Learning Ally Blog: Access and Achievement

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Now more than ever, people with learning and visual disabilities are flourishing in the classroom, launching productive careers and becoming assets in their communities. This blog spotlights remarkable individuals who demonstrate that having a visual or print disability is no barrier to educational success.


Parent Empowerment Zone: Advocacy is Essential
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September 7, 2018 by Learning Ally

Excerpts from DyslexiaLand: A Field Guide for Parents of Children with Dyslexia by author Cheri Rae


DyslexiaLand Book CoverChildren with dyslexia who attend most public schools are square pegs forced into round holes. A one-size-fits-all, standardized approach doesn’t work for them. It wastes potential and ruins lives in the futile process of forcing them to conform to a public education system that hasn’t been built for the way they think, learn, and express themselves.

Longtime dyslexia advocates agree: School officials are not likely to tell parents what they need to know in order to help their dyslexic children. Therefore parents must adopt a strategy to get optimal assistance and learn to advocate to acquire these services.

When parents become educated about dyslexia, they are more likely to speak up, and to seek out and acquire the specialized help their children need. Unfortunately, far too often that parental education takes place after months, or more likely, years of false hopes and empty reassurances that everything will be fine—when clearly it is not.

No easy options are available for parents in search of a quality education for their child with dyslexia. A lucky few have access to public schools with enlightened leadership that have programs in place to teach students with dyslexia in the way they learn. An increasing number are turning to a variety of home-school methods and programs. Parents able to afford the high tuition can send their children to private schools designed for students with dyslexia. More affordable, but still costly, options for parents are intensive programs and both short-term and long-term specialized tutoring.

Unless parents opt for private school or home-schooling, they need to commit to hands-on management of their child’s public school education. In order to do so, parents must learn to become effective advocates. For those who may have learning differences or language barriers of their own, advocacy may not come easily.

Best advice for parents who advocate for their child is the same advice offered students:

Parent Dyslexia HereosGo to school: Learn what you don’t know.
Stay in school: Learn what you need to know.
Do your homework: Research, do the busywork, turn your papers in on time,
Work together: Figure out who you need to know, and how to work with them; develop a network of support.
Timing is everything: Know the school calendar, learn who you need to meet when for what reason.
Know the law: Research and understand the legal requirements that schools must follow to address the needs of dyslexic students.

 


Not a member yet? Become a member today and realize the difference that Learning Ally has on your child!

As a member your child will not only gain direct benefits from our Learning Ally Reading App, Link, parents are also a part of a supportive community of people who are invested in supporting students who struggle to learn. Together we can transform the lives of the over 10.4 million students who learn differently.

Our Learning Ally Reading App provides a multitude of ways for your struggling reader to spend more time comprehending the subjects they're reading, relieve them of having to decode printed words allowing them to become independent and successful students. Learning Ally also provides parents with resources, webinars, and peer mentoring providing support to the whole family.

Read More about Parent Empowerment Zone: Advocacy is Essential

Back to School Ready! Learning Ally Reading App, Link
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August 27, 2018 by Learning Ally

Child Enjoying AudiobookWe can help your child read better and get through their homework independently with access to the books they want and need to read. Learning Ally transforms the lives of over 375,000 struggling learners annually with our educational solution.  With a Learning Ally membership, you and your family can access our educational tools and a library of over 80,000 human-narrated audiobooks (literature and text-books) year-round for the low price of $135.

Learning Ally's reading app, Link, delivers an unparalleled educational experience that will have your child reading independently, actively participating in the classroom, and understanding the content they are reading.  With your membership, you will also be part of a community of parents - just like you - to help you manage the challenges of a learning difference. 

Learning Ally's Reading App, Link supports students success in multiple ways


Voice to Text FeatureVoice-To-Text

 

Our human-read audiobooks support struggling readers by making a story come to life.  As your student reads along our educational solution highlights the words on a page supporting students ability to recognize words in the future, aids in comprehension of the material and allows them to better absorb the content that they're reading.
 


 

AnnotationsAnnotation

Highlight a section of a book on a specific page, adding & saving notes. You can view and compile all or your notes to help recall important dates, characters, historical references, quotes, and other notable text in a novel or textbook.  Annotating can help your child when doing a book report and providing study notes for that important upcoming test.
 

 
 

In App DictionaryLink's In-App Dictionary

 

Difficult words are now defined right in the app while your child is reading. They can tap on a word and the definition of the word will be revealed allowing them to save time and provide a continuous reading experience. Your child can also create a vocabulary list of words to review before a big test. 
 


