Key points:
- English Learner students showed impressive growth with literacy support
- Student-created book reviews inspire a global reading culture
- We are just beginning the uphill climb to improve student reading scores
- For more news on literacy, visit eSN’s Innovative Teaching hub
When we began noticing significant gaps for both our English Learner students and native English speakers between intentional phonemic awareness and work with word parts–due to missed instruction during the pandemic–we knew we needed a new literacy strategy. In most cases, students had learned “conversational English” but had never really engaged with the alphabet. This wasn’t just an English Learner issue, but it was one that required a separate focus.
To help fill the gap we began using two products, both of which were recommended by a teacher who had used the literacy programs at a previous school.
Here are five different ways our students and teachers are benefitting from our online literacy platform:
- Meet students where they are. We have an extremely diverse student body, which means foundational skills and native languages are varied and distinctive. While many students are proficient in other languages, these languages may not share the same alphabet or sounds as English. Our program includes a pretest component and personalized, individualized instruction for each student. Like all students, English Learners are unique in their backgrounds and educational needs. With a wide variety of English proficiency levels in the classroom, a platform like Lexia, which is personalized to each student’s literacy level, is a powerful tool. We have all the levels in one classroom, so having a platform like Lexia Core5 Reading, personalized to each student is very powerful.
- Teach to a group or individuals. At the middle school, Lexia PowerUp is used as a tool within English Language Development classes. These daily classes are one part of an English Learner’s day that is specifically focused on literacy development. Students receive direct, whole-class instruction in an area of need and then spend 20 personalized minutes learning with Lexia.
- Celebrate classroom successes. We love the data that the platform tracks and generates, and we’re always checking to see if students are meeting their minutes, whether they need more instruction, and how we’re doing overall. It’s important that students see Lexia as a partnership. Teachers are constantly interacting with students and the program, so students never feel isolated in their learning. In one of our classrooms, there’s a picture on the wall about group growth using the programs. At the end of every month, we notate the status of every ESL student. That way the kids can see how they’re doing, where they are in the program, and can compare what level they’re on versus the rest of the class.
- Intervene quickly when issues arise. If we see that a student is stagnating in the platform, we’ll sit down beside them and find out what’s going on. With our literacy platform, teachers get daily reminders about student progress that help them monitor progress and intervene quickly if and when issues arise. Sometimes they don’t want to ask for help, and they may need a nudge. This gives us the chance to intervene intentionally, knowing that they’re struggling. If they don’t have those skills, they’ll resist working with the teacher in a Tier 1 setting.
- Offer an engaging way to catch up to the rest of the class. Aesthetically, you would never know that a child is working on the adolescent literacy program in a classroom. Sometimes you can tell by the graphics at the younger age levels (where everyone is working through the graphic-intense modules), but in sixth grade, it looks like you’re watching a YouTube story. There’s no red flag of what a student is doing, but it is helping them. In fact, some teachers have almost called a student out thinking they were on YouTube when in fact they were using the literacy program!
Making great strides
Our students’ reading progress is improving significantly. While using Core5, during the 2023-2024 school year, 208 students (40 percent) using the program advanced at least one grade level of material. And of the students in the reporting sample, 458 (88 percent) started the year working on skills below their grade level, and 207 of these students (45 percent) advanced at least one grade level of material.
Our MAP Growth assessment data showed that one student in particular was in the 99th percentile for growth on her reading from the fall to the winter, which is amazing. She’s dedicated to the program. Obviously, she’s getting instruction in other areas too, but we’re just seeing that literacy is growing at a tremendous rate for so many of our students. It lets them fly, and if they need more work, it flags us for that too.