A child reads a book titled "Summer of the Mariposas." Another image shows children engaging with core knowledge language arts in a classroom. An illustration depicts a boy reading with an elephant outside the window, emphasizing how much knowledge matters in every setting.

Confirmed: Knowledge matters.

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) for K–5 and Amplify ELA for 6–8 are high-quality, knowledge-building literacy programs recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign.

Our shared message: Background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

High-quality curriculum recognized

Rigorous evaluators have affirmed the quality of both Amplify CKLA and Amplify ELA. Now each curriculum has been recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a literacy program that excels in building knowledge.

Learn more about Amplify’s programs

An illustration depicting the formula: Knowledge (Language comprehension) multiplied by Skills (Word recognition) equals Skilled reading. A circular logo with "Knowledge Matters Campaign All-Star" is on the top left, emphasizing the importance of core knowledge language arts in achieving literacy.
Diagram illustrating the Simple View of Reading model. It shows that skilled reading results from increasingly strategic language comprehension and increasingly automatic word recognition.

Knowledge fuels comprehension.

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension, and even lifelong literacy. That’s why leading scientists say knowledge building must be incorporated into reading instruction from the beginning—and continued throughout every subsequent grade level.

Discover the Science of Reading

The more you know, the faster you learn.

That’s the message of the Knowledge Matters Campaign, and it’s the foundation of Amplify CKLA and Amplify ELA. Both content-rich literacy programs systematically braid knowledge building with skills instruction, creating a curriculum that enables all students to build reading comprehension and confidence alike.

Learn more about the Knowledge Matters Campaign

Amplify ELA California

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Bring the world to students with a proven PreK–5 literacy curriculum

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) is the leading early literacy curriculum grounded in the Science of Reading. By combining knowledge-building and research-based foundational skills, our instruction guides educators in developing strong readers, writers, and thinkers.

With a powerful online platform and a parallel Spanish language arts curriculum, Amplify CKLA provides a comprehensive solution for PreK–5 educators and students. Para la versión en español, haga clic aquí.

Background knowledge drives results

The Amplify CKLA PreK–5 literacy curriculum equips students with rich knowledge that intentionally builds to inspire curiosity and drive results. Explore research revealing the power of our knowledge-based curriculum including a study that meets qualifications for ESSA Tier I: Strong Evidence.

Amplify CKLA serves

38,000+

Classrooms

2,700,000+

Students

50

U.S. States and D.C.

Independently and rigorously reviewed

Amplify CKLA is among the few curricula that is both recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign—for its excellence in intentionally building knowledge—and rated all-green on EdReports, earning green scores across all gateways.

Read the review on EdReports.

Educational campaign collage featuring children engaging in reading and research, with posters and books displayed, emphasizing the "core knowledge language arts" campaign.

Our approach

Grounded in the Science of Reading and following the Core Knowledge approach, the Amplify CKLA PreK–5 curriculum combines rich, diverse content knowledge in history, science, literature, and the arts with systematic, research-based foundational skills instruction.

Grounded in the Science of Reading

As the first publisher to build a curriculum based on the Science of Reading, we put research into action with explicit systematic foundational skills instruction alongside a proven knowledge-building sequence. In collaboration with education experts and practitioners, we provide powerful resources that drive real results. Explore our Science of Reading success stories.

Diagram illustrating the interplay between language comprehension and word recognition in reading, as seen in early literacy stages. It highlights pathways through knowledge, vocabulary, and sentence understanding, reflecting principles from the CKLA reading program.
Diagrama ilustrativo que muestra la progresión de la alfabetización temprana desde sonidos básicos hasta fonemas complejos con círculos etiquetados y flechas de conexión.

Developing foundational skills with explicit, systematic instruction

Amplify CKLA’s research-based scope and sequence progresses from simple to more complex skill development, starting with phonological and phonemic awareness. Instruction guides you in explicitly teaching the 150 spellings for the 44 sounds of English, with an intentional progression and review of skills to set your students up for success.

Following a proven knowledge-building approach

Following the Core Knowledge Sequence–a content-specific, cumulative, and coherent approach to building knowledge–students dig deeper and make connections across content areas to build a robust knowledge base for comprehending complex texts. See how the Core Knowledge curriculum is proven to improve reading scores and eliminate achievement gaps.

Three connected circular diagrams showing educational progression: "plants in kindergarten" with colorful garden graphics, "ecology in grade 3" depicting nature and animals, and "K–5 literacy curriculum in grade

Built in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation

Amplify CKLA is the premier high-quality instructional materials offering for elementary language arts, built in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation to help students effectively develop deep content knowledge and foundational skills.

Learn more about the Core Knowledge Foundation

Cultivating biliteracy with parallel English and Spanish programs

Amplify Caminos is the perfect Spanish language arts partner to Amplify CKLA. The aligned programs combine rich content knowledge with systematic foundational skills instruction grounded in the Science of Reading that follows biliteracy principles, and supports multiple teaching models.

Learn more about Amplify Caminos

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Learning to read

Free guide with the latest research on the Science of Reading

Download now

What’s included

The program provides engaging print and multimedia materials designed to build a robust literacy-rich foundation in every classroom.

CoreELD and Companions

High-quality teacher materials

Amplify CKLA teachers effectively deliver instruction with print and digital resources, including:

  • Teacher Guides with embedded differentiation.
  • Formal and informal assessments.
  • Ready-made and customizable lesson slides.
  • Trade books and Novel Guides.
  • Teacher resources and on-demand professional development.

Immersive student resources

Amplify CKLA students stay engaged with a variety of print and digital resources, including:

  • Original decodables and read-aloud Big Books (K–2), Student Readers (3–5), and trade books (K–5).
  • Student Activity Books with embedded assessments (K–5).
  • Research units for independent research built around a trade book (K–5).
  • Poet’s Journal and Writer’s Journal (write-in student readers for Grades 4–5).
  • Quests for the Core to support immersive, problem-based learning in Grades 3–5.

Hands-on phonics materials

Multisensory phonics and foundational skills resources help students practice key skills using fun, varied approaches that build independence.

  • Chaining Folder (K)
  • Letter Cards (K–2)
  • Syllable Cards (K–2)
  • Image Cards (K–3)
  • Blending Picture Cards (K)
  • Consonant and Vowel Code Flip Books (1–2)
  • Exclusive digital Sound Library

Robust digital experience

Amplify CKLA teacher and student resources are available through a digital experience platform that enhances instruction and saves you time. With everything you need in one place, you can effectively plan lessons, present content, and review student work.

  • Ready-made yet customizable lesson presentation slide decks
  • Dynamic live-review student tool
  • Interactive and student-friendly experience
  • LMS integration
  • Knowledge Builder animated videos
  • Recorded Read-Alouds
  • Professional development website
  • Real-time program support via email, live chat, and phone
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English Language Learner program

Language Studio, designed for Amplify CKLA, provides WIDA-aligned daily instruction for English Language Learners to deepen their academic English.

Writing explorations program

A unique companion for Amplify CKLA, Writing Studio provides a deep dive into informational, narrative, and opinion writing to build strong, passionate writers.

Covers of four "Writing Studio Teacher Guide" books for different grades, featuring educational icons in orange, purple, blue, and teal color schemes.

Explore more programs based on the Science of Reading.

All of the programs in our literacy suite are designed to support and complement each other. Learn more about our related programs:

Utah ELA Review for Grades PK–5

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for PK–5. Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is a state-approved core ELA curriculum designated as a primary core program that fully meets the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Amplify CKLA, developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation, was designed to help teachers implement Science of Reading principles and evidence-based instructional practices. Scroll down to learn how CKLA is uniquely designed to help all your students make learning leaps in literacy.

Illustration of a diverse group of people engaged in creative activities, including a woman holding architectural plans and a young girl reading a book.

Step 1: Program Introduction

Welcome to Amplify CKLA! Before you dive into our materials, watch the video below to learn about the big picture behind Amplify CKLA’s pedagogy.

In this video, Susan Lambert (Chief Academic Officer and host of Science of Reading: The Podocast) shares why Amplify CKLA was created, how it is built on the Science of Reading, and the impact it’s making across the country.

Step 2: Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is different for a reason. Watch the overview video below to learn about these differences and why educators love them.

In this video, you’ll get an in-depth look at the program’s overall structure and organization, the design behind our proven lessons, and the materials included to support teaching and learning.

The Amplify CKLA Program Guide also provides an in-depth view of how Amplify CKLA works, how it’s structured, and why it’s uniquely capable of helping you bring reading instruction based on the Science of Reading to your classroom.

Evidence-based design

Amplify CKLA is rooted in Science of Reading research. Mirroring Scarborough’s Rope, Amplify CKLA delivers a combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge-building.

  • In Grades PK–2, dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction are taught simultaneously through two distinct instructional strands.
  • In Grades 3–5, dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction are woven together and delivered through one integrated strand.
Scarborough's Rope

Grades K–2 Skills and Knowledge Strands
Every day students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that explicitly and systematically builds foundational reading skills in the Skills Strand, as well as one full lesson that builds robust background knowledge to access complex text in the Knowledge Strand. Through learning in each of these strands, students develop the early literacy skills necessary to help them become confident readers and build the context to understand what they’re reading.

Grades 3–5 Integrated Strand
In Grades 3–5, Knowledge and Skills are integrated in one set of instructional materials. Lessons begin to combine skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis. Students can then use their skills to go on their own independent reading adventures.

Key features

For each Amplify CKLA key feature below, click the drop down arrow to learn more.

Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA delivers explicit instruction in both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in grades PK–2 with an integrated approach to explicit instruction in grades 3–5.

Review this Science of Reading toolkit to learn more about the Science of Reading best practices integrated throughout CKLA.

Amplify CKLA aligns with the instructional principles recommended by Orton Gillingham and LETRS.

  • Structured–Concepts are taught through consistent routines
  • Sequential–Concepts are taught in a logical, well-planned sequence
  • Systematic–Phonemes are taught from simplest to most complex
  • Explicit–Decoding and encoding concepts are taught directly and explicitly
  • Multi-sensory–Instruction is delivered through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways
  • Cumulative–Concepts are applied in decodable, connected texts with constant review and reinforcement

Watch this video to learn more!

Additionally, great reading instruction starts with helping kids develop great decoding skills. Our instruction is supported by:

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Students build grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves. Our instruction is supported by:

  • Knowledge builders that provide a quick overview of each domain with its key ideas.
  • Interactive Read-Alouds designed to build knowledge and vocabulary.
  • Content-rich anchor texts that support students as they tackle increasingly complex text and sharpen their analytical skills.
  • Social and emotional learning paired with lessons in civic responsibility.

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a high-quality literacy program that excels in building knowledge. Our shared message: background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Student-led reading practice should be purposeful and connected to the core. That’s why Amplify createdBoost Reading. As an optional add-on to Amplify CKLA, students have the opportunity to practice skills directly tied to the skills they’ve been working on during core reading time. Boost Reading also adapts to each student to address their personal gaps and bolsters foundational skills at a pace that supports their individual development.

Boost Reading’s collection of 40+ adaptive games target foundational reading skills and develops them in alignment with Science of Reading principles. Unlike other adaptive games, we ensure students:

  • Practice the right skills at the right time. Our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level. From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.
  • Progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.
  • Practice skills in tandem. For example, a student is never forced to master one skill area before proceeding to the next. Instead, we offer students that opportunity to work on multiple skills concurrently.
  • Feel supported with scaffolding, instruction, and practice that adapts based on student performance.
  • Stay engaged by giving them immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Click the buttons below to learn more:

Step 3: Program Resources

Easy-to-use print materials

Amplify CKLA’s easy-to-use materials bring foundational skills and knowledge to life in the classroom.

Download the Amplify CKLA Components guide to see components by grade and watch the print materials walkthrough below.

Engaging CKLA digital experience

The top-rated content of Amplify CKLA is now live with the digital experience that enhances instruction and saves time.

Two digital dashboards are displayed: one for teachers showing recommendations and a program list, and one for students showing to-do items and a lesson named Mount Olympus, Part II.

With the digital experience, everything is in one place, making it easier and more engaging than ever to plan lessons, present digital content, and review student work. Click the arrows below to learn more.

With the digital experience, teachers have access to ready-to-use and customizable lesson presentation slides, complete with all the prompts from the print Teacher Guide embedded in the teacher view. As teachers deliver each lesson, students can engage with the content in one cohesive experience—through these CKLA resources: Activity Books, slides, digital components, videos, Student Readers, and more.

The innovative live review tool found in the digital experience enables you to keep an eye on all of your students as they work on drawing, recording audio, uploading and capturing images, and typing or writing in pre-placed textboxes in their Activity Pages. This dynamic tool provides countless classroom management benefits, enabling you to spot and correct common mistakes as they’re happening, praise your students for thoughtful work, and identify students who are not engaged in the task at hand. Simply put, it will give you those valuable “eyes in the back of your head” you’ve warned your students about!

The digital experience integrates with various LMSs, allowing you and your students to access Amplify CKLA with the software you’re already comfortable using.

In the Amplify CKLA student digital experience, your students have one intuitive access point to fully engage with classroom instruction. Through the Student Home, students can easily access digital lessons with slides, Activity Pages, ebooks, videos, and other interactives from one simple dashboard. Students can draw, record audio, upload and capture images, and type or write in pre-placed text boxes in their Activity Pages.

CKLA review resources

Step 4: State Review Resources

Step 5: Program Access

Explore as a teacher

Before logging in, watch this brief video on navigating the CKLA Teacher Platform.

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Amplify CKLA Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the teacher username: t1.utcklapk5@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the teacher password: Amplify1-utcklapk5
  • Choose CKLA from the “Your Programs” menu on Educator Home.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.

Ready to explore as a Student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Amplify CKLA Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username: s1.utahcklapk5@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the student password: Amplify1-utahcklapk5

Amplify K–6 ELA programs for Fairfax County

Welcome, Fairfax County Reviewers! 

Thank you for exploring our evidence-based K–6 programs built on the Science of Reading and aligned to Virginia standards and Fairfax County’s learning model. 

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–5 and Amplify ELA for Grade 6 intentionally build knowledge alongside skills and are aligned within and across grades. Meaningful learning experiences for students pair with powerful instructional support for teachers to drive results. 

The following resources will support your review. These include clips of Amplify programs in action; details about key features of the curriculum; and research on the real-world successes of schools, districts, and states who’ve partnered with Amplify.

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–5

Introduction to Amplify CKLA

We’re excited for you to see how Amplify CKLA provides high-quality resources to support literacy instruction for all students! This program is flexible, offering stand-alone foundational skills instruction as well as the program core English Language Arts.

Amplify CKLA Skills is built on the latest reading science and provides comprehensive instruction in all foundational reading skills, featuring:

  • Phonological awareness, phonics, and word recognition.
  • Strong, systematic sound-first instruction to support students in learning to decode.
  • Language skills, including conventions, spelling, and grammar.
  • Reading comprehension.
  • Writing instruction.

CKLA for Grades K–2 provides a two-strand approach. The first is the Foundational Skills Strand (as described above) and the second is the Knowledge Strand, in which students build rich background knowledge through multidisciplinary read-alouds. CKLA takes an Integrated approach in Grades 3–5, in which lesson sequencing is especially focused on rich, worldly content. 

We encourage you to check out the K–2 Knowledge Strand and 3–5 Integrated approach sections of this site to explore the components further and gain access to the engaging and diverse texts students and teachers are using in their classrooms every day!

K–2 Skills Strand

In the CKLA classroom, students practice reading while stretching themselves toward higher goals. In K–2, daily dedicated skills time gives students a solid foundation, while the upper grades integrate this instruction with knowledge lessons in which students engage with increasingly complex, content-rich texts and writing activities.

All instruction starts with phonological awareness, which research has shown to benefit the greatest number of students. Students begin by learning to recognize sounds, as well as to articulate them.

Over time, students build up their awareness of phonemes. We give teachers a variety of tools, including multisensory gestures, to help kids develop this awareness.

Once students can recognize sounds, they learn to form the corresponding letter codes. CKLA starts by teaching the sound-spellings that appear most frequently in English, which lets your students read and write as many words as possible, as soon as possible.

The lessons continue to challenge students as they progress, introducing complications like multisyllabic words, “tricky words,” and homophones. In each case, students encounter more complicated words as they become ready for them.

