4 Ways to Put Lexile Measures into Practice Today
Whether your state’s summative assessment reports Lexile® measures or it’s a localized school or district decision to adopt this measure for reading growth, one thing can’t be disputed: MetaMetrics’® Lexile® Framework for Reading has become the most widely used reading metric in the world in its 30-year history.
If you’re new to the MetaMetrics Lexile Framework or just looking for more information about understanding the value of these measures, start by reading A Guide to Success: Taking the Mystery Out of Lexile Measures. Now, you’re ready to start asking yourself: Am I getting the most out of this powerful metric? Check out these four tips that will help you take advantage of Lexile measures and guide your reading instruction.
1. Find and Organize Books by Lexile Measure
Lexile measures are used so widely that you can expect to find them in bookstores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, in libraries across the country, and of course, via simple online searches. Your school’s (and classroom’s) library should also be able to provide a balanced diet of books with Lexile measures for you and your students.
Additionally, you can take full advantage of these resources by encouraging your learners to take ownership of their Lexile measures and create a well-designed classroom library that organizes books by Lexile levels. With some practice, students should be able to self-select appropriate fiction and nonfiction texts that meet their interests and their reading levels.
2. Address pacing questions head on
MetaMetrics also offers a tool to help you answer the all-too-common questions you receive from parents (and probably ask yourself) relating to if a student is reading below, on, or above level for where his or her expecting reading performance should be.
Try using the Lexile Growth Planner™, available on the Lexile website, to simply plug in historical Lexile measures and corresponding dates for each assessment administration. A series of simple graphs will reveal an estimated growth path for grades 3–12, recommended growth path based on current performance, and national growth percentiles to help provide a helpful point of reference.
Use this planner to guide conversations with parents and other stakeholders, such as reading specialists and counselors.
3. Find a proven digital partner that uses Lexile measures
Do you have technology in your classroom that can support the individualized reading journeys your students are on? Online programs can provide targeted instruction, coupled with real-time data, to inform your daily teaching. Edmentum offers a digital reading program that incorporate Lexile measures in meaningful ways.
Edmentum Exact Path, our K–12 individualized learning program, begins with an adaptive diagnostic assessment aimed at understanding each student’s precise instructional level, strengths, and weaknesses. In addition to offering valid measures of growth, each administration of our reading assessment also reveals a reliable Lexile measure.
Students are then prescribed an individualized learning path that will explicitly focus on providing the underlying skills required to become successful lifelong readers. Lessons include direct instruction, practice, and regular quizzes, and Progress Checks provide real-time data to inform your daily instruction and targeted intervention time.
Our recommendation: Enhance the power of the Lexile Framework for Reading by introducing Exact Path in your literacy block. Start by collecting appropriate Lexile levels for your students via the Exact Path assessment, then teach students how to find appropriate fiction and nonfiction texts that fit their interest and their reading level. Of course, additional time spent in this programs will offer carefully scaffolded literacy instruction and practice in individualized online environments.
4. Team Up with Parents to Support Reading Outside of School
One reading strategy that has been proven to improve growth is keeping students reading outside of the classroom. This strategy often begins with providing parents with tools and insights to help support their child.
For starters, don’t keep Lexile measures to yourself. Similarly to how you might educate students to understand their Lexile measure and look for books that align to their targeted reading range, present data to parents during seasonal conferences and send updated measures home after each assessment administration so that parents can help learners continue to read “just right” books at home too.
Here’s one tool that will save parents lots of time and hassle: Point parents to the Lexile Find a Book tool after sharing their child’s Lexile measure. Parents need only to enter that measure, choose categories and genres that are most interesting to their child, and review a comprehensive list of books that are suitable for reading. The next trip to the bookstore or library will now become a focused expedition.
Interested in learning more about how Edmentum is partnering with MetaMetrics to bring Lexile measures into our reading programs? Take our online programs for a spin yourself by getting a free quote for Exact Path.
METAMETRICS®, LEXILE®, and LEXILE® FRAMEWORK are trademarks of MetaMetrics, Inc., and are registered in the United States and abroad. Copyright © 2018 MetaMetrics, Inc. All rights reserved.