Unlock possibility with the Science of Writing
The reality is…writing is hard. It’s hard to learn, it’s hard to teach, it’s hard to do.
Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap and The Writing Revolution, says, “Writing is the hardest thing we ask students to do.” Fortunately, we have decades of research that shows us how best to teach and learn how to write, known as the Science of Writing. As an educator your job is to make this hard task easier and more fulfilling for students. And our job is to help you.
Why writing matters: Connection, expression, and better reading comprehension
Without writing, there would be no need for reading, and of course, writing is a part of literacy.
Through writing, students can express their ideas, connect with others, and deepen and communicate their understanding of what they are reading and thinking.
Having strong writing skills ensures students can engage fully in all settings, share their opinions and information, tell stories, and have a voice.
What is the Science of Writing?
Learning to write (and read) isn’t natural but it can be taught—and research shows us how. Like the Science of Reading, the Science of Writing is the collection of research and evidence-based practices that explains how writing develops along with the teaching strategies that help students develop into skilled writers.
Writing proficiency involves mastering the use of a complex set of skills that must be taught explicitly, again just like reading proficiency. The Simple View of Writing breaks down these processes into transcription and composition, and provides us with a framework for guiding instruction.
The relationship between reading and writing
Reading and writing reinforce and support each other. When reading, students are exposed to vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. And when writing, students can get more practice to improve the fluency and efficiency of their handwriting, and apply their knowledge of spelling and their understanding of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax.
Readers use comprehension skills such as summarizing, predicting, and making inferences to help them create meaning as they read. Writers use those same skills to develop a piece of writing that is clear and concise for the reader.
The benefits of applying reading skills and strategies when writing
- If you teach students decoding skills, then they become better spellers.
- If students learn strategies for planning, drafting, and revising during composition, then their reading comprehension improves.
- If students have word and vocabulary knowledge, then they’re better at expressing their ideas in writing.
Oral language and writing
Oral language is the foundation for literacy, and its development begins in infancy. As their oral language develops, children learn how to string words into phrases and sentences, which progresses into telling stories and answering questions in detail. And as they listen to stories, children develop vocabulary and understanding of syntax and grammar. All of these build a foundation for writing.
Discovering the Science of Writing
Explore helpful resources to learn more about the Science of Writing, and the importance of implementing evidence-based instructional practices into your classroom, school, and district.
Books:
Articles:
Webinars:
- The Science of Reading: The Next Chapter
- The Science of Reading + Writing: Turning a New Page Together
- The Writing Chapter: Sparking the Writing Revolution with the Latest Insights and Research
- Writing and the Science of Reading Forum Panel Discussion: How does Writing Intersect with Reading?, Education Week
Amplify literacy curriculum sample boxes – TX
Amplify literacy curriculum sample boxes – CA
Amplify literacy curriculum sample boxes
CKLA – Knowledge Research Units for K–5
Introducing new units for Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos K–5
As part of our commitment to creating even richer and more wide-ranging curricula, we are excited to release six new units for both Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos!
About these units
Our brand-new Knowledge Research units carry forward the powerful and proven instructional approach of both Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos while also:
- Adding more variety to engage students from many walks of life. The rich topics and highly visual components featured in these units provide students with even more “windows and mirrors” and perspectives as they work to build knowledge.
- Adding more authentic literature. Each new research unit revolves around a collection of high-interest authentic trade books that will spark more curiosity and inspire more inquiry.
- Adding more flexibility. Units can be implemented for extended core instruction during flex periods, district-designated Pausing Points, or enrichment periods.
Units cover a variety of rich and relevant topics:
With these new units, students will soar to new heights with Dr. Ellen Ochoa, Amelia Earhart, and the Tuskegee Airmen. They’ll feel the rhythm as they learn about Jazz legends Miles Davis, Tito Puente, and Duke Ellington. And they’ll explore the far reaches of the world with Jacques Cousteau, Matthew Henson, and Eugenie Clark.
- Grade K: Art and the World Around Us/El arte y el mundo que nos rodea
- Grade 1: Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World/Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Grade 2: Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation/¡A volar! La era de la aviación
- Grade 3: All That Jazz/Jazz y más
- Grade 4: Energy: Past, Present, and Future/Energía: pasado, presente y futuro
- Grade 5: Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present/Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
Units are available in English and Spanish, and will include the following components:
- Teacher Guide
- Student Activity Books
- Image Cards
- Trade Book Collection
- Digital Components (grades K–3 and 5)
Grade K: Art and the World Around Us/El arte y el mundo que nos rodea
“Every child is an artist,” said Picasso, meaning that every child uses art to explore and understand the world around them. Art and the World Around Us honors that truth by introducing Kindergarten students to some of the ways in which artists have explored and understood the worlds around them, too.
This domain introduces students to artists from different time periods, countries, and cultures. Throughout the unit, students learn about different kinds of art and how artists use the world around them as they make art. They also connect this to what they have already learned about the earth, plants, and animals in other Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos domains: Farms/Granjas, Plants/Plantas, and Taking Care of the Earth/Cuidar el planeta Tierra. In addition, students connect this to what they have learned about sculptors in the Presidents and American Symbols/Presidentes y símbolos de los Estados Unidos domain. As they explore different artists and artistic traditions, they develop their ideas about how humans are connected to each other and to the world around them.
As you read the texts in this unit, students may observe ways in which the characters or subjects are both similar to and different from students. This is a good opportunity to teach students awareness and sensitivity, building on the idea that all people share some things in common, and have other things that make them unique. This unit also offers an excellent opportunity to collaborate with your school’s art teacher, as many lessons have suggested activities to help students understand the kind of art they are studying.
Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
- Use details to describe art.
- Identify three ways to create art.
- Identify characteristics of cave art.
- Sequence the steps of making pottery.
- Describe how artists can create work connected to the world around them.
- Describe what makes Kehinde Wiley’s portraits unique.
- Explain how the texture of a surface can affect artwork created on it.
- Explain what a sculpture is.
- Describe what makes James Turrell’s artwork about the sky unique.
- Explain what a museum is and what kinds of things you can see or do there.
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- The First Drawing by Mordicai Gerstein
- Van Gogh and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt
- My Name is Georgia by Jeanette Winter
- A Life Made by Hand by Andrea D’Aquino
- Rainbow Weaver by Linda Elovitz Marshall
- Luna Loves Art by Joseph Coelho
Grade 1: Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World/Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
This domain introduces students to adventure stories set around the world and challenges students to dig into the adventures through research. By listening to the Read-Alouds and trade books, students increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, learn valuable lessons about perseverance and teamwork, and become familiar with gathering information for research.
In this unit, students study the careers of real-world explorers Dr. Eugenie Clark and Sophia Danenberg, marvel at the inventions of Jacques Cousteau, think critically about how teamwork and collaboration can make greater adventures possible, learn about the science and technology that enable adventures, and research some of the ways humans have confronted challenges at the edges of the world, from the oceans below to space above.
Each lesson in the domain builds students’ research skills as they ask questions, gather information, and write a paragraph about their findings. Students share what they have learned about adventures in an Adventure Gallery Walkthrough. By taking on the persona of one of the adventurers they meet in the Read-Alouds and trade books, students deliver their final paragraphs as if they are a “speaking portrait” of that person. Students are invited to dress up as that adventurer if they desire.
In addition, teachers can set aside time outside of the instructional block to create the picture frames students will hold as they present to the Adventure Gallery Walk guests. Frames can be made from shirt boxes, cardboard, construction paper, or any art supplies that are on hand. This might be an opportunity to collaborate with the school’s art department if resources are available. Another option is to ask students to make their frames at home with their caregivers. On the day of the Adventure Gallery Walk, students will be the hosts and take on specific jobs, such as welcoming the guests, describing their work throughout the unit, and pointing out the areas of study on the domain bulletin board. You can find a complete list of student jobs in Lesson 13.
This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos units that students will have encountered in the previous grade.
- Nursery Rhymes and Fables/Rimas y fábulas infantiles (Kindergarten)
- Stories/Cuentos (Kindergarten)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- My Name is Gabito/Me llamo Gabito by Monica Brown
- Tomas and the Galápagos Adventure by Carolyn Lunn
- The Astronaut with a Song for the Stars: The Story of Dr. Ellen Ochoa by Julia Finley Mosca
- Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
- Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating
- Manfish by Jennifer Berne
- Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole by Deborah Hopkinson
- The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins
Grade 2: Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation/¡A volar! La era de la aviación
With this domain, students head up, up, and away with an introduction to the soaring history of aviation. Students learn the stories of early aviators, such as the Montgolfier brothers, the Wright brothers, Aída de Acosta, and Amelia Earhart.
During the unit, students study the science of flight, including the physics concept of lift, and research the social impacts of the world of flight. Finally, students let their research skills take flight as they explore key figures from the world of aviation.
The lessons in this domain build on earlier Grade 2 CKLA and Amplify Caminos domains about the westward expansion, early Greek civilizations, and Greek myths, and lay the foundation for learning about other periods of world history in future grades.
This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos units that students will have encountered earlier in the year.
- The Ancient Greek Civilization/La civilización griega antigua (Grade 2)
- Greek Myths/Mitos griegos (Grade 2)
- Westward Expansion/La expansión hacia el oeste (Grade 2)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- Up and Away!: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot-Air Balloon by Jason Henry
- The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Blériot by Alice and Martin Provensen
- The Flying Girl: How Aída de Acosta Learned to Soar by Margarita Engle
- Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane by Kirsten Larson
- Helicopter Man: Igor Sikorsky and His Amazing Invention by Edwin Brit Wyckoff
- The Tuskegee Airmen Story by Lynn Homan and Thomas Reilly
- Skyward: The Story of Female Pilots in WWII by Sally Deng
- Aim for the Skies: Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith’s Race to Complete Amelia Earhart’s Quest by Aimee Bissonette
Grade 3: All That Jazz/Jazz y más
This domain teaches students about the vibrant music, poetry, and culture of the Jazz Age in the United States. Students learn about famous writers and musicians like Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Melba Liston, Tito Puente, and Miles Davis. They study how the jazz art form took root in the South, then spread to the North to become the sound of the Harlem Renaissance, eventually connecting people around the world in musical expression.
During this unit, students perform guided research to further explore both the history of jazz and what jazz is today. They develop research skills and then use those skills to find deeper connections between the stories and music of the Jazz Age and music today. As students learn about the world of jazz, they collaborate and share ideas with their classmates. They also practice sharing feedback focused on their written work, and, at the end of the unit, students present their research to the group.
The lessons give students opportunities to dive into the rhythms and stories of jazz, utilizing the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
- Collaboratively generate research questions about jazz, jazz musicians, contemporary musicians from the state where they live or have lived, and the evolution of jazz music.
- Utilize Read-Alouds, independent reading, and partner reading to learn about the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz music, and biographies of celebrated jazz musicians and writers.
- Research the answers to their generated questions, gather information, write a short research essay about a famous jazz musician, write a short essay about a contemporary musician from the state where they live or have lived, and give a presentation about their research.
Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
- Ask relevant questions and make pertinent comments
- Identify details in texts
- Determine key ideas of texts by evaluating details
- Make text-based inferences
- Generate questions based on prior knowledge and gathered information
- Synthesize details across texts to demonstrate comprehension
- Discuss and explain an author’s purpose
- Identify and cite reliable primary and secondary sources of information
- Compose a well-organized and focused informative essay
- Make connections between topics
- Present information using appropriate media
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- Birth of the Cool: How Jazz Great Miles Davis Found His Sound by Kathleen Cornell Berman
- Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Kathryn Russell-Brown
- Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson: Taking the Stage as the First Black and White Jazz Band in History by Lesa Cline-Ransome
- Tito Puente, Mambo King by Monica Brown
- Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle
- Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Pinkney
In this unit, students also read the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. (Available for free through the Academy of American Poets website and the Poetry Foundation website, with recorded audio available through the website for John Hancock College Preparatory High School.)
Grade 4: Energy: Past, Present, and Future/Energía: pasado, presente y futuro
With this domain, students become tomorrow’s problem solvers in this study of energy in the United States. Analytical reading skills are developed by examining the challenges of early energy innovators. Students then read about current energy practices and young energy change-makers across the world.
Throughout the unit, students conduct research into different sources of energy and present a proposal, putting them in the shoes of future energy innovators. They also use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
- Collaboratively analyze texts to identify cause-effect and problem-solution relationships.
- Generate questions and conduct research about energy.
- Write an opinion essay making their case for a fuel of the future.
- Create energy proposals using primary and secondary resources.
This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA units that students will have encountered in previous grades as well as earlier in the year.
- Plants/Plantas (Grade K)
- The History of the Earth/La historia de la Tierra (Grade 1)
- Eureka! Student Inventor/¡Eureka! El arte de la invención (Grade 4)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Energy: Past, Present, and Future. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm
- Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed their World by Allan Drummond
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Picture Book Edition by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Grade 5: Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present/Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
Within this domain, Students learn about General Granger’s announcement in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, a day marked in history as Juneteenth. Texts and multimedia sources will support foundational knowledge-building about the end of slavery in the United States. A review of the first freedom announcement, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, provides students with background knowledge to further emphasize the significance of Juneteenth in American history.
This unit also takes students on a journey beyond Juneteenth, as they study specific contributions of African Americans from 1865 to the present day. Students participate in a virtual field trip to Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas and use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
- Collaboratively generate research questions about Juneteenth, The Great Migration, innovators and inventors, education, the humanities, activists, and allies.
- Use Read-Alouds, independent, and partner reading to learn about African American contributions from 1865 to the present.
- Research to find answers to their generated questions, gather information, and write a four-chapter Beyond Juneteenth book.
This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA units that students will have encountered in previous grades.
- Native Americans/Los nativos americanos (Grade K)
- A New Nation: American Independence/Una nueva nación: la independencia de los Estados Unidos
(Grade 1) - The U.S. Civil War/La Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos (Grade 2)
- Immigration/La inmigración (Grade 2)
- Native Americans/Los nativos americanos (Grade 5)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson
- The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob Lawrence
- Sing a Song: How “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Inspired Generations by Kelly Starling Lyons
- Side by Side/ Lado a lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/ La Historia de Dolores Huerta y Cesar Chavez by Monica Brown
- Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama
Amplify CKLA Review for Alabama
Amplify and SFUSD Partnership
We recognize and respect the unique differences of each of our partnering districts—and that includes San Francisco USD.
Out of the box, Amplify Caminos offers districts a rich, comprehensive, research-based SELA experience. That said, no two districts are exactly alike. To that end, we are committed to working with San Francisco USD to ensure that Amplify Caminos addresses the needs of your community. This includes providing implementation guidance and support, as well as collaborating with your staff to determine which domains need to be modified or exchanged.
What is Amplify Caminos?
Amplify Caminos is a core Spanish language arts program for grades TK–5 that delivers:
- Authentic instruction built from the ground up for the Spanish language.
- 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.
Watch the video below to learn more about Amplify Caminos for Grades K–2.
Watch the video below to learn more about Amplify Caminos for Grades 3–5.
How does Amplify Caminos work?
Amplify Caminos is built on the science of how kids learn to read—in Spanish.
Amplify Caminos is all about helping you teach students how to read, all while giving them authentic and engaging reasons to read. That’s why Amplify Caminos develops foundational skills and builds knowledge in tandem.
- Knowledge: Through complex and authentic Spanish read-alouds with an emphasis on classroom interactivity, oral comprehension, and contextual vocabulary, students start to build their awareness of the world around them—and the way the reading skills they’re building give them access to it.
- Skills: Starting with the sounds at the core of the Spanish
language, students practice their phonemic awareness, handwriting skills, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. Through daily practice, students become aware of the connection between reading and writing, building confidence as they go.
Respecting the development differences between grade ranges, Amplify Caminos teaches foundational skills and background knowledge as two distinct strands in grades K–2, and combines them into one integrated strand in grades 3–5.
Grades K–2:
Every day, students in grades K–2 complete one full lesson that explicitly and systematically builds foundational reading skills in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand, as well as one full lesson that builds robust background knowledge to access complex text in the Amplify Caminos Conocimiento 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:
In grades 3–5, the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura and Conocimiento strands 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.
What do Amplify Caminos students explore?
Amplify Caminos builds students’ knowledge about the world.
In addition to teaching all students to crack the written code (which is vital for equity), the Amplify Caminos program helps students see the strengths and experiences we all share while celebrating their own unique identities and experiences.
This is accomplished through the exploration of topics and text that feature people who resemble students and familiar situations or experiences while also exposing them to people whose appearances, lives, beliefs, and backgrounds differ from their own.
Engaging domains
Amplify Caminos builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.
Throughout the program, students 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.
Carefully selected to build from year-to-year, our grade-appropriate topics help students make and deepen connections while also reading, writing, and thinking creatively and for themselves.
New Knowledge Research Units for Grades K–5
Our brand-new Knowledge Research units carry forward Amplify Caminos’ powerful and proven instructional approach while also:
- Adding more diversity. The rich topics and highly visual components featured in these units provide students with even more “windows and mirrors” and perspectives as they work to build knowledge.
- Adding more authentic literature. Each new research unit revolves around a collection of high-interest authentic trade books that will spark more curiosity and inspire more inquiry.
- Adding more flexibility. Units can be implemented for extended core instruction during flex periods, district-designated Pausing Points, or enrichment periods.
Units cover a variety of rich and relevant topics:
With these new units, students will soar to new heights with Dr. Ellen Ochoa, Amelia Earhart, and the Tuskegee Airmen. They’ll feel the rhythm as they learn about Jazz legends Miles Davis, Tito Puente, and Duke Ellington. And they’ll explore the far reaches of the world with Jacques Cousteau, Matthew Henson, and Eugenie Clark.
- Grade K: El arte y el mundo que nos rodea
- Grade 1: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Grade 2: ¡A volar! La era de la aviación
- Grade 3: Jazz y más
- Grade 4: Energía: pasado, presente y futuro
- Grade 5: Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
Units will be made available in English and Spanish, and will include the following components:
Why we added this unit:
“Every child is an artist,” said Picasso, meaning that every child uses art to explore and understand the world around them. El arte y el mundo que nos rodea honors that truth by introducing Kindergarten students to some of the ways in which artists have explored and understood the world around them.
This domain introduces students to artists from different time periods, countries, and cultures. Throughout the unit, students learn about different kinds of art and how artists use the world around them as they make art. They also connect this to what they have already learned about the earth, plants, and animals in other Caminos domains: Granjas, Plantas, and Cuidar el planeta Tierra. In addition, students connect this to what they have learned about sculptors in the Presidentes y símbolos de los Estados Unidos domain. As they explore different artists and artistic traditions, they develop their ideas about how humans are connected to each other and to the world around them.
As you read the texts in this unit, students may observe ways in which the characters or subjects are both similar to and different from students. This is a good opportunity to teach students awareness and sensitivity, building on the idea that all people share some things in common, even as they have other things that make them unique. This unit also offers an excellent opportunity to collaborate with your school’s art teacher, as many lessons have suggested activities to help students understand the kind of art they are studying.
Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
- Use details to describe art.
- Identify three ways to create art.
- Identify characteristics of cave art.
- Sequence the steps of making pottery.
- Describe how artists can create work connected to the world around them.
- Describe what makes Kehinde Wiley’s portraits unique.
- Explain how the texture of a surface can affect artwork created on it.
- Explain what a sculpture is.
- Describe what makes James Turrell’s artwork about the sky unique.
- Explain what a museum is and what kinds of things you can see or do there.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- Georgia O’Keeffe por Erica Salcedo
- Yayoi Kusama: De aquí al infinito por Sarah Suzuki
- Tejedora del arcoíris por Linda Elovitz Marshall
- Las tijeras de Matisse por Jeanette Winter
- El museo por Susan Verde
- Quizás algo hermoso: Cómo el arte transformó un barrio por F. Isabel Campoy
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit:
This domain introduces students to adventure stories set around the world and challenges students to dig into the adventures through research. By listening to the Read-Alouds and trade books, students increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, learn valuable lessons about perseverance and teamwork, and become familiar with gathering information for research.
In this unit, students study the careers of real-world explorers Dr. Eugenie Clark and Sophia Danenberg, marvel at the inventions of Jacques Cousteau, think critically about how teamwork and collaboration can make greater adventures possible, learn about the science and technology that enable adventures, and research some of the ways humans have confronted challenges at the edges of the world, from the oceans below to space above.
Each lesson in the domain builds students’ research skills as they ask questions, gather information, and write a paragraph about their findings. Students share what they have learned about adventures in an Adventure Gallery Walkthrough. By taking on the persona of one of the adventurers they meet in the Read-Alouds and trade books, students deliver their final paragraphs as if they are a “speaking portrait” of that person. Students are invited to dress up as that adventurer if they desire.
In addition, teachers can set aside time outside the instructional block to create the picture frames students will hold as they present to the Adventure Gallery Walk guests. Frames can be made from shirt boxes, cardboard, construction paper, or any art supplies that are on hand. This might be an opportunity to collaborate with the school’s art department if resources are available. Another option is to ask students to make their frames at home with their caregivers. On the day of the Adventure Gallery Walk, students will be the hosts and take on specific jobs, such as welcoming the guests, describing their work throughout the unit, and pointing out the areas of study on the domain bulletin board. You can find a complete list of student jobs in Lesson 13.
How this unit builds knowledge:
This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in the previous grade.
- Rimas y fábulas infantiles (Kindergarten)
- Cuentos (Kindergarten)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- My Name Is Gabito/Me llamo Gabito por Monica Brown
- Galápagos Girl/Galapagueña por Marsha Diane Arnold
- My Name Is Gabriela/Me llamo Gabriela por Monica Brown
- El viaje de Kalak por María Quintana Silva y Marie-Noëlle Hébert
- Señorita Mariposa por Ben Gundersheimer
- Sharuko, el arqueólogo peruano/Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello por Monica Brown
- Abuelita fue al mercado por Stella Blackstone
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
- Guía del maestro: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Cuaderno de actividades: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Tarjetas de imágenes: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Componentes digitales: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
Why we added this unit:
With this domain, students head up, up, and away with an introduction to the soaring history of aviation. Students learn the stories of early aviators, such as the Montgolfier brothers, the Wright brothers, Aida de Acosta, and Amelia Earhart.
During the unit, students study the science of flight, including the physics concept of lift, and research the social impacts of the world of flight. Finally, students let their research skills take flight as they explore key figures from the world of aviation.
The lessons in this domain build on earlier Grade 2 Caminos domains about the westward expansion, early Greek civilizations, and Greek myths, and lay the foundation for learning about other periods of world history in future grades.
How this unit builds knowledge:
This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered earlier in the year.
