9/20/2024
Making an Impact: How Differentiated Instruction Elevates Student Success
No matter how many students you have, you know the classroom is comprised of individuals, all with unique learning journeys. Personalizing instruction would allow you to cater to each student’s needs effectively, but it’s unlikely you have the time and resources in place.
Lexia® solutions make differentiated instruction accessible, not just aspirational.
Lexia’s science of reading solutions put educators like you at the center of learning. Personalized learning paths guide students as they work independently, dynamically adjusting based on their position in the program. With embedded assessment, we’ve taken the guesswork out of who needs help. If they struggle, you’re alerted and can provide direct instruction in the moment. No more racing to assist once the year is farther along.
Explore all the ways Lexia solutions make it easier to focus your attention on delivering just the right instruction at just the right time.
From Learning to Read to Reading to Learn
Can students who struggle with reading learn to love it? Yes, and when you have the support you need to meet them where they are, identify their needs, and provide personalized learning, you are well on your way to helping them develop a lifelong love of reading.
Lexia® Core5® Reading is an Adaptive Blended Learning program that accelerates the development of literacy skills for students of all abilities in grades pre-K–5. With a “Strong” rating—the highest ranking available—from Evidence for ESSA, Core5 closes gaps in as little as eight weeks for at-risk students.
Core5 meets students at a pivotal time in their reading development. Based on a student’s performance in the online program, Core5 recommends specific intervention and practice resources tailored to a student’s progress and areas of difficulty.
With Core5, you can say goodbye to guesswork and hello to confident, informed decisions for your students' success.
That was the case for Somerset Academy Miramar. As Principal Alexandra Prieto remarked, “Year after year, we had been looking for a resource to improve reading among our students in grades 1 and 2.” They knew a cookie-cutter approach wouldn’t cut it for their students.
“When we started using Core5, we immediately saw how effective it was. We found ourselves saying, ‘Oh, wow, this is so different—this program really works!’”
Prieto noted the student growth in Core5 is strong and the feedback from teachers is positive. As Somerset reading coach Michelle Rojas added, “There are so many reasons why we love Lexia, but the most important one of all is the growth we see in our students. There’s nothing more important than that.”
That growth has been impressive. The percentage of K–2 students working in or above grade level in Core5 at Somerset increased from 48% to 95% in less than one school year. That potential for growth extends to all students, including those with dyslexia and other reading and language-based disabilities.
Supporting Students With Reading Difficulties
Research shows Core5’s more explicit instructional approaches have a pronounced impact on the literacy skills of students with learning disorders, such as dyslexia. The program provides students with a Structured Literacy approach to the six areas of reading: phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, structured analysis, automaticity/fluency, and comprehension.
Informed by the science of reading, and using innovative techniques, Core5 creates individualized learning paths to support students of all ability levels, including students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
Giving students a choice over their path and pace through the program, along with awareness and ownership of performance and progress, supports student agency and a growth mindset. After one year, Core5 users with dyslexia and other reading and language-based disabilities were two times more likely to be proficient readers than non-users.
If you'd like to learn more about the impact Core5 has on students and the teaching experience, check out these other resources:
Data Shows the Power of Individualized Literacy Instruction for Students in Chicago School
During the last few years, educators at Enrico Tonti Elementary School have been working to improve how they teach reading to kindergarten through fifth grade students. Today, the school uses Core5 for grades K–5, and has become a Level 1+ school, which is one of the highest rankings for Chicago Public Schools’ rating system.
Read the Case Study
How a Research-Proven Reading Program Led to Growth
Challenged by the wide variety of literacy levels in the school, Somerset Academy Miramar leaders needed a proven literacy program that would allow teachers to differentiate their instruction with real-time student progress monitoring. The percentage of students in grades K–2 working in or above grade level in Core5 increased from 48% to 95% in less than one school year and those working below their grade level in Core5 reduced from 52% to 5%.
Read the Case Study
How Lexia Core5 Reading Transforms Literacy Learning
Hear from Beth Carstens, an educator at St. Anthony School in Nebraska, about the impact of Lexia Core5 Reading in her classroom and how Core5 supports personalized learning and promotes student engagement.
View Educator Story
Building Stronger Readers With Lexia Core5 Reading
Jennifer Dines, an educator at Mildred Avenue K–8 School in Massachusetts, shares her experience with Lexia Core5 Reading. From providing offline reinforcement to celebrating student progress, learn how Dines uses Core5 to help accelerate literacy skills.
View Educator Story
Unlocking academic potential
It’s a terrible feeling when you realize an adolescent student can't read at grade level. Knowing you can give that student what they need to become a proficient reader—regardless of your background or expertise in teaching reading—is deeply gratifying and rewarding.
Lexia® PowerUp Literacy® supports students in grades 6–12 who are at risk of not meeting College- and Career-Ready Standards. Proven to be up to five times as effective as the average middle-school reading intervention, PowerUp enables students to make multiple years of growth in a single academic year.
PowerUp’s engaging grade-level texts motivate students while saving you time by providing data to identify and address gaps in fundamental literacy skills while helping students build the higher-order skills they need.
Pamela Kosten, a teacher at River Dell Middle School in New Jersey, describes her experience with PowerUp, “It has enabled me as an educator to become better. We don’t pass up any chances to really teach, to make meaningful and lasting change in their learning. Because, after all, that’s why I’m here.”
As Kosten says, PowerUp empowers secondary teachers to deliver the exact instruction each student needs to become a proficient reader. That aspect was critical for Crystal Hall, a secondary district literacy specialist for Bryant Public Schools in Arkansas. She knows one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to literacy instruction.
