Patrick Larkin, Assistant Superintendent in Burlington Public Schools, featured LightSail in his recent article, “Is Your District Missing the Digital Literacy Boat?” Larkin describes the most cost-effective ways to bring digital books into schools, and highlights LightSail in describing the opportunity to dramatically improve literacy outcomes with technology. “In my district, we use LightSail, a literacy platform that assesses students while they read digital books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Book Thief. Based on the assessments, teachers see student progress across a number of metrics, including a daily update of students’ Lexile measures. The software calculates actual reading time, so we accurately know the volume of reading done by each student, and we can correlate reading time with reading performance,” writes Larkin. “Teachers also see student annotations—the kind formerly recorded in reading journals—in real time. By using this tool, our teachers are personalizing and fine-tuning instruction in ways that cannot be replicated with a physical book. Such classroom tools are true ‘game changers’ for literacy instruction, supporting literacy outcomes in our schools that were previously unimaginable — and the technology keeps improving.” Read the full piece on Education Week here. The piece can also be read on Patrick Larkin’s blog.
Posted on 6.Jun.15 in News