K–2 Knowledge Strand

While students are learning how to read, Knowledge Domains give them authentic and engaging reasons to read. Students will use their skills to explore domains that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world as seen through the eyes of many different groups. With these domains, you’ll bring the world to your students, showing them how reading can become an exciting, rewarding, and useful part of their lives.

Each CKLA Knowledge Domain gives students a base of vocabulary and concepts, building on what they’ve learned in previous domains. This helps students make connections within and across grades, building a base of background knowledge that will help them navigate new and more complex texts.

Students learn to listen and understand before they learn to read. By delivering knowledge through classroom read-alouds, Amplify CKLA teaches students the key comprehension skills they’ll use throughout their reading lives.

Amplify CKLA prioritizes interactions between students, which challenge and encourage them to think about the material rather than simply receive it. Each lesson includes several opportunities and options for formative assessment and immediate adjustment to the needs of both the class and the individual students.

The end-of-domain digital assessments that follow Knowledge Domains are fully voice-acted, ensuring that each student’s comprehension skills are authentically tested. This not only builds students’ test-taking confidence, but gives you a more accurate picture of your class.

3–5 Integrated approach

By Grades 3–5, students have mastered the basics of decoding and are eager to use what they’ve learned to reach out to the world. Although read-alouds remain an important part of lessons, students are also encouraged to practice independent reading starting in Grade 3, developing their autonomy and confidence as readers alongside strong teacher support.

As students progress from K–2, writing activities start to emphasize analysis, creativity, and independent thinking about lesson materials.

Each of the units in Grades 3–5 contain a Core Quest—a special unit in which all the rules of the classroom change as students engage with language in surprising new ways. In Grade 5, for example, students learn to love the dense Shakespearian language of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” through imagery, close reading, and performance.

Key CKLA features

Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA delivers explicit instruction in both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in Grades K–2, with an integrated approach to explicit instruction in Grades 3–5.

Review this Science of Reading Toolkit to learn more about the Science of Reading best practices integrated throughout CKLA.

Great reading instruction starts with great decoding skills. When students build a solid foundation of phonological awareness and phonics, reading the words on the page becomes automatic so that comprehension and critical thinking can happen.

Our instruction is supported by:

  • Step-by-step lessons with multisensory approaches, clear lesson objectives, and embedded formative assessments.
  • Unmatched, 100% decodable books and student readers that feature engaging plots and relatable characters.
  • An engaging sound library with fun songs and videos that develop phonological awareness.

Students build grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves.

Our instruction is supported by:

  • Knowledge builders that provide a quick overview of each domain with its key ideas.
  • Interactive read-alouds designed to build knowledge and vocabulary.
  • Content-rich anchor texts that support students as they tackle increasingly complex text and sharpen their analytical skills.

From the printed page to the screen, we bring foundational skills and knowledge of the world to your young learners, and make the transition from classroom to home learning seamless.

Download the Amplify CKLA Components Guide to see components by grade.

Amplify Caminos is an equitable Spanish language arts program for Grades K–5 that will engage your students and inspire them to become confident readers, writers, and thinkers.

Designed to support any biliteracy model (including ESL, transitional bilingual, dual language, and Spanish immersion), Amplify Caminos can be used in tandem with Amplify CKLA to provide a fully equitable, one-to-one English and Spanish solution.

Amplify ELA for Grade 6

Amplify ELA is a blended English language arts curriculum designed specifically to prepare middle school students for high school and beyond. This interactive core curriculum brings complex texts to life with lively classroom discussions and meaningful digital experiences in which students grapple with interesting ideas and find relevance for themselves.

Amplify ELA’s built-in 100-Day Pathway outlines required content for each grade level, while providing teachers time and space to teach the supplemental lessons and activities they love.

The program has received an all-green rating on EdReports—read the review.

Amplify ELA delivers:

  • A unique research-based approach designed to get all students reading grade-level text together.
  • An instructional design that inspires students to read more deeply, write more vividly, and think more critically.
  • A rich combination of dynamic texts, lively discussions, and interactive Quests that engages and inspires middle school students.

EdReports and Knowledge Matters Campaign

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–5 is among the few elementary core curricula to be both rated all green on EdReports (earning green scores across all gateways) and recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign for its excellence in intentionally building knowledge. Amplify ELA for grade 6 also earned all-green scores on EdReports.

Access FCPS reviewer platform

To experience Amplify’s K–6 ELA programs for FCPS, complete the following steps.

Access your teacher demo account:

  1. Access the reviewer site.
  2. Select Log in with Amplify.
  3. Enter your teacher username: t1.fcps-demo@demo.tryamplify.net  
  4. Enter your password: Amplify1-fcps-demo

Access your student demo account:

  1. Access the reviewer site.
  2. Select Log in with Amplify.
  3. Enter your student username: s1.fcps-demo@demo.tryamplify.net 
  4. Enter your password: Amplify1-fcps-demo

VA correlations

CKLA Kindergarten correlation
CKLA Grade 1 correlation
CKLA Grade 2 correlation
CKLA Grade 3 correlation
CKLA Grade 4 correlation
CKLA Grade 5 correlation

Additional reviewer resources

Amplify CKLA Program Guide (Grades K–5)
Amplify ELA Program Guide (Grade 6)
Amplify biliteracy and Science of Reading principles
Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility
Text complexity
Trade books
Amplify CKLA meets Virginia Literacy Act (VLA) requirements

Get in touch

To learn more, contact Michael Kasloff at mkasloff@amplify.com.

Amplify K–3 CKLA resources for Georgia Department of Education

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English language arts curriculum for middle school

With Amplify ELA, students learn to tackle any complex text and make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves.

Rated all-green on EdReports, Amplify ELA earned perfect scores across all gateways. Para la versión en español, haga clic aquí.

Access sample

Easy and adaptable to teach

With six levels of embedded differentiation and assessments, teachers can make sure students are gaining key skills while not interrupting instruction. Because the program does this work in the background, teachers have more time doing what they love.

Also, only Amplify offers the 100-Day Pathway, a built-in guide to covering required content for each grade level in just 100 days while allowing teachers to add supplemental lessons and activities.

Knowledge Matters in Middle School

Amplify ELA has been recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a high-quality, knowledge-building literacy curriculum.

The Campaign highlights Amplify ELA as a program that infuses wonder and excitement into every learning experience—forging connections across grade levels and providing comprehensive support for both students and educators.

Read more on Knowledge Matters.

Our approach

Through its engaging digital program, powerful differentiation and assessment tools, and step-by-step instructional guides, our curriculum responds directly to the challenges and opportunities faced by middle school students and teachers.

See the research behind the program.

We empower students to become critical thinkers.

With text always at the center, students are encouraged to make ideas and opinions about meaning for themselves. Rather than focusing on right or wrong answers, they develop ideas and opinions on relevant, real-world, texts.

A student sits at a desk reading a textbook in a classroom, part of the Amplify ELA program, with other students and educational posters visible in the background.
Two students sit at desks in a classroom, looking forward with laptops open in front of them. Classroom posters and a whiteboard are visible in the background.

We provide six levels of differentiated support.

Multiple entry points and six levels of embedded differentiated support allow every student, regardless of fluency or ability level, to engage with the same complex texts and curriculum.

We assess while you instruct.

Embedded assessments and reports provide insight into each student’s progress without having to interrupt daily instruction. With data being collected at every learning moment, teachers can respond to student needs faster than ever before.

A teacher in a red polo shirt helps a student with curly hair in a classroom, both looking at open textbooks; educational posters hang on the wall behind them.
A student using a laptop

Amplify your teaching with ELA PD!

Amplify ELA offers targeted professional development (PD) sessions designed to optimize teaching strategies, enhance student engagement, and ensure effective curriculum delivery. Gain insights and techniques to make the most of your instructional time.

Free download

Discover principles of true engagement in middle school ELA

Download

What’s included

Amplify ELA is a rigorous core curriculum that empowers teachers and engages middle school students.

Student Edition

Available digitally and in print, the student materials guide middle schoolers through complex texts and writing by:

  • Engaging students with high-quality narrative and informational texts.
  • Providing videos, audio supports, and digital experiences that capture their attention.
  • Keeping all of their writing in one place with a personal Writing Journal.

Teacher Edition

Available digitally and in print, the Teacher Edition contains all the information teachers need to facilitate classroom instruction, including:

  • Detailed lesson plans.
  • Video teacher tips embedded in the lesson.
  • Standards alignment and exit tickets.
  • Real-time differentiation strategies.
  • Robust reporting.

Interactive Quests

Quests are fun, week-long immersions into a specific, multilayered topic. They enable students to practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills—all while building a strong classroom community.

Digital library for independent reading

The expansive Amplify Library includes more than 700 digital fiction, nonfiction, classic, and contemporary titles.

Amplify ELA makes teachers’ lives easier

Our program ensures that standards are covered, skills are taught, and students are prepared with proper scaffolding and encouragement.

  • Embedded differentiation to support all readers.
  • Informative and streamlined assessment system.
  • Robust reporting that tracks progress.
  • Powerful feedback tools.

Explore more programs

Our programs are designed to support and complement one another. Learn more about our related programs.

Iowa CKLA review for Grades K–5

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s CKLA resources for K–5.

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is an effective core literacy resource for students in grades K–5 and is aligned to the Iowa Core Literacy Standards. CKLA was developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation and was specifically designed to help teachers implement proven evidence-based instructional practices.

Recognized Quality

Amplify CKLA is one of only a few high-quality, knowledge-building literacy curricula recognized by the Knowledge Matters campaign. Our shared message: Background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Independently and rigorously reviewed

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a literacy program that excels in building knowledge.

Intentional knowledge-building

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is a core ELA program for grades K–5 that delivers:

  • A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
  • A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge building.
  • Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
  • Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
  • Equitable and authentic Spanish language arts instruction with Amplify Caminos.

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–2

After watching the K–2 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

Amplify CKLA for Grades 3–5

After watching the 3–5 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

How it works

Amplify CKLA teaches both foundational skills and background knowledge in K–2 and combines them in 3–5, as required by the science of reading.

  • In grades K–2, students complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge.
  • In grades 3–5, student complete one integrated lesson that combines skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis.

Rich topics

Amplify CKLA builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.

Students make connections from year-to-year by exploring grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves.

Diverse text

Amplify CKLA puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day to build and strengthen background knowledge and vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension, and decoding and fluency skills.

More than that, we ensure the texts students read represent the world around them. With a diverse range of authors, topics, and characters, all students have ample access to both windows and mirrors. Our texts include:

  • authentic books.
  • authentic text passages.
  • student readers.
  • novel guides (grades 3–5).

Universal access

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student the same opportunity to succeed and excel.

We know that early reading affects achievement throughout school and beyond—well into college and career. Yet most literacy programs continue to fall short of supporting early literacy success. That’s why we’re so proud that CKLA is helping close the reading gap between students within diverse communities.

Complete curriculum

A strong literacy program is not just about a reading program or an assessment tool: it brings together curriculum, instruction, regular practice, intervention, and assessments.

Amplify has brought these components together in our early literacy suite of curriculum, ensure that you have what you need for multi-tiered support.

Science of Reading Resources

Watching students learn to read: magic. Knowing how they get there: science.

As you consider your next core ELA program, it’s critically important to understand what the Science of Reading really means and what it tells us about how to teach more effectively. Unlike other programs, Amplify CKLA was built upon these insights and practices, making it easier for teachers to implement this proven approach.

Access demo

Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.

Explore the CKLA Teacher Digital Site

First, watch the quick navigation video to the right. Then follow the directions below:

  • Click the CKLA Teacher Digital Site button
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: t1.iowa-literacy@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-iowa-literacy
  • Select the desired grade level

Explore the CKLA Student Digital Site

To access the student digital site follow the directions below:

  • Click the CKLA Student Digital Site button
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: s1.iowa-literacy@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-iowa-literacy
  • From the Home page, scroll down to the robot and “Click to go to the Hub
  • From the Hub, click the Grade button to select the grade.

Welcome, Ohio educators!

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s CKLA resources for K–5.

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is an effective core literacy resource for students in grades K–5 and is aligned to Ohio’s Rule for Phonics. CKLA was developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation and was specifically designed to help teachers implement proven evidence-based instructional practices.

Click here for correlations to the Ohio Learning Standards for English Language Arts.

Click here to view Amplify CKLA’s Alignment to Ohio’s “Shifting to the Science of Reading” Framework.

Illustration featuring diverse cultural and historical elements like an african woman, an egyptian sphinx, a space rocket, and urban and natural landscapes under a starry sky.

Recognized Quality

Amplify CKLA is one of only a few high-quality, knowledge-building literacy curricula recognized by the Knowledge Matters campaign. Our shared message: Background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

A diagram showing "Knowledge x Skills = Amplify CKLA," with Knowledge as language comprehension, Skills as word recognition, and Amplify CKLA as skilled reading. Knowledge Matters badge included.

Independently and rigorously reviewed

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a literacy program that excels in building knowledge.

Intentional knowledge-building

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is a core ELA program for grades K–5 that delivers:

  • A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
  • A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge building.
  • Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
  • Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
  • Authentic Spanish language arts instruction with Amplify Caminos.

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–2

After watching the K–2 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

Amplify CKLA for Grades 3–5

After watching the 3–5 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

How it works

Amplify CKLA teaches both foundational skills and background knowledge in K–2 and combines them in 3–5, as required by the science of reading.

  • In grades K–2, students complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge.
  • In grades 3–5, student complete one integrated lesson that combines skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis.
A flowchart showing word recognition and language comprehension strands intertwining to form skilled reading, with progression labeled as increasingly automatic and strategic.

Rich topics

Amplify CKLA builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.

Students make connections from year-to-year by exploring grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves.

Illustration showing diverse cultural representations: two native american figures, a bear in a forest, and a medieval european woman, all set against colorful abstract backgrounds.

Diverse text

Amplify CKLA puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day to build and strengthen background knowledge and vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension, and decoding and fluency skills.

More than that, we ensure the texts students read represent the world around them. With a diverse range of authors, topics, and characters, all students have ample access to both windows and mirrors. Our texts include:

  • authentic books.
  • authentic text passages.
  • student readers.
  • novel guides (grades 3–5).

Aligned to LETRS and Orton Gillingham

Amplify CKLA aligns with the instructional principles recommended by Orton Gillingham and LETRS.

  • Structured–Concepts are taught through consistent routines
  • Sequential–Concepts are taught in a logical, well-planned sequence
  • Systematic–Phonemes are taught from simplest to most complex
  • Explicit–Decoding and encoding concepts are taught directly and explicitly
  • Multi-sensory–Instruction is delivered through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways
  • Cumulative–Concepts are applied in decodable, connected texts with constant review and reinforcement

Universal access

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student the same opportunity to succeed and excel.

We know that early reading affects achievement throughout school and beyond—well into college and career. Yet most literacy programs continue to fall short of supporting early literacy success. That’s why we’re so proud that CKLA is helping close the reading gap between students within diverse communities.

A boy with glasses smiles while reading a book, with illustrated objects like a telescope, gourd, and cartoon insect in the background.

Complete curriculum

A strong literacy program is not just about a reading program or an assessment tool: it brings together curriculum, instruction, regular practice, intervention, and assessments.

Amplify has brought these components together in our early literacy suite of curriculum, ensure that you have what you need for multi-tiered support.

Science of Reading Resources

Watching students learn to read: magic. Knowing how they get there: science.

As you consider your next core ELA program, it’s critically important to understand what the Science of Reading really means and what it tells us about how to teach more effectively. Unlike other programs, Amplify CKLA was built upon these insights and practices, making it easier for teachers to implement this proven approach.

A girl runs outdoors holding a kite with colorful ribbons labeled knowledge, vocabulary, sentences, connections, gist, sounds, letters, and words.

Access demo

Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.

Explore the CKLA Teacher Digital Site

First, watch the quick navigation video to the right. Then follow the directions below:

  • Click the CKLA Teacher Digital Site button
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: t1.cklareviewohio@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-cklareviewohio
  • Select the desired grade level

Explore the CKLA Student Digital Site

To access the student digital site follow the directions below:

  • Click the CKLA Student Digital Site button
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: s1.cklareviewohio@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-cklareviewohio
  • From the Home page, scroll down to the robot and “Click to go to the Hub
  • From the Hub, click the Grade button to select the grade.

