Today's webinar will include Tales2Go users and advocates (Shannon Sullivan and Katherine Orlando) who will share what Tales2Go has done to aide their instruction in and out of the classrooms. Tales2Go, based in Washington, DC, is a Netflix-like service that streams thousands of audio book titles from leading publishers to desktops, laptops and mobile devices in the classroom and beyond. The company has innovated on both the delivery and business model of distributing audio books to schools. Adding a listening component to reading instruction raises reading scores, which is why audio books have been used in classrooms for decades. Proficient reading is the product of listening comprehension (i.e. fluency and vocabulary) and decoding skills. 

In the U.S., just 32% of fourth graders read proficiently. And students not reading proficiently at the end of third grade are four times more likely not to graduate from high school; the problem is so pervasive that 14 states have enacted legislation to hold back 3rd graders not reading at level. Tales2Go is a 21st Century arrow in the literacy quiver to get kids excited about and skilled at reading. The Tales2Go library ranges from PreK to Young Adult, fiction and nonfiction and includes Spanish and kids' music areas.