Preferred Partner Highlight: Tales2Go
The Vision
The founders at Tales2go, Tracey and William, first began using audiobooks with their children as they realized the dramatic effects listening had on their literacy skills. Not only did their kids love listening to stories, it filled their heads with sophisticated spoken words that aren’t used in everyday language, e.g., observe vs. look. Along the way educators found Tales2go and a school resource was born.
The team at Tales2go is comprised of committed entrepreneurs and educators out to solve the word gap. In 2015, just 36% of U.S. 4th graders read at or above proficiency, falling to 21% for low-income students - and 53% of all students are low-income. Students not reading proficiently by the end of 3rd grade are 4x more likely not to graduate from high school. As the adage goes, children learn to read so that in 4th grade and beyond, they can read to learn. The root cause of the problem is a lack of vocabulary, often referred to as the 'word gap.’ In their seminal study which coined the term, Kansas researchers Hart and Risley showed that children from low-income homes had heard 32 million fewer words than kids from upper income homes. Linguistically rich 1st graders know 20K words vs. linguistically poor 1st graders, who know just 5K!
The Product
So why is vocabulary so important? It’s because reading proficiency is a combination of decoding skills (i.e., sounding out letters) and word knowledge (i.e., do you know a word, do you have context for it, do you know the way it is supposed to sound). Word knowledge is really vocabulary and fluency, which together is listening comprehension. In other words, you have to be a good listener in order to become a good reader… thus Hart and Risley’s findings.
Here is where Tales2go team steps in, and why schools and districts have an interest in audiobooks. The Tales2go team asked themselves the following question: are audiobooks a good substitute for exposure to spoken sophisticated words? Remember, teachers are busy folks, they cannot move the needle alone. Language acquisition happens as much at home as at school. WestEd, a leading independent research firm, evaluated Tales2go in a California school district. It turned out that students just listening to Tales2go (i.e., no paired text) attained 58% of their annual expected reading gain in just ten weeks, putting them three months ahead of the control students. The Tales2go students saw a nearly 3x gain in reading comprehension, 7x increase in vocabulary and 4x increase in reading motivation. Their rate of learning increased by a third.
Feel free to add Tales2go to your classroom literacy or Daily 5 rotation and be sure to assign some listening at home. You might be surprised by how excited students are to listen to a great story, well-told.
The Testimonials
“The opportunity to hear a more extensive vocabulary enables you to read and think more complex thoughts.” -Becca Todd, District Library Coordinator
“Students don’t know that they’re learning. They don’t know they’re getting fluency practice, comprehension and phonics skills. And they love it.” -Ashley Alicea, Classroom Teacher
“Tales2go has been a game changer for us at Falmouth Elementary School. It provides our readers with access to quality books, makes reading accessible for all and generates excitement for reading.” -Cathy Potter, Librarian
If you have any questions, email us at info@pledgecents.com.