“Our teachers have always known what they need to do, but the planning and development of the learning materials for individual and small-group instruction was intimidating,” Hall said.
PowerUp is designed to improve your classroom experience. Ninety percent of teachers say PowerUp is easy to use, and 77% say PowerUp helps them more efficiently provide targeted instruction.
The results speak for themselves:
If you'd like to learn more about how PowerUp accelerates literacy skills for adolescent students, check out these other resources:
One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Flexible Approach to Literacy in Arkansas
Facing lower ACT Aspire reading scores, leaders at Bryant Public Schools sought a solution that would help students in grades 6–9 improve their reading and grammar levels. They found what they were looking for in PowerUp, which provides systematic and timely intervention tools for teachers. By the winter test, 57% of students met their growth targets.
Read the Case Study
Empowering Educators and Improving Student Outcomes
Marianne White, a reading intervention teacher at Highlands High School in Texas, shares how PowerUp equips her with actionable data to assess students' current skill levels and deliver targeted literacy instruction. Plus, learn how PowerUp helps build student confidence and promotes accountability among adolescent learners.
View Educator Story
Lexia PowerUp Literacy: Evidence-Based Instruction for Grade-Level Mastery
An educator at River Dell Middle School in New Jersey, recommends Lexia PowerUp Literacy for increasing students' ability to meet grade-level standards. “[PowerUp] provides evidence-based instruction that enables us to really make meaningful and lasting change,” she said.
View Educator Story
Nurturing a growth mindset
You know your Emergent Bilingual students are more than their English language skills. When you can offer them a learning experience that acknowledges their unique perspective and gifts, it demonstrates your curiosity, compassion, and your own growth mindset.
With the number of Emergent Bilingual students growing, you need tools to address individual student needs and reduce the impact of time constraints while honoring learners' backgrounds, heritage languages, and cultures.
Lexia English Language Development™ allows students to progress at their own pace. Any students struggling with a particular skill receive scaffolded support and instruction on the targeted skills and grammatical conventions. Students using Lexia English get to ease into listening and speaking to build a foundation for later reading proficiency.
Yadhira Rojas, a teacher on special assignment in the Laguna Beach Unified School District in California, was tasked with evaluating the English language learning program in the district’s schools. “I’ve never before seen a program that emphasizes speaking so much—the way that we speak and the way that we use language to respond. It really makes [Lexia English] different,” Rojas said.
Laguna Beach district leaders wanted a program that would reinforce teacher-led instruction during English language learning time. Lexia English’s teacher-led resources and lessons complement its online component, helping to streamline instruction and ensure teacher effectiveness.
Laguna Beach’s success with Lexia English has encouraged Rojas to recommend the program, particularly because of the speaking and listening components. “One of our Emergent Bilingual students didn’t speak for two years in preschool. Now, in transitional kindergarten, after logging 1,000 minutes in [Lexia English], she’s speaking, sharing, and asking questions in class.”
Check out these other resources to learn more about how Lexia English helps Emerging Bilingual students reach their academic potential:
Right Solution, Right Time: Helping Emergent Bilingual Students Thrive from Anywhere
Language and literacy education comprehension are crucial for Emergent Bilingual students learning English, and Henderson Hammock Charter School has the largest population of Emergent Bilinguals in the Tampa area. During remote learning, the program boosted students’ confidence, increased their participation in Zoom lessons, and facilitated their academic conversations, including the embedded grammar lessons that are essential for English language acquisition.
Read the Case Study
More Speaking Practice in English Builds Linguistic Confidence in a California District
The Laguna Beach Unified School District needed to find a better way to support its Emergent Bilingual students. District leaders also wanted a program that would reinforce teacher-led instruction during English language learning time. By the end of the school year, students’ increased linguistic confidence was evidenced by the likelihood that students would speak in class.
Next Level Curriculum: Speaking Practice Helps Emergent Bilingual Students in Atlanta
ESOL students’ speaking scores dropped dramatically when educators at Atlanta Public Schools were required to administer a computer-based speaking assessment. Students meeting their minutes using Lexia English were more likely to score higher on the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs test, which is used in Georgia to determine the English language proficiency levels.
Read the Case Study
Together, Lexia solutions level up student success
Taylor Stewart, a K–5 ESL teacher, and Kathleen Brinson, a multilingual teacher and refugee school impact coordinator, both teach at schools in the Craven County School District in North Carolina. They’ve seen the impact oral language comprehension and acquisition have on helping Emergent Bilinguals get up to speed.
Students arriving directly from their home country with no experience speaking English are overwhelmed. “Lexia English provides a softer entrance,” Stewart said. Students get to ease into listening and speaking to build a foundation for later reading proficiency. It provides a runway that eventually leads them to Core5.
Using both products allows these educators to meet a broader range of needs across the board. Brinson described seeing students do exceptionally well with this mix of instruction.
One second grade student arrived from Honduras in 2021 with no English experience at all. Every night, he and his mother religiously worked through Lexia English and, eventually, Core5.
“I saw him go from no English usage to being at or above grade level. In his third year, he’s on grade level. From zero to grade level is HUGE,” Brinson said.
‘That’s why you’re here’
When you’re empowered with the right tools, you can become a more confident teacher with Lexia's solutions. Imagine the impact you can make in unlocking the potential of every student with personalized support in your own classroom and picture where your students can be a year from now.
As Kosten of River Dell Middle School said about making meaningful and lasting change in student learning, “That’s why you’re here.”
Get the ball rolling by exploring the work Lexia is doing with differentiated instruction.