- La civilización griega antigua (Grade 2)
- Mitos griegos (Grade 2)
- La expansión hacia el oeste (Grade 2)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in ¡A volar! La era de la aviación. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- ¡A volar! Todo sobre aviones por Jennifer Prior
- Amelia sabe volar por Mara dal Corso
- Héroes de la aviación que cambiaron el mundo por Dan Green
- El niño que alcanzó las estrellas por José M. Hernández
- La niña que aprendió a volar por Sylvia Acevedo
- Buenas Noches Capitán Mamá por Graciela Tiscareño-Sato
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit:
This domain teaches students about the vibrant music, poetry, and culture of the Jazz Age in the United States. Students learn about famous writers and musicians like Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Melba Liston, Tito Puente, and Miles Davis. They study how the jazz art form took root in the South, then spread to the North to become the sound of the Harlem Renaissance, eventually connecting people around the world in musical expression.
During this unit, students perform guided research to further explore both the history of jazz and what jazz is today. They develop research skills and then use those skills to find deeper connections between the stories and music of the Jazz Age and music today. As students learn about the world of jazz, they collaborate and share ideas with their classmates. They also practice sharing feedback focused on their written work, and, at the end of the unit, students present their research to the group.
The lessons give students opportunities to dive into the rhythms and stories of jazz, utilizing the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
- Collaboratively generate research questions about jazz, jazz musicians, contemporary musicians from the state where they live or have lived, and the evolution of jazz music.
- Utilize Read-Alouds, independent reading, and partner reading to learn about the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz music, and biographies of celebrated jazz musicians and writers.
- Research the answers to their generated questions, gather information, write a short research essay about a famous jazz musician, write a short essay about a contemporary musician from the state where they live or have lived, and give a presentation about their research.
How this unit builds knowledge:
Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
- Ask relevant questions and make pertinent comments
- Identify details in texts
- Determine key ideas of texts by evaluating details
- Make text-based inferences
- Generate questions based on prior knowledge and gathered information
- Synthesize details across texts to demonstrate comprehension
- Discuss and explain an author’s purpose
- Identify and cite reliable primary and secondary sources of information
- Compose a well-organized and focused informative essay
- Make connections between topics
- Present information using appropriate media
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- ¡Esquivel! Un artista del sonido de la era espacial por Susan Wood
- Ray Charles por Sharon Bell Mathis
- Tito Puente, el Rey del Mambo por Monica Brown
- Me llamo Celia, la vida de Celia Cruz por Monica Brown
- ¡Azúcar! por Ivar Da Coll
In this unit, students also read the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. (Available for free through the Academy of American Poets website and the Poetry Foundation website, with recorded audio available through the website for John Hancock College Preparatory High School.)
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit:
With this domain, students become tomorrow’s problem solvers in this study of energy in the United States. Analytical reading skills are developed by examining the challenges of early energy innovators. Students then read about current energy practices and young energy change-makers across the world.
Throughout the unit, students conduct research into different sources of energy and present a proposal, putting them in the shoes of future energy innovators. They also use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
- Collaboratively analyze texts to identify cause-effect and problem-solution relationships.
- Generate questions and conduct research about energy.
- Write an opinion essay making their case for a fuel of the future.
- Create energy proposals using primary and secondary resources.
How this unit builds knowledge:
This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in previous grades as well as earlier in the year.
- Plantas (Grade K)
- La historia de la Tierra (Grade 1)
- ¡Eureka! Estudiante inventor (Grade 4)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Energía: pasado, presente y futuro. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- La historia de los combustibles fósiles por William B. Rice
- El niño que domó el viento por William Kamkwamba y Bryan Mealer
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit:
Within this domain, Students learn about General Granger’s announcement in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, a day marked in history as Juneteenth. Texts and multimedia sources will support foundational knowledge-building about the end of slavery in the United States. A review of the first freedom announcement, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, provides students with background knowledge to further emphasize the significance of Juneteenth in American history.
This unit also takes students on a journey beyond Juneteenth, as they study specific contributions of African Americans from 1865 to the present day. Students participate in a virtual field trip to Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas and use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
- Collaboratively generate research questions about Juneteenth, The Great Migration, innovators and inventors, education, the humanities, activists, and allies.
- Use Read-Alouds, independent, and partner reading to learn about African American contributions from 1865 to the present.
- Research to find answers to their generated questions, gather information, and write a four-chapter Beyond Juneteenth book.
How this unit builds knowledge:
This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in previous grades.
- Los nativos americanos (Grade K)
- Una nueva nación: la independencia de los Estados Unidos (Grade 1)
- La Guerra Civil de los Estaods Unidos (Grade 2)
- La inmigración (Grade 2)
- Los nativos americanos (Grade 5)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- Martí’s Song for Freedom/Martí y sus versos por la libertad escrito por Emma Otheguy
- ¡Celebremos Juneteenth! escrito por Carole Boston Weatherford
- Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/La Historia de Dolores Huerta y César Chávez escrito por Monica Brown
- Canto de alabanza para el día: Poema para la ceremonia inaugural del mandato de Barack Obama escrito por Elizabeth Alexander, traducido por Rodrigo Rojas
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Diverse texts
Amplify Caminos puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day.
Amplify Caminos includes both transadaptations and authentic texts written by Latin American and Spanish authors. In addition to featuring a diverse range of authors and topics, our texts represent individuals and characters with a broad range of identity factors, including socioeconomic status, age, ability, race, ethnicity, country of origin, religion, and more.
Amplify Caminos texts include:
- Authentic literature: Authentic literature exposes students to a variety of text types and perspectives to deepen their knowledge of fascinating topics in social studies, science, literature, and the arts. Authentic texts support text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections for readers.
- Decodable Student Readers: Amplify Caminos is built on the conviction that equitable instruction is vital to an effective program. Decodable Student Readers at grades K–2 are newly re-designed to celebrate students’ diverse experiences and feature individuals with a broad range of identity factors, including socioeconomic status, age, ability, race, ethnicity, country of origin, religion, and more.
- ReadWorks® texts: Amplify and ReadWorks have partnered to deliver high-quality texts curated to support the Amplify Caminos Knowledge Sequence and to extend student learning. Texts include high-interest nonfiction articles in topics in social studies, science, literature, and the arts. These texts are accompanied by vocabulary supports and standards-aligned formative assessment opportunities. Teachers can monitor their students’ progress using the ReadWorks reporting features.
Amplify Caminos Trade Book Collection Guide
Each book in our authentic literature collection was selected specifically to support and enhance the content of the K-2 Conocimiento Strand. These anchor texts are intended for use as an introduction to each domain—engaging students, piquing their curiosity, and building initial background knowledge—before diving into the deeper content of the domain Read-Alouds.
Every trade book has an instructional guide that includes the following:
- Author and illustrator
- Book summary
- The Essential Question of the Knowledge domain, connecting the book to the domain
- Key Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary words found in the book
- A group activity to reinforce and extend students’ knowledge and understanding
- A performance task to help gauge students’ comprehension of concepts in the text
- Writing prompts to expand understanding and critical thinking
- Text complexity ratings and descriptors for quantitative, qualitative, and reader/task categories
Download the Amplify Caminos Trade Book Collection Guide for Grades K–2.
Detailed information about text complexity ratings and descriptors; additional uses for the books before, during, and after domain instruction; and the complete list of domains and books for each grade level can be found in the More About the Books section of this guide.
What makes Amplify Caminos different?
Built on the Science of Reading
Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify Caminos 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.
Explicit systematic skills instruction
The skills instruction in Amplify Caminos was distinctly developed with the Spanish language in mind. Its foundational lessons are specific to the language, rather than a direct translation from Amplify CKLA’s English skills instruction.
Reading instruction begins with the vowels first, then the most common consonants, and finally the least common consonants. Students will blend and segment sounds to form syllables, and syllables to form words.
Although Spanish has a highly predictable orthography, there are a few silent letters (h is always silent, u is silent after g or q), as well as letters that can make different sounds, depending on the letters that follow them. For that reason, syllables with these letters are taught somewhat later in the progression. The same is true for syllables with infrequently occurring consonants, such as z, k, x, and w.
Coherent knowledge instruction
While students are learning how to read, the Conocimiento strand gives them authentic and engaging reasons to read.
Amplify Caminos uses spiral learning to reinforce every student’s ability to develop skills like reading, writing, speaking, and listening in Spanish that can be transferred to English. As students engage with their lessons, they explore the similarities and differences in grammar, vocabulary, writing, and language use between Spanish and English. This bridge helps students learning two languages to strengthen their knowledge in both.
Through cross-curricular content, students explore units that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world in a holistic and thoughtful way. With these units, you’ll bring the world to your students, showing them how reading can become an exciting, rewarding, and useful part of their lives.
Embedded differentiation for all learners
Amplify Caminos provides built-in differentiation strategies and supports in every lesson.
- Apoyo a la enseñanza y desafío: Support and Challenge suggestions in every lesson provide assistance or opportunities for more advanced work toward the goal of the lesson.
- Notas culturales: These point-of-use notes provide additional information about the traditions, foods, holidays, word variations, and more from across the Spanish-speaking world.
- Apoyo adicional: Every lesson in the Lectoescritura (Skills) Strand provides additional support activities suggested to reinforce foundational skills instruction. These activities can be given to any student who requires extra help, including students with special needs.
Systematic and cohesive writing instruction
Writing instruction in Amplify Caminos builds systematically and cohesively within and across grades.
In Grades K-2, writing mechanics—including handwriting and spelling—are taught in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand. Starting in Grade 1, instruction includes four steps in the writing process: planning, drafting, editing, and publishing and features lessons that have modeling, collaboration, and sharing. As students gain skills and confidence, they are able to take on more of these steps independently. Students learn to use planning techniques, including brainstorming and graphic organizers.
Beginning in Grade 4, the Amplify Caminos writing process expands to also include sharing and evaluating. In Grades 4 and 5, the writing process is no longer conceptualized as a series of scaffolded, linear steps (an important change from the Grade 3 writing process). Rather, students move between components of the writing process in a flexible manner, similar to the process mature and experienced writers follow naturally.
Amplify Caminos’ writing instruction provides a clear progression through the text types in each grade.
Because Amplify Caminos has two strands of lessons in Grades K-2, Lectoescritura and Conocimiento, students are exposed to both narrative and informational texts throughout the year. In Grades 3-5, the integrated units feature study in literary, informational, or a mix of both types of texts, depending on the content of the unit.
- Grades K–2 introduce and establish the key elements of each text type, allowing students to gain comfort and confidence writing narratives, opinions, and informative texts. This enables students to practice thinking about content in different ways, offering more depth and breadth to their understanding of core content and of the writing text types.
- By Grade 3, students will have gained significant practice in narrative, opinion/argumentative, and informational/explanatory forms of writing and will continue to apply those skills through Grade 5.
How does Amplify Caminos integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?
Amplify Caminos + mCLASS® Lectura
Achieve complete parity between English and Spanish assessments with mCLASS Lectura for K–6. mCLASS Lectura allows teachers to connect with their Spanish-speaking students face-to-face, one-on-one, and in the language most comfortable to them. The result? Valid and reliable student data reports
available in both English and Spanish, enabling teachers to pinpoint where their Spanish-speaking or emergent bilingual students really are in their skill development and what instruction to prioritize.