 

Sharing

In App DictionaryWith our sharing functionality, your child can compile all of their notes, quotes, and vocabulary lists and share them with a family member, teacher, and or friend. Your child can participate and work in a more collaborative setting with their peers and bring value to any project by sharing their findings within a novel or textbook. That vocabulary list of difficult or sight words your child annotated can now be shared and printed to create flashcards or a study sheet.  Using the Learning Ally reading app can truly transform the lives of a student.

 

 


Customization and Preferences

Customization and PreferencesNow your child has the power to increase or decrease the size of the font, the spacing between the letter and lines, or the text color - just to name a few options - maximizing your child's reading experience.

Change the highlight color to help motivate your child to read more. Adjust the spacing and sizes of the typography to support your child's reading stamina and slowing down the narration speed can support your child while they decode to get through to completing a lengthy novel - something we all enjoy celebrating.
 


As a member your child will not only gain direct benefits from our Learning Ally Reading App, Link, parents are also a part of a supportive community of people who are invested in supporting students who struggle to learn.  Together we can transform the lives of the over 10.4 million students who learn differently.

Not a member yet? Become a member today and realize the difference that Learning Ally has on your child!

Our Learning Ally Reading App provides a multitude of ways for your struggling reader to spend more time comprehending the subjects they're reading, relieve them of having to decode printed words allowing them to become independent and successful students.  Learning Ally also provides parents with resources, webinars, and peer mentoring providing support to the whole family. 
 

Read More about Back to School Ready! Learning Ally Reading App, Link

Great Start Audiobooks Grades 9-12
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August 23, 2018 by Learning Ally

Our volunteers, who are subject matter experts and voice-over artist, spend hours recording our audiobooks to secure the right for all students to learn and out of their love for reading and education. It's the human-narration of our audiobooks that provides an added advantage to our members. Here at Learning Ally we use terms like prosody and fluency to discuss a struggling reader's need to hear tone, pitch, stress, and timing to support content absorption and ensure that your child is not just reading but also learning. 

Here's a list of audiobooks that we recommend for 9-12 grade level readers to help you get started with your Learning Ally membership have been newly recorded and added to our library.  Enjoy!

 

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

Lexile Level: 750L

Synopsis
No one ever said life was easy. But Ponyboy is pretty sure that he's got things figured out. He knows that he can count on his brothers, Darry and Sodapop. And he knows that he can count on his friends—true friends who would do anything for him, like Johnny and Two-Bit. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up on “greasers” like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect—until the night someone takes things too far.


 


To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Lexile:870L

Synopsis
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.


 

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Lexile: 1170L
Synopsis
George Orwell's timeless and timely allegorical novel--a scathing satire on a downtrodden society's blind march towards totalitarianism. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned--a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.


 

Divergent Trilogy ; Book 1 by Veronica Roth

Lexile: HL700L
Synopsis
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue-Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is - she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are - and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves... or it might destroy her. Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series - dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.


 

1984 : A Novel by George Orwell

Lexile Level: 950L
Synopsis
Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever... “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching... A startling and haunting vision of the world, 1984 is so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the influence of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions—a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.


 

All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Lexile: 830L
Synopsis
The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.


 

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

Lexile: 870L

Synopsis
An historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014. Go Set a Watchman features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Returning home to Maycomb to visit her father, Jean Louise Finch—Scout—struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society, and the small Alabama town that shaped her.


 

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Lexile: 1010L
Synopsis
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.


About Learning Ally

Learning Ally is a leading nonprofit ed-tech organization delivering a comprehensive learning solution for struggling readers in elementary, middle and high schools. Our proven solution includes the most extensive library of human-read audiobooks that students want and need to read both at home and at school. This reading experience helps accelerate learning, enables a new level of access to knowledge and powerfully increases confidence and self-belief.

Learning Ally empowers over 240,000 students with improved comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and critical thinking skills. For over 70 years, we have helped transform the lives of struggling readers by bridging the gap between their reading capability and their academic potential as they confidently become lifelong learners who thrive in school and beyond.

Learn More About Becoming a Learning Ally Member

Read More about Great Start Audiobooks Grades 9-12

Great Start Audiobooks Grades 6-8
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August 23, 2018 by Learning Ally

Our volunteers, who are subject matter experts and voice-over artist, spend hours recording our audiobooks to secure the right for all students to learn and out of their love for reading and education. It's the human-narration of our audiobooks that provides an added advantage to our members. Here at Learning Ally we use terms like prosody and fluency to discuss a struggling reader's need to hear tone, pitch, stress, and timing to support content absorption and ensure that your child is not just reading but also learning. 

Here's a list of audiobooks that we recommend for 6-8 grade level readers to help you get started with your Learning Ally membership have been newly recorded and added to our library.  Enjoy!

