As the Great Reading Games continue, we keep helping students with learning differences fall in love with reading!

More GRG Data…..
Schools opted in: 2858

Students Reading: 37,367

Pages Read: 7,719,183

Beloved Books
Here are the top 5 books that were added to bookshelves and kept our students reading for the fourth week of our 2020 Great Reading Games! 

KT019 Mr. Granite Is From Another Planet! 
NB956 Diary Of An Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal 
KM769 To Kill a Mockingbird 
NC382 Dog Man: For Whom The Ball Rolls 
NB707 Trapped In A Video Game  

Everyone is still loving Dan Gutman's books - one of the titles that we started promoting out last week is now #1 on the list! 

Something to Tweet About…
 As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Check out the photos below of some of our amazing readers!  

Kelli Zicha tweeted about two of her students, Cynthia and Tyrese:

Cynthia is enjoying Jason Reynolds’ Ghost during the @Learning_Ally Reading Games 💛 #GRG20 #shelfie #wearereaders #tellyourstoryxrds @BonnieCapes @sondra_hinson @mjkmiec @LamprechtPaula

(Image of Cynthia sitting in a purple chair with her laptop in her lap and facing the camera. Her laptop is showing us her bookshelf. She has long black hair and has white headphones draped around her neck. She’s giving a sly smile!) 
 

Tyrese just downloaded the Learning Ally app on his phone! He’s excited to read and participate in the @Learning_Ally Great Reading Games 💛 #GRG20 #shelfie #wearereaders #tellyourstoryxrds @BonnieCapes @sondra_hinson @mjkmiec @LamprechtPaula

(Image of Tyrese sitting at his desk facing forward. He’s wearing a white hoodie with the words that say, “The future is yours”. He is holding a phone in his lap and is giving a handsome smile.)

Finally, what Joelle Nappi tweeted and the picture she captured is an opportunity for us all to make connections to what Maryanne Wolf described in her keynote speech at Spotlight on Dyslexia last year as “deep reading”.  The student pictured below was able to read with Learning Ally, then stop, think about the text, play it again if she needed and begin to think deeply about the what she was reading.  She may be making connections, finding the author’s purpose, or citing evidence.  Take a minute to think about the brain changes that are going on for her with the power of what Learning Ally audiobooks is able to bring.  We ALL make this happen every single day!  
 

Joelle Nappi, Middle School ELA teacher in NJ, tweeted out several great strategies:

Listening while following along with text, stop & jots, thinking about our thinking! We are growing as readers everyday by using ALL our tools and strategies! #GRG20 #ddeempower

(Image  of a middle school girl sitting in a blue bean bag chair, with a warm fuzzy jacket and boots. Her legs are crossed with a book propped on her leg. She has headphones draped around her neck. She has a pencil in her right hand, looking intently at the page and is jotting notes in the book. The poster behind her reads: “Kindness is the new cool”.)

Hear directly from Dan Gutman about the “There’s Nothing Weird About Reading” author webinar coming up on February 27th! Please share this far and wide.  You will start to see it on our website, in emails and on our social media channels.  

Our readers overall this week increased to 186,238 with over 76 million pages read and 28,053 at frequency – a 22% increase for schools!
Our readers this week overall increased to 191,092 with 81 million pages read and 30,218 at frequency – a 23% increase for schools!
 

The Great Reading Games of 2020 kicked off this month, and we're off to a great start with over 3 million pages read in just the first two weeks!

The Data…

Schools opted in: 2700

Students Reading: 26,241

Pages Read: 3,293,743  (last week we were almost at 1 million – look at the jump this week!)

Here are the top 5 books that were added to bookshelves and kept our students reading for the first 2 weeks of our 2020 Great Reading Games!  

Something to Tweet About…

Jennifer Womack from Humble ISD shared this tweet and picture:

OMG  Bring the donuts & they will come  Check out all these amazing readers @HumbleISD_FE #readersareleaders #GRG20 @MelissaBoehm3

(Picture is of a class of 26 students.  Each one is holding up a device with their bookshelf)

Priscilla Swanson from APHE shared this tweet and picture:

The Great Reading Games are going strong at APHE! @Learning_Ally #GRG20 Our 3rd graders are leading with the most points and minutes read this week! #weareAPHE

(Picture is of a student reading a book on his laptop.  He has on headphones and is facing the screen.  He is wearing a multi-colored blue hoodie)

Elizabeth Vickery Tweeted and shared this great bulletin board display:

We are ready, with medals and a trophy, for The Great Schultz Reading Games! #GRG20 @Learning_Ally @SchultzKISD @KleinISD #EVERY

(Image is of a bulletin board with the title:  Metamorphosis of a Reader.  It is a tree made out of twisted brown paper with the stages of reading on cards placed on the tree.  The cards read:  1st book, read with pictures, recognize words, you’re a reader.  In the bottom right hand corner is a section that has medals and the Olympic rings with an image reading “The Great Reading Games, Shultz Elementary)

Mrs. Arevalo Tweeted her bulletin board:

Chill morning with great books for @Learning_Ally #GRG20 #wearereaders @Cambridge_AH and we’ve moved ten places up the leaderboard to prove it! CE ️ 

(Image is of a bulletin board.  Last years’ 2019 GRG poster hangs on the left hand side, it reads:  Our school is a Learning Ally Great Reading Games Top 10 Winner!”   In the middle are the words “We are now in 22nd place!”  22nd is on a sticky note that can be replaced each week as they move up on the leaderboard.  A sticky note hangs beneath that reads: “Up from 31st place! WOW!  On the right is a banner that readers: We love our #GRG20 Readers.  Below that hangs a flyer about the games.)

Author Event…..    

“There’s Nothing Weird About Reading” with Dan Gutman

Thursday, February 27th @ 1:00 EST

The event has been updated on the Educator Portal, in our the GRG guide and on our Latest News page.

This event is open to anyone.  While we are encouraging our GRG schools to participate, any school is welcome to join. Learning Ally staff are welcome to join as well.  If you are in a location with others, considering joining together. Dan is a popular children’s book author who has written more than 130 books for kids from kindergarten all the way up to middle school. His work includes the "My Weird School" series, "The Genius Files", and "Flashback Four". Dan will tell us how he HATED to read when he was a kid, and what turned him into a voracious reader.

As you can see, Dan is a fun guy! 

(Picture is of Dan wearing a Mets jersey, standing on one foot and it looks like he is teetering in space over the peninsula of Florida)

Our readers this week increased to 180,815 with over 72 million pages read and 25,860 at frequency – a 21% increase for schools!