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


Sarah Klipper
Sarah Klipper
Sarah Klipper's Blog

Metrics Update April 4

Despite social distancing being extended through April, we are happy to report that our readers are not slowing down…
Our readers this week increased to 226,913 with over 114 million pages read and 43,037 at frequency – a 21% increase for schools over last year!
 

As we're all getting used to Zoom conference calls and everyone working from home, I wanted to share this video (linked below) from the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra based in the Netherlands.  They’ve continued performing, despite COVID-19, by transitioning to playing virtually.  They remind us that together anything is possible… even when we’re remote! Enjoy Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”!
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra plays Ode to Joy remotely

https://youtu.be/3eXT60rbBVk 

 

And also, a quote from Edinburgh-based journalist, Hope Whitmore that seems particularly relevant to recent events:

 In hard times, reading fiction reminds us we are human in a way Twitter never can.  Reading teaches us not only about our common humanity – it is wonderful to see something expressed in words and think, ‘Yes! That’s exactly how I feel’ – but also about the world.  Reading gives me hope because the chroniclers of dark times tell us that they pass.

 

Have a great weekend, keep reading, and stay safe!


Metrics Update - GRG 2020 Final Stats and More!

The 2020 Great Reading Games have come to a close, and we've sparked joy of reading in even more students than before! Check out our data and some twitter highlights from the last few weeks below:

 

GRG Data…..

Schools opted in: 2909

Students Reading: 46,366

Pages Read: 13,967,038

 

Number of students reading in the GRG for 2020 was 46,740, up 25% from last year’s 37,500

The number of schools that had at least one reader in 2020 broke 2,000 (2,033) up 30% from 2019 (1,571) and up 67% from 2018.

 

In the coming months, the Reading Programs team will track the FOPI C schools that had readers in GRG.  Last year 27% of C schools that had a reader in GRG became an A school.  In 2020, we had 552 C schools participate in GRG, up in the range of 25% from last year.  If the conversion rate of +27% holds for two years, we have a reading program proven to move C schools to A.  Did you catch that?  Did you see how we are using the data to provide PROVEN programs for schools? 

(FOPI= Fidelity of Program Implementation – FOPI A are our highest performing schools and FOPI C are the lowest performing)

 

 

GRG Books

Here are the top 5 books that were added to bookshelves and kept our students reading for the final week of our 2020 Great Reading Games.  We see that a title from Dan Gutman's My Weird School Daze series jumped into the top spot in anticipation of Dan's webinar! Do some of those other titles look familiar? The Dog Man books were the top titles for last year's games! We love seeing all the titles that have moved in and out of the top 5 list this year.  

 

  • KT020 Officer Spence Makes No Sense! 
  • JW075 The World According To Humphrey 
  • NB956 Diary Of An Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal 
  • NC382 Dog Man: For Whom The Ball Rolls 
  • NB760 Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild  

 

Along with Dan's book in the top 5 list this week the kids are also reading: 
- the first book in a series about Humphrey the classroom hamster
- the first book in the Rowley Jefferson series from Diary Of A Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney 
- 2 books in the ever popular Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey 

 

While we are sad to see the Games end we want to continue seeing the increased engagement and usage continue throughout the rest of the school year and over the summer!

 

 

Something to Tweet About
We LOVE these posts from Kimberly Sanders, sharing the fun and joy her students get with reading:


#CCEcougars get into some funny positions once they settle into a good 📖!😂😄😅#GRG20 @Learning_Ally @SuessShannon #Risdsaysomething

 A girl using Learning Ally LINK on her phone while sitting backwards in her chair, with a big smile on her face.
(Image is a screenshot of a young girl wearing a bright pink coat with fur around the hood.  She’s sitting backwards in the chair.  She isn’t wearing any shoes and you can see her panda socks sticking out from underneath the back support.  She’s holding her phone and she has a slight smile while listening to her book with her headphones)

 

Kimberly Sanders tweets: They're future is bright because they read! The photo shows two confident boys in cool sunglasses.

(Image is of Kimberly Sanders's tweet that reads “Their future is bright because they read!”  Below the tweet is a picture of two boys standing back to back with their arms folded and wearing sunglasses.  They are looking very James Bond-like!)

 

 

Holly Sanford's students "continue to arrive early” for reading sessions with Learning Ally...   This means that not only students, but parents and families needed to be engaged and involved in GRG.  They had to be intentional about having their kids there early to read before school.  Our impact goes beyond the classroom!

 Tweet from Holly Sanford: Final push for Learning Ally grg20. These students continue to arrive early to get in an early morning Great Reading Games/Learning Ally session! The photo shows a classroom with several kids using Learning Ally at their computers, at 7:35 AM.
(Image is of Holly Sanford’s tweet that reads “Final push for @Learning_ally #grg20 These students continue to arrive early to get in an early morning Great Reading Games/Learning Ally session!”.  Below the tweet is an image of a classroom with students sitting at their desks in front of computers.  We are seeing their backs and the bright lights of their computers with their books.  Every student is wearing headphones and look to be quite content reading!)  

 

There’s Nothing Weird About Reading with Dan Gutman
It’s not every day that you can reach over 680 schools and 25,000 students and teachers with fun, laughter and excitement about reading.  Oh wait!  If you are Learning Ally, you sure can!

In last month's webinar, we learned about Dan Gutman’s journey as a writer, how he got rejected many times and continued to write because he believed in his books, how he didn’t like reading as a child, and we even got to see the inside of his mouth!

 

If you weren’t able to attend the webinar live, you can watch the recording.  Dan’s only request is that we do not share the recording via social media or anywhere on the internet. The recording was sent to everyone that registered.

 
 Author Dan Gutman smiles wide and holds up a draft of his next book: Mr. Marty Loves a Party!
(Image is of Dan’s face, smiling widely, and holding up his unfinished manuscript of “Mr. Marty Loves A Party!”.  The manuscript is regular 8.5 x 11 paper with the words “Mr. Marty Loves A Party” written in red marker and in all caps taking up most of the page.)

 


 

This year's Great Reading Games may be over, but don’t worry - Spring Into Reading and Summer Reading Together are right around the corner.

During our Spring Into Reading Program, we will be inviting everyone to participate in a couple of the fun reading days:

 
·    D.E.A.R. Day (Drop Everything and Read) will be on April 12th

·    Poem in Your Pocket will be on April 30th

 

Finally, our total readers this week increased to 203,005 with over 94 million pages read and 35,790 at frequency – a 23% increase over last year for schools!