Eight Digital Tools for Atypical Learners
Technology tools are available for a great many purposes and target varied student populations. Below is a list of eight tools, some may be familiar, but some may be inspiration for new discoveries. Learning about what there is to use with students as technology evolves can be quite exciting (or daunting); so, here is a brief breakdown of some of the literacy tools I have found/used that may be of interest to other second language and early literacy educators.
Lexia Core5 Reading
Lexia Core5 Reading is one literacy tool available to k-6 schools that offers skill level breakdown of each student in easy to read reports that may help guide teachers’ instruction. The website claims to have a user-friendly interface, but there is no sample page to explore. Lexia offers print resources for live instruction to compliment the online offerings. Costs for Lexia Core5 are $40/student/year for schools or $175/student/year at home. It is one of the more expensive options for adaptive instructional tools that include progress monitoring, which may be prohibitive for some settings (Arabo et al., 2017).
The intuitive student program identifies and targets individual student needs, making differentiated assignments an effortless part of instructional support. Accented speech and cultural/ethnic variations are respected through the program, and native language support is available. This is particularly important for their targeted subpopulation of emergent bilinguals. However, it is unknown to what extent cultural norms and variations are introduced to students who may be learning to navigate those differences in their lives.
The platforms lessons are aligned to CCSS and a variety of English language proficiency scales created in the United States by English language assessment consortia, but there is no evidence that it follows nationally and internationally respected second language acquisition scales, life the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) or the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). There is promising data of positive student outcomes using Lexia Core5 (Arabo et al., 2017; Costa Cruz & Kickhöfel Alves, 2022), and the gamified platform with incentives built in definitely holds student interest.
Amira Learning
Amira is less costly, at $20/student/year. The targeted student groups include at risk readers and emergent bilinguals in grades k-6. The intuitive AI tutor automatically and continuously adjusts to individual student needs, making teachers’ role minimal in differentiation.
Amira incorporates cognates in student’s first language, and includes some native language support available. As a part of its assessment menu, there is a dyslexia screener. Utah saw significant outcomes using Amira’s gamified platform with incentives built in (Wright et al., 2023).
With Amira, prescribed pathways are decided by the AI. Not much customization available to the teacher, if any, and there are no individual accounts evident for homeschool. There is no evidence that Amira is aligned to inter/national standards of second language proficiency (CEFR/ACTFL) or to what extent cultural variations are a focus.
iReady Reading
iReady will cost $30/student/year and is geared toward early childhood and pre-/emergent readers. There is a placement assessment and regular growth checks that automatically appear to students. Students who do not successfully complete a couple of lessons within a certain skill will have that section closed to them until a teacher intervenes. iReady tracks progress and has support for enhancing student skills even without other interventions/services (Chen et al., 2023).
Some teacher customization is available as teachers can select certain skills to assign to students within the program.
This platform is also gamified and includes built in incentives. Though the platform is similar to some other in this way, in my current position, students find it less interesting than Lexia or IXL (discussed later). There are no multilingual supports, and it does not appear to be aligned to inter/national standards of second language proficiency (CEFR/ACTFL). To what extent cultural variations are a focus is unclear.
DuoLingo
DuoLingo, an online, intuitive platform geared toward second language learners who already have some literacy skills in their first language is a FREE option. They also have a paid subscription that eliminates ads for varying rates. There is a language-specific instructional path that has speech recognition to support pronunciation.
Teachers can track student points and lesson completion, but there is not an evident cultural knowledge focus (as a user myself). However, it is aligned to CEFR and ACTFL language standards, and students find the instruction engaging and effective (Purwanto & Syafryadin, 2023). Teachers can assign lessons within the available curriculum, and it is also a gamified platform with incentives built in. DuoLingo is very focused on oral communication and does not (yet) support extensive reading comprehension.
ABCmouse
ABCmouse will cost users $15/month/student or $60/year/student and is available to schools and for home use. Early childhood, pre-/emergent, and at risk literacy students are the target population. AI guides lessons on the learning path in a gamified platform with incentives built in. The intuitive program targets differentiated support for individuals, which has been shown to accelerate growth in literacy especially for below average initial scores (Thai & Ponciano, 2016). The interfaces on computer and mobile do not look the same, which may cause confusion with small children.
Lu Interactive Playground
Lu Interactive Playground has only a one time fee, but it could be prohibitive for small settings with a price tag of $21,000 for the Lu Uno device. This tool would work well for all learners but would particularly support kinesthetic learners. It offers multimodal learning as an essential, embedded piece of this immersive technology. Lu offers a gamified whole-body experience with content that is completely customizable. Teacher created presentations can be added into a shared lesson database. So, although the cost and space requirements may be a bit much, Lu is definitely a tool to consider.
IXL
IXL is the last gamified platform on our list. It will cost $10/student/month for families or $349/<25 students/year. You can target struggling learners and/or advanced learners because of the flexibility in assigning lessons given to the teacher that enable previous grade level or higher grade level work. The platform offers students immediate feedback, bite-sized lessons, leaderboards for student competition, and is available in Spanish. The only drawback for IXL is the lack of progress monitoring available.
Raz-Kids
Raz-Kids costs $135/year/class and is a support for at-risk readers, bilingual readers, typical readers. The Learning A-Z website offers teacher training in using the tools related to leveled readers, like running records, and multilingual books are available for bilingual learners. Though using this platform is not as effortless as the AI tools listed above, it offers a more interpersonal way of developing literacy between teacher and class/individual. Support for its use, especially with teacher manipulation of quizzes, is evident in a study that showed great student success (Kara, 2024). The program can be used for multilingual literacies with multiple tools offered for many readers.
Table 1
Eight Digital Tools Comparison
References
Arabo, M., Budd, J. S., Garrison, S., Pacheco, T. (2017). The right tool for the job: Improving reading and writing in the classroom. Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Chen, I.-C., Kuo, N.-C. & Smith, B. (2023). Exploring the Impacts of Community Services on Student Reading Achievement in a Title I School. School Community Journal, 33(2), 115–132.
Costa Cruz, M. & Kickhöfel Alves, U. (2022). Development of phonological awareness skills in English (L2) in the use of the Lexia Core5 Reading platform: A process analysis from the theory of complex dynamic systems. Diacrítica, 36(2), 100–120. https://doi.org/10.21814/diacritica.4806
Kara, S. (2024). The Impact of Teacher-generated Quizzes of Raz-Kids in Cultivating Primary School Students’ Reading Skills. Arab World English Journal, 15(4), 110–126. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol15no4.8
Lexia Reading. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report. (2009).
Purwanto, A. A., & Syafryadin. (2023). Students’ Perception on Using Duolingo for Learning English Vocabulary. Journal of English Teaching, 9(1), 70–82.
Thai, K. P. & Ponciano, L. (2016). Improving outcomes for at-risk prekindergarten and kindergarten students with a digital learning resource. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, 7(2).
Wright, A., Durfee, M., MacKay, D., & Su, S. (2023). Utah’s early intervention reading software program report. The Utah State Board Of Education.
