In the April Issue:
- Why Lexia Software Works – A Word from Our Founder
- Best Practices: How Much Time to Allocate to Lexia Software
- Meeting Reading Center Challenges with Technology
Why Lexia Software Works – A Word from Our Founder
by Bob Lemire
Most people who know how to read don’t remember how difficult it was to learn. For example, how many sounds are in the word “dog”? Are there 1, 2, or 3? What are they? Some people might respond “d” as in dad, “o” as in odd, and “g” as in go. If they know that much, they can spell the word.
There are 44 sounds in the English language and only 26 letters in the English alphabet. However, there are 150 letter combinations that represent the 44 sounds. To be a successful reader, a student must be able to look at strings of letters and hear the sounds they represent. To read at a beginning level, a reader must be able to do that repeatedly at the rate of 100 words per minute, eventually building up to a more advanced 300 words per minute, all while concentrating on what the words in combination mean.
Reading is not like walking and talking. Children are pre-programmed to learn to walk. They’re also pre-programmed to talk. Walking and oral language skills are usually in every person’s DNA and come along with your body.
Reading is different. Written language is a recent human acquisition, and people have to learn how to read from scratch. This means listening to instruction and then practicing repeatedly to develop ownership of each of those 150 sound-symbol relationships used in the English language. Some kids need 15 repetitions each step of the way and some need 1500 repetitions. Unfortunately, in a classroom setting, teachers can’t support the child who needs 1500 repetitions and students would chafe at the attention even if it were available.
Computers using Lexia’s software, however, can provide this kind of attention without complaint and for as long as needed. Lexia’s research shows that it only takes a 1st-time reader 10 – 30 hours a year in kindergarten and the early elementary grade to work through the 3 Lexia reading programs. An older student might take 70 hours to complete the upper level program in 1 or more years. In either case, schools can make the software available to all who need it for only a few dollars per student per year. Now that we have the right tools, we can’t afford the human and dollar cost of student failure to learn to read in a timely manner. And, we don’t have to.
Bob Lemire, the father of a child diagnosed with developmental dyslexia, founded Lexia Learning Systems in 1984. What began as one man’s attempt to help children with reading problems has turned into one of the nation’s most well-known and respected developers of reading software. Bob currently works directly with educators, parents, and others to identify the right Lexia product to help others strengthen their reading and cognitive skills.
Best Practices: How Much Time Should You Allocate to Lexia?
by Bob McCabe
Perhaps the most frequent question Lexia customers ask is, “How often should my students use Lexia software?” Fortunately, research has provided an answer to this question although the answer is a bit complex because of the wide range of skills displayed by children in the same class.
A rule-of-thumb answer is that children should use a program 2 to 3 times per week for 15 to 30 minutes per session depending on their age. Younger children often need shorter sessions while older children can work independently for longer periods of time.
Kindergarten:
Virtually all typically developing kindergartners should start with, and will benefit from, multiple (2 – 4) weekly sessions with Lexia Early Reading, which was designed for children ages 4 – 6. All kindergartners need to master the phonological skills in Early Reading in order to be successful with higher-order skills. Typically developing kindergartners will finish both levels of Early Reading while they are still in kindergarten.
Those kindergartners (or older beginning readers) who do not make steady progress and do not complete the program can be identified as at-risk of reading failure and most likely will need supplemental instruction. Conversely, kindergartners with precocious reading abilities, meaning those children who can already read and understand elementary text, are unlikely to experience any benefit from the use of Early Reading.
Grades 1 – 3:
Students entering 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade display a wide range of reading abilities that require a systematic and individualized approach to the use of Lexia programs. Children who do not have mastery of basic phonemic skills such as rhyming, blending, segmenting, and identifying initial and final sounds, or are still learning letter-sound correspondences for consonants, can benefit from Early Reading.
Students with command of phonemic skills, and students who have completed Early Reading, should use Lexia Primary Reading, which includes the skills sets commonly taught in grades 1 through 3. First, 2nd, and 3rd grade students with typically developing reading skills will make steady, and even rapid progress through Primary Reading. Students in these grades will commonly complete several or perhaps all 5 levels of the program in a school year if they use the program consistently (2 – 3 times per week).