Bring the world to students with a proven PreK–5 literacy curriculum

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) is the leading early literacy curriculum grounded in the Science of Reading. By combining knowledge-building and research-based foundational skills, our instruction guides educators in developing strong readers, writers, and thinkers.

With a powerful online platform and a parallel Spanish language arts curriculum, Amplify CKLA provides a comprehensive solution for PreK–5 educators and students. Para la versión en español, haga clic aquí.

Background knowledge drives results

The Amplify CKLA PreK–5 literacy curriculum equips students with rich knowledge that intentionally builds to inspire curiosity and drive results. Explore research revealing the power of our knowledge-based curriculum including a study that meets qualifications for ESSA Tier I: Strong Evidence.

Amplify CKLA serves

38,000+

Classrooms

2,700,000+

Students

50

U.S. States and D.C.

Independently and rigorously reviewed

Amplify CKLA is among the few curricula that is both recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign—for its excellence in intentionally building knowledge—and rated all-green on EdReports, earning green scores across all gateways.


Read the review on EdReports

Our approach

Grounded in the Science of Reading and following the Core Knowledge approach, the Amplify CKLA PreK–5 curriculum combines rich content knowledge in history, science, literature, and the arts with systematic, research-based foundational skills instruction.

Grounded in the Science of Reading

As the first publisher to build a curriculum based on the Science of Reading, we put research into action with explicit systematic foundational skills instruction alongside a proven knowledge-building sequence. In collaboration with education experts and practitioners, we provide powerful resources that drive real results. Explore our Science of Reading success stories.

Developing foundational skills with explicit, systematic instruction

Amplify CKLA’s research-based scope and sequence progresses from simple to more complex skill development, starting with phonological and phonemic awareness. Instruction guides you in explicitly teaching the 150 spellings for the 44 sounds of English, with an intentional progression and review of skills to set your students up for success.

Following a proven knowledge-building approach

Following the Core Knowledge Sequence–a content-specific, cumulative, and coherent approach to building knowledge–students dig deeper and make connections across content areas to build a robust knowledge base for comprehending complex texts. See how the Core Knowledge curriculum is proven to improve reading scores and eliminate achievement gaps.

Built in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation

Amplify CKLA is the premier high-quality instructional materials offering for elementary language arts, built in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation to help students effectively develop deep content knowledge and foundational skills.

Learn more about the Core Knowledge Foundation

Cultivating biliteracy with parallel English and Spanish programs

Amplify Caminos is the perfect Spanish language arts partner to Amplify CKLA. The aligned programs combine rich content knowledge with systematic foundational skills instruction grounded in the Science of Reading that follows biliteracy principles, and supports multiple teaching models.

Learn more about Amplify Caminos

Amplify CKLA efficacy study

Tier I ESSA Evidence: Amplify CKLA knowledge-building improves achievement.

Download now

What’s included

The program provides engaging print and multimedia materials designed to build a robust literacy-rich foundation in every classroom.

CoreELD and companions

High-quality teacher materials

Amplify CKLA teachers effectively deliver instruction with print and digital resources, including:

  • Teacher Guides with embedded differentiation.
  • Formal and informal assessments.
  • Ready-made and customizable lesson slides.
  • Trade books and Novel Guides.
  • Teacher resources and on-demand professional development.

Immersive student resources

Amplify CKLA students stay engaged with a variety of print and digital resources, including:

  • Original decodables and read-aloud Big Books (K–2), Student Readers (3–5), and trade books (K–5).
  • Student Activity Books with embedded assessments (K–5).
  • Research units for independent research built around a trade book (K–5).
  • Poet’s Journal and Writer’s Journal (write-in student readers for Grades 4–5).
  • Quests for the Core to support immersive, problem-based learning in Grades 3–5.

Hands-on phonics materials

Multisensory phonics and foundational skills resources help students practice key skills using fun, varied approaches that build independence.

  • Chaining Folder (K)
  • Letter Cards (K–2)
  • Syllable Cards (K–2)
  • Image Cards (K–3)
  • Blending Picture Cards (K)
  • Consonant and Vowel Code Flip Books (1–2)
  • Exclusive digital Sound Library

Robust digital experience

Amplify CKLA teacher and student resources are available through a digital experience platform that enhances instruction and saves you time. With everything you need in one place, you can effectively plan lessons, present content, and review student work.

  • Ready-made yet customizable lesson presentation slide decks
  • Dynamic live-review student tool
  • Interactive and student-friendly experience
  • LMS integration
  • Knowledge Builder animated videos
  • Recorded Read-Alouds
  • Professional development website
  • Real-time program support via email, live chat, and phone

English Language Learner program

Language Studio, designed for Amplify CKLA, provides WIDA-aligned daily instruction for English Language Learners to deepen their academic English.

Writing explorations program

A unique companion for Amplify CKLA, Writing Studio provides a deep dive into informational, narrative, and opinion writing to build strong, passionate writers.

Covers of four "Writing Studio Teacher Guide" books for different grades, featuring educational icons in orange, purple, blue, and teal color schemes.

Explore more programs based on the Science of Reading

All of the programs in our literacy suite are designed to support and complement each other. Learn more about our related programs:

Website Privacy Policy

Last Modified:  February 2026

Update: February 2, 2026: This Privacy Policy has been updated to address additional rights for individuals in the European Union/UK.

Below is the Website Privacy Policy for the amplify.com site (“Privacy Policy”). For purposes of clarity and as further outlined below, this Privacy Policy does not apply to student data. You can visit this page to read about the principles and policy governing student data collected and maintained on behalf of our school customers.

We advise you to read this Privacy Policy in its entirety, including the jurisdiction-specific provisions in the appendix. Our Notice at Collection for California Residents is available in the Notice for our California Customers.

Who We Are / What This Privacy Policy Covers

Amplify Education, Inc. (“Amplify”) recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we may collect through your use of this website (the “Site”).

This Privacy Policy does not apply to Amplify’s handling of:

  • student data or other information collected from users of Amplify’s products that support classroom instruction and learning, which are governed by our Customer Privacy Policy.
  • staff or applicant data that we process in accordance with our staff or applicant privacy notice, respectively.

If you have any question as to what legal agreement or privacy policy controls the collection and use of your information, please contact us using information below in the Contact Us section.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and is subject to our Website Terms of Use, which governs your use of the Site.

Our Role: We are the controller of all personal information (as defined below) that we receive through our Site and can be reached by email at privacy@amplify.com or by mail at Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington St.#800, Brooklyn, NY, 11201.

1. What personal information do we collect?

When you visit and / or interact with our Site, we may collect the following information about you that, alone or in combination, could be used to identify you or your device (“personal information”):

  • Contact Information, such as name, district / school name, professional affiliation, title / role, email address, shipping address, address and phone number.
  • Account Information, such as customer user login and password. 
  • Demographic Information, such as age and gender.
  • Information You Submit, such as information voluntarily provided on message boards, feedback sections, and other public areas of the Site.
  • Site Activity Information, which is collected when you access and interact with the Site, we and our Service Providers (as defined below) may collect certain information about those visits. For example, we or our Service Providers may receive and record information about your computer and browser, including your IP address, browser type, and other software or hardware information. If you access the Site from a mobile or other device, we may collect a unique device identifier assigned to that device, or other characteristics of the device hardware, operating system and configurations for that device. On certain pages of the Site, we may use third party tools to help us look at mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, data or text entered, and the pages you visit.
  • Location Information, such as state, country and / or zip code, which we use to help us customize your experience, as well as to help us facilitate your privacy rights.
  • Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information: such as customer service interactions, call recordings, chat transcripts, files you attach, and email, text, or other correspondence.

If you make a purchase through our online store, you may provide payment and other information directly to our third party e-commerce platform to complete your purchase.

We ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any government identifiers (such as social security numbers) or information related to racial or ethnic origin, health, or criminal background on or through the Site or otherwise.

2. Where/How do we collect personal information?

Amplify may collect personal information directly from you at various points, including the following:

  • Product Information and Newsletters. When you submit a request to obtain information about our products, services or other informational material or subscribe to one of our newsletters, you may be asked to submit information such as name, professional affiliation, email address, company name, address and phone and details on your query or interests in our products and services. This information is collected to help us process your request.
  • Customer Support. When you submit a form to contact our customer service, you may be asked to submit information such as name, e-mail, district, customer user login and password and details on your query. In addition, some features of our Site, such as our customer live chat functionality or other customer service systems may allow you to voluntarily provide personal information to us. This information is collected to help us process your request. Please only provide what is needed to facilitate the support request.
  • Product Orders. If you use e-commerce areas of our Site to order our products, we request information from you on our order form. To purchase products through the Site, you must provide contact information (such as name and shipping address) and financial information (such as credit card number). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill your orders. We will also use this information to contact you to confirm your order or to inform you of any issues or delays.
  • Registration. You may be asked to submit information to use certain parts of the Site (such as posting comments on certain areas of the Site), register for an event or webinar, or view restricted content that may be available on the Site. For instance, you may be asked to provide your name, email address and event or webinar-related preferences to help us process your registration or content request.
  • Public Areas and Discussion Forums. Any information you share in public areas, such as message boards or feedback sections, becomes public. Please be careful about what you disclose and do not post any personal information that you expect to keep private.
  • Contests and Sweepstakes. When we run a contest or sweepstakes relating to the Site or Amplify, it will be accompanied by a set of rules. The rules for each contest/sweepstakes will specify how the information gathered from you for your entry will be used and disclosed.

As you visit or use our Site, we may collect Site activity information through cookies and similar technologies.

  • Cookies, Pixels, and Other Tracking Technologies. Cookies and other tracking technologies (such as pixels, beacons, and Adobe Flash technology) are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They allow the website or mobile app to remember your actions and preferences over a period of time. We use the following types of cookies:
    • Strictly necessary cookies – These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Site. These cookies are not generally stored beyond the browser session and are less likely to include personal information. This category of cookies cannot be disabled.
    • Functionality Cookies – We use these cookies so that we recognize you on our Site and remember your previously selected preferences. These cookies are stored on your device between browsing sessions but expire after a pre-defined period. These cookies enable our Site to “recognize” you when you use our Site, including your preferences such as your preferred language , time, and location. A mix of first party (placed by us) and third-party cookies (placed by third parties) are used.
    • Analytics Cookies – These cookies help us and our Service Providers compile statistics and analytics about users of the Site, including Site Activity Information. For example, we use Google Analytics to help us understand how users interact with the Platform. Google Analytics uses cookies to track your interactions with the Site, then collects that information and reports it to us. This information helps us improve the Site so that we can better serve you. To learn more about Google Analytics, visit https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en. If you wish, you can opt-out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available on https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
    • Advertising Cookies – We use these cookies to collect information about your visit to our Site, the content you viewed, the links you followed and information about your browser, device, and your IP address. We sometimes share some limited aspects of this data with third parties for advertising purposes. We may also share Site Activity Information collected through cookies with our advertising partners. This means that when you visit another website, you may be shown advertising based on your browsing patterns on our Site.

For information on how to opt-out of these technologies, please see What Choices Do You Have? below.

  • Social Plugins. Certain areas of our Site permit you to utilize social media functionality, such as the Facebook “Like” or Google “+1” buttons (“Social Plugins”). To use a Social Plugin, you must authorize the third-party provider of that Social Plugin, e.g. Facebook or Google, to access, collect, and/or disclose your information related to your use of that Social Plugin, subject to that company’s privacy policies, which may differ from this Privacy Policy. In addition, such providers may be able to collect information about you, including your activity on the Site, and they may notify your connections on their social networking platform about your use of the Site. Such services may also employ unique identifiers that allow your activity to be monitored across multiple websites for purposes of delivering more targeted advertising to you.

Amplify also receives information from other sources.

  • Information from Other Sources. We may supplement any information we collect via this Site with information from publicly or commercially available sources.

3. How do we use personal information?

We may use any personal information and other information we collect from and about you for the following purposes and as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy:

  • To provide and manage the Site. We use the personal information we collect from and about you to provide the Site and features to you, including to measure and improve its services and features, to personalize your experience by delivering relevant content, to deliver marketing messages, to allow you to comment on content, to provide you with customer support, and to respond to inquiries. We may also use and disclose aggregate or anonymous data about your use of and activity on the Site to assist us in this regard and for any other purpose.
  • To contact you. Amplify may periodically send promotional materials (e.g., newsletters) or notifications related to the Site and to Amplify’s business to the contact information you provided to us at registration.
  • To improve our products and services. We may use your personal information for our business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, developing new products and services, enhancing the Site, improving our services, identifying usage trends, and determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns.
  • For marketing and advertising. We may use your personal information to help us market our products to you or your school district.

4. To whom do we disclose personal information?

We may disclose any personal information and other information we collect from and about you for the following purposes and as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy:

  • To share with our affiliated education companies. Amplify may share your personal information with Amplify’s affiliated education companies for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
  • To allow service providers to assist us. We may engage third party service providers, agents and partners (“Service Providers”) to perform functions on our behalf, such as analytics, credit card processing, shipping or stocking orders and providing customer service. We may disclose your personal information to such Service Providers to enable them to assist us in these efforts.
  • To allow our marketing and advertising partners to assist us. We may engage marketing and advertising partners to help us market and advertise our products and services, including via digital ads sent in connection with your visit to the Site. We may disclose Site Activity information, as well as contact information and other aggregate insights to such partners to enable them to assist us in these efforts.
  • To protect the rights of Amplify and our users. There may be instances when Amplify may disclose your personal information, in situations where Amplify has a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary or appropriate in order to: (i) protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, operations, or property of Amplify, our parents, subsidiaries or affiliates or our or their employees, agents and contractors (including enforcement of our agreements, including our terms of use); (ii) protect the rights, safety, privacy, security or property of users of the Site or others; (iii) protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; (iv) comply with the law or legal process, including laws outside your country of residence; (v) respond to requests from public and government authorities, including those outside your country of residence; or (vi) allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
  • To complete a merger or sale of assets. If Amplify sells all or part of its business or makes a sale or transfer of its assets or is otherwise involved in a merger, transfer or other disposition of all or part of its business, assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings), Amplify may transfer your personal information to the party or parties involved in the transaction.

5. What rights and choices do you have?

Opt-out of Marketing Communications. If you want to stop receiving promotional materials from Amplify, you can follow the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email. There are certain service notification emails that you may not opt-out of, such as notifications of changes to the Site or policies. If you have additional questions, please contact us using information below in the Contact Us section.

Opt-of Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies. There are a few ways to opt out or delete cookies.

  • On Your Browser. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies, but your browser may permit you to change your settings to notify you of a cookie being set or updated, or to block cookies altogether. Please consult the “Help” section of your browser for more information. Please note that by blocking any or all cookies you may not have access to certain features, content or personalization that may be available through the Site. Please also note that you must opt out separately on each device (including each web browser on each device) that you use to access our Site if you wish to opt out, and if you clear your cookies or if you use a different browser or device, you will need to renew your opt-out preferences.
  • Interest-Based Advertising. Some advertisers and marketing companies participate in the self-regulatory programs of the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) and European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (“eDAA”) in connection with online interest-based advertising. DAA and eDAA provide consumers with the ability to opt out of receiving interest-based advertising from their program participants at the following links:

What Rights Do You Have?

6. Security

Amplify uses commercially reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical measures to safeguard personal information in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification.

7. Data retention / Deletion

We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or allowed by law. Even after we have deleted your personal information from our systems, copies of some information from your account may remain viewable in some circumstances – where, for example, you have shared information with social media platforms and other unaffiliated services. We may also retain backup information related to your account on our servers for some time after cancellation for fraud detection or to comply with applicable law or our internal security policies. Because of the nature of caching technology, your account may not be instantly inaccessible to others, and there may be a delay in the removal of the content from elsewhere on the Internet and from search engines.

8. Data Storage and Transfers

We are a United States Company, and our servers are hosted, managed, and controlled by us in the United States. If you are outside of the United States, we use industry standards to protect your data when it leaves your country of residence and your data will always be protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy, Applicable Laws and our Agreement regardless of the storage location.