Amplify Caminos + Amplify Reading
Amplify Reading is an engaging, adaptive digital program that extends the learning in Amplify Caminos. Amplify Reading offers support to a large sub-group of English learners (ELs) through Spanish voice-over. Spanish voiceover instructions are available in vocabulary and sentence-level comprehension games so ELs can build their vocabulary, language, and critical comprehension skills before moving into analyzing complex texts
Demo access and sample materials
Ready to explore on your own? First, watch the videos below to learn about the program’s components and how to navigate the digital platform.
Physical materials walkthrough video
Digital navigation video
Demo access
Next, follow the instructions below to access your demo account.
- Click the CKLA and Caminos Demo button below.
- Select Log in with Amplify.
- To explore as a teacher, enter this username: t1.sfusdreviewer@demo.tryamplify.net
- To explore as a student, enter this username: s1.sfusdreviewer@demo.tryamplify.net
- Enter the password: Amplify1-sfusdreviewer
- Click the Programs and apps menu
- Select CKLA Teacher Resource Site
- Select the desire grade level
- Use the toggle to switch between English (CKLA) and Spanish (Caminos) resources.
Sample materials
Finally, click on the grade levels below to explore your requested sample units.
Each book in our authentic literature collection was selected specifically to support and enhance the content of the K-2 Conocimiento Strand. These anchor texts are intended for use as an introduction to each domain—engaging students, piquing their curiosity, and building initial background knowledge—before diving into the deeper content of the domain Read-Alouds.
Every trade book has an instructional guide that includes the following:
- Author and illustrator
- Book summary
- The Essential Question of the Knowledge domain, connecting the book to the domain
- Key Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary words found in the book
- A group activity to reinforce and extend students’ knowledge and understanding
- A performance task to help gauge students’ comprehension of concepts in the text
- Writing prompts to expand understanding and critical thinking
- Text complexity ratings and descriptors for quantitative, qualitative, and reader/task categories
Download the Amplify Caminos Trade Book Collection Guide for Grades K–2.
Detailed information about text complexity ratings and descriptors; additional uses for the books before, during, and after domain instruction; and the complete list of domains and books for each grade level can be found in the More About the Books section of this guide.
Conocimiento Strand:
- Guía del maestro, Conocimiento 12: Luchar por una causa
- Cuaderno de actividades, Conocimientos 7–12
- Rotafolio de imágenes, Conocimiento 12
- Tarjetas de imágenes, Conocimiento 12
Lectoescritura Strand:
Additional resources
- Caminos Program Guide
- Biliteracy and Science of Reading Principles
- Amplify Caminos Conocimiento Scopes and Sequences
- Grade K Knowledge Strand
- Grade 1 Knowledge Strand
- Grade 2 Knowledge Strand
- Grade 3 Integrated Strand
- Grade 4 Integrated Strand
- Grade 5 Intgrated Strand
Top 10 Science of Reading podcasts to get you started
Since 2019, Science of Reading: The Podcast has delivered the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Hosted by Amplify’s Chief Academic Officer Susan Lambert, each episode welcomes a renowned leader in the education and literacy community, explores a timely topic related to the Science of Reading, and offers instructional advice to educators implementing evidence-based practices in their schools.
New to the podcast? Here are 10 popular episodes to acquaint yourself with the Science of Reading. Listen, enjoy, and subscribe — we have new episodes every other Wednesday!
S1-E1: Natalie Wexler on “The Knowledge Gap”
Susan hosts Natalie Wexler for a deep dive into her latest book, The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System—And How to Fix It, and a discussion of the lack of equity in reading education among students, the benefits of knowledge-rich curriculum inside and beyond the classroom, why it’s important to build background knowledge while teaching foundational skills, and why professional development doesn’t seem to be making a difference and how it can be improved.
S1-E3: Emily Hanford on reporting on education and the Science of Reading
Susan sits down with Emily Hanford, education reporter and host of the Education Post podcast, to examine the big takeaways from her experience reporting on dyslexia and the patterns that emerged in her investigation; why reading instruction isn’t more aligned with the Science of Reading; and the evolution of whole language, balanced literacy, and phonics instruction.
S1-E8: Tim Shanahan on evidence-based literacy practices
Reading expert Tim Shanahan discusses his view on teaching reading, including an explanation of the four crucial things you need to teach reading, and what it means to really do a “close read” in literature.
S3-E1: Dr. Jane Oakhill on Scarborough’s Reading Rope
Dive into the first episode of our Deconstructing the Rope series as Dr. Jane Oakhill, professor of experimental psychology at the University of Sussex, provides an overview of Scarborough’s Reading Rope. She also emphasizes the importance of inferencing in comprehension, why the Simple View of Reading is still relevant almost 40 years later, and how each element of the Rope comes together to deconstruct the complexity of reading.
S3-E3: Dr. Louisa Moats on decoding
Join Dr. Louisa Moats, President of Moats Associates Consulting, as she unwinds decoding, a strand of Scarborough’s Reading Rope. In the third episode of our Deconstructing the Rope series, Louisa highlights the significance of decoding in the Science of Reading and discusses the value of becoming students of our own language. She also explains the reciprocal relationship between decoding and encoding and why both are essential to provide effective phonics instruction to children in the classroom.
S2-E7: Sonia Cabell on research, comprehension, and content-rich literacy instruction
Join Sonia Cabell, Assistant Professor of Education at Florida State University, as she shares findings from her research trials on content-rich literacy curricula and whether activating students’ background knowledge alongside explicit phonics instruction is more effective than traditional approaches. She also explains what constitutes “compelling evidence” in the Science of Reading and why students need to interact with both written and spoken language while learning to read.
S3-E5: Dr. Bruce McCandliss on sight recognition
Join Dr. Bruce McCandliss, Professor at the Graduate School of Education of Stanford University, as he unwinds sight recognition, a strand of Scarborough’s Reading Rope. In the fifth episode of our series, Bruce explains the role of sight and word recognition in the Science of Reading and highlights the importance of the rapid integration of print, speech, and meaning. He also encourages listeners to be cognizant of the ever-changing technological learning environment while nurturing young readers and writers.
S2-E1: Dr. LaTonya Goffney on a district-wide SoR adoption
Join Dr. LaTonya Goffney, Superintendent of Schools for Aldine Independent School District in Texas, as she recounts her two-year journey with her team of district educators to adopt a new early literacy curriculum. Hear how they successfully challenged the traditional adoption process, studied the science of teaching reading, analyzed student data and experiences, and developed a district-wide set of beliefs and expectations.
S3-E7: Maria Murray on The Reading League’s Defining Movement
In this special episode, Dr. Maria Murray, President, and CEO of The Reading League analyze the intricacies of literacy instruction and shares common misconceptions that educators have about the Science of Reading. She also explains why the Science of Reading: A Defining Movement coalition was founded: the belief in a clear understanding of what the Science of Reading is and what it is not, in order to promote the proper use of instructional practices aligned with its findings.
Amplify Caminos for SFUSD
Amplify Caminos is an authentic elementary Spanish language arts program. Like its English language counterpart, Amplify CKLA, Amplify Caminos provides explicit, systematic foundational skills instruction sequenced with deep knowledge-building content to foster comprehension. When used with Amplify CKLA, Amplify Caminos provides full parity across English and Spanish that’s suitable for any dual language implementation model.
Amplify and SFUSD Partnership
We recognize and respect the unique differences of each of our partnering districts—and that includes San Francisco USD.
Out of the box, Amplify Caminos offers districts a rich, comprehensive, research-based SELA experience. That said, no two districts are exactly alike. To that end, we are committed to working with San Francisco USD to ensure that Amplify Caminos addresses the needs of your community. This includes providing implementation guidance and support, as well as collaborating with your staff to determine which domains need to be modified or exchanged.
What is Amplify Caminos?
Amplify Caminos is a core Spanish language arts program for grades TK–5 that delivers:
- Authentic instruction built from the ground up for the Spanish language.
- 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.
Watch the video below to learn more about Amplify Caminos for Grades K–2.
Watch the video below to learn more about Amplify Caminos for Grades 3–5.
How does Amplify Caminos work?
Amplify Caminos is built on the science of how kids learn to read—in Spanish.
Amplify Caminos is all about helping you teach students how to read, all while giving them authentic and engaging reasons to read. That’s why Amplify Caminos develops foundational skills and builds knowledge in tandem.
- Knowledge: Through complex and authentic Spanish read-alouds with an emphasis on classroom interactivity, oral comprehension, and contextual vocabulary, students start to build their awareness of the world around them—and the way the reading skills they’re building give them access to it.
- Skills: Starting with the sounds at the core of the Spanish
language, students practice their phonemic awareness, handwriting skills, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. Through daily practice, students become aware of the connection between reading and writing, building confidence as they go.
Respecting the development differences between grade ranges, Amplify Caminos teaches foundational skills and background knowledge as two distinct strands in grades K–2, and combines them into one integrated strand in grades 3–5.
Grades K–2:
Every day, students in grades K–2 complete one full lesson that explicitly and systematically builds foundational reading skills in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand, as well as one full lesson that builds robust background knowledge to access complex text in the Amplify Caminos Conocimiento 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:
In grades 3–5, the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura and Conocimiento strands 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.
What do Amplify Caminos students explore?
Amplify Caminos builds students’ knowledge about the world.
In addition to teaching all students to crack the written code (which is vital for fairness), the Amplify Caminos program helps students see the strengths and experiences we all share while celebrating their own unique identities and experiences.
This is accomplished through the exploration of topics and text that feature people who resemble students and familiar situations or experiences while also exposing them to people whose appearances, lives, beliefs, and backgrounds differ from their own.
Engaging domains
Amplify Caminos builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.
Throughout the program, students 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.
Carefully selected to build from year-to-year, our grade-appropriate topics help students make and deepen connections while also reading, writing, and thinking creatively and for themselves.
New Knowledge Research Units for Grades K–5
Our brand-new Knowledge Research units carry forward Amplify Caminos’ powerful and proven instructional approach while also:
- Adding more content for students from all walks of life. The rich topics and highly visual components featured in these units provide students with even more “windows and mirrors” and perspectives as they work to build knowledge.
- Adding more authentic literature. Each new research unit revolves around a collection of high-interest authentic trade books that will spark more curiosity and inspire more inquiry.
- Adding more flexibility. Units can be implemented for extended core instruction during flex periods, district-designated Pausing Points, or enrichment periods.
Units cover a variety of rich and relevant topics:
With these new units, students will soar to new heights with Dr. Ellen Ochoa, Amelia Earhart, and the Tuskegee Airmen. They’ll feel the rhythm as they learn about Jazz legends Miles Davis, Tito Puente, and Duke Ellington. And they’ll explore the far reaches of the world with Jacques Cousteau, Matthew Henson, and Eugenie Clark.
- Grade K: El arte y el mundo que nos rodea
- Grade 1: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Grade 2: ¡A volar! La era de la aviación
- Grade 3: Jazz y más
- Grade 4: Energía: pasado, presente y futuro
- Grade 5: Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
Units will be made available in English and Spanish, and will include the following components:
- Teacher Guide
- Student Activity Books
- Image Cards
- Trade Book Collection
- Digital Components (for Grades K–3 and Grade 5 only)
Why we added this unit:
“Every child is an artist,” said Picasso, meaning that every child uses art to explore and understand the world around them. El arte y el mundo que nos rodea honors that truth by introducing Kindergarten students to some of the ways in which artists have explored and understood the world around them.