 

Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths by Ingri D'Aulaire ; Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

Lexile Level: 1070L

Synopsis
No education is complete without a large slice of Greek mythology. And there's no better way of meeting that literary quota than with the D'Aulaires' book. All the great gods and goddesses of ancient Greece are depicted in this big, beautiful classic, lovingly illustrated and skillfully told. Young readers will be dazzled by mighty Zeus, lord of the universe; stirred by elegant Athena, goddess of wisdom; intimidated by powerful Hera, queen of Olympus; and chilled by moody Poseidon, ruler of the sea.


 

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Lexile:1020L

Synopsis
This award-winning contemporary classic is the survival story with which all others are compared--and a page-turning, heart-stopping adventure, recipient of the Newbery Honor. LOST Brian Robertson, sole passenger on a Cessna 406, is on his way to visit his father when the tiny bush plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. With nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present, Brian finds himself completely alone.


 

Nightingale's Nest by Nikki Loftin

Lexile: 630L
Synopsis
A powerful novel about friendship and family that calls to mind Bridge to Terabithia. Twelve-year-old John Fischer Jr., or "Little John" as he’s always been known, is spending his summer helping his father with his tree removal business, clearing brush for Mr. King, the wealthy owner of a chain of Texas dollar stores, when he hears a beautiful song that transfixes him. He follows the melody and finds, not a bird, but a young girl sitting in the branches of a tall sycamore tree.


 

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Lexile: 850L
Synopsis
The #1 New York Times bestseller, which is also a major motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie, has now been adapted by the author for young adults. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this riveting biography includes more than 100 black-and-white photos, as well as exclusive content, "In Conversation," with Laura Hillenbrand and Louie Zamperini.


 

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate; Patricia Castelao (Illustrator)

Lexile Level: 610L
Synopsis
Winner of the Newbery Medal and a #1 New York Times bestseller! This unforgettable novel from renowned author Katherine Applegate celebrates the transformative power of unexpected friendship. Inspired by the true story of a captive gorilla known as Ivan, this illustrated book is told from the point of view of Ivan himself. This paperback edition includes an author's note highlighting the differences between the fictional story and true events, a version of the author's Newbery Medal acceptance speech, Ivan's "signature," discussion questions, and more. Having spent twenty-seven years behind the glass walls of his enclosure in a shopping mall, Ivan has grown accustomed to humans watching him. He hardly ever thinks about his life in the jungle.


 

The Hunger Games ; 1 by Suzanne Collins

Lexile: 810L
Synopsis
A chilling tale of survival from the New York Times bestselling author. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the other districts in line by forcing them to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight-to-the-death on live TV.


 

Anne Frank by Anne Frank; B. M. Mooyaart-Doubleday (Translator); Eleanor Roosevelt (Introduction by)

Lexile: 1080L

Synopsis
Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic---;a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office building. 


 

Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Lexile: 610L
Synopsis
The internationally bestselling book that inspired the Pay It Forward movement is now available in a middle grade edition. Pay It Forward is a moving, uplifting novel about Trevor McKinney, a twelve-year-old boy in a small California town who accepts his teacher's challenge to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world. Trevor's idea is simple: do a good deed for three people, and instead of asking them to return the favor, ask them to "pay it forward" to three others who need help. He envisions a vast movement of kindness and goodwill spreading across the world, and in this "quiet, steady masterpiece with an incandescent ending" (Kirkus Reviews), Trevor's actions change his community forever.


About Learning Ally

Learning Ally is a leading nonprofit ed-tech organization delivering a comprehensive learning solution for struggling readers in elementary, middle and high schools. Our proven solution includes the most extensive library of human-read audiobooks that students want and need to read both at home and at school. This reading experience helps accelerate learning, enables a new level of access to knowledge and powerfully increases confidence and self-belief.

Learning Ally empowers over 240,000 students with improved comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and critical thinking skills. For over 70 years, we have helped transform the lives of struggling readers by bridging the gap between their reading capability and their academic potential as they confidently become lifelong learners who thrive in school and beyond.

Learn More About Becoming a Learning Ally Member

Read More about Great Start Audiobooks Grades 6-8

Great Start Audiobooks Grades K-5
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August 23, 2018 by Learning Ally

Our volunteers, who are subject matter experts and voice-over artist, spend hours recording our audiobooks to secure the right for all students to learn and out of their love for reading and education. It's the human-narration of our audiobooks that provides an added advantage to our members. Here at Learning Ally we use terms like prosody and fluency to discuss a struggling reader's need to hear tone, pitch, stress, and timing to support content absorption and ensure that your child is not just reading but also learning. 

Here's a list of audiobooks that we recommend for K-5 grade level readers to help you get started with your Learning Ally membership have been newly recorded and added to our library.  Enjoy!