Additionally, where we transfer your personal information to service providers outside of the United Kingdom (UK), European Economic Area (EEA), or other region that offers similar protections, we use specific appropriate safeguards to contractually obligate such service providers to protect personal information in accordance with Amplify’s commitment to privacy and security and applicable data protection laws.

If you have questions or wish to obtain more information about the international transfer of your personal information or the implemented safeguards, please contact us using the contact information below.

9. External third-party services

The Site may be linked to sites operated by unaffiliated companies, and may carry advertisements or offer content, functionality, games, newsletters, contests or sweepstakes, or applications developed and maintained by unaffiliated companies. Amplify is not responsible for the privacy practices of unaffiliated companies, and once you leave the Site via a link or enable an unaffiliated service, you are subject to the applicable privacy policy of the unaffiliated service.

10. Updates to this policy

Amplify may modify this Privacy Policy. Please look at the Last Revised Date at the top of this Privacy Policy to see when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Site. If you do not wish to be bound by the terms of the revised Privacy Policy, you must discontinue your use of the Site.

11. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@amplify.com
Mail: Amplify Education, Inc.
55 Washington St.#800
Brooklyn, NY, 11201
Phone: (800) 823-1969
Attn: General Counsel

Appendix – Supplemental Disclosures

1. Notice for our California Customers

We retain your personal information for as long as you are an active user of our Site or continue to have an account with us, and in accordance with our legal obligations (which may require us to hold information to provide financial and other reporting and to defend against potential claims). If you are a California resident, please see below for information about your rights pursuant to California law.

Personal Information We Collect
How We Use Personal Information
Contact Information
  • To provide you with customer support and respond to inquiries.
  • To contact you with promotional emails (e.g. newsletters) or notifications related to the Site
  • To help us verify the identity of our user
  • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection
Account Information
  • To provide and manage the Site
  • To improve our products and services
  • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection
Payment Information
  • To complete your payment of purchases made through the Site
  • For internal operations (e.g. to improve and update our products)
  • For security and fraud prevention
  • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection
Information You Submit
  • To provide the Site and features to you, including to allow you to comment
  • To improve our products and services
  • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection.
Site Activity Information
  • We sell or share information about your Site activity with third parties for targeted advertisements on and off of Amplify. We also use this information to:
    • To provide and manage the Site
    • To improve our products and services
    • For internal operations (e.g. to improve and update our products)
    • For security, safety, and due diligence purposes
    • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection
Location Information
  • We use location information , such as state, country and / or zip code, which we use to help us customize your experience, as well as to help us facilitate your privacy rights.
Inferences
  • We may make inferences about your interests and personal preferences (such as the content you like to consume). We also use this information to:
    • To personalize your experience on the Site
    • For internal operations (e.g. to improve and update our products)
    • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection

Some of the information described above may be considered “sensitive” under the laws of certain jurisdictions (including payment information and account login credentials (“Sensitive Information”). Whether information is Sensitive Information will depend on the laws of your jurisdiction. We only use Sensitive Information, such as payment information and account credentials for necessary or reasonably expected purposes – specifically, to provide you with our Services (i.e., fulfill purchases and to allow account logins).

Shine the Light

California’s Shine the Light law (Civil Code § 1798.83) permits California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of certain categories of personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. We do not share personal information, as defined by California’s Shine the Light law, with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.

Notice of Financial Incentive 

 As part of our services, there may be opportunities for you to complete surveys and questionnaires. As an incentive for completing the survey or questionnaire, you can voluntarily provide your personal information, which in turn enters you into a raffle drawing or enables us to provide you with other benefits, discounts, offers, or deals that may constitute a financial incentive under California law (“Financial Incentive”). The categories of personal information required for us to provide the Financial Incentives include: contact information and any other information that you choose to provide when you complete the survey.

Participation is voluntary and you can opt out at any time before your survey is complete.

The value of the personal information we collect in connection with our Financial Incentives is equivalent to the value of the benefit offered.

2. Additional U.S. State Privacy Law Rights

Residents of certain U.S. states have the following rights, regarding your personal information (each of which are subject to various exceptions and limitations):

  • Access. You have the right to request, up to two times every 12 months, that we disclose to you the categories of personal information collected about you, the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected, the categories of personal information sold or shared, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing the personal information, the categories of third parties with whom personal information was shared, and the specific pieces of personal information collected about you.
  • Correct. You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information collected from you. 
  • Deletion. You can request that we delete your personal information that we maintain about you.
  • Opt-out (Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information). Under several U.S. state privacy laws, consumers have the right to opt-out of the “sale” of their personal information (defined very broadly to include situations where we provide personal information to partners who provide advertising services to us) and the “sharing” of personal information in connection with the display of targeted advertising across third party websites. While we do not sell your personal information, we do share it in connection with our advertising efforts. Please also note that we do not knowingly sell or share the Personal Information of minors under 16 years of age.

We also honor the Global Privacy Control, a browser-based opt-out signal. We do not respond to other browser-based signals that do not meet applicable state law requirements, which may include older Do Not Track signals.

  • No Discrimination. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.
  • Appeals. You have a right to appeal decisions concerning your ability to exercise your consumer rights. 
  • Submission of Requests. You may exercise the above rights by emailing us at privacy@amplify.com. Note that we may deny certain requests, or fulfill a request only in part, based on our legal rights and obligations. For example, we may retain personal information as permitted by law, such as for tax or other record keeping purposes, to maintain an active account, and to process transactions and facilitate customer requests.
  • Authorized Agent. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. When submitting the request, please ensure the authorized agent identifies himself/herself/itself as an authorized agent and can show written permission from you to represent you. We may contact you directly to confirm that you have authorized the agent to act on your behalf or confirm your identity.
  • Verification. Whether you submit a request directly on your own behalf, or through an authorized agent, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity prior to responding to your requests. The verification steps will vary depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and whether you have an account with us.
3. Notice for European Economic Area and United Kingdom Customers

As detailed at the beginning of our Privacy Policy (under the section titled “Our Role”), Amplify acts as a controller with respect to personal information collected as you interact with our Site.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We rely on the following lawful bases for our processing activities:

  • Consent;
    • We obtain your consent to collect and process device and usage data via cookies on our Site to understand how individuals use our Site and to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising and marketing campaigns.
  • Pursuant to a contract with the user of our Site;
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to provide and manage our Site, including payment processing, where this is required in order for us to perform our obligations under our contract with you.
  • To comply with our legal obligations;
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to ensure the safety and security of our Site where we are complying with security requirements under data protection and cyber and information security law.
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to comply with our legal obligations which includes, for example, to access, retain or share certain personal information where we receive a valid request from a government body, law enforcement body, judicial body regulator or similar, to deal with legal claims and prospective legal claims, and to ensure we are complying with applicable laws.
  • When we have a legitimate interest in doing so, which is not outweighed by the risks to the individual. We rely on our legitimate interest to process all categories of personal information:
    • to provide, manage, and improve the Site where such activities are not strictly required under our contract, including personalizing your experience on the Site.
    • to ensure the safety and security of our Site where this is important but not required under the data protection law or cyber and information security laws.
    • to respond to queries or otherwise communicate with you in relation to our Site and the operation of our business where this is not strictly required under a contract with you.
    • internal research and certain marketing purposes (e.g. to periodically send newsletters and other promotional materials), which will not be based on Student Data or directed to K–12 students.

Your Data Subject Rights

If you are located in the EEA/UK, you have the following rights, subject to certain exceptions:

  • Right of access: You have the right to ask us for confirmation on whether we are processing your personal information and access to that personal information.
  • Right to correction: You have the right to have your personal information corrected.
  • Right to erasure: You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information.
  • Right to withdraw consent: You have the right to withdraw consent that you have provided.
  • Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
  • Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to request the limiting of our processing under limited circumstances.
  • Right to data portability: You have the right to receive the personal information that you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transmit that information to another controller, including to have it transmitted directly, where technically feasible.
  • Right to object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal information

To exercise any of these rights, contact us as set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” above and specify which European privacy right you intend to exercise. We may require additional information from you to allow us to confirm your identity. Please note that we store information as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, and may continue to retain and use the information even after a data subject request for purposes of our legitimate interests, including to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, and enforce our agreements.

Complaints

If you have any issues with our compliance, you have the right to lodge a complaint with an EEA or UK supervisory authority. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you approach a data protection regulator, and would welcome you directing an inquiry first to us. To do so, please contact us by email at privacy@amplify.com or by mail at Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington St.#800, Brooklyn, NY, 11201.

Amplify CKLA for Georgia

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Open book with abstract shapes, arrows, and icons like a brain, rocket, and lightbulb emerging from its pages, symbolizing ideas and creativity.

Hi, educator. Here’s your Step-by-Step Guide to a Quality Curriculum Adoption.

Two people sit at a table; one types on a laptop while the other reviews a spiral-bound document. Both are smiling. Office setting with posters on walls visible in the background.

Welcome to the Step-by-Step Guide.

We talked to leaders like you and created this guide to help with the complex process of adopting a high-quality curriculum. You can explore our recommended steps and use the downloadable articles and templates to help with your decision-making process.

You can also download the entire short guide here: Word Doc | PDF

Flowchart with six numbered steps: 1) Plan your process. 2) Define the problem. 3) Build requirements. 4) Explore solutions. 5) Socialize the decision. 6) Prepare for implementation.

1. Plan your process.

Each step of the process, from assembling a team to preparing materials and socializing the decision, needs to be planned based on your district’s unique needs. 

Start with the following case studies if you’d like to see examples from small and mid-sized districts. The worksheets that come next should help you plan the steps in your process and schedule, and the articles provide some ideas for how to assemble your committee.

Links

Case studies:

Worksheets:

Articles:

  • Five things to consider as you assemble your team  Word Doc | PDF
  • Shaping the future: Participating on an adoption committee  Word Doc | PDF

2. Define the problem.

Defining the problem shapes your list of requirements and ensures that all involved parties are focused on selecting the right high-quality curriculum.

Links

Worksheet:

3. Build requirements.

Requirements help you prioritize what is most important to your school district and to evaluate why a high-quality curriculum adoption would be the best fit. 

Links 

Worksheet:

4. Explore programs.

Start with your critical focus areas from step 2 (defining the problem) and select a short list of programs to explore. Next, conduct a thorough review of those programs. If you’re a school or district that pilots, a pilot would happen during this step.

Links 

Worksheet:

Articles:

  • Getting ready for the review  Word Doc | PDF
  • Important questions to ask publishers upfront  Word Doc | PDF

5. Socialize and evangelize the decision.

You’ve done it! But your work isn’t over. Now you need to create clear, exciting messaging about the high-quality curriculum you’ve chosen and why it’s a good match for your teachers and students. 

Links

Article:

  • Designing your announcement campaign  Word Doc | PDF

Template:

6. Prepare for implementation.

A lot of things happen between signing a purchase order and the first day of professional learning. You’ll want to be organized as you coordinate people, places, and things to get ready for back to school. 

Links

Worksheet:

  • Thinking ahead: Preparing for implementation worksheet  Word Doc | PDF

Download the guide.

Download the entire guide here: Word Doc | PDF

Welcome, Granite SD, to Amplify CKLA!

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for K–5. Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is a state-approved core ELA curriculum designated as a primary core program that fully meets the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Amplify CKLA, developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation, was designed to help teachers implement Science of Reading principles and evidence-based instructional practices. Scroll down to learn how CKLA is uniquely designed to help all your students make learning leaps in literacy.

Step 1: Program Introduction

Welcome to Amplify CKLA! Before you dive into our materials, watch the video below to learn about the big picture behind Amplify CKLA’s pedagogy.

In this video, Susan Lambert (Chief Academic Officer and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast) shares why Amplify CKLA was created, how it is built on the Science of Reading, and the impact it’s making across the country.

Step 2: Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is different for a reason. Watch the overview video below to learn about these differences and why educators love them.

In this video, you’ll get an in-depth look at the program’s overall structure and organization, the design behind our proven lessons, and the materials included to support teaching and learning.

The Amplify CKLA Program Guide also provides an in-depth view of how Amplify CKLA works, how it’s structured, and why it’s uniquely capable of helping you bring reading instruction based on the Science of Reading to your classroom.

Evidence-based design

Amplify CKLA is rooted in Science of Reading research. Mirroring Scarborough’s Rope, Amplify CKLA delivers a combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge-building.

  • In Grades K–2, dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction are taught simultaneously through two distinct instructional strands.
  • In Grades 3–5, dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction are woven together and delivered through one integrated strand.

Grades K–2 Skills and Knowledge Strands
Every day students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that explicitly and systematically builds foundational reading skills in the Skills Strand, as well as one full lesson that builds robust background knowledge to access complex text in the Knowledge Strand. Through learning in each of these strands, students develop the early literacy skills necessary to help them become confident readers and build the context to understand what they’re reading.

Grades 3–5 Integrated Strand
In Grades 3–5, Knowledge and Skills are integrated in one set of instructional materials. Lessons begin to combine skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis. Students can then use their skills to go on their own independent reading adventures.

Key features

For each Amplify CKLA key feature below, click the drop down arrow to learn more.

Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA delivers explicit instruction in both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in grades K–2 with an integrated approach to explicit instruction in grades 3–5.

Review this Science of Reading toolkit to learn more about the Science of Reading best practices integrated throughout CKLA.

Amplify CKLA aligns with the instructional principles recommended by Orton Gillingham and LETRS.

  • Structured–Concepts are taught through consistent routines
  • Sequential–Concepts are taught in a logical, well-planned sequence
  • Systematic–Phonemes are taught from simplest to most complex
  • Explicit–Decoding and encoding concepts are taught directly and explicitly
  • Multi-sensory–Instruction is delivered through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways
  • Cumulative–Concepts are applied in decodable, connected texts with constant review and reinforcement

Watch this video to learn more!

Additionally, great reading instruction starts with helping kids develop great decoding skills. Our instruction is supported by:

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Students build grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves. Our instruction is supported by:

  • Knowledge builders that provide a quick overview of each domain with its key ideas.
  • Interactive Read-Alouds designed to build knowledge and vocabulary.
  • Content-rich anchor texts that support students as they tackle increasingly complex text and sharpen their analytical skills.
  • Social and emotional learning paired with lessons in civic responsibility.

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a high-quality literacy program that excels in building knowledge. Our shared message: background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Student-led reading practice should be purposeful and connected to the core. That’s why Amplify createdBoost Reading. As an optional add-on to Amplify CKLA, students have the opportunity to practice skills directly tied to the skills they’ve been working on during core reading time. Boost Reading also adapts to each student to address their personal gaps and bolsters foundational skills at a pace that supports their individual development.

Boost Reading’s collection of 40+ adaptive games target foundational reading skills and develops them in alignment with Science of Reading principles. Unlike other adaptive games, we ensure students:

  • Practice the right skills at the right time. Our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level. From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.
  • Progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.
  • Practice skills in tandem. For example, a student is never forced to master one skill area before proceeding to the next. Instead, we offer students that opportunity to work on multiple skills concurrently.
  • Feel supported with scaffolding, instruction, and practice that adapts based on student performance.
  • Stay engaged by giving them immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Click the buttons below to learn more:

Step 3: Program Resources

Easy-to-use print materials

Amplify CKLA’s easy-to-use materials bring foundational skills and knowledge to life in the classroom.

Download the Amplify CKLA Components guide to see components by grade and watch the print materials walkthrough below.

Engaging CKLA digital experience

The top-rated content of Amplify CKLA is now live with the digital experience that enhances instruction and saves time.

With the digital experience, everything is in one place, making it easier and more engaging than ever to plan lessons, present digital content, and review student work. Click the arrows below to learn more.

With the digital experience, teachers have access to ready-to-use and customizable lesson presentation slides, complete with all the prompts from the print Teacher Guide embedded in the teacher view. As teachers deliver each lesson, students can engage with the content in one cohesive experience—through these CKLA resources: Activity Books, slides, digital components, videos, Student Readers, and more.

The innovative live review tool found in the digital experience enables you to keep an eye on all of your students as they work on drawing, recording audio, uploading and capturing images, and typing or writing in pre-placed textboxes in their Activity Pages. This dynamic tool provides countless classroom management benefits, enabling you to spot and correct common mistakes as they’re happening, praise your students for thoughtful work, and identify students who are not engaged in the task at hand. Simply put, it will give you those valuable “eyes in the back of your head” you’ve warned your students about!