This domain introduces students to artists from different time periods, countries, and cultures. Throughout the unit, students learn about different kinds of art and how artists use the world around them as they make art. They also connect this to what they have already learned about the earth, plants, and animals in other Caminos domains: Granjas, Plantas, and Cuidar el planeta Tierra. In addition, students connect this to what they have learned about sculptors in the Presidentes y símbolos de los Estados Unidos domain. As they explore different artists and artistic traditions, they develop their ideas about how humans are connected to each other and to the world around them.
As you read the texts in this unit, students may observe ways in which the characters or subjects are both similar to and different from students. This is a good opportunity to teach students awareness and sensitivity, building on the idea that all people share some things in common, even as they have other things that make them unique. This unit also offers an excellent opportunity to collaborate with your school’s art teacher, as many lessons have suggested activities to help students understand the kind of art they are studying.
Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
- Use details to describe art.
- Identify three ways to create art.
- Identify characteristics of cave art.
- Sequence the steps of making pottery.
- Describe how artists can create work connected to the world around them.
- Describe what makes Kehinde Wiley’s portraits unique.
- Explain how the texture of a surface can affect artwork created on it.
- Explain what a sculpture is.
- Describe what makes James Turrell’s artwork about the sky unique.
- Explain what a museum is and what kinds of things you can see or do there.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- Georgia O’Keeffe por Erica Salcedo
- Yayoi Kusama: De aquí al infinito por Sarah Suzuki
- Tejedora del arcoíris por Linda Elovitz Marshall
- Las tijeras de Matisse por Jeanette Winter
- El museo por Susan Verde
- Quizás algo hermoso: Cómo el arte transformó un barrio por F. Isabel Campoy
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
- Guía del maestro: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Cuaderno de actividades: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Tarjetas de imágenes: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Componentes digitales: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
Why we added this unit:
This domain introduces students to adventure stories set around the world and challenges students to dig into the adventures through research. By listening to the Read-Alouds and trade books, students increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, learn valuable lessons about perseverance and teamwork, and become familiar with gathering information for research.
In this unit, students study the careers of real-world explorers Dr. Eugenie Clark and Sophia Danenberg, marvel at the inventions of Jacques Cousteau, think critically about how teamwork and collaboration can make greater adventures possible, learn about the science and technology that enable adventures, and research some of the ways humans have confronted challenges at the edges of the world, from the oceans below to space above.
Each lesson in the domain builds students’ research skills as they ask questions, gather information, and write a paragraph about their findings. Students share what they have learned about adventures in an Adventure Gallery Walkthrough. By taking on the persona of one of the adventurers they meet in the Read-Alouds and trade books, students deliver their final paragraphs as if they are a “speaking portrait” of that person. Students are invited to dress up as that adventurer if they desire.
In addition, teachers can set aside time outside the instructional block to create the picture frames students will hold as they present to the Adventure Gallery Walk guests. Frames can be made from shirt boxes, cardboard, construction paper, or any art supplies that are on hand. This might be an opportunity to collaborate with the school’s art department if resources are available. Another option is to ask students to make their frames at home with their caregivers. On the day of the Adventure Gallery Walk, students will be the hosts and take on specific jobs, such as welcoming the guests, describing their work throughout the unit, and pointing out the areas of study on the domain bulletin board. You can find a complete list of student jobs in Lesson 13.
How this unit builds knowledge:
This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in the previous grade.
- Rimas y fábulas infantiles (Kindergarten)
- Cuentos (Kindergarten)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- My Name Is Gabito/Me llamo Gabito por Monica Brown
- Galápagos Girl/Galapagueña por Marsha Diane Arnold
- My Name Is Gabriela/Me llamo Gabriela por Monica Brown
- El viaje de Kalak por María Quintana Silva y Marie-Noëlle Hébert
- Señorita Mariposa por Ben Gundersheimer
- Sharuko, el arqueólogo peruano/Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello por Monica Brown
- Abuelita fue al mercado por Stella Blackstone
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit:
With this domain, students head up, up, and away with an introduction to the soaring history of aviation. Students learn the stories of early aviators, such as the Montgolfier brothers, the Wright brothers, Aida de Acosta, and Amelia Earhart.
During the unit, students study the science of flight, including the physics concept of lift, and research the social impacts of the world of flight. Finally, students let their research skills take flight as they explore key figures from the world of aviation.
The lessons in this domain build on earlier Grade 2 Caminos domains about the westward expansion, early Greek civilizations, and Greek myths, and lay the foundation for learning about other periods of world history in future grades.
How this unit builds knowledge:
This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered earlier in the year.
- La civilización griega antigua (Grade 2)
- Mitos griegos (Grade 2)
- La expansión hacia el oeste (Grade 2)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in ¡A volar! La era de la aviación. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- ¡A volar! Todo sobre aviones por Jennifer Prior
- Amelia sabe volar por Mara dal Corso
- Héroes de la aviación que cambiaron el mundo por Dan Green
- El niño que alcanzó las estrellas por José M. Hernández
- La niña que aprendió a volar por Sylvia Acevedo
- Buenas Noches Capitán Mamá por Graciela Tiscareño-Sato
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit:
This domain teaches students about the vibrant music, poetry, and culture of the Jazz Age in the United States. Students learn about famous writers and musicians like Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Melba Liston, Tito Puente, and Miles Davis. They study how the jazz art form took root in the South, then spread to the North to become the sound of the Harlem Renaissance, eventually connecting people around the world in musical expression.
During this unit, students perform guided research to further explore both the history of jazz and what jazz is today. They develop research skills and then use those skills to find deeper connections between the stories and music of the Jazz Age and music today. As students learn about the world of jazz, they collaborate and share ideas with their classmates. They also practice sharing feedback focused on their written work, and, at the end of the unit, students present their research to the group.
The lessons give students opportunities to dive into the rhythms and stories of jazz, utilizing the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
- Collaboratively generate research questions about jazz, jazz musicians, contemporary musicians from the state where they live or have lived, and the evolution of jazz music.
- Utilize Read-Alouds, independent reading, and partner reading to learn about the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz music, and biographies of celebrated jazz musicians and writers.
- Research the answers to their generated questions, gather information, write a short research essay about a famous jazz musician, write a short essay about a contemporary musician from the state where they live or have lived, and give a presentation about their research.
How this unit builds knowledge:
Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
- Ask relevant questions and make pertinent comments
- Identify details in texts
- Determine key ideas of texts by evaluating details
- Make text-based inferences
- Generate questions based on prior knowledge and gathered information
- Synthesize details across texts to demonstrate comprehension
- Discuss and explain an author’s purpose
- Identify and cite reliable primary and secondary sources of information
- Compose a well-organized and focused informative essay
- Make connections between topics
- Present information using appropriate media
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- ¡Esquivel! Un artista del sonido de la era espacial por Susan Wood
- Ray Charles por Sharon Bell Mathis
- Tito Puente, el Rey del Mambo por Monica Brown
- Me llamo Celia, la vida de Celia Cruz por Monica Brown
- ¡Azúcar! por Ivar Da Coll
In this unit, students also read the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. (Available for free through the Academy of American Poets website and the Poetry Foundation website, with recorded audio available through the website for John Hancock College Preparatory High School.)
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit:
With this domain, students become tomorrow’s problem solvers in this study of energy in the United States. Analytical reading skills are developed by examining the challenges of early energy innovators. Students then read about current energy practices and young energy change-makers across the world.
Throughout the unit, students conduct research into different sources of energy and present a proposal, putting them in the shoes of future energy innovators. They also use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
- Collaboratively analyze texts to identify cause-effect and problem-solution relationships.
- Generate questions and conduct research about energy.
- Write an opinion essay making their case for a fuel of the future.
- Create energy proposals using primary and secondary resources.
How this unit builds knowledge:
This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in previous grades as well as earlier in the year.
- Plantas (Grade K)
- La historia de la Tierra (Grade 1)
- ¡Eureka! Estudiante inventor (Grade 4)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Energía: pasado, presente y futuro. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- La historia de los combustibles fósiles por William B. Rice
- El niño que domó el viento por William Kamkwamba y Bryan Mealer
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit:
Within this domain, Students learn about General Granger’s announcement in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, a day marked in history as Juneteenth. Texts and multimedia sources will support foundational knowledge-building about the end of slavery in the United States. A review of the first freedom announcement, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, provides students with background knowledge to further emphasize the significance of Juneteenth in American history.
This unit also takes students on a journey beyond Juneteenth, as they study specific contributions of African Americans from 1865 to the present day. Students participate in a virtual field trip to Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas and use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
- Collaboratively generate research questions about Juneteenth, The Great Migration, innovators and inventors, education, the humanities, activists, and allies.
- Use Read-Alouds, independent, and partner reading to learn about African American contributions from 1865 to the present.
- Research to find answers to their generated questions, gather information, and write a four-chapter Beyond Juneteenth book.
How this unit builds knowledge:
This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in previous grades.
- Los nativos americanos (Grade K)
- Una nueva nación: la independencia de los Estados Unidos (Grade 1)
- La Guerra Civil de los Estaods Unidos (Grade 2)
- La inmigración (Grade 2)
- Los nativos americanos (Grade 5)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit:
Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
- Martí’s Song for Freedom/Martí y sus versos por la libertad escrito por Emma Otheguy
- ¡Celebremos Juneteenth! escrito por Carole Boston Weatherford
- Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/La Historia de Dolores Huerta y César Chávez escrito por Monica Brown
- Canto de alabanza para el día: Poema para la ceremonia inaugural del mandato de Barack Obama escrito por Elizabeth Alexander, traducido por Rodrigo Rojas
Sample materials:
Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Wide-ranging texts
Amplify Caminos puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day.
Amplify Caminos includes both transadaptations and authentic texts written by Latin American and Spanish authors. Our texts feature a wide variety of authors, topics, individuals and characters representing many different socioeconomic statuses, ages, abilities, races, ethnicities, countries of origin, religions, and more.
Amplify Caminos texts include:
- Authentic literature: Authentic literature exposes students to a variety of text types and perspectives to deepen their knowledge of fascinating topics in social studies, science, literature, and the arts. Authentic texts support text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections for readers.
- Decodable Student Readers: Decodable Student Readers at grades K–2 are newly redesigned to include students from all walks of life and educational backgrounds. They feature characters with a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, ages, races, religions, and more.
- ReadWorks® texts: Amplify and ReadWorks have partnered to deliver high-quality texts curated to support the Amplify Caminos Knowledge Sequence and to extend student learning. Texts include high-interest nonfiction articles in topics in social studies, science, literature, and the arts. These texts are accompanied by vocabulary supports and standards-aligned formative assessment opportunities. Teachers can monitor their students’ progress using the ReadWorks reporting features.
Amplify Caminos Trade Book Collection Guide
Each book in our authentic literature collection was selected specifically to support and enhance the content of the K-2 Conocimiento Strand. These anchor texts are intended for use as an introduction to each domain—engaging students, piquing their curiosity, and building initial background knowledge—before diving into the deeper content of the domain Read-Alouds.
Every trade book has an instructional guide that includes the following:
- Author and illustrator
- Book summary
- The Essential Question of the Knowledge domain, connecting the book to the domain
- Key Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary words found in the book
- A group activity to reinforce and extend students’ knowledge and understanding
- A performance task to help gauge students’ comprehension of concepts in the text
- Writing prompts to expand understanding and critical thinking
- Text complexity ratings and descriptors for quantitative, qualitative, and reader/task categories
Download the Amplify Caminos Trade Book Collection Guide for Grades K–2.
