This month it is Cantell School, Hampshire, in the Literacy Spotlight. Reading and Phonics Lead, Rebecca Toland, tells us about her purpose-build Reading Hub, visualising Scarborough’s Reading Rope, and the difference that Lexia has made to her students confidence.
Can you tell me a little about your school environment and some of the literacy challenges you face?
Rebecca: Cantell School is a wonderfully diverse, inclusive, comprehensive school in inner city Southampton. We’re incredibly proud of our vibrant and multicultural community, but that also brings its own literacy challenges too. For example, we have roughly 42% of our students speaking English as an additional language.
We also have 40% of our students eligible for free school meals, and a significant portion of our intake enters year 7 with a reading age of “below expected”. We’re always thinking of how we can close this gap, and what are the barrier we have to overcome in order to create a programme that fits our needs.
When I joined the school about 3 ½ years ago, we were just in a very small office running phonics interventions with a maximum of four students at a time. After this I set up the Reading Hub, which is multiple levels of intervention depending on need, which is ran by myself and two teaching assistants.
How did you first come across the Lexia program and what were your first impressions of it?
Rebecca: When setting up the Reading Hub, I did a lot of research into the different programmes out there to see what would fit our needs. Literacy gaps in our school would vary; sometimes it would be issues with word recognition, decoding or comprehension. Everything came into it, so I was looking for a programme or package that hit all of these components.
I went around other secondary school and looked at what they were delivering in literacy interventions. I knew that we needed phonics so we embedded programmes that specifically taught phonics, but after a while we noticed a big gap between those who finish phonics and can then fluently read, and those who finish phonics but can actually understand what they are reading.
Students that were going through this intervention were coming back into class with their reading age technically higher, with easier access to texts, but they need to develop the other skills like comprehension and decoding. After going back to the marketplace, it looked like Lexia could cover all of these. I liked that Lexia met students at their level, and that you could group students with different needs together in one class as its predominantly independent learning. This opened up the scope for us to invite more students into intervention as you can have a whole group but still offer one-to-one support.
What do you feel makes Lexia stand apart from other reading skills software products on the market?
Rebecca: I’d say that it’s the dual aspect of learning multiple skills. It’s the comprehension, it’s word study, it’s grammar. The students are able to hit all of these different areas of reading and understand that all of these elements make them an expert reader.
Lexia allows us to highlight that literacy is not just reading the words on the page, its understanding them and knowing the vocabulary. This allows for questions about synonyms, adjectives and adverbs. We create real understanding.
We have a physical display of Scarboroughs Reading Rope, so we can visualise the reading progression of students in intervention. I can say “look, you’re working on vocabulary at the moment because if I break this rope, then the rope isn’t as strong anymore.” We’ve really tried to make it interactive and clear to the students to show them what they’re working on, why they’re working on it, and the outcome at the end.
Which cohorts do you use Lexia with and how do you identify pupils to put on the programme?
Rebecca: First of all, everyone in school does a reading test. Year 7 take it when they arrive in September, and everyone else takes theirs just after Easter. I then take the whole school data and work out who is beneath their chronological reading age. If they are below age then we do a diagnostic assessment, looking at the simple view of reading and where they fit on that graph. Does the student struggle with word recognition? Comprehension? Phonics?
Phonics intervention is implemented with our phonics programme, where Lexia is used as a backup. We try to group programmes together for really targeted support. Once they pass phonics, we move them fully on to Lexia. Lexia is also implemented wider; set 5 of Year 7 and Year 8 also get it in their English classes. Once they pass phonics, we move them fully on to Lexia.
What is your approach to timetabling and how you ensure that you reach recommended usage?
Rebecca: Streaks are a big thing in our school. We have a leaderboard and after every lesson the student will give us their score and these are added to the board at the end of the week. Whomever is the top 3 for that year group win an edible prize for their efforts, usually sweets.
However, it’s also important to remember the students that find reading hard. It’s unlikely they’ll get any high streaks, despite the fact they work really hard. So we also rewards units covered, the amount of time spent on Lexia, their commitment and if they’ve really challenged themselves. If they’ve addressed any areas of issue and moved on from them, they get praise and rewards too. This can either be house points, edible prizes or the Leaderboard.