The digital experience integrates with various LMSs, allowing you and your students to access Amplify CKLA with the software you’re already comfortable using.

In the Amplify CKLA student digital experience, your students have one intuitive access point to fully engage with classroom instruction. Through the Student Home, students can easily access digital lessons with slides, Activity Pages, ebooks, videos, and other interactives from one simple dashboard. Students can draw, record audio, upload and capture images, and type or write in pre-placed text boxes in their Activity Pages.

CKLA review resources

Step 4: State Review Resources

Step 5: Program Access

Explore as a teacher

Before logging in, watch this brief video on navigating the CKLA Teacher Platform.

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Amplify CKLA Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the teacher username: t1.graniteckla@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the teacher password: Amplify1-graniteckla
  • Choose CKLA from the “Your Programs” menu on Educator Home.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.

Washington County ELA Review for Grades PK–5

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for PK–5. Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is a state-approved core ELA curriculum designated as a primary core program that fully meets the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Amplify CKLA, developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation, was designed to help teachers implement Science of Reading principles and evidence-based instructional practices. Scroll down to learn how CKLA is uniquely designed to help all your students make learning leaps in literacy.

Illustration of a woman holding a diagram, with a child reading a book in the background. Various scientific symbols are depicted, including anatomical diagrams and a pencil.

Step 1: Program Introduction

Welcome to Amplify CKLA! Before you dive into our materials, watch the video below to learn about the big picture behind Amplify CKLA’s pedagogy.

In this video, Susan Lambert (Chief Academic Officer and host of Science of Reading: The Podocast) shares why Amplify CKLA was created, how it is built on the Science of Reading, and the impact it’s making across the country.

Step 2: Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is different for a reason. Watch the overview video below to learn about these differences and why educators love them.

In this video, you’ll get an in-depth look at the program’s overall structure and organization, the design behind our proven lessons, and the materials included to support teaching and learning.

The Amplify CKLA Program Guide also provides an in-depth view of how Amplify CKLA works, how it’s structured, and why it’s uniquely capable of helping you bring reading instruction based on the Science of Reading to your classroom.

Evidence-based design

Amplify CKLA is rooted in Science of Reading research. Mirroring Scarborough’s Rope, Amplify CKLA delivers a combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge-building.

  • In Grades PK–2, dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction are taught simultaneously through two distinct instructional strands.
  • In Grades 3–5, dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction are woven together and delivered through one integrated strand.
Diagram illustrating the Simple View of Reading model. It shows that skilled reading results from increasingly strategic language comprehension and increasingly automatic word recognition.

Grades K–2 Skills and Knowledge Strands
Every day students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that explicitly and systematically builds foundational reading skills in the Skills Strand, as well as one full lesson that builds robust background knowledge to access complex text in the Knowledge Strand. Through learning in each of these strands, students develop the early literacy skills necessary to help them become confident readers and build the context to understand what they’re reading.

Grades 3–5 Integrated Strand
In Grades 3–5, Knowledge and Skills are integrated in one set of instructional materials. Lessons begin to combine skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis. Students can then use their skills to go on their own independent reading adventures.

Key features

For each Amplify CKLA key feature below, click the drop down arrow to learn more.

Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA delivers explicit instruction in both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in grades PK–2 with an integrated approach to explicit instruction in grades 3–5.

Review this Science of Reading toolkit to learn more about the Science of Reading best practices integrated throughout CKLA.

Amplify CKLA aligns with the instructional principles recommended by Orton Gillingham and LETRS.

  • Structured–Concepts are taught through consistent routines
  • Sequential–Concepts are taught in a logical, well-planned sequence
  • Systematic–Phonemes are taught from simplest to most complex
  • Explicit–Decoding and encoding concepts are taught directly and explicitly
  • Multi-sensory–Instruction is delivered through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways
  • Cumulative–Concepts are applied in decodable, connected texts with constant review and reinforcement

Watch this video to learn more!

Additionally, great reading instruction starts with helping kids develop great decoding skills. Our instruction is supported by:

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Students build grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves. Our instruction is supported by:

  • Knowledge builders that provide a quick overview of each domain with its key ideas.
  • Interactive Read-Alouds designed to build knowledge and vocabulary.
  • Content-rich anchor texts that support students as they tackle increasingly complex text and sharpen their analytical skills.
  • Social and emotional learning paired with lessons in civic responsibility.

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a high-quality literacy program that excels in building knowledge. Our shared message: background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Student-led reading practice should be purposeful and connected to the core. That’s why Amplify created Boost Reading. As an optional add-on to Amplify CKLA, students have the opportunity to practice skills directly tied to the skills they’ve been working on during core reading time. Boost Reading also adapts to each student to address their personal gaps and bolsters foundational skills at a pace that supports their individual development.

Boost Reading’s collection of 40+ adaptive games target foundational reading skills and develops them in alignment with Science of Reading principles. Unlike other adaptive games, we ensure students:

  • Practice the right skills at the right time. Our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level. From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.
  • Progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.
  • Practice skills in tandem. For example, a student is never forced to master one skill area before proceeding to the next. Instead, we offer students that opportunity to work on multiple skills concurrently.
  • Feel supported with scaffolding, instruction, and practice that adapts based on student performance.
  • Stay engaged by giving them immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Click the buttons below to learn more:

Step 3: Program Resources

Easy-to-use print materials

Amplify CKLA’s easy-to-use materials bring foundational skills and knowledge to life in the classroom.

Download the Amplify CKLA Components guide to see components by grade and watch the print materials walkthrough below.

Engaging CKLA digital experience

The top-rated content of Amplify CKLA is now live with the digital experience that enhances instruction and saves time.

Two dashboard screens display educational content: one for teachers with recommendations, and one for students showing assignments and dates, including a lesson called "Mount Olympus, Part II.

With the digital experience, everything is in one place, making it easier and more engaging than ever to plan lessons, present digital content, and review student work. Click the arrows below to learn more.

With the digital experience, teachers have access to ready-to-use and customizable lesson presentation slides, complete with all the prompts from the print Teacher Guide embedded in the teacher view. As teachers deliver each lesson, students can engage with the content in one cohesive experience—through these CKLA resources: Activity Books, slides, digital components, videos, Student Readers, and more.

The innovative live review tool found in the digital experience enables you to keep an eye on all of your students as they work on drawing, recording audio, uploading and capturing images, and typing or writing in pre-placed textboxes in their Activity Pages. This dynamic tool provides countless classroom management benefits, enabling you to spot and correct common mistakes as they’re happening, praise your students for thoughtful work, and identify students who are not engaged in the task at hand. Simply put, it will give you those valuable “eyes in the back of your head” you’ve warned your students about!

The digital experience integrates with various LMSs, allowing you and your students to access Amplify CKLA with the software you’re already comfortable using.

In the Amplify CKLA student digital experience, your students have one intuitive access point to fully engage with classroom instruction. Through the Student Home, students can easily access digital lessons with slides, Activity Pages, ebooks, videos, and other interactives from one simple dashboard. Students can draw, record audio, upload and capture images, and type or write in pre-placed text boxes in their Activity Pages.

CKLA review resources

Step 4: State Review Resources

Step 5: Program Access

Explore as a teacher

Before logging in, watch this brief video on navigating the CKLA Teacher Platform.

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Amplify CKLA Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the teacher username: t1.cklaidaho@tryamplify.net
  • Enter the teacher password: AmplifyNumber1
  • Choose CKLA from the “Your Programs” menu on Educator Home.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.

Idaho ELA Review for Grades PK–5

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for PK–5, Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA). Amplify CKLA, developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation, was designed to help teachers implement Science of Reading principles and evidence-based instructional practices. Scroll down to learn how CKLA is uniquely designed to help all Idaho students make learning leaps in literacy.

Illustration of a woman holding a schematic drawing and a boy reading a book. The background features anatomical diagrams, bees, and a dinosaur. There's a pencil in the foreground.

Step 1: Program Introduction

Welcome to Amplify CKLA! Before you dive into our materials, watch the video below to learn about the big picture behind Amplify CKLA’s pedagogy.

In this video, Susan Lambert (Chief Academic Officer and host of Science of Reading: The Podocast) shares why Amplify CKLA was created, how it is built on the Science of Reading, and the impact it’s making across the country.

Step 2: Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is different for a reason. Watch the overview video below to learn about these differences and why educators love them.

In this video, you’ll get an in-depth look at the program’s overall structure and organization, the design behind our proven lessons, and the materials included to support teaching and learning.

The Amplify CKLA Program Guide also provides an in-depth view of how Amplify CKLA works, how it’s structured, and why it’s uniquely capable of helping you bring reading instruction based on the Science of Reading to your classroom.

Evidence-based design

Amplify CKLA is rooted in Science of Reading research. Mirroring Scarborough’s Rope, Amplify CKLA delivers a combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge-building.

  • In Grades PK–2, dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction are taught simultaneously through two distinct instructional strands.
  • In Grades 3–5, dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction are woven together and delivered through one integrated strand.
Colorful, curved lines intersect and converge on a black background, forming an abstract pattern with blue, yellow, orange and red hues.

Grades K–2 Skills and Knowledge Strands
Every day students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that explicitly and systematically builds foundational reading skills in the Skills Strand, as well as one full lesson that builds robust background knowledge to access complex text in the Knowledge Strand. Through learning in each of these strands, students develop the early literacy skills necessary to help them become confident readers and build the context to understand what they’re reading.

Grades 3–5 Integrated Strand
In Grades 3–5, Knowledge and Skills are integrated in one set of instructional materials. Lessons begin to combine skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis. Students can then use their skills to go on their own independent reading adventures.

Key features

For each Amplify CKLA key feature below, click the drop down arrow to learn more.

Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA delivers explicit instruction in both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in grades PK–2 with an integrated approach to explicit instruction in grades 3–5.

Review this Science of Reading toolkit to learn more about the Science of Reading best practices integrated throughout CKLA.

Amplify CKLA aligns with the instructional principles recommended by Orton Gillingham and LETRS.

  • Structured–Concepts are taught through consistent routines
  • Sequential–Concepts are taught in a logical, well-planned sequence
  • Systematic–Phonemes are taught from simplest to most complex
  • Explicit–Decoding and encoding concepts are taught directly and explicitly
  • Multi-sensory–Instruction is delivered through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways
  • Cumulative–Concepts are applied in decodable, connected texts with constant review and reinforcement

Watch this video to learn more!

Additionally, great reading instruction starts with helping kids develop great decoding skills. Our instruction is supported by:

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Students build grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves. Our instruction is supported by:

  • Knowledge builders that provide a quick overview of each domain with its key ideas.
  • Interactive Read-Alouds designed to build knowledge and vocabulary.
  • Content-rich anchor texts that support students as they tackle increasingly complex text and sharpen their analytical skills.
  • Social and emotional learning paired with lessons in civic responsibility.

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a high-quality literacy program that excels in building knowledge. Our shared message: background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Student-led reading practice should be purposeful and connected to the core. That’s why Amplify created Boost Reading. As an optional add-on to Amplify CKLA, students have the opportunity to practice skills directly tied to the skills they’ve been working on during core reading time. Boost Reading also adapts to each student to address their personal gaps and bolsters foundational skills at a pace that supports their individual development.

Boost Reading’s collection of 40+ adaptive games target foundational reading skills and develops them in alignment with Science of Reading principles. Unlike other adaptive games, we ensure students:

  • Practice the right skills at the right time. Our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level. From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.
  • Progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.
  • Practice skills in tandem. For example, a student is never forced to master one skill area before proceeding to the next. Instead, we offer students that opportunity to work on multiple skills concurrently.
  • Feel supported with scaffolding, instruction, and practice that adapts based on student performance.
  • Stay engaged by giving them immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Click the buttons below to learn more:

Step 3: Program Resources

Easy-to-use print materials

Amplify CKLA’s easy-to-use materials bring foundational skills and knowledge to life in the classroom.

Download the Amplify CKLA Components guide to see components by grade and watch the print materials walkthrough below.

Engaging CKLA digital experience

The top-rated content of Amplify CKLA is now live with the digital experience that enhances instruction and saves time.

Two dashboard screens display educational content: one for teachers with recommendations, and one for students showing assignments and dates, including a lesson called "Mount Olympus, Part II.

With the digital experience, everything is in one place, making it easier and more engaging than ever to plan lessons, present digital content, and review student work. Click the arrows below to learn more.

With the digital experience, teachers have access to ready-to-use and customizable lesson presentation slides, complete with all the prompts from the print Teacher Guide embedded in the teacher view. As teachers deliver each lesson, students can engage with the content in one cohesive experience—through these CKLA resources: Activity Books, slides, digital components, videos, Student Readers, and more.

The innovative live review tool found in the digital experience enables you to keep an eye on all of your students as they work on drawing, recording audio, uploading and capturing images, and typing or writing in pre-placed textboxes in their Activity Pages. This dynamic tool provides countless classroom management benefits, enabling you to spot and correct common mistakes as they’re happening, praise your students for thoughtful work, and identify students who are not engaged in the task at hand. Simply put, it will give you those valuable “eyes in the back of your head” you’ve warned your students about!

The digital experience integrates with various LMSs, allowing you and your students to access Amplify CKLA with the software you’re already comfortable using.

In the Amplify CKLA student digital experience, your students have one intuitive access point to fully engage with classroom instruction. Through the Student Home, students can easily access digital lessons with slides, Activity Pages, ebooks, videos, and other interactives from one simple dashboard. Students can draw, record audio, upload and capture images, and type or write in pre-placed text boxes in their Activity Pages.

CKLA review resources

Step 4: State Review Resources

Step 5: Program Access

Explore as a teacher

Before logging in, watch this brief video on navigating the CKLA Teacher Platform.

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Amplify CKLA Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the teacher username: t1.cklaidaho@tryamplify.net
  • Enter the teacher password: AmplifyNumber1
  • Choose CKLA from the “Your Programs” menu on Educator Home.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.

Explore as a student

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Amplify CKLA Student Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username: s1.cklaidaho@tryamplify.net
  • Enter the student password: AmplifyNumber1

ELD Review for Denver Public Schools

Welcome, Denver Public Schools, to Amplify CKLA’s English Language Development (ELD) program, Language Studio! Language Studio works in tandem with Amplify CKLA, your core ELA program, to help English language learners build proficiency in English while ensuring that every ELD lesson is connected to the core to extend students’ knowledge.

Below you will find information on Language Studio and additional information on Amplify CKLA in case it is a useful refresher. In the “Access demo” section, you will find digital access credentials and directions. We hope you find this information helpful in your review. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Thank you!

Illustration featuring diverse cultural and historical elements like an african woman, an egyptian sphinx, a space rocket, and urban and natural landscapes under a starry sky.

Language Studio

Amplify CKLA’s English Language Development (ELD) program—Language Studio— helps English language learners (ELLs) preview and revisit key content within core instruction, building a foundation of academic vocabulary and background knowledge. Core instruction lessons include point-of-use supports for ELLs, and Support and Challenge strategies for all learners. Click here for an overview of Language Studio and its components.

Supported by the latest ELD and WIDA Prime V2 standards, Language Studio follows the CKLA Knowledge domains, previewing and reinforcing skills and content from core instruction using instruction specifically built for students learning English. The program is also designed around frequent formative assessment, including assessment of language proficiency, giving you effective ways to guide and support your ELLs.

Young boy with his hands over his mouth, looking up in wonder, beside a diagram labeled "language studio" with educational elements.

Language Studio supports teachers and English language learners through the following:

  • 30 minutes of instruction with lesson segments are carefully designed around Content Knowledge, Meaning Making, Language Development, Effective Expression, and Foundational Skills.
  • Every Language Studio lesson accompanies a core lesson, helping ELLs deepen domain and academic vocabulary that will help them access core content.
  • Culminating tasks support core projects and target the same skills as primary instruction.

To access Language Studio grade-level program guides, please click the links below:

Program Guide: Grade K

Program Guide: Grade 1

Program Guide: Grade 2

Program Guide: Grades 3-5

Recognized Quality

Amplify CKLA is one of only a few high-quality, knowledge-building literacy curricula recognized by the Knowledge Matters campaign. Our shared message: Background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Diagram displaying the "knowledge matters campaign" with connections between "core knowledge language arts comprehension," "skills word recognition," and "amplify ckla skilled reading.

