Rally was built on a deep foundation of research. Thousands of studies document the benefits of reading and methods to maximize a reader’s potential. Below you’ll find research highlights that are core to Rally’s design and our promise to you.
The Rally Reader bookstore has over 100,000 ebooks to choose from, including new releases, award winners, and many popular series. We add new options frequently, and work hard to ensure every reader can see themselves in a character’s story.
Rally Reader listens to students read aloud, steps in when words get tricky, celebrates successes, and provides practice for challenging words; the same way a real-life coach would encourage and guide your practice.
The more children read, the better their fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Independent reading is most effective when it is supported, structured, and accountable.
Highly motivated students who see reading as a desirable activity will initiate and sustain their engagement in reading and thus become better readers.
Instead of independent silent reading, the NRP (NICHD, 2000) concluded that teachers should provide opportunities for students to read aloud with some guidance and feedback.
Reading motivation contributes more to leisure-time reading than to the amount of reading for school. Reading frequency significantly predicts reading comprehension.”
Successfully reading many books develops positive beliefs about reading that leads to higher levels of reading motivation.
When students select and read many stories and informative texts, they will make improvements in vocabulary, writing, motivation, reading identity, speaking, listening, spelling, grammar, and, of course, reading abilities.
Within Self-Determination Theory, motivation can increase for readers who feel supported to make independent choices, feel connected to their books and their support team, and have resources to learn through challenges.
When readers are motivated, they are likely to continue reading whether in an academic setting or during leisure time. Rally recognizes this effort, and motivates students to continue reading by offering badges and vocabulary points to celebrate these achievements.
For only 15 minutes a day, reading with Rally Reader supports a student’s literacy skill growth. Consistently reading every day can increase a student’s reading abilities over time.
Even when elementary students read for only 15 minutes a day, they significantly increased their reading abilities, with average and below-average readers showing the greatest gains.
The effects of reading extend into quality of life: High levels of reading proficiency are associated with greater academic, financial, professional, and civic benefits.
When reading engagement and practice are high for students, their reading performance is also high for all socioeconomic groups.
Engaged readers get immersed in their books. They are into the content they are reading. Rally Reader helps students build engagement by empowering them to select their books and supporting them as they read. Engaged readers build more vocabulary and background knowledge, enabling them to succeed in school and beyond.
Rally Reader detects a reader’s personal error words, gathers them within the dashboard, and listens to the student read them aloud.
A primary indicator of students' success in school, on standardized tests, and indeed, in life, is their vocabulary. The reason for this is simply that the knowledge anyone has about a topic is based on the vocabulary of that information.
The neuroplasticity of the brain teaches us that all students can learn, enhance their vocabulary, and change their brains.
In grades 3 through 12, an average student is likely to learn approximately 3,000 new vocabulary words each year, if he or she reads between 500,000 and a million running words of text a school year.”
Children’s vocabulary size approximately doubles between grades 3 and 7.
Words that are read aloud are better remembered than those that are read silently.
Memory could be superior for words that are read aloud vs. heard because words that are read aloud involve motor processing.
Reading aloud is so valuable in learning and remembering: We do it ourselves, and we do it in our own voice. When it comes time to recover the information, we can use this distinctive component to help us to remember.
Our primary goal with Rally is to get students reading. Practicing aloud has many benefits to strengthening a student’s reading fluency, memory, and comprehension. We also know, sometimes, students want to simply read silently to themselves, enjoy the story they’re immersed in. Rally offers both reading options!
Schools often use the WCPM (words correct per minute) as a critical measure of student reading progress. To keep up with the class, students must increase their reading speed each year. There is a meaningful difference between students in the lowest decile and those in the highest decile. This measure can be a leading indicator of a need for reading intervention or readiness for more challenging books.
