At what level should a fluent reader start in Lexia?

[Anonymous]

DC reads very well and started at FCPS this year but started at a Lexia level that involves teaching phonics and sight words well within DC's repertoire. Did something go awry with pretesting? I've heard Lexia can be a slog--too slow and levels go on forever. Or does that depend on how many areas the child scored lower on? Do some kids advance through levels faster?

I was hoping Lexia would be a means to some computer-assisted differentiation.

[Anonymous]

I recall that Lexia gives your child a pre-assessment and picks the level off of that, so it does differentiate.

[Anonymous]

If it's that easy, they should be able to get through it pretty quickly, based on my child who had to start at the beginning too.

[Anonymous]

It’s a computer program and can be glitchy. My kid didn’t know he needed headphones for part of the test and was placed at the kindergarten level. He has been working through it for the last year and a half. He was in 6th grade aap when that happened and as a aap 7th grader he still has to work on it sometimes.
Sometimes computer programs suck. They suck more when humans and teachers aren’t allowed to override the system.

[Anonymous]

I've read on here that some schools won't let kids start higher than grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've read on here that some schools won't let kids start higher than grade level.

OP. Interesting. Is there merit to this? Also heard somewhere that in some schools/classrooms they aren't allowed to go on beyond grade level.

My child did the pretest but in a suboptimal environment (kids chattering) and without headphones. I don't know if that explains it though. I might just not understand Lexia enough and what it teaches (and by extension, what the pretest was assessing). DC has done next to no explicit learning of grammar and other rules. All implicit learning to date.

[Anonymous]

Lexia has 5 areas of instruction. My understanding is that it places the student at the lowest level they score in any one area, because the program doesn’t allow different levels for different areas. (Power Up, the 6th and up program, does allow kids to be in different levels for, say, grammar and comprehension.)

So if they score below grade level for comprehension but on or above for everything else— it’s going to place them below grade level. The good news is if they focus and pay attention, they should move up quickly.

Teachers CAN manually advance kids’ levels or reset the pretest. But the district doesn’t advertise that to the teachers and it’s possible that some schools have that feature turned off.

I teach AAP and check my kids’ progress weekly. I had a bunch of my kids retake the pretest in September, since they hadn’t taken it since the beginning of last year, and all but one were placed higher than their current levels. I have also manually advanced kids who are breezing through the material with high accuracy and speed. I do this very quietly because our reading specialist has discouraged it. (Teachers— go to the “manage” tab on our student list and click on the pencil to edit, then pick “reading program.”)

I also have kids who insist that what they’re doing is too easy, but when I check their progress and observe them using the program, they are in fact placed appropriately.

One tip— Lexia assigns the required weekly minutes based on how quickly they are moving through the material and whether they are likely to finish the grade level material by the end of the year. If the child tries to game the system by letting the program run while “multitasking” or screwing around and randomly picking answers until they eventually hit the right ones, the program assumes they are working very slowly and assigns then extra minutes to compensate.

The best bet to get assigned fewer minutes is to completely focus and finish as many activities accurately as possible during the assigned time. Once I figured this out and explained it to my kids, a bunch of them went from being assigned 70 minutes per week to 40 (the standard) or even 20 (for kids who are ahead of schedule) within a month.

[Anonymous]

They start them at grade level and your child should move through them quickly. Consider a good review - even though you think your child reads fluently, this is always going to be helpful. I catch my kid reading words out loud in a completely different way they should are pronounced, even though she's in 4th and reads things like Harry Potter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lexia has 5 areas of instruction. My understanding is that it places the student at the lowest level they score in any one area, because the program doesn’t allow different levels for different areas. (Power Up, the 6th and up program, does allow kids to be in different levels for, say, grammar and comprehension.)

So if they score below grade level for comprehension but on or above for everything else— it’s going to place them below grade level. The good news is if they focus and pay attention, they should move up quickly.

