We recently had the privilege of speaking with Tom Lewis, a passionate educator serving students in a Title I school in the Glendale Unified School District. Tom has been using Readability, an innovative tool that helps struggling readers achieve incredible progress. During the conversation, Tom shared how Readability has transformed his classroom, including the inspiring journey of a once nonverbal student now reading confidently.
Tom’s story highlights the power of innovative tools to close learning gaps and strengthen foundational skills. His insights are a must-hear if you’re looking for effective ways to support diverse learners or accelerate reading growth in your classroom.
Join us as we dive into this inspiring conversation with Tom!
Question: Tom, please tell me a little bit about your role and what you do.
Answer: I teach a four-to-five split special ed class. It’s anywhere from mild to severe. It runs the gamut. It’s not traditional mild to moderate and moderate to severe. It’s mild to severe, all in one room, so there’s a lot of differentiation. The school I teach at is a Title I school. Last year, it won the National Blue Ribbon Award for teaching excellence.
Question: How did you find out about Readability?
Answer: I’m always looking around. I’ve been struggling to try and find or get access to great online stuff that’s effective for reading, especially fluency. Since I’ve been at this school, the school mantra has been that reading comprehension is our instructional focus. And that’s great, but comprehension is at the end of the continuum of reading development. If you can’t read fluently, comprehension doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot. So you can’t compare and contrast two stories (one of the standards) if you can’t read the stories to begin with.
Question: What was the actual challenge you were trying to address?
Answer: I reverted to many things that worked for me when I was young. I went and sought out the Dick and Jane books, basal readers, vintage stuff. Why? Because it worked…fundamentals. So naturally, phonics was essential. It was the bedrock of how I learned to read. It’s funny that they’re always trying to reinvent the wheel in education. They’re always trying to come up with some new thing when the wheel is round, and it’s always been round since it was invented. And you know what, it works great!
Many countries have switched to a whole-language approach, and many of these same countries currently struggle with literacy rates. We are seeing a movement to flip it back and re-prioritize phonics and basics to address this. The movement is hailed as “The Science of Reading.” Readability fits right into that movement and has worked for my kids. Not only has it worked, but it has motivated them to read more.
I bought a subscription in the spring, not for me but for the kids in my class. I enrolled a couple, two or three kids on it, and I started to see some progress. Then, over the summer, I kept it going for those same two or three kids. One of which I’ve had since he was a kindergartener, and he is now in the fifth grade.
I got him when he was a kindergartner. Because of COVID and how they structured the Special Education program here in this District, I’ve had pretty much a cohort of the same students for their entire elementary school experience. But this one particular child was basically nonverbal, had autism, and had speech issues. After Readability, he’s reading about 60 words per minute now. It’s amazing. 80% of it is Readability, maybe higher. Readability made him like to read. He read for 15 to 20 minutes every day, and he would find books that he liked. A month into Readability, he was at about 15 or 16 words correct per minute. During the last school-wide assessment (when somebody independently comes in three times a year, takes the kids out of the room, and assesses their fluency), he was at 69 words correct per minute. At the beginning of the year, he was at 16 words correct per minute, then went to 39 words correct per minute. So, if that’s any indicator, then that’s amazing!
So I went to the principal to get it, at least for my class. She saw the progress and said, “Maybe we should get it for a much broader spectrum of kids, like anybody who needs remedial support.”
Question: Do you use the Readability Dashboard to monitor student progress?
Answer: Yes. I track what is going on for their IEP goals. The progress has been astounding. Another student went from a 26-word correct per minute baseline to 47—another student went from 92 to 100. Everyone has gone up since I introduced Readability in a short time. I work with students in small groups. One group is working on Readability, while I provide direct instruction to another group. They can access a leveled library and select the books they want to read. You can see what the student is doing on the dashboard. It is not just a reading log. So they all have iPads, and they read for 20 minutes. I can see the dashboard and see what they did in that 20 minutes. One student may read for 20 minutes and another for 16 or 4 minutes. It holds them accountable. They can’t fake it. I use it every day with my students on iPads or Chromebooks. They read at least 15 to 20 minutes every day.
I used to be assigned one of our yard duties to come in and listen to my students read for assessment and development. And it was okay, but I never got honest feedback from them because they’d have to leave immediately. I didn’t know what was going on. And this year, when they started that same intervention, I said, you know, I don’t need help this year since I am using Readability. I said this is way more accurate. I get the real-time data right away. And I now have an inkling of what’s coming when they do the school-wide assessment. There’s no shock to it for them. They’re conditioned. They go, okay, I got to read this. And boom, they start reading.
Question: Have you talked with other teachers using Readability and asked about their experience with it?
Answer: Well, it’s early on in the game here because we finally were cleared for use schoolwide. One teacher I have talked to has kids on it, and he’s also seen improvement. It’s noticeable.
Question: Do the students just use it in the classroom, or do they use it at home?
Answer: Some do at home. Some do not. Everybody has access to it. But I make sure that it gets done. Again, this is a Title I school, so many parents have multiple jobs, so homework doesn’t always get done. Reading is essential, so I make time every day in my class. I care about these kids. If they can leave my class to go to middle school, add, subtract, multiply, divide, and, more importantly, read and have some semblance of grammar and how to construct a sentence. They have a foundation to build on as they move forward.
Question: Do you have anything else you would like to share?
Answer: I have tried other tools; quite frankly, they were not as good as Readability. You know, there’ll always be some naysayers. Kids like this tool or that tool. I have found firsthand that Readability helps students fall in love with reading. It’s been a godsend. It is a no-brainer!
Some of my students have become excellent readers and study the other components of Readability. They’ll go to the site where they can practice sight words. I’ve sat and watched them use it to grow their vocabulary. They also learn to pronounce more significant words and spell them, which is great.
Tom and his student’s story is just one of many stories. If you’d like to learn more about how Readability can make a difference in your students’ reading scores, we are here to show you how.