by David A. Valentine
There are many schools who use Lexia Reading to improve their students English language vocabulary, grammar and comprehension scores, especially among ELD students. Normally, to get at the assessment data for each student you would use your laptop or desktop computer's network connection. At my elementary school, the Alexander Science Center School (next to the California Science Center) in South Los Angeles, first thru fifth grade students use our computer lab to give the entire classroom equal time on the Lexia Reading. Ideally, this would be the perfect time for teachers to review the performance goals of individual at risk students using lexiareading.com on their laptop computer. However, teachers normally do not tote their laptops into the lab. They are often too busy answering questions and keeping students on task. Lexia Reading has introduced the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch app to track individual student, classroom to grade level, or school to school reading achievement for teachers, paraprofessionals and reading intervention specialists.
There are many schools who use Lexia Reading to improve their students English language vocabulary, grammar and comprehension scores, especially among ELD students. Normally, to get at the assessment data for each student you would use your laptop or desktop computer's network connection. At my elementary school, the Alexander Science Center School (next to the California Science Center) in South Los Angeles, first thru fifth grade students use our computer lab to give the entire classroom equal time on the Lexia Reading. Ideally, this would be the perfect time for teachers to review the performance goals of individual at risk students using lexiareading.com on their laptop computer. However, teachers normally do not tote their laptops into the lab. They are often too busy answering questions and keeping students on task. Lexia Reading has introduced the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch app to track individual student, classroom to grade level, or school to school reading achievement for teachers, paraprofessionals and reading intervention specialists.
Lexia Reading for the iPad
In the above illustration, with the app in Student mode, the class roster (left side column) appears as a vertical list. Touch a student's name (green highlight) and his/her multiple level statistics appear on the right side of the screen. The app tracks CVCC, CCVC and CVC information. It also takes pains to identify the words, vowels and consonants the student is struggling with and lists them.
In the second section on the right, under the heading Assessment the app shows the most recent Skills Levels, a Performance graph and a Usage graph. Below that, Usage breaks down to greater detail with the student's weekly average, total time on the app, and the last login.
At Alexander Science Center School reading intervention specialists and psychologists have occasionally provided copies of Lexia Reading to parents of at risk students on CD, so their children can work with the program at home. The iPhone/iPod Touch graphical displays of Lexia data can be an effective tool to keep parents informed of student assessment targets, vs the child's actual performance level anytime, anywhere.
Early in the first quarter of 2013, Lexia Reading will add real time data capture to the app making it possible for teachers to track the progress of a student while she is actually working with the program. Doing this in real time can improve the student's percent chance of hitting grade level benchmarks.Teachers and reading intervention specialists can easily assess the amount of individual attention a student will need to achieve those goals.
The Lexia Reading app for iPad, IPhone and iPod Touch is a FREE download from Apple's App Store for current Lexia subscribers. If your school does not have a Lexia Reading subscription, and you'd like to learn more about their program, go to: http://lexialearning.com
If you're also interested in visual art and technology trends you might want to visit my blog, Behind the ATE Ball: Art and Technology in Education
