What is Lexia?

by Lynn K. McMullin

In brief, Lexia is a reading software support program with a strong research base behind it.  In fact it’s an award-winner - recognized by several organizations, including Scholastic and EdNet for being the best in reading technology, RTI, and assessment.  Lexia helps students ages 4 and up acquire and improve the most essential reading skills from phonics to Latin roots.  At the same time, it allows the teacher or the tutor to monitor the student’s progress and target very specific and informed instruction to meet his or her needs.

There are three programs in Lexia: Early Reading, Primary Reading and Strategies for Older Students (SOS). Each program has multiple levels within it.  We’re using it in grades K – 9 in a variety of scheduling options, including before and after school tutoring sessions.  Some parents have even asked to be trained and are using Lexia at home. Research shows that fidelity yields results; success with Lexia requires 20 – 30 minutes a session, 3 – 5 times a week (depending upon the child’s needs).  The teacher or tutor also must take a backseat and not help students answer the questions.  When on the computer, the student must be working independently 100% of the time for the program to correctly diagnose and assign skills.

Canton’s reports are showing this level of fidelity is giving us results, and some students have moved up four or more Lexia levels since we began in November.  Lexia Reading begins with an auto placement tool in which a student completes a game-like assessment on the computer, using a headset to listen to instructions and to the sounds and words being taught.  Based on the results of several different diagnostics, such as short and long vowels, segmentation of words, beginning and ending sounds, etc., Lexia seamlessly levels the student and then creates a program specifically targeted to the student’s needs.  The Lexia dashboard below is an example of a program a student might be assigned.  I was working from a student’s screenshot, so it’s not the best clarity; but you can see that the student has been assigned to five activities in Early Reading, Level 2: Consonant Tree I, II, and II, Short Vowel Crate, and Consonant Pairs.  The yellow progress bar shows the child has almost completed the Short Vowel Crate, including all of the looping that Lexia might have done within that activity.  In the meantime, the tutor’s dashboard shows the amount of time each child has spent on Lexia, each child's progress through the activities, and the trouble spots he or she might be having.

When a student bumps into a skill he or she can’t master in Lexia, a yellow exclamation point shows up in both the teacher’s dashboard report and at the bottom left corner of the child’s screen. This indicates the child needs one-to-one instruction to get over this hurdle.

Using “long vowel, silent e” as an example of a skill-based activity, Lexia might begin by assigning a game in which the student sorts words with “long a, silent e” into a barrel while a clown descends onto the screen. The student would click on “lake, maze, name, gate,” and so on.  Next Lexia will add “long i, silent e” and the student will find “bike, dime, kite, pipe,” etc.  If the student is successful and can move on to “long o, silent e,” Lexia will mix all three patterns together, "name, bike, note, tape, home" etc.  If the child is unsuccessful, the Lexia program will back up and isolate the skill where the student was last successful. Furthermore, the teacher's report will show all of this by charting the long vowels.  This type of pinpoint accuracy has amazed all of us, as while a teacher or tutor will know a child is struggling with reading, it takes a good amount of trial and error to know that “long vowel, silent e” is the immediate culprit.

In the screenshot below, the child is working in Consonant Castle; and as he or she answers correctly, the pieces of the castle are coming together.  When this child selects the “b” to complete the word “bow,” the castle will be complete.  If the child didn’t hear the word "bow" clearly, clicking on the ear in the upper right corner will repeat it as many times as necessary.

This is a very brief description of a very involved tool.  Lexia obviously cannot teach reading and replace the teacher’s multi-faceted classroom instruction… nor will it replace our very successful DIBELS program… or Wilson Reading for significantly struggling readers... or "Soar to Success."  It is simply another successful tool in our toolkit.