Imagine being a struggling reader in a K-12 classroom. You may have trouble decoding words, read slowly and struggle to comprehend what you are trying to read. Phonics, spelling, and understanding the structure of sentences can be a challenge. You see your classmates snuggled up with a book they are enjoying—something from the “Harry Potter” or “Dogman” series or a biography of their favorite NBA player or scientist. You struggle to do the reading you need to for your classes—let alone reading for pleasure!
As a result, you fall behind in all your subjects, becoming increasingly frustrated and announcing, “I hate to read” which quickly becomes, “I hate school.”
A concerned teacher recognizes your struggles and introduces you to the audiobook library that your school has invested in—the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution. Suddenly, you have access to thousands of culturally relevant, curriculum-aligned audiobooks, both the ones you need to read and the ones you will want to read for fun.
Who knew? This reading thing isn’t so bad after all. And you are doing better academically as well, demonstrating increased vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, and have become a more confident learner who is engaged in class. Books have become an important part of your world. Which makes it a good thing that your school’s Learning Ally audiobooks are accessible at home and on smartphones, not just in the classroom.
Audiobooks are transforming the learning experience for hundreds of thousands of learners in the United States and around the world. According to a study by the National Literacy Trust, 61 percent of children and young adults surveyed said that listening to audiobooks helps them understand content. Audiobooks lower the barrier for students to visualize what is happening in the story, understand the message of the content, use their critical thinking skills, and make connections to what they already know.
That’s been what’s happening for students in Southern California’s Lake Elsinore Unified School district. In fact, the district has invested in Learning Ally’s Audiobook Solution for all of its 25 elementary, middle, K-8, and high schools.
Lake Elsinore teachers have been successful using the human-narrated audiobooks for their students because the district has also invested in them, offering more than 40 virtual and in-person Learning Ally professional learning sessions over the last five years to prepare them on how to effectively use the solution in their classrooms. These workshops have provided Lake Elsinore teachers with insights and best practices to increase classroom use of the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution and improve struggling readers’ skills, comprehension, and confidence. The result has been an increase in pages read by more than 50 percent and the solution is turning previously struggling readers into voracious readers.
District maximizes the impact of the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution® through professional learning
LAKE ELSINORE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT | CALIFORNIA
Lake Elsinore Unified School District in Southern California serves over 21,000 students spread across 25 elementary, middle, K-8, and high schools. Its mission is to educate, equip, and empower every student every day, and it leverages Learning Ally’s Audiobook Solution and Professional Learning Workshops to help it meet its goals.
Challenge
Lake Elsinore Unified School district was looking for a way to bring support to struggling readers rather than taking students away from their classroom, peers, and curriculum. The district partnered with Learning Ally in July 2020 to introduce its Audiobook Solution to its elementary, middle, K-8, and high schools. Over the years, the district has participated in a series of Audiobook Solution professional learning workshops to train staff on the solution and how it can be used effectively in their classrooms.
Implementation
Since the district introduced the Audiobook Solution to their district, educators have benefited from over 40 virtual and in-person professional learning sessions to train staff on the solution and how it can be used effectively in their classrooms.
“We’ve offered the Launch Workshop many times because the staff asks to come back annually to refresh their memory on the program,” explained Dr. Kate Dampier, Coordinator of Special Education.
Educators also attended more advanced sessions including the Planning & Integrating Workshop to learn how to identify opportunities to integrate the solution within existing instructional routines and to plan and prepare for whole class and small group instruction.
Outcomes
The professional learning sessions have had an impact on reading. Between the 2021-2022 school year and the 2023-2024 school year, the number of students registered for the Audiobook Solution more than doubled to 9,390 students and the number of pages read in the solution increased 52%.
“The professional development we did last year has increased intentionality and our numbers are showing that,” Dr. Dampier explained.
Best of all, students are benefiting from increased classroom use. “We had a brother and sister who had dyslexia but were identified late because they were in the foster system,” Shannon Pinck, Assistant Director, Special Education, shared. “They read over 10,000 pages in 218 days and continued to access the audiobooks over the summer.”
Success stories like this are not uncommon at Lake Elsinore. “It’s inspired me to keep working with Learning Ally right up until I retire,” Dr. Dampier said.
Download the case study to learn more.