1. Transform the Lives of Struggling Readers with Learning Ally Solutions
Time: <30 sec
Welcome – thank you so much for joining us today.
I’m ______________- an ______________ for Learning Ally and I will be sharing with you how Learning Ally Solutions can transform the lives of struggling readers

2. What are the problems you and your students face when students are not able to read grade level material?
Time: 1:00
First I want you to think about this question – please type your responses in the chat box
Typical Problems:
Not able to access grade level material
Not meeting academic standards
Not participating in class – don’t raise their hand
They might act out

3. Closing the Learning Gap
Reading Level 6
Let me introduce you to Jack. Jack is a sixth-grade student. As you can see, across the bottom, he’s in grade 6. But over on the left-hand side you start to see that he’s reading on a fourth-grade level.
All typical readers in the 6th grade are progressing really well with that straight line, that upward trajectory. But Jack, he’s down there at that blue circle and he’s progressing only because he’s created some coping skills and some mechanisms to do the best that he can.
What happens is a learning gap starts to form. Everyone else is at grade level or above grade level and Jack’s still down here reading at a fourth grade level which separates him further and further from the grade level material that he needs in order to keep pace in the classroom. We need to do something to close that gap, to bring Jack up to the content rather than bringing the content down to Jack.
And it’s not because his cognitive ability is low. Jack is a very bright and smart student. It’s just that his reading skill deficits are low. So, we want to bring Jack up to where his peers are.
Jack is a 6th grader
Reading level is 4th grade
His cognitive ability is much higher than his reading ability so a gap starts to form. 4
Grade Level 6

4. Benefits of Human-Read Audiobooks
Focus Visualize Retain
Time:
1:30
Focus: multi-sensory approach to reading (see the words and hear the reader – the student can track and follow along) This allows the student to focus
Visualize: When you aren’t struggling over decoding and can comprehend what you are reading, then you can start to form mental images about the passage.
Retain: When you form mental pictures and visualize you are 6x more likely to retain information
With Learning Ally we’re able to offer an entire library of human-read audio books. Take a look at the screenshot on the right-hand side, this is Learning Ally’s reading app called LINK and one of our VoiceText titles are displayed. VoiceText is when you see the text on the screen and you hear the human-read voice.
The yellow highlighting lets you track and follow along. It helps you focus on the content rather than decoding and struggling over each and every word. That focus is because of this multi-sensory approach to learning. I’m hearing the voice and I’m seeing the words. I’m activating 2 areas of the brain to work together to make meaning out of text.
Once I can make meaning, that leads to comprehension. And once I can comprehend what I’m reading, I can really start to visualize, create mental images in my mind of what’s going on in the text or in the passage.
Think about when you read a novel. You really start to create the characters and the setting based on what you’ve read. And then when you go and watch the movie version it’s completely different than what you thought. That’s because in your mind’s eye you have created the scene. You were able to visualize because you understood.
Once you visualize you are able to retain six times more of the information that you read. Retaining that information makes me run into that classroom every day because I know it. I can be a part of that classroom discussion and that classroom culture. So those human-read audio books help our students focus, visualize and retain the information. In the case of Jack, it’s bringing him up to the content because he can do it.

5. The Books Your Kids Want to Read Popular Titles Series
Audiobook Library
The Books Your Kids Want to Read
Popular Titles
Series
Fiction / Non-Fiction
Multiple Genres
The Books Your Kids Have to Read
Textbooks
Assigned Reading
Time: 1:00
65% textbooks
35% novels
The Learning Ally audio book library has the books your kids want to read and the books your kids have to read. Think about the books your kids want to read. Those are those popular titles that are going to be movies. Those series. You hooked me into the first book. I’ve got to find out what happens to that character. Fiction. Non-fiction. Multiple genre. All of these books provide that rich engagement for our students. And then all the books your kids have to read. Those text books. Those assigned reading materials can be found in our library as well.

6. Benefits of Human-Read Audiobooks
EXCITE
MOTIVATE
HEIGHTEN
Time: 1:30
Elementary:
Models oral reading fluency
Builds background knowledge
Expands vocabulary
Build a belief in their academic abilities
Builds the foundation of readers/learners
Middle School
Builds stamina
Critical thinking skills
Social acceptance with peers
Hope for the future
High School
Keep up with coursework
Master content
Participate in class
Confident in their abilities as a learner
Engaged learners are more likely to graduate on time – college and career ready
Let’s think about what this does for our students in each of the different grades; in elementary and middle school and high school. In elementary school we’ve got students coming in, they’re so excited to be at school. They want to be learners. But if I’m a struggling reader that excitement starts to weaken.
We want to keep kids excited about learning and being engaged in the classroom. And in elementary school students are still developing those reading skills. Those human-read audio books model oral reading fluency and it helps me be able to emulate that as well.
Also, it’s all about building vocabulary and word exposure in elementary. We start to have these students build a belief in their academic ability. I can do this!
Middle school - we want to motivate our students in middle school. Social acceptance becomes so crucial at this age.
If I’m a struggling reader that’s really where I tend to be ostracized from the group. But human-read audiobooks can motivate these students to read what their friends are reading, and to build their stamina in reading to get through material. Learning Ally allows teachers to differentiate their instruction to effectively teach the grade level curriculum to students with varied and emerging reading skills. Now, with access to the increased rigor of material that everyone is reading in middle school, students can activate and apply higher order thinking skills rather than struggling with developing reading skills.
They need to be able to infer, predict, and synthesize information. When I can get access to content through Learning Ally this helps to me to build hope for the future. I can do this high school thing.
In high school we want to heighten the student’s ability to keep up with the amount of course work. Heighten their ability to pass their classes. When students get in high school the rigor of content grows and also the amount of material and work that I’ve got to get through grows.
I go home at the end of the day and try to get through homework and if I were to try to decode all of that material it would take hours. Human-read audio books get me to the content faster and that’s what I need to do in order to keep pace and stay engaged in the classroom. It helps me to participate in class, master content, which increases my confidence as a learner so that I can graduate on time. And we’re creating college and career ready students.
in elementary
in middle school
in high school

