An automated, computer-based reading tutoring system is accessed via a computer system and includes a plurality of instructional passages of different, predetermined levels of reading difficulty. A semantic space module of the reading tutoring system operates on a semantic space, which is produced by a machine-learning method, to automatically evaluate a student-submitted summary of a selected instructional passage for congruence with the selected instructional passage and to automatically determine which instructional passage the student should optimally read next. The reading tutoring system includes immediate feedback data provided to the student and including an indicator reflective of the student's reading comprehension and the identity of the instructional passage that the student should read next. An automated, computer-based method of reading tutoring comprises the steps of receiving a student-submitted summary of a selected instructional passage from a domain of discourse, automatically evaluating the summary to obtain a measure of the student's reading comprehension and, based on this evaluation, automatically selecting an instructional passage for the student to read next.