Posted February 24, 2021 in Articles
Author: Sally Garza, Director of Technology
January in Cleveland means grey skies, cold temps, and dreaded snow and ice. During this time of year, there is nothing I love more than curling up at home with a good book and some chai tea. But for many students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences, reading for pleasure is not at all their idea of a relaxing way to spend free time. However, through the use of assistive technology, Lawrence students transition to reading for fun and never look back. And by throwing in a little healthy competition, Learning Ally keeps them engaged!
All Lawrence School students in grades 5–12 have access to Learning Ally. This service started in 1948 as Recordings for the Blind, which helped blind soldiers continue their education with vinyl records of textbooks. Since then, the organization has grown and refocused their mission to provide human-read audiobooks to people with visual impairments, learning differences, or any other disability that makes it difficult to read print. Learning Ally is one of the most popular assistive technology tools in the United States and is used daily among Lawrence School students and alumni. In fact, many of our former students report Learning Ally is a preferred tool for accessing their college-level textbooks.
Text-to-speech tools, like Learning Ally, serve as both an accommodation and intervention for Lawrence students. These tools serve as an accommodation because they allow the reader to access written material in a nontraditional way (by listening). They can also serve as an evidence-based intervention when supplying audio while simultaneously highlighting words on the page. Studies show when a reader is listening to words read aloud while seeing them highlighted visually, the reader's orthographic mapping of phonemes to letters in words is improved. Sight word recognition is also enforced as the student is exposed time and again to words they struggle with. We also find, because students aren’t having to work so hard to decode text, they can focus better on comprehension and understanding.
Lawrence School has been participating in Learning Ally’s Great Reading Games for the last three years. The games combine reading time for all students in a school as they compete against other institutions for prizes. In the past, Lawrence has fared very well with a cumulative reading of 45,000-48,000 pages per game. However, this year our Lions are exceeding expectations!
With a week still to go, students have read 56,473 pages! Lawrence also provides prizes of wireless headphones, earbuds, mice, and bluetooth speakers for the top ten student readers. I love hearing and seeing reactions when I post the updated leaderboard each week as students see what place they are in. And the bibliophile in me absolutely loves seeing reading become just as competitive as playing basketball or a video game!