7. Time: 1:00
At Learning Ally we not only provide access to human-read audiobooks. We’re able to support your schools as well with school and district level implementation and support. We bring in an account management and an engagement team to support you. And we have those data monitoring pieces built into Teacher Ally.
We support your teachers with training and teacher resources and of course Teacher Ally - that online student management tool. We support your students with reading programs that engage them in reading. We also give them access to that library of the books that they want and need. For parents we offer online resources.
Supporting Your Schools
School & District Implementation
Reporting
Supporting Your Teachers
Resources on How to Use in the Classroom
Training
Teacher Ally
Supporting Your Students
Reading Programs
Access to the books they want and need
Supporting Your Parents
Online resources

8. The Learning Ally Solution Includes:
Unlimited Year Round Access for Eligible Students
Educator Training and Support
In Classroom Resources and Programs
Unlimited access to 80,000 books
Unlimited access to Learning Ally Link for:
iOS devices
PC/MAC
Chromebook
Android Devices
Time: 1:00
The Learning Ally Solution includes the following: And there is a keyword here I want to point out and that’s unlimited. You get unlimited year-round access for your eligible students to the Learning Ally library. That means at nights, on weekends and in the summer your students can have access.
You get unlimited access to 80,000 human-read audio books. You also get unlimited access to Learning Ally Link, our reading app, for your iOS devices, PC/MAC, Chromebook and Android devices. Students can be carrying around an entire library of 80,000 books right in their pocket. You can see the app icon for LINK in the top right-hand corner.

9. For Teachers
For Students
Personalized launch plan with sequential actions steps by week
Dashboard with reading activity metrics
Over 30 lesson plans, worksheets, videos, posters, strategies and more!
Motivation to read with discovery of the just right titles
Goal setting to pick an achievable goal
Rewards for Achievement

11. The Learning Ally: How do schools, LEAs & SEAs Access?
Site License
Student
Seat License
Household Membership

12. Reading Accommodation Specific Learning Disability
Eligibility
Reading Accommodation
Specific Learning Disability
Other Physical Disability
Blind or Visually Impaired
Time: 1:00
Now let’s look at eligibility. There are four categories of eligibility with Learning Ally. Reading accommodation, specific learning disability, other Physical disability and blind or visually impaired.
Reading accommodation. These are those students who are not identified with a physical disability, blindness, low vision or specific learning disability. But they have been evaluated by a competent authority at the school who has determined the student’s difficulty with reading is sufficient enough to require an accommodation.
The competent authority should conduct student observation, assessments and a review of student work. And the student’s reading skill deficits must be consistent enough to prohibit accessing standard print at the expected benchmarks for each grade.
Specific learning disability. This is most likely where your students will fall that have SLD listed on their IEP or have a diagnosed learning disability.
Other physical disability. Those students that have a physical impairment that prevents them from reading standard print. Such as the ability to hold the book or turn the pages of a book.
And then, of course, blind or visually impaired students as well.
LINK UN/PW – a middle schooler’s bookshelf – demo Percy Jackson
Jackweb
Welcome
Demo Bud, Not Buddy – assigned reading from Engage NY curriculum
They begin with Bud, not Buddy, analyzing character development and considering how figurative language contributes to tone and meaning
Put a note in the sentence on page 3 “example of figurative language”
Here we go again. I felt like I was walking in my sleep as I followed Jerry back to the room where all the boys’ beds were jim-jammed together.”
Reading Accommodation – Students who are not identified with a physical disability, blindness, low vision or specific learning disability, but have been evaluated by a Competent Authority at the school who has determined the student’s difficulty with reading is sufficient to require an accommodation.  The Competent Authority should conduct student observations, assessments and a review of student work and the student’s reading skill deficits must be consistent enough to prohibit accessing standard print at the expected benchmarks for each grade.
Specific Learning Disability –  In general, the term `specific learning disability' means a disorder in 1 or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.    This is most likely where your students will fall that have SLD on their IEP or have a diagnosed learning disability.
Other Physical Disability – those students that have a physical impairment that prevent them from reading standard print, such as can’t hold a book, turn the pages of a book, etc.
Blind or Visually Impaired- students who are blind or visually impaired

13. 14,800 Schools K-20 480,728 Students 1,661,690 Books
The Learning Ally Current National Footprint:
14,800 Schools K-20
480,728 Students
1,661,690 Books
46.4 Million pages

14. eBray@LearningAlly.org 609-243-7610 Learningally.org/educators
Questions?
Learningally.org/educators