Independently and rigorously reviewed

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a literacy program that excels in building knowledge.

Intentional knowledge-building

Watching students learn to read: magic. Knowing how they get there: science. The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is a core ELA program for grades K–5 that delivers:

  • A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
  • A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge building.
  • Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
  • Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
  • Equitable and authentic Spanish language arts instruction with Amplify Caminos.

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–2

After watching the K–2 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

Amplify CKLA for Grades 3–5

After watching the 3–5 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

How it works

Amplify CKLA teaches both foundational skills and background knowledge in K–2 and combines them in 3–5, as required by the science of reading.

  • In grades K–2, students complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge.
  • In grades 3–5, student complete one integrated lesson that combines skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis.
Colorful, curved lines intersect and converge on a black background, forming an abstract pattern with blue, yellow, orange and red hues.

Rich topics

Amplify CKLA builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.

Students make connections from year-to-year by exploring grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves.

Illustration showing diverse cultural representations: two native american figures, a bear in a forest, and a medieval european woman, all set against colorful abstract backgrounds.

Diverse text

Amplify CKLA puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day to build and strengthen background knowledge and vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension, and decoding and fluency skills.

More than that, we ensure the texts students read represent the world around them. With a diverse range of authors, topics, and characters, all students have ample access to both windows and mirrors. Our texts include:

  • authentic books.
  • authentic text passages.
  • student readers.
  • novel guides (grades 3–5).
A collage of six diverse children's book covers featuring themes of nature, science, history, and biographies.

Universal access

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student the same opportunity to succeed and excel.

We know that early reading affects achievement throughout school and beyond—well into college and career. Yet most literacy programs continue to fall short of supporting early literacy success. That’s why we’re so proud that CKLA is helping close the reading gap between students within diverse communities.

A young boy with glasses reading a book, surrounded by illustrations of a telescope, a grasshopper, and a pirate flag on a pear.

Complete curriculum

A strong literacy program is not just about a reading program or an assessment tool: it brings together curriculum, instruction, regular practice, intervention, and assessments.

Amplify has brought these components together in our early literacy suite of curriculum, ensure that you have what you need for multi-tiered support.

Access demo

Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.

Explore Language Studio

Language Studio resources are on the CKLA site, making it easy for teachers to find and utilize them. Here are the directions to access them:

  • Click the CKLA Teacher Digital Site button
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: t1.dpseld@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-dpseld
  • Once logged in, click CKLA on the left hand side
  • In the “Program” drop down at the top of the page, select “Language Studio Resources” at the bottom of the drop down
  • Choose your desired grade level

Contact Us

If you have any questions or need more information, please contact:

Senior Account Executive

719-964-4501

mlammers@amplify.com

To view this protected page, enter the password below:



Welcome, Amplify ELA families!

We’re excited to welcome you and your student to the Amplify ELA program for the new school year, and to provide you with exceptional learning opportunities through ELA. We’ve assembled the following resources and guides to help you support your student and enable them to have the most productive experience with our platform throughout the year.

Para la versión en español, haga clic aquí.

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What is Amplify ELA?

Amplify ELA helps students in grades 6–8 read and understand complex texts that encourage them to grapple with interesting ideas and find relevance for themselves. Amplify ELA is a blended program that includes both digital and print materials, but can also be used as a print-only version. Students using Amplify ELA read text passages closely, interpret what they find, discuss their thinking with peers, and develop their ideas in writing. The lesson structure is easy to follow, but flexible enough to allow for a variety of learning experiences and varied enough to keep students engaged. 

Features include:

  • Functionality that allows individual students to work at their own level while also being challenged appropriately.
  • Built-in tools that allow teachers to track and respond to student work.
  • The digital Amplify Library, which contains more than 700 downloadable, full-length fiction and nonfiction books.
  • The Vocab App, which uses game-like activities to help students master keywords from the program’s texts. (Students using print materials will see keywords highlighted.)
  • Independent writing assignments called Solos, available on mobile devices.
  • Interactive projects called Quests that accompany certain units to provide additional practice with analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

Getting started

How you can support the child in your care:

  • If possible, read with your student daily; even 15 minutes of reading together each day can make a huge impact. You can read aloud sections of the text together—many middle grade students enjoy performing sections of dialogue by taking on the role of a character in a play, or adding some dramatic flair to a poem with which they are working. If your student struggles with reading aloud, you might try reading the text to them with expression, then having them read it back to you. For additional practice, there are an array of fluency activities in the program’s Flex Days. Ask your student to help you find these activities.
  • Find moments to discuss what they are reading and discovering. Examples of questions you could ask: What stood out to you from what you read today? Were any sentences or words confusing? What was most surprising? What do you think the writer was trying to communicate? Do you agree with the writer’s ideas or descriptions? What connections can you make between what you are reading and your own life, or other issues you’ve heard about?
  • Listen to your student read their written responses or have them share with a friend over the phone or video chat. 
  • Browse the Amplify Library with your student to find books they’ll enjoy and be able to read fluently and independently.
  • Review this Protecting Kids Online website by the Federal Trade Commission addressing digital safety.

Accessing texts in the Amplify Library

We encourage students to utilize the core texts from the Amplify Library while at home! Please follow these steps to download a text for offline reading:

1. Navigate to the Program & Apps menu at the top of your screen and scroll through to find the Amplify Library icon. When you select it, the Amplify Library will open in a new tab.

A digital menu displays various educational tools and resources, with "Amplify ELA" highlighted at the top and the "Library" option outlined in orange.

2. If prompted, follow the directions to set up a pin for the Amplify Library; otherwise, proceed to the next step.

A pop-up window prompts the user to create a four-character PIN of lowercase letters and/or numbers for offline reading, with Cancel and Submit buttons.

3. In the upper right corner of your screen, search for the book you would like to download. Example: The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing.

A digital library search page displays "yellow death" in the search bar with no results found for title, authors, or genre. Book covers are visible in the left sidebar.

4. Select the Download button.

A digital library interface displays the book "The Secret of the Yellow Death" by Suzanne Jurmain, showing its cover, synopsis, and options to read or download.

5.  If you lose connection while still in the Amplify Library, you can continue to access and read the downloaded book(s). If the page refreshes without internet access, or you try to login on another device without internet access, you will lose access to the downloaded book(s) until the internet connection is restored. 

To retrieve your downloaded texts: 

  1.  In the Amplify Library app, open the My Library drop-down menu in the upper left corner.
  2. Select Downloaded. 
  3. Choose the text you wish to read from all of your pre-downloaded texts.
A dropdown menu under "My Library" shows options: Recently Read, Favorites, Downloaded (highlighted), and All Books. Below, a Recently Read section displays three book covers.

Materials overview

Not every school will operate the same way, but students attending schools that have both the print and digital editions of the program will likely have the following print materials at home:

  • Student Edition: This includes all of the readings and activities necessary for instruction throughout the year. Students can read the selections both digitally and in print, annotating in either format. The lessons in the print Student Edition reflect each digital lesson, but have been modified to work effectively in print. 
  • Writing Journals: This provides space for students to respond to Writing Prompts and complete other written assignments. 

In the case that students are without access to devices or the internet, they can continue to complete key reading and writing assignments using the print Student Editions and student Writing Journals.

Teachers can also access, print, and mail student Novel Guides for up to 12 commonly taught novels. Six of these novels are available in the Amplify Library, and most should be available in a public library.

Unit overviews

Below are quick overviews of each unit your student will be working through in their grade throughout the year. Included along with each unit is a downloadable guide that provides a more in-depth look at what content is covered and how you can help your student advance their understanding of the topics.

  • Unit 6A: Dahl & Narrative  
    • Students begin with narrative writing to quickly boost their writing production, learn the foundational skill of focus, and become comfortable with key classroom habits and routines they will use all year. Students then apply their new observational focus to some lively readings from Roald Dahl’s memoir Boy and learn how to work closely with textual evidence.
  • Unit 6B: Mysteries & Investigations
    • Students read like an investigator to embark on a multi-genre study of the mesmerizing world of scientific and investigative sleuthing. At the end of the unit, students write an essay explaining which trait is most useful to problem-solving investigators.
  • Unit 6C: The Chocolate Collection
    • The Aztecs used it as currency. Robert Falcon Scott took it to the Antarctic. The Nazis made it into a bomb designed to kill Churchill. The 3,700-year-long history of chocolate is full of twists and turns, making it a rich and rewarding research topic. In this unit, students explore primary source documents and conduct independent research to better understand the strange and wonderful range of roles that chocolate has played for centuries around the world.
  • Unit 6D: The Greeks
    • Greek myths help us understand not only ancient Greek culture but also the world around us and our role in it. Drawing on the routines and skills established in previous units, these lessons ask students to move from considering the state of a single person—themselves or a character—to contemplating broader questions concerning the role people play in the world and the communities they inhabit within it.
  • Unit 6E: Summer of Mariposas
    • The borderlands between the United States and Mexico are the place of legends, both true and fictional. Summer of the Mariposas, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall, plants a retelling of the Odyssey into this setting, launching five sisters on an adventure into a world of heroes and evildoers derived from Aztec myths and Latinx legends. On the journey, the sisters reconcile the dissolution of their parent’s marriage and find new strength in their identity and connection to Aztec lineage. Students consider how McCall uses the structure of the hero’s journey to celebrate women, heritage, and a broad definition of family. Students also have the opportunity to compare these characters’ fictional journey into Mexico to a description of one boy’s true journey into the United States.
  • Unit 6F: The Titanic Collection 
    • In this research unit, students learn to tell the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources; determine if a given source is reliable; and understand the ethical uses of information. Students then construct their own research questions and explore the internet for answers. They also take on the role of a passenger from the Titanic’s manifest to consider gender and class issues as they research and write narrative accounts from the point of view of their passenger.  
  • Unit 6G: Beginning Story Writing
    • In this unit, students get to practice their creative writing skills and learn the elements of storytelling and character development, as well as the importance of vivid language. Students gain a sense of ownership over their writing as they experiment with the impact of their authorial choices on sentences, language, character traits, and plot twists.
  • Grade 6: Grammar
    • In this unit, students complete self-guided grammar instruction and practice that teachers assign to them throughout the year. Sub-units are organized by key grammar topics, so teachers can assign the content that best meets their student’s needs while making sure students work with the key grammar topics for their grades.
  • Unit 7A: Red Scarf Girl & Narrative
    • In this study of a highly engaging memoir of a young woman growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, students quickly learn the history and politics of this tumultuous period by focusing on the story of someone living through the upheaval. As students follow her journey through a world turned upside down, they will track the changes in her feelings and motivations over time.
  • Unit 7B: Character & Conflict
    • By reading the play A Raisin in the Sun and the short story “Sucker,” students explore how people facing hardships can inflict unintentional harm on the people around them. The two narratives work together to provide opportunities for students to analyze characters’ responses to conflict and the author’s development of ideas over the course of a piece of fiction.
  • Unit 7C: Brain Science
    • Could you survive an iron rod through your skull? Phineas Gage did, and his gruesome-but-true story allows students to build background information and analyze other informational texts, including the contemporary The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and the relevant Demystifying the Adolescent Brain.
  • Unit 7D: Poetry & Poe
    • Poe’s texts always offer so much to notice, decipher, talk about—and creep us out. Since things are not always what they seem, students must use close reading skills to question whether they should believe what Poe’s narrator is telling them … or not.
  • Unit 7E: The Frida & Diego Collection
    • Mexico’s most famous and provocative artists, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, were an extraordinary couple who lived in extraordinary times. They were both soul mates and complete opposites. Their multifaceted lives and work offer students rich and fascinating subjects to study as they examine primary source documents and conduct independent research.
  • Unit 7F: The Gold Rush Collection
    • In this research unit, students choose from a large collection of primary and secondary sources to learn about the wide range of people who took part in the California Gold Rush. They also take on the role of someone who lived during the gold rush and write journal entries from their perspective.
  • Unit 7G: Intermediate Story Writing
    • In this unit, students get to practice their creative writing skills and learn the elements of storytelling and character development, as well as the importance of vivid language. Students gain a sense of ownership over their writing as they experiment with the impact of their authorial choices on sentences, language, character traits, and plot twists.
  • Grade 7: Grammar
    • In this unit, students complete self-guided grammar instruction and practice that teachers assign to them throughout the year. Sub-units are organized by key grammar topics, so teachers can assign the content that best meets their student’s needs while making sure students work with the key grammar topics for their grades.
  • Unit 8A: Perspectives & Narrative
    • This unit aims to teach students to read like writersThey practice paying attention to the craft of writing and to the moves a good writer makes to shape the way we see a scene or feel about a character—to stir us up, surprise us, or leave us wondering what will happen next. Students closely read examples of rich, layered narrative nonfiction, analyze the techniques each author uses to make their writing resonate, and practice applying these techniques to their own narrative writing.
  • Unit 8B: Liberty & Equality
    • In this unit, students look at the words of a range of creators—from poet Walt Whitman to abolitionist Frederick Douglass to President Abraham Lincoln—to see how their writing contributed to an extreme shift in social organization: a whole new concept of what it means for people to be considered “equal.” They also study multiple perspectives on the Civil War, including the memoir of a girl who was enslaved, a confederate girl’s diary, and a nonfiction account of the young boys who served as soldiers during the war. 
  • Unit 8C: Science & Science Fiction
    • Students read Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, a graphic novel that adds captivating illustrations to an abridgment of the 1818 edition of Mary Shelley’s book. Paired with Shelley’s text, Grimly’s haunting—and, at times, horrific—representations of Frankenstein’s creature push students to wrestle with some of the text’s central themes: the source of humanity and the root of evil. Students then write an essay in which, after arguing both sides of the question, they determine whether or not Frankenstein’s creature should ultimately be considered human.
  • Unit 8D: Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet
    • Romeo and Juliet combines romance with action, offering a wide range of themes and scenes for students to read about and act out. Your middle schoolers are at the right age to identify with the lovers’ strong feelings—and also old enough to think critically about the choices Romeo and Juliet make.
  • Unit 8E: Holocaust: Memory & Meaning
    • This unit uses a range of primary source articles, images, and videos, as well as literary nonfiction and graphic nonfiction, to study what made the atrocities of the Holocaust possible. Students investigate how propaganda was generated and employed to create a political environment that ultimately corrupted a society. The Olympics are seen through the lens of an international propaganda campaign, providing cover for Nazis to begin eliminating non-Aryans from their culture. The final sub-unit examines the outcomes of Nazi doctrine and the impact on Jewish victims and survivors.
  • Unit 8F: The Space Race Collection
    • In this unit, students to put their research and close-reading skills to the test to distinguish between reliable  and unreliable sources, explore primary documents, and conduct independent research to better understand the space race that took place between two of the world’s superpowers. This dramatic story offers students a rich research topic to explore as they build information literacy skills, learn how to construct their own research questions, and explore the internet for answers.
  • Grade 8: Grammar
    • In this unit, students complete self-guided grammar instruction and practice that teachers assign to them throughout the year. Sub-units are organized by key grammar topics, so teachers can assign the content that best meets their student’s needs while making sure students work with the key grammar topics for their grades.
  • Unit 8G: Advanced Story Writing
    • In this unit, students get to practice their creative writing skills. They’ll learn the elements of storytelling and character development, and the power of vivid language to grab readers and pull them into a story.

Additional activities

Quests: 

You may notice your student working with peers on the same interactive project over several days, trying to solve a mystery or explain a historical event. That’s what happens when a teacher assigns a Quest: an in-depth week-long exploration that requires collaboration and deepens engagement with texts and topics.

Vocab App:

The Vocab App helps students master vocabulary words through game-like activities that challenge them to think through morphology, analogy, and synonyms/antonyms, and to decipher meaning through context.

Have a question about Amplify ELA?

Visit our help library to search for articles with answers to your program questions. 

For additional curriculum support, please contact your student’s teacher.

Why knowledge matters in early literacy

Part of the magic of reading is that it opens up endless knowledge.

This seems to suggest a logic of first learning to read, then reading to learn.

But experts in education and the Science of Reading have actually turned that logic on its head. They say that knowledge matters first.

