Literacy Pro at Dominic College

Assessing reading to inform teachers and students and to develop reading success

The need for a Year 3-9 Reading Program

We know reading is an important lifelong skill required for all of our students. We need to have a standard measure of reading levels for our students across Year 3-9. While reading level scores in NAPLAN for Dominic College are above National Minimum Standard for most year levels we are finding our students are generally only achieving a medium growth in their reading from one NAPLAN test to the next. NAPLAN is only a snapshot of reading levels at a point in time and data is only collected for a cohort every two years.

In order to monitor reading progress and improve reading levels in all year levels we need to be monitoring growth regularly using a standard measure that can be compared from Term to Term and from Year to Year.

Scholastic Literacy Pro – Reading Success

We have established a trial reading program called Literacy Pro using Scholastic Learning Zone, an online platform that allows teachers and students to access Scholastic Educational resources. Dominic College has subscribed to Literacy Pro because it is a research-based, online assessment resource that provides teachers with evidence-based data so they are informed when making teaching/learning decisions to develop their students into successful, proficient readers. Literacy Pro Trial launch We have launched this trial in Years 3-9 and with Magone students.
Year 3-6 classroom teachers and Year 7-9 English teachers will be able to monitor students in their classes as they use Literacy Pro and will be able to generate a number of reports that show progress and growth of individual students and classes over time. The trial will go over Terms 3 and 4.

What is Literacy Pro?

Literacy Pro is engaging for students because it is an online environment and uses adaptive technology to fit the individual. The students can choose interest areas for reading and then generate a list of books within their identified reading range according to their interests. Reports are instantly generated and it provides access to data at the school, year, class and individual level to enable effective support for student reading development.

Lexiles

Literacy Pro is powered by a Lexile Framework, based on over 20 years of research.
A Lexile level is a measure of text complexity. When students first access Literacy Pro they will take an adaptive reading comprehension test which will measure their current Lexile reading level. Students will be asked to read daily in class for up to 20 minutes per day and be encouraged to also read at home on a daily basis.
When they have completed their book they can take a 10 question quiz on the book they have read. They will earn points from their quizzes and build up a word count based on books read. As they earn points they can work through Certificate levels which help motivate them to keep reading. Students can search a list of 10,000 lexiled titles.

Mrs Selina Kinne K-10 Director of Teaching & Learning