We have a prize pot, and at the end of each half term names get picked out of that. We use Stars in the classroom too, and these are earned through enthusiasm and commitment to Lexia. Every 5 stars wins a prize; 5 stars is a pen, 10 stars is a pencil, 15 is a bookmark and so on. So there are lots of ways to earn rewards even if the student finds it tricky.
How have you used rewards to motivate and celebrate success on the Lexia program?
Rebecca: Streaks are a big thing in our school. We have a leaderboard and after every lesson the student will give us their score and these are added to the board at the end of the week. Whomever is the top 3 for that year group win an edible prize for their efforts, usually sweets.
However, it’s also important to remember the students that find reading hard. It’s unlikely they’ll get any high streaks, despite the fact they work really hard. So we also rewards units covered, the amount of time spent on Lexia, their commitment and if they’ve really challenged themselves. If they’ve addressed any areas of issue and moved on from them, they get praise and rewards too. This can either be house points, edible prizes or a place on the leaderboard.
We have a prize pot, and at the end of each half term names get picked out of that. We use Stars in the classroom too, and these are earned through enthusiasm and commitment to Lexia. Every 5 stars wins a prize; 5 stars is a pen, 10 stars is a pencil, 15 is a bookmark and so on. So there are lots of ways to earn rewards even if the student finds it tricky.
How useful have you found the myLexia reports in terms of demonstrating progression and informing planning?
Rebecca: The myLexia reports have been really useful in communicating to the student how they’re doing. We quite often call a student over to show them their usage report, what they need help with, and their accuracy with different areas in the skills report.
An example from the school of informing planning would be our skills check rule. We found that students were fluing through modules very quickly but turning in a low accuracy rate. Looking further at the reports we found that if we started implementing a skills check at the end of every module, where the student had to pass in order to move onto the next unit. 85% we found was the sweet spot, and scoring anything below this we could implement a skill builder from myLexia and then they would have another go at the check.
Through doing this we held students accountable for their own progress, and through the reports showed them that embedding each skill in the programme is really important to their overall understanding of Lexia.
What main piece of advice would you give to a school that was just getting started with Lexia?
Rebecca: I think it’s important to have someone who really understands the programme. You need a Lexia leader; someone who can take up all of the training, someone to experiment with the programme. It’s taken time for us to get to the stage we’re at with Lexia, so you need someone that can dedicate that time and energy towards implementation. They also need to be realistic; with embedding something new its not going to be perfect straight away.
For example, I teach within the reading hub as the reading leader, but I also oversee the Lexia implementation within English lessons as well. I can deliver training to the staff, or go in and observe lessons to see if the programme is working the way it is supposed to. I can only do this because I have such an understanding of the programme, and I can make suggestions as to the implementation of it. Making best use of the data in myLexia is vital for this too for getting the most out of the programme.
Describe the impact that Lexia has had on your pupils
Rebecca: Across the board, Lexia has had really high engagement. The students like the programme and enjoy the competitive element of streaks. We’ve noticed when they go to the library, students now pick up books instead of avoiding them. Encouragingly, students that used to absolutely refuse to read aloud in class now give it a go. They’re also volunteering answers in class more and putting their hand up, where they previously didn’t. Their confidence and self-esteem has grown, and this is enabling them to get involved in class.
Can you give an example of a Lexia success that sticks out to you?
Rebecca: We had a year 7 student that joined the school with a chronological reading age of seven, so he went into our phonics programme. Within 18 months he has completed the phonics programme, but his comprehension was still lacking, so we moved him on to Lexia.
He’s now been on Lexia for 18 months, and the last reading age test he did gave him a chronological reading age of sixteen.
What feedback have you had from your Lexia pupils?
Rebecca: The students like the gamification element, the streaks, and that they can work to their own level. They like that its independent and that they can take ownership of it, but if they get stuck they can ask for help. Lexia allows them to see the areas where they are struggling, and what they are working towards.
If you could describe Lexia in 3 words, what would you choose?
Rebecca: Adaptive, empowering and targeted.