Detailed information about text complexity ratings and descriptors; additional uses for the books before, during, and after domain instruction; and the complete list of domains and books for each grade level can be found in the More About the Books section of this guide.
What makes Amplify Caminos different?
Built on the Science of Reading
Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify Caminos 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.
Explicit systematic skills instruction
The skills instruction in Amplify Caminos was distinctly developed with the Spanish language in mind. Its foundational lessons are specific to the language, rather than a direct translation from Amplify CKLA’s English skills instruction.
Reading instruction begins with the vowels first, then the most common consonants, and finally the least common consonants. Students will blend and segment sounds to form syllables, and syllables to form words.
Although Spanish has a highly predictable orthography, there are a few silent letters (h is always silent, u is silent after g or q), as well as letters that can make different sounds, depending on the letters that follow them. For that reason, syllables with these letters are taught somewhat later in the progression. The same is true for syllables with infrequently occurring consonants, such as z, k, x, and w.
Coherent knowledge instruction
While students are learning how to read, the Conocimiento strand gives them authentic and engaging reasons to read.
Amplify Caminos uses spiral learning to reinforce every student’s ability to develop skills like reading, writing, speaking, and listening in Spanish that can be transferred to English. As students engage with their lessons, they explore the similarities and differences in grammar, vocabulary, writing, and language use between Spanish and English. This bridge helps students learning two languages to strengthen their knowledge in both.
Through cross-curricular content, students explore units that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world in a holistic and thoughtful way. With these units, you’ll bring the world to your students, showing them how reading can become an exciting, rewarding, and useful part of their lives.
Embedded differentiation for all learners
Amplify Caminos provides built-in differentiation strategies and supports in every lesson.
- Apoyo a la enseñanza y desafío: Support and Challenge suggestions in every lesson provide assistance or opportunities for more advanced work toward the goal of the lesson.
- Notas culturales: These point-of-use notes provide additional information about the traditions, foods, holidays, word variations, and more from across the Spanish-speaking world.
- Apoyo adicional: Every lesson in the Lectoescritura (Skills) Strand provides additional support activities suggested to reinforce foundational skills instruction. These activities can be given to any student who requires extra help, including students with special needs.
Systematic and cohesive writing instruction
Writing instruction in Amplify Caminos builds systematically and cohesively within and across grades.
In Grades K-2, writing mechanics—including handwriting and spelling—are taught in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand. Starting in Grade 1, instruction includes four steps in the writing process: planning, drafting, editing, and publishing and features lessons that have modeling, collaboration, and sharing. As students gain skills and confidence, they are able to take on more of these steps independently. Students learn to use planning techniques, including brainstorming and graphic organizers.
Beginning in Grade 4, the Amplify Caminos writing process expands to also include sharing and evaluating. In Grades 4 and 5, the writing process is no longer conceptualized as a series of scaffolded, linear steps (an important change from the Grade 3 writing process). Rather, students move between components of the writing process in a flexible manner, similar to the process mature and experienced writers follow naturally.
Amplify Caminos’ writing instruction provides a clear progression through the text types in each grade.
Because Amplify Caminos has two strands of lessons in Grades K-2, Lectoescritura and Conocimiento, students are exposed to both narrative and informational texts throughout the year. In Grades 3-5, the integrated units feature study in literary, informational, or a mix of both types of texts, depending on the content of the unit.
- Grades K–2 introduce and establish the key elements of each text type, allowing students to gain comfort and confidence writing narratives, opinions, and informative texts. This enables students to practice thinking about content in different ways, offering more depth and breadth to their understanding of core content and of the writing text types.
- By Grade 3, students will have gained significant practice in narrative, opinion/argumentative, and informational/explanatory forms of writing and will continue to apply those skills through Grade 5.
How does Amplify Caminos integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?
Amplify Caminos + mCLASS® Lectura
Achieve complete parity between English and Spanish assessments with mCLASS Lectura for K–6. mCLASS Lectura allows teachers to connect with their Spanish-speaking students face-to-face, one-on-one, and in the language most comfortable to them. The result? Valid and reliable student data reports
available in both English and Spanish, enabling teachers to pinpoint where their Spanish-speaking or emergent bilingual students really are in their skill development and what instruction to prioritize.
Amplify Caminos + Amplify Reading
Amplify Reading is an engaging, adaptive digital program that extends the learning in Amplify Caminos. Amplify Reading offers support to a large sub-group of English learners (ELs) through Spanish voice-over. Spanish voiceover instructions are available in vocabulary and sentence-level comprehension games so ELs can build their vocabulary, language, and critical comprehension skills before moving into analyzing complex texts
Demo access and sample materials
Ready to explore on your own? First, watch the videos below to learn about the program’s components and how to navigate the digital platform.
Physical materials walkthrough video
Digital navigation video
Demo access
Next, follow the instructions below to access your demo account.
- Click the CKLA and Caminos Demo button below.
- Select Log in with Amplify.
- To explore as a teacher, enter this username: t1.sfusdreviewer@demo.tryamplify.net
- To explore as a student, enter this username: s1.sfusdreviewer@demo.tryamplify.net
- Enter the password: Amplify1-sfusdreviewer
- Click the Programs and apps menu
- Select CKLA Teacher Resource Site
- Select the desire grade level
- Use the toggle to switch between English (CKLA) and Spanish (Caminos) resources.
Sample materials
Finally, click on the grade levels below to explore your requested sample units.
Conocimiento Strand:
- Guía del maestro, Conocimiento 12: Luchar por una causa
- Cuaderno de actividades, Conocimientos 7–12
- Rotafolio de imágenes, Conocimiento 12
- Tarjetas de imágenes, Conocimiento 12
Lectoescritura Strand:
Additional resources
- Caminos Program Guide
- Biliteracy and Science of Reading Principles
- Amplify Caminos Conocimiento Scopes and Sequences
- Grade K Knowledge Strand
- Grade 1 Knowledge Strand
- Grade 2 Knowledge Strand
- Grade 3 Integrated Strand
- Grade 4 Integrated Strand
- Grade 5 Intgrated Strand
S2-04: Gamification in the K–8 classroom
In this episode, Eric Cross sits down with his colleague and friend Fabian Hofmann to talk through gamification in the K–8 classroom. They discuss Fabian’s experience teaching outside of the United States, and the differences in classrooms outside of the country. Fabian explains the integration of game mechanisms in the classroom, standard-based grading, and shifting student thinking about learning by forming strong relationships. Fabian also shares how he created a new STEM course at his school revolving around his own passion for Star Wars. Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.
Fabian Hofmann (00:00):
In Mr. Hofmann’s class, I get to earn points and I get to be a Jedi. I can suspend my disbelief and I’m learning history, but at the same time, I’m traveling through the galaxy.
Eric Cross (00:13):
Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. My guest today is Fabian Hofmann. Fabian is a middle school IB educator, currently teaching seventh grade multimedia design and history at Albert Einstein Academy’s middle school here in San Diego, California. He also hosts the podcast Rebel Teacher Alliance, a podcast dedicated to encouraging and supporting teachers to rethink student engagement. Fabian’s one of the most innovative teachers that I’ve ever met. His use of technology and gamification makes learning fun and accessible for our students. And I have firsthand experience with these students because we teach on the same team and have worked alongside each other during my entire career as a teacher. In this episode, we discuss gamification of the classroom, how he approaches grading from an innovator’s mindset, and his newest STEM class, Immersive Design, where his students are working with former Disney Imagineers to completely renovate their classroom into an interactive Star Wars-themed learning environment. And now, please enjoy my conversation with my good friend and colleague, Fabian Hofmann. We’ve worked together for how many years now? How many years have you been at Einstein?
Fabian Hofmann (01:23):
Well, I started when you started, like after you were student teaching, so 2014.
Eric Cross (01:28):
OK, so it’s been a while.
Fabian Hofmann (01:30):
Yeah. And then I took two years off and I went to Hawaii. I couldn’t handle the pressure. And then I came back. So we’ve worked together for six years but known each other for eight.
Eric Cross (01:39):
What’s your origin story? We’re gonna talk about your origin story. I told you.
Fabian Hofmann (01:42):
All right, cool. Right. So when I was a little boy…no. <Laugh>
Eric Cross (01:46):
This podcast is not that long!
Fabian Hofmann (01:49):
So no, I started out, teaching in 2009. I started student teaching in Germany and was teaching history and English. Did this two-year student-teaching program there. And then, when I was done, my wife and I, she’s American, we got married and we decided to move to the States. And then I started teaching at a German cultural center called the Goethe-Institut in San Francisco. We lived in the Bay Area. And from there, after a year we moved down to San Diego; I started subbing; I worked for a year at High Tech High. I taught humanities there. And then, after that year, I ended up at Einstein teaching German because that was what was available. I didn’t want to teach German. That wasn’t like, on the top of my list. But it made sense because I had taught German in San Francisco and it kind of was like, “Well, I can do that, I guess.” And then, yeah, and then I went back to—we went to Hawaii for a couple of years and then I came back here to start teaching history. So I’ve taught like a million things essentially.
Eric Cross (02:52):
And then during that time, what’s your evolution been like in the classroom? Kind of like your view of education? And how does that play out in your day-to-day with kids?
Fabian Hofmann (02:59):
So when I started teaching here in the States, I noticed that it’s very different. Technology was much further along here than it was in Germany. So when I got here and we had like an iPad cart; I helped setting up the iPad carts. And I worked with the Chromebooks and I was like, holy, holy crap, this is so cool. Like, kids can like actually do things with this technology. And then, I mean, I love technology. I’ve had an iPad when it came out and stuff like that. And so I was like, “Oh, so how about we use this in our classroom?” And so I always moved—I moved very quickly to having students create on the iPad. And at first it was like, “Oh, we use the Apple apps and stuff.” And then I went to an ed-tech teacher summit here in San Diego and my eyes were like opened to, “Oh my God, there’s so much more than just the Apple apps.” And ever since then I was like, “OK, we’re gonna use this; we’re gonna do that.” It’s just crazy stuff that I thought was cool and that students really seemed to enjoy, because it wasn’t like a typical language class; it was more like, “Well, what can we do to create, and how can we somehow still use the language but we are learning coding at the same time, or we are creating something in 3D at the same time?” Like, I was always trying to make it have two angles: the language angle, obviously, and then also the technology angle.
Eric Cross (04:25):
What was it that kept you kind of pushing? ‘Cause I remember the beginning in the Classcraft days to where you are now, I feel like you’re like light-years ahead of where you started.
Fabian Hofmann (04:37):
So you were actually the one who showed me Classcraft, which is like a gamification portal, kind of off-the-shelf thing that you can subscribe to. It has some free features and it’s like a gamification platform where students can create characters. And then these characters go on adventures. That’s like their avatar, and they get experience points in the classroom game and stuff happens. You can create, like, adventure paths for them. So if you have an assignment that you want students to do that has different steps, so, that could be an adventure path. That’s what I liked about Classcraft, is like this idea of like, “OK, we’re taking a game and applying it.” But it wasn’t enough for me. And so I started developing my own classroom game. I did some reading. I met online with John Meehan, worked with him. I read the book by Michael Matera, Explore Like a Pirate. And so it just broadened my whole world to, or just opened the world of gamification to me.
Eric Cross (05:38):
You present on gamification; you mentor other teachers on gamification. You host a podcast where you talk about it. But for those people who haven’t done it or gotten into it or maybe have a perception of it maybe that’s not quite accurate, can you talk a little bit about like what gamification is and what it’s not?
