Select the search type
  • Site
  • Web
Search

Learning Ally Volunteer Nation logo

Volunteer Nation's Latest News

 

Stay in the know with your fellow volunteers and learn about current events happening in the Volunteer Nation

 

    

 

 

 

Volunteer Nation Blog

rss

Stay in the know with your fellow volunteers, read the latest volunteer spotlight, and learn about current events happening in the Volunteer Nation.


Paula Restrepo
Paula Restrepo
Paula Restrepo's Blog

Learn more about The Great Reading Games

Watch the video below to understand why we are excited about Learning Ally's Great Reading Games event!

 

 

Learning Ally's Great Reading Games is a 7-week event proven to help educators engage students and increase reading stamina. Struggling readers return to class each day excited to see how many pages they read and if their school has moved up on one of the 12 school leaderboards.   Dyslexic and struggling readers have the motivation they need and the recognition they deserve for their reading achievements!   The 2020 Great Reading Games will run from 1/13/20- 2/29/20!

 

 

 

 

Here are some highlights from last year’s Reading Games:
•    2,086 schools participated in the 2019 Great Reading Games. 
•    37,500 participating students read close to 12 million pages throughout the 2019 Great Reading Games. 
•    12 schools earned the coveted title of “1st Place in their Bracket”.  120 total schools were awarded prizes.
•    Schools participated in social media challenges, which allowed them to celebrate their success and accomplishments. 
•    2020 will be the biggest Great Reading Games yet!

 

 

How can you help?

  • Work on getting your book project completed so it gets into the hands of a student participating in the Great Reading Games! Any book that you are working on could be a book that a student would like to add to their bookshelf and start reading! 
     
  • Want to offer some words of encouragement? Add your message to our GRG 2020 Words Of Encouragement Document and we will share them with our students once the games begin! 

 

Testimonials:
“I am a 6th grade Sped Teacher and the fact that my students can read books that their peers are reading does wonder for their confidence. Most of my students LOVE reading on LA.  The Reading Games were FANTASTIC!! They begged to go on, we came in 4th place for our division. They have never experienced such success with reading and it was amazing. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for the shirts and the earbuds and the certificates, they walked around proudly that day! I love Learning Ally."

 

“I LOVE LEARNING ALLY!!! I could be your spokesperson!!! It is difficult to find quality reading resources to help high school-aged students but this is perfect!!!    We subscribed for the 2018-19 school year. We promoted it during the first semester, but no one used it. At the start of the new year, I started going into classrooms, signing up students, and modeling how to use it for teachers and students together. About 30 kiddos began to use it, some more than others.   There are about 16 who use it regularly. These students have been changed by this gift of reading! They show a new sense of pride where before they were embarrassed about their reading abilities. Several of them have even stopped into my library office to share with me about how much THEY love it and how it is helping them! One of them even placed 6th in our division for the Learning Ally Great Reading Challenge that ended in February!  We are ending the year with these students reading over 18,000 pages and having spent over 300 hours reading! I am so proud of them and so happy to have found Learning Ally! In my 30 years of teaching, I have not found anything that has helped high school readers like Learning Ally. Thank you!”


Learning Ally is now an award-winning non-profit organization!

Once again, the Production and Volunteer Nation teams are thrilled to share that after two of our books being nominated for the Voice Arts Awards by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences, the leading industry organization for professional voiceover work, we have won in one of the two nominations.  These nominations are for the best of the best in the Voiceover world!  Award winners were announced on Sunday, November 17th during the Voice Arts® Awards Gala at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, CA

 

Learning Ally’s book was the winner for Audiobook Narration – History, Best Voiceover category, going to Learning Ally volunteer Dave Fennoy for his work on March Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. Dave is a well-known industry powerhouse, with extensive experience in commercials, documentaries, and especially video games. His vast talent is put to work on this amazing project, as he brings Lewis's searing memoir of the fight for Civil Rights to life in an extraordinarily vivid way.  See a picture of Dave with the award!

Take a listen to the "book trailer" below to hear this great voice, and then add to your bookshelf to listen to the whole thing!

 

March Book Three: Learning Ally Audiobook Trailer

Catalog link for March, Book 3: NA898    

 

The second nomination we had was for Audiobook Narration – Teens, Best Voiceover, going to Learning Ally volunteer and intern Clyla Destiny for her work on Unbound by Ann E. Burg. Although this her very first audiobook, Clyla turned in a fantastic performance and is competing with narrators with hundreds of books of experience! Her background in spoken-word poetry proved a good match for this unforgettable story of escaped slaves fighting for survival.

 

Unbound: Learning Ally Audiobook Trailer

Catalog link for Unbound: A Novel in Verse: NA591  

 

 

Like all of our books, these nominees were part of a real team effort! Additional production credits and congratulations on these nominations go to volunteers Susan Smith and John Arnott, as well as staff members Dave Kozemchak, Michael Kinsey, Alexis Bourbeau, and Kevin Ziegler.

 

Take a listen to the "book trailers" on the links above. Enjoy!