9/8/2024

Lead With Language for Newcomer Literacy Success

Challenge: A quickly growing Emergent Bilingual student population, many of whom are newcomers who speak little to no English. 

Solution: Lexia English Language Development + Lexia Core5 Reading

Leaders in the Craven County School District are seeing success with their two-part solution: Integrating Lexia English Language Development™ before and alongside Lexia® Core5® Reading.

Taylor Stewart, a K–5 ESL teacher, and Kathleen Brinson, a multilingual teacher and refugee school impact coordinator, both teaching at schools in the district, decided to run a pilot of Lexia English during the 2021–2022 school year. They wanted to provide more targeted support for the growing population of students arriving from other countries with little to no previous experience with English.

“Our district started using Core5 several years ago, and then Kathleen and I piloted Lexia English—and we loved it,” Stewart said. 

Lexia English was designed to help Emergent Bilingual students, also known as English Language Learners, in grades K–6 acquire higher language proficiency levels of English. By meeting students where they are, Core5 and Lexia English level the playing field and meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds and learning needs.

Meet Students Where They Are

At Stewart’s and Brinson’s schools, students often arrive directly from their home country and have no experience speaking English. The Craven County educators worked with Lexia and the district to create a plan for Newcomer students in elementary school who start in Lexia English and move into Core5 when they’re ready—usually once they’re ready to start talking, around the two-year mark. They continue to move up as they progress, supported by both products.

Using Lexia English in combination with Core5 allows these educators to meet a broader range of needs across the board. “By using both, we’re giving our students everything they need. Not just phonics, not just vocabulary—they need an opportunity to practice listening, reading, writing, and especially speaking independently and then have lessons to build those skills,” Brinson said.

Success in Action: See why Stewart and Brinson love Lexia English, and how they implemented it alongside Core5 with success.