Closed beta
Evidence-based reading for grades 2–12, at home

Reading that grows, one day at a time.

Oriel is a reading, vocabulary, and learning platform built on decades of research into how children learn to read — and designed so families can actually use it, every day, at home. A parent can even follow along live on a second device while the child reads and types. See how →

See the science How it works

Now in closed beta with a small group of families.

A smiling child in a teal hoodie rests his chin on one hand over a glowing open storybook, while letters, stars, a rocket, a friendly robot, and a green sprout float up from its pages.
452original passages, grades 2–12, on 17 topics
47 interactive workbook lessons
5core skills, tracked over time
0ads, ever
Together, on two devices

Sit beside them, from any room.

A child reads or works on his or her own device. You follow along on yours, live: what the child types, what he or she remembers, and which words trip him or her up. Then you talk it through together.

  • Watch it as it happens

    When a child reads silently, the retell and the answers appear on your screen as the child types. You see what he or she remembers, what gets missed, and how the answers change after looking back.

  • Mark the tricky words on your device

    In a read-aloud, you tap each word the child stumbles on, on your own screen, while he or she reads from another. Those words collect into a list for the Word Collector, so practice goes exactly where it’s needed.

  • Talk it through, your way

    Because you can see the child’s thinking, you can chat about it, across the table or from the next room, instead of quizzing from scratch. The conversation stays yours: Oriel doesn’t listen in or record.

  • Joining is automatic

    Start something together and your screen goes to the same page. Open a child who’s already mid-activity and one tap joins. Two parents can follow the same reading, and pausing on either device pauses both.

Built on the science of reading

Grounded in what the research says works.

Understanding what you read depends on two things working together: recognizing words accurately and automatically, and understanding the language and ideas they carry — vocabulary, background knowledge, sentence structure, reasoning. Strong readers weave the two together, and keep their own reading on track. Oriel gives each strand regular, deliberate practice, and measures it the way reading specialists do.

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Word recognition

Explicit work on the spelling patterns and word parts — prefixes, roots, suffixes — that let a reader decode long words and spell them, with a check that shows which patterns are secure.

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Fluency

Read-alouds with a parent listening: accuracy, words correct per minute against published grade norms, and expression on the NAEP scale. Rereading a passage, with feedback, is built in.

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Vocabulary

Useful words taught with kid-friendly meanings, met again in real passages, put in the child’s own sentence — then brought back for review after growing gaps, so they’re remembered, not just seen.

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Knowledge

Passages come in 17 topics, from sports and animals to space and history, with several to choose from for every topic at every grade, and readers are steered to more on what they’ve just read. Knowing about a topic is one of the biggest helps to understanding it.

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Comprehension

Passages built like an informal reading inventory: retell first, then questions from memory and again after a look-back — plus inference journaling, writing about what the text shows but never says.

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Engagement, volume, and habit

Children choose their topics and their books. Goals, streaks, and badges give feedback on effort and progress, and the gold coins that come with every point of XP buy dress-up gear for the climber — game rewards, never real-world prizes. A free rest day each week keeps one missed day from ending a run. A “when and where” plan for the daily reading helps it become a routine. Reading more and reading better go together, and each feeds the other.

The research we build on
  • National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching Children to Read — phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension.
  • Gough & Tunmer (1986), the Simple View of Reading; Scarborough (2001), the Reading Rope.
  • Duke & Cartwright (2021), “The Science of Reading Progresses,” Reading Research Quarterly — the Active View of Reading.
  • Leslie & Caldwell, Qualitative Reading Inventory — retell, explicit and implicit questions, look-back.
  • Hasbrouck & Tindal (2017), oral reading fluency norms; Therrien (2004), meta-analysis of repeated reading; NAEP oral reading fluency scale.
  • Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2013), Bringing Words to Life; Cepeda et al. (2006), meta-analysis of distributed practice.
  • Bowers, Kirby & Deacon (2010), meta-analysis of morphological instruction, Review of Educational Research.
  • Cervetti, Wright & Hwang (2016), conceptual coherence and vocabulary learning; Smith et al. (2021), background knowledge and comprehension.
  • Graham & Hebert (2010), Writing to Read; Guthrie et al. (2004), Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction and engagement.
  • Mol & Bus (2011), meta-analysis of print exposure, Psychological Bulletin.
  • Habits and motivation: Wood & Neal (2007), habits and stable contexts, Psychological Review; Lally et al. (2010), how long habits take to form, European Journal of Social Psychology; Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006), meta-analysis of if-then plans, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology; Duckworth et al. (2011), planning strategies in adolescents, Educational Psychology; Deci, Koestner & Ryan (1999), meta-analysis of rewards and intrinsic motivation, Psychological Bulletin; Ryan & Deci (2000), self-determination theory, American Psychologist.
How it works

