by Terrie Noland, Learning Ally National Director of Educator Engagement
The birds are chirping, the flowers are budding, the students are getting antsy, and the tests are looming! We know how hectic your classroom can be in the spring and we want to share some ideas of how to use Learning Ally with some popular reading strategies to get students "earbudding." You know the importance of having your students engaged in continuous reading to build strong reading habits.
By this time of year, your students should have read 33 or more days with Learning Ally.
Why 33?
Learning Ally's research shows that when students read 33 days for at least 20 minutes on each of those days (does not have to be consecutive) that is the tipping point at which we start to see social, emotional and academic outcomes. We want to encourage this level of reading engagement so your students can start to embrace and understand that when you read more, you grow more. Most educators are aware of the Matthew effect in reading - the rich get richer, the poor get poorer (Stanovich, 1986). Let’s support our struggling readers to spring into reading, build a habit and get reading rich.
Students who read 33 days by April 30th could WIN!
Students who read 33 days on Learning Ally LINK by April 30, 2018 will be automatically entered in a random drawing to win a Learning Ally t-shirt and a $50 gift card. Let's help all students get to this point!
Educators can WIN as they learn from each other using #earbudding18
While the flowers are budding, we hope your students are "earbudding!" To connect with other educators around spring reading, use #earbudding18. We invite you to share your ideas on social media and learn from each other. Share about your efforts to engage students to read more using strategies below or showcase your own creative ideas (#myearreaders). Find out how other teachers help students reach their reading goals. When you share on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram about your ideas using #earbudding18 and tag @Learning_Ally, we'll enter you into our raffle drawing for Chromebooks! See the rules.
Spring into reading with one of these strategies!
We want you to use #earbudding18 AND one of the hashtags below to share which idea you are trying. Or, if you are sharing your own idea, you can use #myearreaders. To make it easy for you, we've aligned each strategy to some outstanding Learning Ally human-read audiobooks. Check out each strategy to learn more and find the featured books:
March Madness #marchbookmadness
DEAR Days #DEARday
Picture Book Palooza #picturebooks
Poem in Your Pocket #pocketpoem
Share Your own Ideas #myearreaders
Wondering how many of your students are close to 33 days of reading?
Log in to sign up for or view your 33 and Me! dashboard showing how many days each of your* students has read.
Want to do spring reading with Learning Ally at your school?
Learning Ally is a cost-effective solution to help your students who read below grade level boost their vocabulary, comprehension and test scores. Our extensive library of human-read audiobooks includes core content, is easy to set up, and fits into your existing curriculum.
Learn how you can transform the lives of your struggling readers. Call 800-221-1098 or email programs@LearningAlly.org.
*Educator's 33 and Me! dashboard will only show the students that you have added or those you added a book for in this school year.
Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360-407. doi:10.1598/rrq.21.4.1