (ctrl+V) it in the document after the first initial group. Repeat to form 3 repetitions of the entire group.
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Open the Document in RapidReader (for more info about opening documents please click here)
-
Once in RapidReader, Highlite
each time the vocabulary word appears to act as a reinforcer -
Save
the document as a RapidReader file to preserve your Highlites (File>Save as .r2d)
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Free RapidReader Editions of Hundreds of Books
SoftOlogy IdeaWorks has created the RapidReader Free Library to gather together rebooks that widely appear on "100 most assigned" lists for high school and college. This is an ever growing collection of more than 300 books specially formatted to be read in RapidReader. You'll find a lot of required reading is available to you in these specially formatted RapidReader Editions. They're free to download for either PC, Mac or Mobile.
If your students have access to RapidReader you can use the Note and Highliter features to create a customized RapidReader Edition focusing on your approach to the material for your class. With a custom edition you can reach the student directly with commentary in User-Notes attached to pages and Highlite text for emphasis. Other material such as "food for thought" questions or even quizzes can be included right in the RapidReader text.
Beyond those books already formatted, the RapidReader Free Library provides links to resources containing thousands of classic books, journals and reference which you can convert to RapidReader.
You can download a sample chapter of a "Teachers Edition" e-book in RapidReader below.
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Some of what you'll find at the RapidReader Free Library
Literature
History
Philosophy
Science
Psychology
Sacred Texts
Access to Professional Journals, News, Reference Works and much more
To create a custom RapidReader Edition of an e-book:
ALSO NOTE: You will sometimes find a book or document that was originally scanned from a paper copy. Some of these do not contain any text but are pictures of the page. In this case when you attempt to open the book in RapidReader you will see a message telling you that it is "unable to parse text" or "no text found" .
Others were scanned using an OCR (optical character recognition) program. In some cases, the original document was formatted to put a "hard carriage return" at the end of each line. This is a throw back to the old days of typewriters. Some of the prominent free electronic book initiatives available on the Internet have adopted this protocol and usually will save the book as a text file .txt. Because RapidReader automatically interprets the construction of the text in a document to create the rhythm of human speech from the text flow, this hard carriage return will cause a disruption of the rhythm. If that is the case, there may be an HTML version of the book available online which will have a "wrap" format. This will eliminate the problem in RapidReader.
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Download a preformatted book from the RapidReader library in .r2d (RapidReader's native format). Or if from another site download it in either text or .doc format or open the book through your browser.(for more info about opening documents please click here)
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Use the Notes,
Dog-Earand Highliter Tools to mark and record the changes you want to appear in your custom edition. -
Save
your changes to preserve them in your Edition. -
You can then distribute your custom Edition as an attachment to an email or as a download.
TIP: You may wish to divide the book into separate lessons perhaps based on chapter. To do this, create separate text files for each lesson and then convert each one to RapidReader format as a separate .r2d file.
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