A little reading every day. A clear picture every week.

  1. 1

    A daily goal

    Two rings to close: reading minutes in any book, and one short practice activity.

  2. 2

    Focused practice

    Passages, workbook lessons, and word work, matched to the child’s grade and the skills they’re building.

  3. 3

    A parent checks in

    Results count once a parent has looked at them — and a parent can follow a reading live from his or her own device, as it happens.

  4. 4

    Progress you can see

    Each skill charted over time against a starting point, with a plain-language note on what to do next.

Five core skills

Five skills, each tracked over time.

Reading well isn’t one skill, so Oriel doesn’t give one score. Every workbook lesson trains one of these five, and each gets its own chart: a starting point from the first check, practice all through the plan, and a re-check at the end of eight weeks, so a parent can see which skills are growing and which need more time.

Inference & comprehension

Working out what the author shows but never says: motives, causes, the message.

10 lessons, grades 2–12

Monitoring for meaning

Noticing when something doesn’t make sense — and going back to fix it.

10 lessons, grades 2–12

Long words & pronunciation

Chunking long words into syllables and saying them right — the words science and history are full of.

11 lessons, grades 2–12

Spelling patterns

-tch/-dge, the doubling and drop-e rules, y as a vowel, suffixes, and the schwa.

12 lessons, grades 2–12

Vocabulary & word parts

Knowing what a word means is how a reader lands on the right pronunciation. Prefixes, roots, and suffixes unlock both.

9 lessons, grades 2–12
Motivation that means something

Every school year is an expedition.

Children climb four real mountains — Mount Washington, the Dolomites, Denali, and Everest — and every step is real reading: a passage read and discussed, a worksheet checked by a parent, a new word, a finished book, a day of reading. Three levels sit on each mountain. Reaching the top of Everest means a whole year’s work is done.

Kind to missed days. Miss a day or two and you hold your place. After that the climber slips back gently — never below a camp, and never losing a level.
Badges worth collecting. More than twenty, from streaks and books to a summit badge for each mountain — and the shelf shows the ones still to win.
Effort, not scores. Siblings can see each other’s climbs and badges. Test results stay private to the family.
For children

Feels like progress, not homework.

  • Their own account, their own books, their own streak.
  • Twelve levels and more than twenty badges, earned for real reading — never for screen time.
  • Stories, nonfiction and arguments for their grade on topics they choose — sports, animals, fashion, space, and more — with several to pick from every time.
  • See the whole word appear as they try an answer; nothing counts until they hand it in.
For parents

Know exactly where they are.

  • One sidebar for the family, every child a click away.
  • A short checklist of what’s waiting for you, and a live view on your own device while they read and answer, wherever you are in the house.
  • A built-in parent guide: how to listen to a read-aloud, what to ask about any book.
  • Your family’s records are yours — export everything, any time.
Reading well isn’t one skill. It’s sounding words out, reading them smoothly, knowing what they mean, and noticing when something doesn’t make sense — practiced a little every day, with someone who cares paying attention.

That’s what we’re building Oriel to support.

Closed beta

We’re building this carefully, with a small group of families.

Oriel isn’t open to the public yet. We’re testing it with families who give us honest feedback, and improving it week by week. If you’ve been invited, use the link in your invitation to sign in.