Clark-Pleasant Middle School started 2020 off in a special way: with a visit from New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds. As Library of Congress’ newest national ambassador for young people, Jason spoke with the students about the writing process and his novels, emphasizing the power of books whether in physical or digital form. Similar to how Jason strives to connect with readers through characters and stories, the students can directly connect to his novels and more through their student reading app.
Clark-Pleasant Middle School, a member of Clark-Pleasant Community Schools Corporation, provides students with access to the school’s broad collection of eBooks and audiobooks through Sora, the district’s student reading app. Students have convenient and safe access to digital copies of Jason’s books as well as thousands of eBooks and audiobooks from the school’s collection for their classroom assignments and pleasure reading. These reading materials are available for use inside the classroom, at home and anywhere 24/7.
“Our students and staff love having access to OverDrive with the Sora app where they are able to read eBooks and listen to audiobooks,” said Stacey Kern, school library media specialist at Clark-Pleasant Middle School. “In the past few years, we have increased accessibility of the digital library to staff and students and are excited to continue adding new titles!”
Clark-Pleasant Community Schools student digital book checkouts increased by 45 percent and the amount of students reading digitally has increased 43 percent when comparing the 2018-2019 school year to the current school year.
Inspired by educator and student feedback, Sora offers both assigned, educational and pleasure reading incentivized with fun avatars and achievements within the app to encourage a focus on learning. Sora also supports teachers by offering classroom-specific tools like reading analytics and exportable notes that individualize learning. The app’s ease-of-use helps their students to read more, improve comprehension and learn critical listening through audiobooks.
Sora was designed to transform the modern student reading experience and built by OverDrive Education, a division of Rakuten OverDrive serving K-12 schools worldwide. Rakuten OverDrive is the leading digital reading platform for a growing network of 45,000 libraries and schools in 78 countries.
The Sora app is available for Clark-Pleasant Community Schools students, faculty and staff to download through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and on Chromebooks that support the Google Play Store. It is also available for use in web browsers at soraapp.com.
To learn more, visit soraapp.com.