That’s why our elementary literacy curriculum Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) delivers literacy skills grounded in knowledge. In fact, it’s one of only a few such programs recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign for excelling at building knowledge.

Background knowledge is essential to literacy

Reading depends on both decoding and comprehension. Many years of classroom observation and received wisdom have supported the supposition that comprehension must be taught as a discrete set of skills, while decoding arises more naturally.

But an established body of cognitive science research now shows that early literacy skills are best built deliberately, on a foundation of knowledge. In fact, knowledge-building is not a result of reading and comprehension; it’s a vital prerequisite and a fundamental part of the process. In other words: The more you know, the faster you learn.

But typically, literacy instruction focuses on decontextualized skills—finding the main idea, making inferences—rather than the content of texts and resources that students engage with.

Teachers often put the skills and strategies in the foreground, like a skill of the week, then they bring in texts that they find well suited for demonstrating the skill or strategy. So instead of harnessing skills and strategies to content, they’ve got the cart before the horse,

Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap told host Susan Lambert on Amplify’s Science of Reading: The Podcast. “What we’re doing in elementary school can plant the seeds of failure in high school.”

When students lack access to the same sources of knowledge, they also lack equal access to reading success. That’s what experts call the knowledge gap, and it needs to be narrowed, or even eliminated, in order to achieve equality.

Wexler adds that a skills-first approach may also—despite educators’ best intentions—challenge kids’ self-esteem. “We are telling kids, ‘Just do this and you’ll become a better reader and better student.’ They do it diligently, but then if it doesn’t seem to work, they may blame themselves.”

A closer look at the knowledge gap theory

Let’s say you’re handed a passage of text describing part of a baseball game. You read the text, and then you’re asked to reenact that part of the game. Which is most likely to help you do so?

  1. Your ability to read
  2. Your knowledge of baseball
  3. It makes no difference

If you answered “2,” you’re batting 1,000. This example summarizes an influential 1988 study that concluded that the strongest predictor of comprehension was knowledge of baseball. Even the weak readers did as well as strong readers—as long as they had knowledge of baseball.

Not all students arrive at school with the same prior knowledge.

If a student who’s never heard the word “yacht” is asked to read and analyze a text passage about the Henley Royal Regatta, it’s a good bet that they won’t do as well as a student who has. Not all students visit museums, have a library of books at home, or travel outside the country or even city where they live.

Wexler cites cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham in her powerful Atlantic article “Why American Students Haven’t Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years.” He says,

“The failure to build children’s knowledge in elementary school helps explain the gap between the reading scores of students from wealthier families and those of their lower-income peers…a gap that has been expanding—[w]ealthy children are far more likely to acquire knowledge outside of school. Poorer kids with less-educated parents tend to rely on school to acquire the kind of knowledge that is needed to succeed academically—and because their schools often focus exclusively on reading and math, in an effort to raise low test scores, they’re less likely to acquire it there.” 

How we can support teachers

Change can be challenging, says Wexler: “When you’ve been doing something for years in the belief that you’re helping kids, it can be difficult when somebody comes along and says, actually, you may be holding them back.”

We can support educators by increasing awareness of the Science of Reading, the role of knowledge in literacy, and access to tools that support educators in delivering knowledge with literacy. We can also show them what learning looks like in classrooms where all students acquire knowledge and literacy regardless of background.

We can, for example:

  • Challenge the assumption (which predates Google) that when kids encounter an unfamiliar word or topic, they can just look it up. Doing so can impose a cognitive load that can actually interfere with learning.
  • Seek out high-quality products and programs that intertwine literacy and knowledge.
  • Remind educators and decision-makers that—as Wexler puts it—”the students who blossom the most with a knowledge-building curriculum are the students who, in a skills-focused system, would be the kids in the lowest reading group. They are able to offer valuable insights and feel like full members of a classroom community.”

About Science of Reading: The Podcast

Science of Reading: The Podcast delivers insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Each episode takes a conversational approach and explores a timely topic related to the Science of Reading.

Welcome, Nebo SD, to Amplify CKLA!

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is a state-approved core ELA curriculum designated as a primary core program that fully meets the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Truly built on the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA helps all teachers implement the Utah Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy by translating the science of reading into manageable, engaging, and effective classroom practices.

Scroll down to learn how CKLA is uniquely designed to help all your students make learning leaps in literacy.

Illustration featuring diverse cultural and historical elements like an african woman, an egyptian sphinx, a space rocket, and urban and natural landscapes under a starry sky.

Recognized Quality

Amplify CKLA is one of only a few high-quality, knowledge-building literacy curricula recognized by the Knowledge Matters campaign. Our shared message: Background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Diagram displaying the "knowledge matters campaign" with connections between "core knowledge language arts comprehension," "skills word recognition," and "amplify ckla skilled reading.

Science of Reading Approved by USBE

Amplify CKLA is a content-rich literacy curriculum that systematically braids knowledge-building with skills instruction. Click below to see our state submission rubric on how Amplify CKLA addresses the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Independently and rigorously reviewed

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a literacy program that excels in building knowledge.

Intentional knowledge-building

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is a core ELA program for grades K–5 that delivers:

  • A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
  • A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge building.
  • Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
  • Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
  • Authentic Spanish language arts instruction with Amplify Caminos.

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–2

After watching the K–2 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

Amplify CKLA for Grades 3–5

After watching the 3–5 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

How it works

Amplify CKLA teaches both foundational skills and background knowledge in K–2 and combines them in 3–5, as required by the science of reading.

  • In grades K–2, students complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge.
  • In grades 3–5, student complete one integrated lesson that combines skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis.
A flowchart showing word recognition and language comprehension strands intertwining to form skilled reading, with progression labeled as increasingly automatic and strategic.

Rich topics

Amplify CKLA builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.

Students make connections from year-to-year by exploring grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves.

Illustration showing diverse cultural representations: two native american figures, a bear in a forest, and a medieval european woman, all set against colorful abstract backgrounds.

Diverse text

Amplify CKLA puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day to build and strengthen background knowledge and vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension, and decoding and fluency skills.

More than that, we ensure the texts students read represent the world around them. With a diverse range of authors, topics, and characters, all students have ample access to both windows and mirrors. Our texts include:

  • Authentic books.
  • Authentic text passages.
  • Student Readers.
  • Novel Guides (grades 3–5).
Six children's book covers arranged in two rows, featuring colorful illustrations of animals, people, and nature. Titles include "Rain Player," "A More Perfect Union," and "The Busy Body Book.

Aligned to LETRS and Orton Gillingham

Amplify CKLA aligns with the instructional principles recommended by Orton Gillingham and LETRS.

  • Structured–Concepts are taught through consistent routines
  • Sequential–Concepts are taught in a logical, well-planned sequence
  • Systematic–Phonemes are taught from simplest to most complex
  • Explicit–Decoding and encoding concepts are taught directly and explicitly
  • Multi-sensory–Instruction is delivered through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways
  • Cumulative–Concepts are applied in decodable, connected texts with constant review and reinforcement

Universal access

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student the same opportunity to succeed and excel.

We know that early reading affects achievement throughout school and beyond—well into college and career. Yet most literacy programs continue to fall short of supporting early literacy success. That’s why we’re so proud that CKLA is helping close the reading gap between students within diverse communities.

A boy with glasses smiles while reading a book, with illustrated objects like a telescope, gourd, and cartoon insect in the background.

Complete curriculum

A strong literacy program is not just about a reading program or an assessment tool: it brings together curriculum, instruction, regular practice, intervention, and assessments.

Amplify has brought these components together in our early literacy suite of curriculum, ensure that you have what you need for multi-tiered support.

Science of Reading Resources

Watching students learn to read: magic. Knowing how they get there: science.

As you consider your next core ELA program, it’s critically important to understand what the Science of Reading really means and what it tells us about how to teach more effectively. Unlike other programs, Amplify CKLA was built upon these insights and practices, making it easier for teachers to implement this proven approach.

A girl runs outdoors holding a kite with colorful ribbons labeled knowledge, vocabulary, sentences, connections, gist, sounds, letters, and words.

Access demo

Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.

Explore the CKLA Teacher Digital Resources

First, watch the quick navigation video to the right. Then, follow the directions below.

  • Go to: learning.amplify.com or click the Access CKLA Teacher Digital button below
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: t1.nebocklak5@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-nebocklak5
  • Click the CKLA button
  • Select your desired grade level from the Program drop down

Explore the CKLA Student Digital Resources

Follow the directions below to access the Student Resource Site:

  • Go to: learning.amplify.com or click the Access CKLA Student Digital button below
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: s1.nebocklak5@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-nebocklak5
  • From the main page, click the backpack in the top right corner.
  • Click on the grade level to select your desired grade.

Welcome to Amplify CKLA!

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is a state-approved core ELA curriculum designated as a primary core program that fully meets the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Truly built on the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA helps all teachers implement the Utah Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy by translating the science of reading into manageable, engaging, and effective classroom practices.

Scroll down to learn how CKLA is uniquely designed to help all your students make learning leaps in literacy.

Illustration featuring diverse cultural and historical elements like an african woman, an egyptian sphinx, a space rocket, and urban and natural landscapes under a starry sky.

Recognized Quality

Amplify CKLA is one of only a few high-quality, knowledge-building literacy curricula recognized by the Knowledge Matters campaign. Our shared message: Background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Diagram displaying the "knowledge matters campaign" with connections between "core knowledge language arts comprehension," "skills word recognition," and "amplify ckla skilled reading.

Science of Reading Approved by USBE

Amplify CKLA is a content-rich literacy curriculum that systematically braids knowledge-building with skills instruction. Click below to see our state submission rubric on how Amplify CKLA addresses the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Independently and rigorously reviewed

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a literacy program that excels in building knowledge.

Intentional knowledge-building

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is a core ELA program for grades K–5 that delivers:

  • A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
  • A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge building.
  • Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
  • Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
  • Authentic Spanish language arts instruction with Amplify Caminos.

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–2

After watching the K–2 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

Amplify CKLA for Grades 3–5

After watching the 3–5 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

How it works

Amplify CKLA teaches both foundational skills and background knowledge in K–2 and combines them in 3–5, as required by the science of reading.

  • In grades K–2, students complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge.
  • In grades 3–5, student complete one integrated lesson that combines skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis.
A flowchart shows language comprehension and word recognition strands merging into skilled reading, with processes becoming increasingly strategic and automatic.

Rich topics

Amplify CKLA builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.

Students make connections from year-to-year by exploring grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves.

Illustration showing diverse cultural representations: two native american figures, a bear in a forest, and a medieval european woman, all set against colorful abstract backgrounds.

Diverse text

Amplify CKLA puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day to build and strengthen background knowledge and vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension, and decoding and fluency skills. Our texts include:

  • Authentic books.
  • Authentic text passages.
  • Student Readers.
  • Novel Guides (grades 3–5).

More than that, we ensure the texts students read represent the world around them. With a diverse range of authors, topics, and characters, all students have ample access to both windows and mirrors.

Six children's book covers arranged in two rows, featuring colorful illustrations of animals, people, and nature. Titles include "Rain Player," "A More Perfect Union," and "The Busy Body Book.

Aligned to LETRS and Orton-Gillingham

Amplify CKLA aligns with the instructional principles recommended by Orton Gillingham and LETRS.

  • Structured–Concepts are taught through consistent routines
  • Sequential–Concepts are taught in a logical, well-planned sequence
  • Systematic–Phonemes are taught from simplest to most complex
  • Explicit–Decoding and encoding concepts are taught directly and explicitly
  • Multi-sensory–Instruction is delivered through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways
  • Cumulative–Concepts are applied in decodable, connected texts with constant review and reinforcement

Universal access

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student the same opportunity to succeed and excel.

We know that early reading affects achievement throughout school and beyond—well into college and career. Yet most literacy programs continue to fall short of supporting early literacy success. That’s why we’re so proud that CKLA is helping close the reading gap between students within diverse communities.

A boy with glasses smiles while reading a book, with illustrated objects like a telescope, gourd, and cartoon insect in the background.

Complete curriculum

A strong literacy program is not just about a reading program or an assessment tool: it brings together curriculum, instruction, regular practice, intervention, and assessments.

Amplify has brought these components together in our early literacy suite of curriculum, ensure that you have what you need for multi-tiered support.

Science of Reading Resources

Watching students learn to read: magic. Knowing how they get there: science.

As you consider your next core ELA program, it’s critically important to understand what the Science of Reading really means and what it tells us about how to teach more effectively. Unlike other programs, Amplify CKLA was built upon these insights and practices, making it easier for teachers to implement this proven approach.

A girl runs outdoors holding a kite with colorful ribbons labeled knowledge, vocabulary, sentences, connections, gist, sounds, letters, and words.

Access demo

Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.

Explore the CKLA Teacher Digital Site

First, watch the quick navigation video to the right. Then, follow the directions below to access the CKLA Teacher Digital Site.

  • Go to learning.amplify.com or click Access CKLA Teacher Digital below
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: t1.utahckla@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-utahckla
  • Click the CKLA button on the left hand side
  • Select your desired grade level from the Program drop down

Explore the CKLA Student Digital Site

Follow the directions below to access the CKLA Student Digital Site.

  • Go to learning.amplify.com or click Access CKLA Student Digital below
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: s1.utahckla@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-utahckla
  • Answer the question.
  • Click “Go” to get to the Hub!

Welcome to Amplify CKLA!

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is currently the only state-approved core ELA curriculum designated as a primary core program that fully meets the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Truly built on the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA helps all teachers implement the Utah Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy by translating the science of reading into manageable, engaging, and effective classroom practices.

Scroll down to learn how CKLA is uniquely designed to help all your students make learning leaps in literacy.

Illustration featuring diverse cultural and historical elements like an african woman, an egyptian sphinx, a space rocket, and urban and natural landscapes under a starry sky.

Recognized Quality

Amplify CKLA is one of only a few high-quality, knowledge-building literacy curricula recognized by the Knowledge Matters campaign. Our shared message: Background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Diagram displaying the "knowledge matters campaign" with connections between "core knowledge language arts comprehension," "skills word recognition," and "amplify ckla skilled reading.

Science of Reading Approved by USBE

Amplify CKLA is a content-rich literacy curriculum that systematically braids knowledge-building with skills instruction. In fact, according to the Utah SBE, Amplify CKLA fully meets the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Independently and rigorously reviewed

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a literacy program that excels in building knowledge.

Intentional knowledge-building

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension, and even lifelong literacy. That’s why leading scientists say knowledge-building must be incorporated into reading instruction from the beginning—and with Amplify CKLA, it is.

Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is a core ELA program for grades K–5 that delivers:

  • A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
  • A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge building.
  • Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
  • Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
  • Authentic Spanish language arts instruction with Amplify Caminos.

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–2

After watching the K–2 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

Amplify CKLA for Grades 3–5

After watching the 3–5 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

How it works

Amplify CKLA teaches both foundational skills and background knowledge in K–2 and combines them in 3–5, as required by the science of reading.

  • In grades K–2, students complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge.
  • In grades 3–5, student complete one integrated lesson that combines skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis.
A flowchart shows language comprehension and word recognition strands merging into skilled reading, with processes becoming increasingly strategic and automatic.

Rich topics

Amplify CKLA builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.

Students make connections from year-to-year by exploring grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves.

Illustration showing diverse cultural representations: two native american figures, a bear in a forest, and a medieval european woman, all set against colorful abstract backgrounds.

Diverse text

Amplify CKLA puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day to build and strengthen background knowledge and vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension, and decoding and fluency skills.

More than that, we ensure the texts students read represent the world around them. With a diverse range of authors, topics, and characters, all students have ample access to both windows and mirrors. Our texts include:

  • Authentic books.
  • Authentic text passages.
  • Student Readers.
  • Novel Guides (grades 3–5).
Six children's book covers arranged in two rows, featuring colorful illustrations of animals, people, and nature. Titles include "Rain Player," "A More Perfect Union," and "The Busy Body Book.

Aligned to LETRS and Orton-Gillingham

Amplify CKLA aligns with the instructional principles recommended by Orton-Gillingham and LETRS.

