Mort Elementary School in Tampa, FL is a community school that offers resources to students in need and currently serves 743 students in Pre-Kindergarten through grade 5. In the school 100% of students are economically disadvantaged, and test scores, which fall far below the state average, suggest that most students are not reading at grade level. Several teachers at Mort implemented the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution® for their Exceptional Student Education (ESE) and English Language Learning (ELL) students during the 2020-2021 school year; once students began participating in Learning Ally’s Great Reading Games, participation really took off, propelling the school to fifth-place nationwide, and winning the Elementary School bracket by reading 97,657 pages during the school year. The school has continued using Learning Ally, and during the 2023-2024 school year Mort Elementary School participated in Learning Ally’s Great Reading Games again and won first place nationwide!
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
70% Hispanic | 18% Black | 6% White | 6% Multi/Other
The Challenge
Mort Elementary School is part of the Hillsborough County School District Transformation Network in Tampa, Florida.
As one of the district’s most vulnerable and chronically challenged schools, Mort serves a population where most students are from low-income families and most students are not performing at grade level in reading. Specifically 31.9% of students achieved proficiency in reading and language arts (an increase from 29% in 2020-2021).
“With our demographic of students, they perhaps lack someone reading to them at home and lack access to reliable WiFi,” says Shannon Sturgeon, an ESE Teacher at Mort. She and her colleagues became actively involved in the search for better ways to engage their students as readers and build their stamina and comprehension.
Implementation
ESE Specialist Amy DiSalvo learned about the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution at a county meeting for ESE Specialists and decided to introduce it to other teachers at Mort in 2021.
This year Shannon Sturgeon and the school principal, Kelly Snellgrove, decided to implement the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution with their 100 ESE and ELL students with the express purpose of helping them reach their reading goals within their individual education plans (IEPs).
While almost all of Mort’s ESE and ELL students are reading below grade level, they all have diverse interests. With the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution’s structured support, students were no longer restricted to a small collection of books on their reading level; instead, they now had access to a robust library of engaging and rigorous texts. High-interest, on-level stories and tools like those embedded in the Audiobook Solution have given students explicit strategies to advance their reading abilities and instilled a mindset of motivation and confidence.
The Learning Ally Audiobook Solution became an immediate hit among teachers and students alike; however, it was when they learned about the Great Reading Games that the program really started to take off. “The kids begged us daily to see where we were in the competition, and how many points we had,” says Sturgeon. Even during school breaks, students remained engaged with reading through the Audiobook Solution. Sturgeon even downloaded the Learning Ally Audiobook app at home so that she could stay in contact and read books with her students over the winter break. Reading became their special time and something they wanted to continue outside of school. Their excitement with the Great Reading Games has only grown over the years and culminated in their national first place elementary school win during the 2023-2024 school year!
“It was exciting to see that this was a resource we could utilize to help build up our kids to get to the level they needed to get to, and actually have a love of reading books. ” — SHANNON STURGEON, ESE SPECIALIST TEACHER, MORT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Outcome
The increase in reading engagement and excitement has proven fruitful for Mort Elementary School’s students in many ways. “During independent reading, the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution helped build self-confidence because ESE and ELL students can read the same books as their peers, it is just read to them on a different platform,” Sturgeon said. “They don’t feel like they are being left out or they can’t do what their peers are doing.”
The Audiobook Solution’s multiple access points provided new opportunities for that engagement and confidence to grow. Many educators did a daily check even over the announcement system to encourage kids. One teacher kept encouraging the kids “when we win” and told them they were working so hard they were going to make this happen. Her ELL’s were reading like crazy; even a brand-new non-English-speaking student had started expanding her vocabulary.
“As an educator, it’s a great tool to help keep kids engaged,” says Sturgeon, who has seen multiple individual success stories. “One student was hard of hearing and very self-conscious about wearing her hearing aids. Within their reading group, they found a book on Learning Ally called “El Deafo” about a little girl that has hearing aids. After the group read the book, she started wearing her hearing aids again, even getting hearing aids in new colors, and wasn’t self-conscious about wearing them in class anymore. Learning Ally helps students see themselves represented in stories, giving them a sense of value and confidence.”
During the 2023-2024 school year, spurred by the incredible enthusiasm of teachers and students alike, Mort Elementary School’s ESE and ELL students read 256,360 pages with the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution in the Great Reading Games. Snellgrove says that their students’ love of reading with the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution helps the entire school.
Learn more about how Learning Ally Audiobook Solution can benefit your students.