Mort Elementary School in Tampa, FL serves an average of 800 students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through grade five. Over 90% of the students are from low-income families, and test scores, which fall far below the state average, suggest that most students are not reading at grade-level. Several teachers at the school implemented the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution® for their Exceptional Student Education and English Language Learning Students, and once students began participating in Learning Ally’s Great Reading Games, participation really took off. In 2021, the school took fifth-place nationwide, and won the Elementary School bracket by reading 97,657 pages.
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
65% Hispanic | 23% Black | 7% White | 5% Multi/Other
The Challenge
Mort Elementary School is part of the Hillsborough County School District Transformation Network. Comprised of the district’s most vulnerable and chronically challenged schools, the school was amongst the lowest 5% in performance; only 29% of the students are achieving proficiency in reading and language arts, falling well below the state average of 56%. More than 90% of students are from low-income families and most students are not performing at grade level in reading.
“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 Elementary School. She and her colleagues got actively involved in the search for ways to better engage their students as readers and build their stamina and comprehension.
“With our demographic of students, they perhaps lack someone reading to them at home, so receiving that oral reading really increases their vocabulary. This is a great opportunity for them to have a human voice read a book to them to increase their fluency, their listening comprehension, their automaticity, their vocabulary, all the above.” — SHANNON STURGEON, ESE SPECIALIST TEACHER, MORT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
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 Elementary. DiSalvo, along with fellow educators, Shannon Sturgeon and Jennifer Chamoun, 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 IEPs.
At first, it was the library of content the Audiobook Solution offered that attracted their attention. “I was really impressed with the quality of the books and the amount of books that were available” says DiSalvo. Jennifer Chamoun agreed: “There are so many books available, especially trade books that aren’t normally available to students. Books that teachers would read within the classroom were available to the kids to go back to and read it again to have a better understanding and read at their own pace. They can go back, rewind, and see the words highlighted as they are read.”
“ They were motivated and taking ownership of their learning…here they have a choice in what they’re reading. ” — JENNIFER CHAMOUN, TEACHER, MORT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
While almost all of Mort Elementary School’s ESE and ELL students are reading below grade level, they all have diverse interests. With the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution’s structured supports, 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 amongst 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.
“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. The student winner of the Great Reading Games at Mort ES, fifth-grader, Miguel, did not have home access to WiFi; instead, he downloaded books while at school so he could read offline at home. In 61 days, Miguel read over 18,121 pages, winning a $100 gift card, which was a motivating factor for him.
“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 2020-2021 school year, spurred by the incredible enthusiasm of teachers and students alike, Mort Elementary School’s ESE and ELL students read 162,051 pages with the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution, far surpassing the next closest school’s total of 20,287 pages, and putting them in fifth place nationally in the Great Reading Games. While Assistant Principal Kelly Snellgrove asserts that school ratings are not what truly matters, during the 2020-2021 school year their school grade went from a D to a C, with the biggest growth measure demonstrated among their ESE students. Snellgrove asserts that their students’ love of reading with the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution helped the entire school.
“These students excelled, and we were so proud of them for doing it. During the pandemic, our school grade went up from a D to a C, and our biggest growth was in our ESE students. Their love for reading really helped our whole school.” — KELLY SNELLGROVE, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, MORT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Learn more about how Learning Ally Audiobook Solution can benefit your students.