Fabian Hofmann (05:54):
- So the biggest difference…we all know game-based learning, because we all do it. We use Quizlet; we use quizzes; we use Gimkit, Blookit, Jeopardy, anything like that. Those are game based. That’s game-based learning. So using a game to facilitate learning. Which is great. I love game-based learning too. But the difference is with gamification, in the pure definition of gamification, is that you’re using game mechanics and elements and apply them to a non-game setting. A couple of smart educators were like, “Why don’t we just do that in our classroom?” And so we borrow these elements, these mechanics, these game mechanics, like getting experience points, and applying them to the classroom. So anything that students do, they earn points. So they turn in an assignment, that gets you a hundred points. They go and do something extra for the class, they get 50 points. Whatever it is, whatever your value is. That’s one aspect, like a leaderboard, virtual money, stuff like that that just in reality is not necessary, but you’re putting it somewhere where it doesn’t exist. And all of a sudden students have this weird shift in their view where it’s like, “Well, school is school, but in Mr. Hofmann’s class, I get to earn points and I get to be a Jedi and I can suspend my disbelief and I’m learning history, but at the same time I’m like traveling through the galaxy.” And it’s just amazing how that shift happens just because we’re changing the language a little bit.
Eric Cross (07:29):
Yeah. You seem to have like tapped into something that is already kind of in that zeitgeist culture thing. We’re gaming and it appeals to—I know it appeals to our students regardless of how they feel about even the subject that’s being taught, the fact that they’re immersed into this environment where they’re taking on this character role and they’re part of this bigger narrative. And you’ve so dynamically constructed this whole storyline and these experiences, and they’re learning experiences, like, they’re learning, but they’re enjoying it in a different way. But I wanted to ask you about something that I really admire that you do, and it’s how you grade. And I remember the first time you said this, we were in a parent-teacher conference and we’re all talking on Zoom with these parents and we’re all sharing our spiel. And you go, I don’t grade kids. They grade themselves. Can you talk a little bit about your conferencing with students? The rubric you use like that that, I’ve really been paying close attention to lately.
Fabian Hofmann (08:24):
Yeah. So, when I was working in Hawaii, I noticed I was teaching English, and grading papers in English is really not fun. Like, that is like my least favorite thing. Some teachers are like, “Yeah, it’s grading! Awesome! I can read stuff!” For me, it’s like, yes, I like to read stuff, but I—and it was the same in German class. I gave them feedback. Sometimes I would use oral feedback, I would, like, record stuff for them, and they would listen to it, and then they would work on it. And so I noticed when I’m giving them feedback and its oral feedback, they’re more inclined to actually work on the stuff that I was critiquing, versus when I sat down and I wrote something. They would never read it. Or some would, and most of them would not. And so I was like, this sucks. <Laughs> And I encountered this book called Hacking Assessment, because it’s such a waste of time, right? You spend so much time, because you wanna do the due diligence. And for those few kids who actually do care, that benefits them. But I want this to benefit everybody. And so I read this book called Hacking Assessment, by Starr Sackstein. And she talks about how she put the onus of grading into the student hands, essentially. And so she did standard-based grading and essentially said, “You know what? Here’s the thing. I am not going to grade you anymore. You are going to get a rubric that we are going to dissect and explain and make sure that you understand. And then you sit down and you give yourself a grade based on this rubric.” And I was like, “Wow, what? That is….I can do that? And the cool thing about this book is that she covers all the roadblocks that we as teachers have. And she explains, like, she gives examples on what we can do to convince parents, to convince admin, to convince the community, convince other teachers why what we’re doing is much, much better for a student than the previous system is. If you think about it, when a student comes into school, they start at a hundred, they start the year at a hundred, and all they’re doing is just lose points. And they’re just trying to keep up. Right? And it kind of flips this on its head, because not only with the gamification, I’m changing the name of the game, literally, but I’m also now with ungrading, I’m giving them the responsibility and the accountability to really look at their stuff and really be critical about how they’re doing. And I taught like normal in my first year in Hawaii when I was teaching English, by me grading everything and turning it and giving it to them. And I used peer grade and I did all that kind of stuff. But in the end, I was always the one responsible for the grade. But then I started to do the ungrading move and I just started to conference with kids and started giving them feedback, with the help of gamification, because there’s like a bunch of rubrics you can use to make it more fun. But all of a sudden, kids that in the year before would’ve failed my class in English, because they were English learners; they were just not into it; they didn’t care as much…all of a sudden that flipped completely. I did the exact same content again. We had to write an essay and all of a sudden, the essays were all like, up there, because we sat down, we talked about it, we went through this review process, gave them feedback. In the end, they could say, “Hey, I want this grade. And then I still have the last say. I would say, say, “Yep, sounds good.” Or “If you wanna get an A on this, or whatever it was, a 4, then here are the things you still need to do.” And because I did that, all of a sudden, the students are like, “Oh, that’s all I need to do?” And then they did it and turned it in, and all of a sudden, they got a 4. It’s, it’s amazing how that the conferencing with students, how that shifted their attitude. And I got to know my students way better than I ever had.
Eric Cross (12:20):
Yeah. That’s, that’s one of the things that I’ve noticed. And I watch you get so much more facetime with students having conferences than I do. I find myself grading…and, you know, at our school, it’s mastery-based instruction, so students can retake assessments, but you’re absolutely right: I give a grade; they get a score; and some of ’em score lower, but in their minds it’s like, OK, I’m done with that. And even though they can retake it, such a small percentage actually do. But the information that I give them in the feedback is often not read. But you’re sitting down and having a conversation and really listening and there’s so much more of a connection that you have. I just think it’s so rich. But the question I have now is how do you make the time for those conversations with those kids in your class?
Fabian Hofmann (13:01):
Yeah, it’s definitely a learning curve. Like the first year I did it, it was horrible. Like <laugh>, it cost so much time. Because kids came, because when it was time to grading, because I had not figured it out yet, I had not streamlined it. And I’m still learning. I’m still trying to figure this out and do it even better. But the idea is that you do something, you check in with me really quick. That doesn’t have to be like a full-on conference. It’s—I walk around or I call them up and say, “Hey, I saw you working on this. How did, how are you doing there? How many—” Like, let’s say I use a rubric that gives them crystals for different parts. They write the introduction; they write a bibliography; whatever, so I can bring them up and say, “Hey, how is the bibliography looking?” And they’re like, “Oh yeah, I’m missing…like, I only have like one or two sources.” And then we say, “OK, so right now you would get two crystals out of three because you have something. When you come back, you get all the crystals.” And so that’s a gamified aspect again, right? They’re coming back to get more crystals, not because they wanna do better necessarily. But because they’re like, “Hey, I wanna get those crystals because it gives me points in the game.” They are very good about like grading themselves and kind of like, they’re really hard on themselves sometimes too. And I have students who are like—
Eric Cross (14:08):
Yeah, they are.
Fabian Hofmann (14:09):
“Well, how can you make sure that people don’t just give themselves an eight?” And I’m like, “Because there’s a system in place that that does not happen. Like, there is a rubric, and if they cannot back up what they want, then it’s not gonna happen. They can write an eight all day long. I’m still the person entering it into the grade book!” <Laugh>
Eric Cross (14:27):
And let me premise this for listeners who don’t teach at IB schools, which is probably like most people.
Fabian Hofmann (14:31):
Yeah.
Eric Cross (14:32):
So IB, we teach zero through eight on a rubric system. And seven-eight is kind of like the A, kind of, quote-unquote. I know IB people are probably cringing when I say that, but <laugh>, you know, when you transfer it to like a high school? Seven, eight would be the highest score, you know. Four, five, six. So when we say eight, we’re talking about the highest score.
Fabian Hofmann (14:49):
Yeah. And so it’s really interesting because I can call them out on stuff, and it’s a one-on-one conversation, right? And if, especially if they turn something in that is not great, and they give themselves like a—I don’t know, like a C, let’s say, or a four, or whatever it is—and they’re like, “And you’re happy with that?” And then they’re standing there and they’re like, like, “No…?” <Laugh> And all of a sudden there’s a conversation. Where it’s like, and then I can be very intentionally like, “Hey man, I know you can do better. I would not—I’m not gonna accept this. I’m gonna push you to turn this in again.” And most of them actually sit down and do more. It’s a process. It takes a while. It’s not pretty in the beginning. But the payout is, so it’s incredible. Just like the amount of time that I get to spend with students, like specifically talking to them about things that they still need to work on, celebrating stuff they do, it’s incredible. Like the relationships are just so different than what I had years ago.
Eric Cross (15:50):
And you’ve also created a system where we preach—and schools always talk about this Dweck growth mindset and not having a fixed mindset, but I wonder how many opportunities or how systems are set up that are actually fixed, where it’s like one and done, OK, you did this exam and then that’s it, but there’s no opportunities to grow until the next exam! Which is gonna be….or whatever the assessment is, which is a whole different area of content or different topic or whatever. But here, you’re actually able to facilitate this growth mindset and push back if a student says, like, “Well that’s—I just got a four,” and you can actually pour into them and talk to them. And do you ever hear more about a student’s story as to why they were where they’re at, as you’re having these conferences?
Fabian Hofmann (16:29):
Oh, absolutely. Like for some kids who, who are just like not getting the work done or whatever, there’s always something where it’s not because they’re not smart or because they’re lazy. It’s like, sometimes, literally they tell you, well, ’cause I ask them, “Hey, can you work on this at home?” Or “Can you come in during lunch, after school, whatever? I’m always here.” And then they drop some bombs on you, like, “Hey, my parents, like, divorced. My mom lives in Mexico.” ‘Cause we live in San Diego. So some students live in Mexico and come to school here in San Diego and they get stuck at the border or, even though they have internet at home, they have to share. It’s like kind of what we experienced during the pandemic, where it’s like, there’s like three kids at home and one computer. Stuff like that. Right? And it’s these stories where you’re like, first of all, it’s very humbling ’cause they’re going through stuff that I never had to go through. I mean, my childhood was not amazing, but compared to what they’re going through, it’s like, “Oh yeah, that exists.” And it kind of like puts you in your place a little bit. It’s also because of the system that I use. There’s no late, really, in my class. Some of the students are like, “I need to subtract points from my grade because I turned it in late.” And I’m like, “No, no, no, no, no. The fact that you’re doing it is quote-unquote punishment enough ’cause you have to do it outside of class, you have to do it at home; you have to do it during lunch. Like, that is, that is not comfortable. You’re still doing it. So why would I punish you by taking a grade away? That doesn’t make sense. You got the work done. That’s all that matters.” I try to be that person that like is understanding. It’s still pushing them to do their best and reminding them and harping on them. And with the spark that I threw in there and fanning that flame of them becoming a better student because I’m supporting them. You’re supporting them. We’re all—our seventh-grade team is incredibly supportive. And then some people might push back, like “That’s not preparing them for the real world.” This is the real world.
Eric Cross (18:20):
There’s a lot of life skills that they’re gonna need…but like, they’re 12 right now! Or 11 or six, you know, whatever it is! Let’s—we can hold off on taxes and the crushing weight of adult reality later on. You got it done! Well-done! I do wanna talk about this thing that is your baby lately, this embryonic thing that you’ve been growing and I’ve been fortunate to be able to watch it since its inception. But you have this class that you created from scratch that’s essentially a STEM class. Two questions: Why did you create the class? And you’ve done some uncommon things. I’m gonna leave it wide open just for you to talk about it because it’s your baby and I’ve been fortunate to be able to watch it from the start. So can you talk about that?