  • Structured–Concepts are taught through consistent routines
  • Sequential–Concepts are taught in a logical, well-planned sequence
  • Systematic–Phonemes are taught from simplest to most complex
  • Explicit–Decoding and encoding concepts are taught directly and explicitly
  • Multi-sensory–Instruction is delivered through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways
  • Cumulative–Concepts are applied in decodable, connected texts with constant review and reinforcement

Equitable instruction

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student the same opportunity to succeed and excel.

We know that early reading affects achievement throughout school and beyond—well into college and career. Yet most literacy programs continue to fall short of supporting early literacy success. That’s why we’re so proud that CKLA is helping close the reading gap between students within diverse communities.

A boy with glasses smiles while reading a book, with illustrated objects like a telescope, gourd, and cartoon insect in the background.

Complete curriculum

A strong literacy program is not just about a reading program or an assessment tool: it brings together curriculum, instruction, regular practice, intervention, and assessments.

Amplify has brought these components together in our early literacy suite of curriculum, ensure that you have what you need for multi-tiered support.

Science of Reading Resources

Watching students learn to read: magic. Knowing how they get there: science.

As you consider your next core ELA program, it’s critically important to understand what the Science of Reading really means and what it tells us about how to teach more effectively. Unlike other programs, Amplify CKLA was built upon these insights and practices, making it easier for teachers to implement this proven approach.

A girl runs outdoors holding a kite with colorful ribbons labeled knowledge, vocabulary, sentences, connections, gist, sounds, letters, and words.

Access demo

Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.

Explore the CKLA Teacher Resource Site

First, watch the quick navigation video to the right. Then, click the “Access CKLA Teacher Resource Site” button to log in.

  • Click the CKLA Teacher Resource Site button
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: t1.slcsd-ckla-1@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-slcsd-ckla-1
  • Select the desired grade level

Welcome to Amplify CKLA!

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is a state-approved core ELA curriculum designated as a primary core program that fully meets the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Truly built on the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA helps all teachers implement the Utah Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy by translating the science of reading into manageable, engaging, and effective classroom practices.

Scroll down to learn how CKLA is uniquely designed to help all your students make learning leaps in literacy.

Illustration featuring diverse cultural and historical elements like an african woman, an egyptian sphinx, a space rocket, and urban and natural landscapes under a starry sky.

Recognized Quality

Amplify CKLA is one of only a few high-quality, knowledge-building literacy curricula recognized by the Knowledge Matters campaign. Our shared message: Background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.

Diagram displaying the "knowledge matters campaign" with connections between "core knowledge language arts comprehension," "skills word recognition," and "amplify ckla skilled reading.

Science of Reading Approved by USBE

Amplify CKLA is a content-rich literacy curriculum that systematically braids knowledge-building with skills instruction. Click below to see our state submission rubric on how Amplify CKLA addresses the Science of Reading requirements outlined in SB 127.

Independently and rigorously reviewed

Amplify CKLA not only received an all-green rating from the rigorous evaluators at EdReports, but it was also recently recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a literacy program that excels in building knowledge.

Intentional knowledge-building

The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension and lifelong literacy. Hear from author Natalie Wexler and CKLA customers on edWebinar about the importance of knowledge-building in reading instruction.

Program Overview

Amplify CKLA is a core ELA program for grades K–5 that delivers:

  • A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
  • A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge building.
  • Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
  • Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
  • Authentic Spanish language arts instruction with Amplify Caminos.

Amplify CKLA for Grades K–2

After watching the K–2 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

Amplify CKLA for Grades 3–5

After watching the 3–5 video below, scroll down to learn even more, download resources, and access a demo.

How it works

Amplify CKLA teaches both foundational skills and background knowledge in K–2 and combines them in 3–5, as required by the science of reading.

  • In grades K–2, students complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge.
  • In grades 3–5, student complete one integrated lesson that combines skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis.
A flowchart showing word recognition and language comprehension strands intertwining to form skilled reading, with progression labeled as increasingly automatic and strategic.

Rich topics

Amplify CKLA builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.

Students make connections from year-to-year by exploring grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves.

Illustration showing diverse cultural representations: two native american figures, a bear in a forest, and a medieval european woman, all set against colorful abstract backgrounds.

Diverse text

Amplify CKLA puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day to build and strengthen background knowledge and vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension, and decoding and fluency skills.

More than that, we ensure the texts students read represent the world around them. With a diverse range of authors, topics, and characters, all students have ample access to both windows and mirrors. Our texts include:

  • Authentic books.
  • Authentic text passages.
  • Student Readers.
  • Novel Guides (grades 3–5).
Six children's book covers arranged in two rows, featuring colorful illustrations of animals, people, and nature. Titles include "Rain Player," "A More Perfect Union," and "The Busy Body Book.

Aligned to LETRS and Orton Gillingham

Amplify CKLA aligns with the instructional principles recommended by Orton Gillingham and LETRS.

  • Structured–Concepts are taught through consistent routines
  • Sequential–Concepts are taught in a logical, well-planned sequence
  • Systematic–Phonemes are taught from simplest to most complex
  • Explicit–Decoding and encoding concepts are taught directly and explicitly
  • Multi-sensory–Instruction is delivered through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways
  • Cumulative–Concepts are applied in decodable, connected texts with constant review and reinforcement

Universal access

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student the same opportunity to succeed and excel.

We know that early reading affects achievement throughout school and beyond—well into college and career. Yet most literacy programs continue to fall short of supporting early literacy success. That’s why we’re so proud that CKLA is helping close the reading gap between students within diverse communities.

A boy with glasses smiles while reading a book, with illustrated objects like a telescope, gourd, and cartoon insect in the background.

Complete curriculum

A strong literacy program is not just about a reading program or an assessment tool: it brings together curriculum, instruction, regular practice, intervention, and assessments.

Amplify has brought these components together in our early literacy suite of curriculum, ensure that you have what you need for multi-tiered support.

Science of Reading Resources

Watching students learn to read: magic. Knowing how they get there: science.

As you consider your next core ELA program, it’s critically important to understand what the Science of Reading really means and what it tells us about how to teach more effectively. Unlike other programs, Amplify CKLA was built upon these insights and practices, making it easier for teachers to implement this proven approach.

A girl runs outdoors holding a kite with colorful ribbons labeled knowledge, vocabulary, sentences, connections, gist, sounds, letters, and words.

Access demo

Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.

Explore the CKLA Teacher Digital Site

First, watch the quick navigation video to the right. Then follow the directions below:

  • Go to learning.amplify.com or click Access CKLA Teacher Digital 
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: t1.davislangarts@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-davislangarts
  • Click the CKLA button on the left hand side
  • Select your desired grade level from the Program drop down

Explore the CKLA Student Digital Site

To access the student digital site follow the directions below:

  • Go to learning.amplify.com or click Access CKLA Student Digital 
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter this username: s1.davislangarts@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter this password: Amplify1-davislangarts
  • From the Home page, scroll down to the robot and “Click to go to the Hub
  • From the Hub, click the Grade button to select the grade.

Season 6, Episode 14

Special interlude #1: Why the Science of Reading isn’t just about reading

Back in October 2019, Natalie Wexler joined Susan Lambert as the very first guest on Science of Reading: The Podcast. Now—more than three years and three million downloads later—Science of Reading: The Podcast welcomes Natalie back on the show. She and Susan discuss what she’s seen in the 3+ years since releasing her groundbreaking book The Knowledge Gap, and delve into the importance of managing cognitive load, building long-term memory, writing, and the broader science of literacy. Lastly, Natalie shares what she hopes to see in the education headlines in the not-so-distant future.

Meet Our Guest(s):

Natalie Wexler

Natalie Wexler

Natalie Wexler is an education writer and the author of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System—And How to Fix It (Avery 2019). She is also the co-author, with Judith C. Hochman, of The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades (Jossey-Bass, 2017), and a senior contributor to the education channel on Forbes.com

Natalie’s articles and essays on education and other topics have appeared in The New York TimesThe Washington PostThe AtlanticThe Wall Street Journal, the MIT Technology ReviewThe American Scholar, and other publications. She has spoken on education before a wide variety of groups and appeared on a number of TV and radio shows, including Morning Joe and NPR’s On Point and 1A.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a masters’ degree in history from the University of Sussex (UK), and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania. She has also worked as a reporter, a Supreme Court law clerk, a lawyer, and a legal historian.

Meet Our Host: Susan Lambert

Susan Lambert is the chief academic officer of elementary humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career, including classroom teacher, building administrator, and district-level leader, has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Susan is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories. Her professional quarantine accomplishments include the production of knowledge-based learning modules for kindergarten through grade-two students, available through Amplify’s free resources website and Wide Open Schools.

Susan-Lambert_Headshot

Quotes

“Here's the catch about writing: It's hugely important. It can help cement knowledge and long-term memory, and deepen knowledge.”

—Natalie Wexler

“Even if you as a teacher have doubts about the curriculum. It's really important to give it your best shot and approach it with enthusiasm.”

—Natalie Wexler

Literacy Essentials, Episode 1

Science of Reading Essentials: Writing

In this special Essentials episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert pulls from past episodes of the podcast to give you everything you need to know about science-based writing instruction. Experts include Steve Graham, Ed.D.; Young-Suk Grace Kim, Ed.D.; Natalie Wexler; and Judith Hochman, Ed.D. Listeners will walk away from this episode with a solid foundation for creating a classroom of confident and capable writers, and gain a better understanding of the connection between reading and writing, the role of handwriting and spelling, the power of sentences, and the importance of applying cognitive load theory to writing. Download our discussion guide to fuel a professional learning session!

Meet Our Guest(s):

Smiling older woman with short white hair, wearing a dark jacket, posed against a plain light background.

Judith Hochman, Ed.D.

Judith C. Hochman is the former head of The Windward School and the founder of the Windward Teacher Training Institute in White Plains, New York, as well as the former superintendent of the Greenburgh Graham Free School District in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. She is the founder of The Writing Revolution, a not-for-profit organization which disseminates evidence-based strategies for writing instruction. Hochman is the author of Basic Writing Skills: A Manual for Teachers and co-author of The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades (2017, 2024).

A woman with short, curly blonde hair and light skin wears a white top and earrings, smiling softly at the camera against a neutral background.

Natalie Wexler

Natalie Wexler is the author of Beyond the Science of Reading: Connecting Literacy Instruction to the Science of Learning. She is also the author of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System—and How to Fix It and the co-author, with Judith C. Hochman, of The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades. She has a free Substack newsletter called Minding the Gap, and she was the host of Season One of the Reading Comprehension Revisited podcast from the Knowledge Matters Campaign. More information is available at her website, www.nataliewexler.com.

A woman with short dark hair and glasses, wearing a dark blazer and white shirt, smiles at the camera with a blurred green background.

Young-Suk Grace Kim, Ed.D.

Young-Suk Grace Kim, Ed.D., (Harvard University) is a professor at the School of Education, University of California at Irvine. She was a former classroom teacher in San Francisco. Her scholarship focuses on understanding language and literacy development and effective instruction for children from diverse backgrounds. Her areas of research include reading comprehension, reading fluency, listening comprehension and oral language, dyslexia, higher-order cognitive skills, written composition, and reading-writing relations. She has worked extensively with monolingual children and multilingual children from various linguistic backgrounds including English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, and Kiswahili. Her research has been supported by over $60 million in grants from the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Science Foundation. Her work was recognized by several awards, including the 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by former President Barack Obama, the Developing Scholar Award, and the Robert M. Gagne Outstanding Student Research Award. She is an American Educational Research Association (AERA) Fellow, and serves as the editor-in-chief for Scientific Studies of Reading and the chair of the California Reading Difficulties Risk Screener Selection Panel (RDRSSP), appointed by the California State Board of Education.

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Steve Graham, Ed.D.

Steve Graham is a Regents’ and Warner Professor at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation. For 47 years, he has studied how writing develops, how to teach it effectively, and how it can be used to support reading and learning. In recent years, he has been involved in the development and testing of digital tools for supporting writing and reading through a series of grants from the Institute of Educational Sciences and the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. His research involves the development of writers with special needs in both elementary and secondary schools, much of which occurs in urban schools. Graham has received many awards for his contributions to literacy and was selected to the Reading Hall of Fame in 2018. He is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, Division 15 of the American Psychological Association, and of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities.

Meet our host, Susan Lambert

Susan Lambert is chief academic officer of literacy at Amplify and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Throughout her career, she has focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.

As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Lambert is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.

A woman with short, light blonde hair, wearing clear glasses, a black top, and a beaded necklace, smiles at the camera in front of a blurred outdoor background.

Quotes

“The Science of Reading encapsulates decades of research about both reading and writing—because if writing was never invented, we would not have to teach kids how to read.”

—Susan Lambert

"What we see with exceptional teachers is they have their kids write."

—Steve Graham, Ed.D.

“This is not learned by osmosis. And it's not learned by vague feedback like, 'Make it better,' or 'Add more details.' You've got to be very granular.”

—Judith Hochman, Ed.D.

Season 9, Episode 2

Standards are the 'what' and curriculum is the 'how,' with Sue Pimentel

In this episode, Susan Lambert welcomes back Sue Pimentel to discuss the history and impact of the Common Core State Standards on English Language Arts and Literacy (ELA) education in the United States. Susan and Sue revisit what the standards were designed to focus on: knowledge building, college and career readiness, and fluency in both literary and informational texts. Their conversation covers the importance of text complexity, the lack of a research base to support leveled readers, knowledge building as a matter of equity, and content as a matter of access. While acknowledging the value of these standards, the discussion also highlights their limitations. Sue underscores the importance of always returning to the research to ensure students are truly learning, being prepared to navigate the world, and ultimately, to live happier lives.

Meet Our Guest(s):

Susan Pimentel

Susan Pimentel

Susan Pimentel is a founding partner of two nonprofits devoted to accelerating student achievement, StandardsWork and Student Achievement Partners. For four decades her work has focused on advancing meaningful and enduring education reforms—characterized by stakeholder buy-in—that champion proven tools for increasing academic rigor and student preparation. She has served as lead writer of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy and chief architect of the American Diploma Project, two initiatives designed to close the gap between high school and postsecondary demands. In addition, Susan served two terms on the National Assessment Governing Board, an independent, bipartisan board that sets policy for the national assessment. She became vice-chair of the body in her second term. One of her most widely-read publications includes a 2018 EducationWeek op-ed “Why Doesn’t Every Teacher Know the Research on Reading Instruction?” Others include “Reading as Liberation: An Examination of the Research Base” and “Scaling the “Dinosaur Effect”: Topic vs. Theme in Elementary Classrooms,” both co-authored with literacy experts Meredith and David Liben. She holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and a law degree from Cornell University.

Meet our host, Susan Lambert

Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Throughout her career, she has focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.

As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Lambert is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.

Portrait of a woman with short blonde hair, wearing glasses, a black top, and a necklace. She is smiling and facing the camera.

Quotes

“Vocabulary is how we describe concepts. It's how we know how to talk to one another. And vocabulary development weaves its way through all four domains in the standards. All four—reading, writing, listening and speaking, and language.”

—Sue Pimentel

“What the standards say is, ‘Leveled texts are out and complex texts are in.’ There's no research behind assigning a level to students' reading and then sort of imprisoning them in that.”

—Sue Pimentel

“Text complexity level is critical for students to be able to do well when they leave school and also so they can independently read texts and other sorts of sources on their own as well.”

—Sue Pimentel

“So standards are really important, right? Because they allow a meeting of the minds in terms of this is what our students need to be learning. It's like a compact, if you will, with our students and our parents and the public to say, ‘This is what you can expect your students to be learning.’”

—Sue Pimentel

“The standards define the ‘what’ importantly: the level of complexity, the level of sophistication, etcetera. But the curriculum tells us how to do the ‘what’ well, and how to use the literacy research to make sure all students get access.”

—Sue Pimentel

“The more stuff you know, the better you're able to navigate the world. Whether that means as a citizen…as a worker…as a college student…as a mom or dad—whatever it is—the more you know about stuff, the better off and I think the happier life is. And certainly the happier kids' lives are when they're actually learning stuff.”

—Sue Pimentel

“The whole notion is that the content matters. What I'm reading about matters; and how I get through that content matters; and how I get access to that content matters—which means I'm building my knowledge slowly but surely.”

—Sue Pimentel