In February the Lumos Learning team had the opportunity to attend and exhibit at the Title 1 Conference in Philadelphia. We had such a great time meeting with so many teachers and administrators. We also had the opportunity to chat with one of our current teachers that is using our program. Ms.Bari Wells 5th grade teacher from the Hoosier Academy. She had some really exciting feedback to tell us about her students experience with the Lumos Learning StepUp online tool!
Interview with Bari from the Title 1 Conference
Hi I’m Shawn with Lumos Learning and I’m joined by Ms. Bari, She is a 5th grade teacher from Indiana, who has been using our Lumos Stepup product.
Shawn
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your experience with using the Lumos product?
Bari
A: Sure, it’s been very easy to use, I was able to find it just by searching and then have loved what I have been able to get my hands on. The ISTEP test prep materials that I’ve been using with my class I find are very easy to use and to pull into my instruction. My students have found it easy to use and like all the testing tools.
Shawn
Q: Can you tell us what your experience is with the question types and do you feel like it is preparing your students for the state assessment?
Bari
A: Yes, Absolutely we actually took the directions and spent probably 15-20 minutes looking at the directions and the test questions. To breakdown what the test is asking for. It’s so very similar to the ISTEP test that they are going to see in a couple weeks. That the kids felt really really confident about it. They didn’t feel like they were being tricked, they really liked the practice.
Shawn
Q: As far as improvement, have they been able to take the practice tests more than once?
Bari
A:They have taken the practice test and have retaken it now that we are a bit closer to the actual test date. I’ve seen my writing scores go up on the writing samples, probably 3 or 4 points over all in my groups.Out of 4 possible points most kids are now scoring a 3 or a 4. Where at the beginning of the year using this they scored a 1 or a 2. So it’s definitely been a huge help in progressing their writing skills.
Shawn
Q:So anything else you would like to add as far as what benefit do you get as a teacher?
Bari
A: It’s easy! That’s one of the things as a teacher you just don’t have time to get good practice in. You don’t have time to go searching for everything. And when I went to Lumos it was all right there. I could go in and do math practice, could go in and have them do the English practice, and it’s just been so easy and fast to use. That I just keep going back to use it.
I have seen lots of improvement with reading comprehension and with writing skills for sure.