Fabian Hofmann (19:01):
So yeah, so I’m obsessed with Star Wars. I think that’s putting it mildly. I love Star Wars. Always have. My classroom game is called Jedi Academy. And I’ve been playing around with this idea of creating a room that is more immersive. So I put a space, like a window to space, on my wall. I have the Millennium Falcon in my room. I have like a bunch of Resistance stuff or whatever. Anything Star Wars, you can find in my classroom. It’s not like overloaded, but I was very intentional in the things that I put in there, because I want my students to come in and feel like they are playing the game. And one of those things that I used was like smells; I used sounds to try to immerse them more. And then so one day I was like, wouldn’t it be cool to create a classroom that looks literally like a Star Wars set? Like you walked onto a set. Onto a spaceship, onto a rebel base, onto whatever it is. And how can I, how can I make that happen? And then we talked about it and you were like, “Yeah, how about you let the kids do it?” And that’s kind of how the course was born. And now I have students in my classroom who are in the process of designing a classroom based on Star Wars. And they’re gonna build everything. And we’re all learning at the same time. I’ve never done anything like this. I do like STEM, but I’ve never like actually made it a class. And so I contacted a bunch of people on LinkedIn ’cause I was like, it would be cool to talk to an Imagineer and to get like my foot in the door at Disney and then have an Imagineer come in and tell us about what they did. I have this book called The Art of Galaxy’s Edge, which is like the Star Wars land in Disneyland. And I just looked at the list and was like, “Who could be a good person to contact here?” And it said one of them was Eric Baker, and it said, “Executive Creative Director.” And I googled him or I looked for him on LinkedIn and I found him and I was like, “I’m just gonna send him a message. I’m just gonna tell him what I do in my class in history, gamification and all that, and they’re Jedi, and blah, blah, blah.” And he wrote back! Like, he was the only person that wrote back. I wrote a bunch of people and he was like, “Yeah, I’d be super-interested. I don’t know what you want me to do, but I’m down.” And so it created this relationship between me and Eric Baker who used to work for Imagineering, who are like the people at Disney who create the rides in the park and all that. And I talked to him and he gave me some feedback on the room. And then he was like, “Oh, so if you ever want me to talk to students, I’m down.” I was like, “Uh, yes!” And so we had him Zoom in. He talked about his life and how he became one of the people to look for when it comes to theme park design and to create immersive experiences. And I contacted other people on YouTube, like somebody who is like a Star Wars room builder. He’s willing to chat with us about this project. And then, I discovered that there is this thing called Imagination Campus at Disneyland, which they offer workshops on immersive storytelling. And I was like, “Oh, that’s what I want! I want my students to tell a story with my room!” And so I wrote up a proposal. Took a long time, but they signed—our admin signed it off. We kind of financed it. And then, about two weeks ago, you came along, another teacher, and we took 30something students to Disneyland and they did this workshop where they learned all about like how the Imagineers design story elements and put them in the parks. And then we took all of the kids to Galaxy’s Edge. And we took a bunch of photos. We went on the rides together. We had this collective experience. And it was life-changing for a lot of students. Because, I mean, we’re a Title One school; there’s like, we have about 60% free or reduced lunch. And a lot of them had never been to Disneyland. About half of them had never been. Some of them went when they were little. And so just watching their faces, going to Disneyland, watching them walk into Galaxy’s Edge, experiencing all these things, it was just, my mind was just blown. And I like literally, I don’t know if you noticed, but I was just smiling. Literally.
Eric Cross (23:19):
You were loving it.
Fabian Hofmann (23:20):
Yeah. Then we come back and we have these amazing conversations about design and what they noticed and how they created this immersive experience in their world. And we talk about how we can bring this back to our classroom. And parents are sending emails saying, “Oh my God, we’re so happy that you did this for our kids and you’re the coolest teacher.”
Eric Cross (23:39):
You touched on something that I wanted to ask you about. So you stay connected to people that inspire you, I feel like, or you have a pretty broad network of educators and professionals. Like, how much does that play into what you do in the classroom and the ideas that you have, as your network or your community of people?
Fabian Hofmann (23:57):
So the one network that helped me the most is Twitter. And I know people have opinions about Twitter, for good reason. But when I started to gamify, I just started to follow specific hashtags for areas that interested me. And that was gamification; eXPdup, which is like Explore like a Pirate—it’s an acronym. And it just opened up all these people, all these people, all these educators who are out there just like doing cool stuff and sharing it on Twitter. And I started connecting with them. And one of them is on my podcast. We met through Twitter; we started sharing stuff. We started talking about the things that we do. We both happened to have a gamified classroom. And so we connected over this thing Twitter, and now we’re like friends and we’re presenting together at Q and all those places. Teacher Twitter is incredibly supportive and people want to show you the stuff that they work on, just like I do. Like when I have stuff that I worked out, I shared it on there. And it’s so fun to hear back from teachers saying, “Hey, this looks awesome.” It’s just, it makes you feel good and it makes you feel like, “Oh, what I’m doing is not a total waste of time.” <Laugh>
Eric Cross (25:10):
<laugh> Those thoughts do creep in, right? Like, even though you’re doing something awesome and you might think so, we become our own worst critic sometimes, or we always see the things that we can improve and we overlook the things that we’re doing well. Fabian, where can people hear more about you, about gamification, about what you’re doing in the classroom, about how you’re innovating? I know you talk about this stuff with some—and you talk about it with some pretty legit people in the education industry. So can you tell some folks where they can hear more about it?
Fabian Hofmann (25:37):
So you can find me on Twitter at Hofmann edu—one F, two Ns—edu, and then I also host a podcast called Rebel Teacher Alliance. There’s three of us, where we talk all things gamification. But we also talk to teachers who don’t gamify at all. And we just, we just invite people who are interesting, who have stuff to share, who do cool stuff. You can find the podcast on the internet at Rebel Teacher Alliance dot com. Follow us there. If you wanna be a guest, just send a message and we’ll get you on.
Eric Cross (26:10):
Fabian, I’m gonna gush on you right now, but when you came back to Einstein, I was so happy because I knew that you sharpened me; you make me a better science teacher. Your innovation, your passion for kids, your sense of humor, your outside-the-box thinking, all of that. And when you got onto the seventh-grade team and you were here, I just knew that it was going to be awesome. And it has been. And so as a teaching colleague, as a friend, dude, you just rock, man. I’m super proud of you. And thank you for making me better.
Fabian Hofmann (26:40):
Aw, now I’m starting to cry. It’s like, don’t…
Eric Cross (26:43):
<laugh>. All true, dude. All true, my brother.
Fabian Hofmann (26:46):
Thank you.
Eric Cross (26:46):
All true. And thank you for letting me be part of the journey and I will definitely be walking down the hall asking you questions as I try to implement some of these great ideas that you’re doing with kids. Thanks so much for listening. And now we wanna hear more about you. Do you know any inspiring educators? Nominate them as a future guest on Science Connections by emailing STEM at amplifycom.wpengine.com. That’s S T E M at amplifycom.wpengine.com. Make sure to click subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and join our Facebook group, Science Connections: The Community. Until next time.
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Meet the guest
Fabian Hofmann is a middle school International Baccalaureate teacher and host of the Podcast, Rebel Teacher Alliance. He is currently teaching 7th grade History and Multimedia Design just down the hall from Eric Cross at Albert Einstein Academies Middle School in San Diego. To engage students, he uses technology and gamification. Students embark on a year-long journey through a galaxy far, far away to learn the ways of the “Force” and some world history along the way. Follow him on Twitter and check out the Rebel Teacher Alliance podcast.
About Science Connections
Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher.
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Meet Our Guest(s):
Jennifer Carolan
Jennifer Carolan is co-founder and general partner at Reach Capital, a venture capital fund that supports entrepreneurs bringing leading-edge technology to education. She started her career as a classroom teacher in Chicago, where she taught for seven years in traditional district schools. She moved to Silicon Valley in 2000 to attend Stanford University and used her teaching experience to support edtech founders at the NewSchools Venture Fund. She co-created and taught the popular course Innovations In Teaching at Stanford University and co-founded her first fund NewSchools Seed Fund in 2011. She co-founded Reach Capital in 2015. Reach is an education technology fund based in San Francisco. They are currently investing in Reach 4— a $215 million fund focused on education technologies designed to improve access to opportunity.
Meet our hosts: Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer
Bethany Lockhart Johnson is an elementary school educator and author. Prior to serving as a multiple-subject teacher, she taught theater and dance, and now loves incorporating movement and creative play into her classroom. Bethany is committed to helping students find joy in discovering their identities as mathematicians. In addition to her role as a full-time classroom teacher, Bethany is a Student Achievement Partners California Core Advocate and is active in national and local mathematics organizations. Bethany is a member of the Illustrative Mathematics Elementary Curriculum Steering Committee and serves as a consultant, creating materials to support families during distance learning.
Dan Meyer taught high school math to students who didn’t like high school math. He has advocated for better math instruction on CNN, Good Morning America, Everyday With Rachel Ray, and TED.com. He earned his doctorate from Stanford University in math education and is currently the Dean of Research at Desmos, where he explores the future of math, technology, and learning. Dan has worked with teachers internationally and in all 50 United States and was named one of Tech & Learning’s 30 Leaders of the Future.
Quotes
“The pace of change and the evolution is happening at such a rapid clip that it's hard to say where things are gonna be in five years. That said, I'm a believer that learning is inherently social and that there are these sort of biological realities of us as human beings that technology really isn't gonna change.”
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Identifying and addressing pseudoscience
Meet Our Guest(s):
Bertha Vazquez
Bertha Vazquez recently retired from teaching middle school science in Miami-Dade County Public Schools after 33 years in the classroom. She is the education director of The Center for Inquiry which currently includes three projects, The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES), ScienceSaves, and Generation Skeptics.
A seasoned traveler who has visited all seven continents, she enjoys introducing the world of nature and science to young, eager minds. An educator with National Board Certification, she is the recipient of several national and local honors, including the 2014 Samsung’s $150,000 Solve For Tomorrow Contest and the $5,000 Charles C. Bartlett National Excellence in Environmental Award in 2009. She was Miami-Dade Science Teacher of the Year in 1997, 2008, and 2017. Thanks to the success of TIES, Bertha was the recipient of the 2017 winner of the National Association of Biology Teachers Evolution Education Award.
Meet our host: Eric Cross
Eric Cross is a seventh grade science/technology teacher, grade level lead, and digital learning innovator for Albert Einstein Academies, International Baccalaureate schools. He is also an adjunct professor of learning and technology at the University of San Diego and a Google certified innovator. Eric earned a bachelor’s degree from Azusa Pacific University and a Master of Education from the University of San Diego. He had 17 years of experience working with at-risk youth and underserved populations before becoming a middle school teacher. By building relationships with students, colleagues, and the community, he has become an empowered leader in and out of the classroom. Through meaningful learning experiences centered around student agency, STEM has become accessible to students through highly engaging lesson design, thoughtful integration of digital tools, and pedagogy that engages students from all backgrounds.
Quotes
"We teach these skills in a science class, but hopefully they use those skills when they encounter pseudoscience. So definitely, what we do on a day-to-day basis is really important for society."
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