Teachers CAN manually advance kids’ levels or reset the pretest. But the district doesn’t advertise that to the teachers and it’s possible that some schools have that feature turned off.

I teach AAP and check my kids’ progress weekly. I had a bunch of my kids retake the pretest in September, since they hadn’t taken it since the beginning of last year, and all but one were placed higher than their current levels. I have also manually advanced kids who are breezing through the material with high accuracy and speed. I do this very quietly because our reading specialist has discouraged it. (Teachers— go to the “manage” tab on our student list and click on the pencil to edit, then pick “reading program.”)

I also have kids who insist that what they’re doing is too easy, but when I check their progress and observe them using the program, they are in fact placed appropriately.

One tip— Lexia assigns the required weekly minutes based on how quickly they are moving through the material and whether they are likely to finish the grade level material by the end of the year. If the child tries to game the system by letting the program run while “multitasking” or screwing around and randomly picking answers until they eventually hit the right ones, the program assumes they are working very slowly and assigns then extra minutes to compensate.

The best bet to get assigned fewer minutes is to completely focus and finish as many activities accurately as possible during the assigned time. Once I figured this out and explained it to my kids, a bunch of them went from being assigned 70 minutes per week to 40 (the standard) or even 20 (for kids who are ahead of schedule) within a month.

Wow, what an incredibly informative answer, thank you!

So given all of this it sounds like the best approach is to let things be and DC will catch up fast if focusing, not multi-tasking, etc. I can only imagine what the teacher's reaction would be if I gave her some of these tips. Maybe an anonymous email...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lexia has 5 areas of instruction. My understanding is that it places the student at the lowest level they score in any one area, because the program doesn’t allow different levels for different areas. (Power Up, the 6th and up program, does allow kids to be in different levels for, say, grammar and comprehension.)

So if they score below grade level for comprehension but on or above for everything else— it’s going to place them below grade level. The good news is if they focus and pay attention, they should move up quickly.

Teachers CAN manually advance kids’ levels or reset the pretest. But the district doesn’t advertise that to the teachers and it’s possible that some schools have that feature turned off.

I teach AAP and check my kids’ progress weekly. I had a bunch of my kids retake the pretest in September, since they hadn’t taken it since the beginning of last year, and all but one were placed higher than their current levels. I have also manually advanced kids who are breezing through the material with high accuracy and speed. I do this very quietly because our reading specialist has discouraged it. (Teachers— go to the “manage” tab on our student list and click on the pencil to edit, then pick “reading program.”)

I also have kids who insist that what they’re doing is too easy, but when I check their progress and observe them using the program, they are in fact placed appropriately.

One tip— Lexia assigns the required weekly minutes based on how quickly they are moving through the material and whether they are likely to finish the grade level material by the end of the year. If the child tries to game the system by letting the program run while “multitasking” or screwing around and randomly picking answers until they eventually hit the right ones, the program assumes they are working very slowly and assigns then extra minutes to compensate.

The best bet to get assigned fewer minutes is to completely focus and finish as many activities accurately as possible during the assigned time. Once I figured this out and explained it to my kids, a bunch of them went from being assigned 70 minutes per week to 40 (the standard) or even 20 (for kids who are ahead of schedule) within a month.

But one more thing...if they catch up quickly then why have them redo the placement test?

Anyway, sounds like your approach is a great one. I wish all teachers were using it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lexia has 5 areas of instruction. My understanding is that it places the student at the lowest level they score in any one area, because the program doesn’t allow different levels for different areas. (Power Up, the 6th and up program, does allow kids to be in different levels for, say, grammar and comprehension.)

So if they score below grade level for comprehension but on or above for everything else— it’s going to place them below grade level. The good news is if they focus and pay attention, they should move up quickly.

Teachers CAN manually advance kids’ levels or reset the pretest. But the district doesn’t advertise that to the teachers and it’s possible that some schools have that feature turned off.