Students in grades 1 through 3 who do not make steady progress and cannot complete multiple levels of the program are experiencing reading difficulties and should be screened as they may require additional support, including individual instruction.
Grade 4 and above:
Students in grades 4 and higher should use Lexia Strategies for Older Students, which has a more mature interface suited for older students. Students in grades 4 and above who are reading at or above grade level will find Strategies for Older Students relatively easy to complete as it was designed to be principally a remedial program for older students with delayed reading ability.
Students reading on grade level in grades 5 or higher will generally not benefit from using the program. Older students and adults reading at or below 4th grade level can use Strategies for Older Students to acquire automatic decoding skills, sight-word vocabulary, word-level fluency, and reading comprehension skills.
Older students generally have the capacity to work for longer periods of time, so they can reduce the number of sessions required to complete all five levels of Strategies for Older Students. Thus, older students may have fewer weekly sessions (as low as 2) and will still advance through the program in a timely manner.
A Final Note on Frequency and Duration:
Lexia programs feature fundamental reading skills that should be acquired by the end of 4th grade. The fundamental goal for students regardless of age, grade, or the program they are using is to complete the units; a good implementation and use pattern provides students with the practice they need to acquire and master basic reading skills. The time on-task will vary from one student to another, but the rule is constant across all grades, ages, and programs; given the opportunity to work on Lexia programs, students will be engaged, and they will master the foundational skills they need to become proficient readers.
Bob McCabe, director of research and product management, collaborates with Lexia’s principal academic consultants to design and implement rigorous studies measuring the efficacy of Lexia software. He also coordinates the efforts of various company departments involved in product design, development, and testing.
Meeting the Challenges in Reading Centers with Reading Software
by Catherine Pirri
Using the computer for literacy/reading skills practice is an excellent solution to the challenges classroom teachers face when implementing and managing independent literacy stations. As a literacy consultant, I have visited numerous classrooms in Massachusetts, Maryland, Mississippi, and Connecticut and have observed a variety of different reading centers and management systems to support these centers.
A common set of questions emerges from my conversations with classroom teachers and principals. How do we adequately individualize the activities in our reading centers? How can we be sure students are practicing correctly? How do we keep students engaged and on-task for maximum learning?
Developing differentiated activities for independent practice is burdensome for a classroom teacher. Reading center activities need to change frequently in order to support new lessons and maintain previously learned skills. A software program that delivers systematic and sequential activities while tracking student progress can save teachers hours in planning instructionally relevant center activities.
In addition to assisting the classroom teacher, reading software provides students with an invaluable opportunity to practice, reinforce and extend important reading skills at their individual level. However, practice alone is not enough. Teachers want to be sure students are practicing correctly while engaging in instructional routines that are highly effective.
Reading software provides students with explicit, systematic, and multi-sensory instructional routines. Students also benefit from the immediate corrective feedback as well as positive reinforcement for correct response selection. Furthermore, software from companies such as Lexia tracks and analyzes student responses and mastery, resulting in individual student reports. This insight into students’ progress allows the teacher to strategically target critical skills for re-teaching.
One of the best measures of the appropriateness of student center activities is student behavior. When tasks are too difficult, too easy, or too repetitive, students often signal us through behaviors that may be disruptive. Center activities that are the most engaging are interactive and multi-sensory. Most teachers would agree that it is almost impossible for them to create the quantity of novel multi-sensory activities offered by computer technology.
When setting up a reading center, the 1st choice of students and teachers is often computer-guided practice. Teachers and administrators welcome software programs that reinforce teacher led instruction, differentiate the activities for maximum student learning, and support research-based instruction. Students select computer activities because they are engaging and motivating. All these factors make software a powerful tool for helping students.
Catherine Pirri is a literacy consultant for The Hanson Initiative for Language and Literacy, founded in 2000 by the Graduate Program in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, an academic affiliate of the Massachusetts General Hospital.
IRA Show May 1 – 4
Come visit us at the International Reading Association conference, booth #334.
To learn how Lexia software improved reading achievement outcomes in a population that was 40% bilingual and 47% non-Caucasian, hear Lexia Director of Research Bob McCabe at a session entitled, “Raising Reading Scores Using Computer-Based Skills Programs.” This session will take place on Monday, May 1, 4:45 – 5:45 PM, at the Lakeside Center, McCormick Place, room E352.