Five ways we use our literacy platforms to engage students

Key points:

With a student population that is approximately 85 percent Hispanic, our K-8 academy faces some interesting, but not insurmountable, literacy challenges.

Our main program is HMH Into Reading for younger students and HMH Into Literature for older students. A few years ago, we also adopted the SIPPS program, which provides systematic instruction for phonological awareness and sight words, but it required a lot of work on the part of the teacher.

Two years ago, our district began using Lexia English for our English Language Learners (ELLs), also with its Core5 and PowerUp programs. Each of the platforms was very effective for our ELL students, so we also wanted to open it up to students who needed general literacy remediation and who needed a platform to meet them in the learning process they were in.

Our students were very excited about using the literacy platform and our teachers liked its “low-prep” nature. Once we saw that students and classes using the platform were showing growth, we decided to target its use school-wide. This is our second full year of 100 percent of our school using these platforms.

Of course, technology itself is only effective when it is engaging, enlightening, and educational. Here are five steps we take to ensure we cover all those bases and more with our literacy platform:

1. Reward students for their hard work. We like to do things big here at Valley View. We set up a “Lexia Spin the Wheel” in Larry's office, where students spin as they reach milestones and win everything from ice cream to dress down days and other prizes. This really gets students engaged and excited about learning. Jessica is the “Lucky Lexia Lady” with whom the students share their accomplishments (I'm on level five, they'll say as they run to their buses). Once students started purchasing the literacy platform, teachers followed suit because they saw how excited their students were.

2. Reserve time during the school day. We noticed that the platform was used quite frequently in the primary grades, but not as much in the older grades. We set aside time every Friday to make sure teachers were incorporating the platform into their centers or weekly activities. And if you have an extra 15 minutes here or there, it's also a great cool-down activity and a perfect reset after recess. Having time set aside on Fridays supports our school-wide goal and ensures we have systems in place to help children succeed. This is important because we do not have a computer program to take home, so we cannot rely on its continued use at home. We had to make sure they had that time to be successful during the actual school day.

3. Track progress at all levels. We track activity and set “tremendously important goals” (WIG) focused on word study, grammar, and/or growth in comprehension. This helps create a very consistent approach to literacy instruction. We show students how to practice a little in each area and then stop to evaluate their progress. We will ask them questions like: What are your goals? Did you achieve your goal today? What did you like the most? What did you learn? Having a platform that offers very granular tracking systems has been a huge help. We use it to track school, classroom, grade level, and individual student goals. Our literacy platform supports the latter by encouraging students to track, own, and celebrate their individual progress in the program.

4. Celebrate team success. We average everyone's progress and the teacher with the highest average gets a pizza party. We also have Title I paraprofessionals who identify specific students and celebrate their achievements. Just the other week, we had a school-wide assembly where we announced the top student with the most units earned in each grade (those students get to spin the wheel). High flyers are rewarded and anyone who reaches the goal is rewarded with the monthly food truck. Next week we will cook about 400 burgers for the children who met their literacy goals. These are just a few of the ways we celebrate success as a team across the school.

5. Don't forget soft skills. There are also some soft skills that are outside of the actual literacy and grammar that our students learn from online literacy programs. They learn to pace themselves, motivate themselves and manage their time, for example. They also learn to be perseverant and brave. These are some of the soft skills that come from using the right literacy program and getting everyone “rowing in the same direction,” so to speak. Everyone is working together and it really shows.

That's the beauty of it

Overall, we saw impressive results in both unit and level progression. It was important to us to set goals for our K-8 students to complete units in their respective literacy programs. So far, 75 percent of our students have met the school goal, and that is huge.

For our emerging bilingual students in particular, reclassification is an important milestone. Statewide, between 10 and 11 percent of students are reclassified using the Arizona English Language Learner Assessment (AZELLA). At Valley View, the school average is 18 percent reclassification in 2024 and 20 percent in 2023.

Before partnering with our literacy provider, our ELA scores were stagnant. But over the past few years, we are enjoying remarkable growth in reading literacy. With the continued development of the platform, we expect this progress to accelerate further. A few years ago, about 25 percent of our student population was three or more grade levels below in reading. We reduced that number to just 13 percent within a year of implementing our literacy platforms.

This simply demonstrates that the systems we have in place are positively impacting our students and providing them with the critical skills they need.

When selecting a literacy platform, schools and districts should look for one that truly fits children where they are. That way, you can focus instruction on increasing student achievement. If you really focus on instruction, you are not teaching the middle: you are teaching the high, the middle, and the low. We know for a fact that during reading intervention time, each child is actually at their own level. That's the beauty of it.