I teach AAP and check my kids’ progress weekly. I had a bunch of my kids retake the pretest in September, since they hadn’t taken it since the beginning of last year, and all but one were placed higher than their current levels. I have also manually advanced kids who are breezing through the material with high accuracy and speed. I do this very quietly because our reading specialist has discouraged it. (Teachers— go to the “manage” tab on our student list and click on the pencil to edit, then pick “reading program.”)

I also have kids who insist that what they’re doing is too easy, but when I check their progress and observe them using the program, they are in fact placed appropriately.

One tip— Lexia assigns the required weekly minutes based on how quickly they are moving through the material and whether they are likely to finish the grade level material by the end of the year. If the child tries to game the system by letting the program run while “multitasking” or screwing around and randomly picking answers until they eventually hit the right ones, the program assumes they are working very slowly and assigns then extra minutes to compensate.

The best bet to get assigned fewer minutes is to completely focus and finish as many activities accurately as possible during the assigned time. Once I figured this out and explained it to my kids, a bunch of them went from being assigned 70 minutes per week to 40 (the standard) or even 20 (for kids who are ahead of schedule) within a month.

But one more thing...if they catch up quickly then why have them redo the placement test?

Anyway, sounds like your approach is a great one. I wish all teachers were using it.

In my kids’ case, some of them made very little progress last year (ahem— “multitasking”) and were still near the beginning of the previous grade level, or they had blown off the pretest and it had placed them way below grade level. Catching up a level or 2 can go pretty quickly, but if you’re looking at 3-4 levels it’ll take awhile. Giving them the pretest again (after a talking-to about taking it seriously) seemed like the best way to quickly get them where they needed to be.

I was “going rogue” by doing that though, even though it had been a year. (Pre testing more than 1x in a year is a big no-no— but I’d do it in a case like a kid not having headphones.)

[Anonymous]

Teacher pp here— our training for Lexia and ST Math was pretty minimal, and most teachers just assign the minutes without really understanding how it works or how to best leverage it. We’re all over-extended. I figured out a lot by exploring on my own. I think with a tech-savvy reading specialist more teachers could be doing this— mine is very nice but doesn’t seem to really understand the program herself.

(I am also one of the very few who really digs ST Math. There is so much you can do with it if you assign objectives carefully to complement class units, monitor usage, and accelerate the kids who need it. Also giving unlimited Jijis is a game changer.)

[Anonymous]

One more clarification! Lexia Core 5 has levels 1-21. The 4th grade levels are 16-18, for example. So moving up a Lexia level isn’t the same as moving up a grade level in difficulty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher pp here— our training for Lexia and ST Math was pretty minimal, and most teachers just assign the minutes without really understanding how it works or how to best leverage it. We’re all over-extended. I figured out a lot by exploring on my own. I think with a tech-savvy reading specialist more teachers could be doing this— mine is very nice but doesn’t seem to really understand the program herself.

(I am also one of the very few who really digs ST Math. There is so much you can do with it if you assign objectives carefully to complement class units, monitor usage, and accelerate the kids who need it. Also giving unlimited Jijis is a game changer.)

OP here. Thank you! So...what would you suggest a parent do if they think their child *might* have underperformed on the placement test due to lack of headphones? Would asking if DC could do some Lexia at home be a good solution? I understand the levels are not grade levels but I did read some griping that they can take a long time to get through (though your information about why that might be is quite illuminating and helpful). Maybe DC will catch up just fine.

Also, DC's teacher didn't mention anything about a ST Math placement test. Are there any? I worry ST Math will be a real slog for DC who has been doing Beast Academy online for fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a computer program and can be glitchy. My kid didn’t know he needed headphones for part of the test and was placed at the kindergarten level. He has been working through it for the last year and a half. He was in 6th grade aap when that happened and as a aap 7th grader he still has to work on it sometimes.
Sometimes computer programs suck. They suck more when humans and teachers aren’t allowed to override the system.

Its a different Lexia at that level. Power Up is for 6th-12th grade. It’s a follow-on to the Lexia that they started with.