When Students Find Their Voice: A Teacher's Story of Literacy Growth with the Project Read Tutor

Last night we held a webinar with Cristie Worthington, a 2nd grade teacher in Florida, who shared her story of the tremendous growth her students have experienced using Project Read's digital reading Tutor.

Measurable Growth

Says Cristie: “One of the biggest challenges of 'center time' is accountability. How do I know they're being productive or doing anything that will grow them? With the Tutor, they are reading out loud and getting feedback. They're growing, and I have the data to prove it. My students starting below the 75th percentile have just soared.”

But the moment from Cristie's webinar that stayed with us wasn't about data at all. It was about a specific student who found her voice.

A student in the closet

One of Cristie's students was a multilingual learner who, in the classroom, was selectively mute: she simply would not speak English out loud. For a child learning to read in a new language, oral practice is everything, and the hardest barrier isn't always the code itself. Sometimes it's the courage to make a sound in front of anyone.

The Tutor gave her a way in. Lola, as Cristie's class calls the Tutor, doesn't judge, doesn't sigh, and never runs out of patience. She just listens, tells you exactly which sound didn't land, shows you what it should sound like, and gives you another try.

That safety changed everything. At home, this student found the most private, low-pressure place she could, she tucked herself into her closet. And there, alone with Lola, she practiced reading aloud in English. Away from any audience, she found her voice.

And Cristie saw the changes manifest in her classroom. As Cristie put it in the testimonial she later shared, this was a child who "learned to speak English properly" through that practice. What began as reading in a closet became confidence in her room.

“I've seen it again this year! I got kids that are growin' like weeds because of the Tutor.”

For Cristie, it crystallized why she advocates for the tool: the Tutor meets students exactly where they are, including the ones who need to start somewhere quiet before they're ready to be heard.

"That's the whole point," Cristie said. "Meeting students where they are. Some of them just need the right practice with corrective feedback, in a place that feels safe."