 

Jack and the Beanstalk

Lexile Level: AD660L

Synopsis
Join young Jack as he climbs a giant beanstalk to a magic castle in the clouds. Meet a hen that lays golden eggs and a harp that sings by itself. And don't forget the ogre. A classic fairy tale with a vigorous look that will leave you chanting "Fee-fi-fo-fum!"


 

Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Manthchev

Lexile:AD490L

Synopsis
When the local Pet Club won’t admit a boy’s tiny pet elephant, he finds a solution—one that involves all kinds of unusual animals in this sweet and adorable picture book. Today is Pet Club day. There will be cats and dogs and fish, but strictly no elephants are allowed. The Pet Club doesn’t understand that pets come in all shapes and sizes, just like friends. Now it is time for a boy and his tiny pet elephant to show them what it means to be a true friend. Imaginative and lyrical, this sweet story captures the magic of friendship and the joy of having a pet.


 

Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories
by Dr. Seuss

Lexile: AD650L
Synopsis
A new Dr. Seuss book! This follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories features familiar Seussian faces and places--including Horton the Elephant, Marco, Mulberry Street, and a Grinch--as well as an introduction by renowned Seuss scholar Charles D. Cohen. Seuss fans will learn more about Horton's integrity, Marco's amazing imagination, a narrowly avoided disaster on Mullbery Street, and a devious Grinch. With a color palette enhanced beyond that of the magazines in which the stories originally appeared, this new volume of "lost" tales is a perfect gift for young readers and a must-have for Seuss collectors of all ages!


 

Voices from the Oregon Trail by Kay Winters

Lexile: 520L
Synopsis
It’s 1848, and brave families band together in covered wagons to head west. Each spread introduces a different speaker to tell his or her part of the story: there’s Carl Hawks, son of the wagon train leader; Louisa Bailey, the newlywed; Chankoowashtay, a Sioux brave; and more. Like its acclaimed predecessor Colonial Voices, this book showcases a thrilling—and often dangerous—time in our history. Richly detailed illustrations bring the story of the great Westward Expansion to vivid life.


 

Mr. Granite Is From Another Planet! by Dan Gutman; Jim Paillot (Illustrator)l

Lexile Level: 580L
Synopsis
It's the start of a new school year, and A.J.'s third-grade teacher, Mr. Granite, is out of this world! He's a supergenius who talks weird, acts weird, and looks weird. He knows everything. Is he a computer posing as a person, or does he come from another planet?


 

I Survived the Hindenburg Disaster 1937 by Lauren Tarshis

Lexile: 700L
Synopsis
In May of 1937, the Hindenburg, a massive German airship, caught fire while attempting to land in New Jersey, killing 35 people. Lauren Tarshis's latest thrilling addition to the New York Times bestselling I Survived series, will feature an 11-year-old boy in the middle of this historic disaster..


 

El Deafo by Cece Bell

Lexile: GN420L

Synopsis
A 2015 Newbery Honor Book Going to school and making new friends can be tough. But going to school and making new friends while wearing a bulky hearing aid strapped to your chest? That requires superpowers! In this funny, poignant graphic novel memoir, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful--and very awkward--hearing aid. The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear--sometimes things she shouldn't--but also isolates her from her classmates. She really just wants to fit in and find a true friend, someone who appreciates her as she is. After some trouble, she is finally able to harness the power of the Phonic Ear and become "El Deafo, Listener for All." And more importantly, declare a place for herself in the world and find the friend she's longed for.


 

Serafina and the Twisted Staff by Robert Beatty

Lexile: 870L
Synopsis
Serafina's defeat of the Man in the Black Cloak has brought her out of the shadows and into the daylight realm of her home, Biltmore Estate. Every night she visits her mother in the forest, eager to learn the ways of the cat amount. But Serafina finds herself caught between her two worlds: she's too wild for Biltmore's beautifully dressed ladies and formal customs, and too human to fully join her kin.


About Learning Ally

Learning Ally is a leading nonprofit ed-tech organization delivering a comprehensive learning solution for struggling readers in elementary, middle and high schools. Our proven solution includes the most extensive library of human-read audiobooks that students want and need to read both at home and at school. This reading experience helps accelerate learning, enables a new level of access to knowledge and powerfully increases confidence and self-belief.

Learning Ally empowers over 240,000 students with improved comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and critical thinking skills. For over 70 years, we have helped transform the lives of struggling readers by bridging the gap between their reading capability and their academic potential as they confidently become lifelong learners who thrive in school and beyond.

Learn More About Becoming a Learning Ally Member

Read More about Great Start Audiobooks Grades K-5