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Write better feedback for better math learning.

Research suggests that Black and Latino students pay attention to what teachers say about their work in math class, and that teacher feedback can affect their learning, motivation, and sense of belonging. Learn how to give better feedback with AI.

Two women smiling and looking at a computer screen in an office setting, surrounded by papers and educational materials.

Overview

With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Amplify researched the features of effective feedback for underrepresented minority students and used that research to create a generative AI tool that helps teachers give students feedback about math.

This project resulted in the following work:

  • Two literature reviews about feedback in mathematics, especially for underrepresented minority students.
  • A prompt for a large language model (LLM) that would take in written feedback and offer feedback on the feedback, helping its author learn principles of effective feedback using  principles of effective feedback.
  • A professional development activity in the Desmos Classroom platform that engages teachers in writing feedback messages about student thinking and receiving feedback on their feedback via an API call to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Literature reviews

We asked researchers to review literature about feedback, especially for underrepresented minority students. The researchers compiled the following literature reviews:

Stereotype Threat and Feedback (Picho-Kiroga)

Teacher Feedback: A Brief Literature Review (Good)

LLM prompt

We wrote an LLM prompt designed to take in the following context:

  • The text of a math problem
  • A student’s response to the problem
  • A teacher’s feedback to the student
  • The principles of effective feedback we distilled from the literature reviews

The prompt gives teachers feedback on their feedback, helping them learn to give effective feedback using the principles of effective feedback. The prompt and sample response:

You are a helpful and patient mathematics instructional coach who needs to support teachers who are trying to give feedback to their students on mathematics problems.

You will give feedback to teachers helping them give more effective feedback to their students. Your goal is to help teachers improve their feedback using several principles. It is important that you also use these principles when you give feedback to the teachers.

First, feedback must communicate high standards and the message that a person is capable of meeting high standards. Those responses might look like:

  • “I am giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.”
  • “The expectations in this course are high and I know you can do great work. The feedback here is designed to help you get there.”

Second, feedback must emphasize mastery goals rather than performance goals. Feedback that incorporates mastery goals:

  • Is specific and substantive rather than one that is comparative/fosters competition.
  • Encourages perseverance, focuses on development of competence on the relevant topic and/or domain.
  • Acknowledges (praises) effort, improvement, and tells the person what is right about their work.
  • Emphasizes achieving a standard relative to mastery of content and prior performance, rather than focusing on relative performance (comparison to others).

Third, feedback needs to be in language that the person receiving it can easily understand. Feedback to students should be written at a level that a grade 6 student can read and understand. Feedback to teachers should be written at a level that a grade 12 student can read and understand.

The feedback should be concise. It should not tell the teacher the exact feedback to offer. Rather it should ask a question designed to help them think more about the principles of effective feedback we have described above.

For context, you will receive a [mathematics problem], [student response], [teacher feedback message]. Here is an example of how you can support a teacher with providing feedback that follows the principles of effective feedback:

[mathematics problem] Write the equation of this line. The line is given by the equation y = ⅔ x + 4

[student response] y = 3/2 x + 4

[teacher feedback message] That is incorrect. Try again.

Your feedback to the teacher might be:

Giving effective feedback is challenging and all of us can learn it. Here you told the student their answer is incorrect, which is important information, but doesn’t tell them what part of the task they got right. Can you change your feedback to emphasize an area where they are correct or, if you don’t see anything correct, to give them a first question to help them start?

Given the following a [mathematics problem], [student response], and [teacher feedback message], write a three-to-five sentence message to the teacher that gives them feedback on their feedback and provides an example.

A graph shows a line segment on a grid. A student answers "3" for its length, the teacher says "This is not correct," and LLM feedback suggests a more supportive response.

Teacher professional development activity

The OpenAI ChatGPT interface could help teachers develop more effective feedback, but working with it is more complex too. Teachers must input a math question, a student answer, and their original message into the context window.

We wanted to simplify that process by embedding an API call to ChatGPT in an environment that automatically collects and injects the context information. To do that, we used the Desmos Classroom Activity Builder, the same platform we use to author our Desmos Math 6-A1 curriculum.

In the professional development activity we created, teachers think about how students might respond to common math questions in middle school. They brainstorm their own responses to common wrong answers. And then they receive feedback from a helpful generative AI agent.

A screen that says: “Miko's cat has an 8-centimeter bow tie. What does the model predict for its height? The most common wrong answer to this question is 40. What feedback might you offer that student?” Next to the question is a graph that shows a scatterplot, a line through the scatterplot and Miko's cat off the line at y = 40.

Prototype: AI-enhanced Feedback Support

Desmos Math contains an interface that lets teachers write feedback to students through its software platform. We created an activity that would a) help teachers learn how to give asset-based mathematics feedback, b) introduce educators to the affordances of AI in their practice.

To use the activity:

  1. Click this activity link.
  2. Log in with a Google or Amplify account.

You will interact with ideas about feedback and several incorrect student answers. When you give your feedback on those student answers, you’ll receive AI-generated feedback on your feedback. You can revise and resubmit multiple times.

A video of the screens in the prototype that shows the AI typing a response to the teacher about the feedback for the student’s wrong answer.

User Testing: Report of Results

We invited middle school mathematics teachers to participate in this teacher feedback activity through one of our email communications. 95 teachers responded affirmatively and 44 of them ultimately participated. They accessed the activity and completed a survey about their experience.

Overall, we have significant qualitative evidence in survey responses that teachers are interested in learning more about giving effective feedback and that they are at least curious about generative AI. This particular instantiation has significant room for improvement and we will continue to investigate ways to improve the kinds of feedback Black and Latino students receive from their teachers. Read more in the below report.

Asset-oriented AI feedback for Black & Latino students at scale: Results of user testing

Contact us

ai-prototype@amplify.com

mCLASS Professional Development

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Amplify Desmos Math California

Welcome, K–8 Reviewers!

We’re honored to introduce you to Amplify Desmos Math California. We’re confident you’ll find this comprehensive program to be a powerful tool for bringing the vision of the California Math Framework to life in classrooms across the state.

Please start with the video on the right to learn how to navigate the program and access key features referenced within our submission. Below you’ll find additional resources to support your review.

Your Review Samples

As a curriculum that incorporates both print and digital resources, it’s important that you explore both our physical materials (delivered to you in grade-specific tubs) and our digital materials (accessible through our platform). We invite you to explore both types of resources using the instructions and tips below.

Print Samples

Your print samples should have arrived in grade-specific tubs with a copy of two Reviewer binders. The K-5 Reviewer binder is contained within the Grade K shipping box and the Grade 6-8 Reviewer binder can be located in the Grade 6 shipping box. As you begin the process of organizing your materials, please refer to the inventory checklist found inside each tub as well as within your Reviewer Binder.

Digital Samples

In order to access your digital samples, you’ll need to log into our platform using your unique login credentials found on a Digital Access Flyer inside of your Reviewer Binder. Once you have located the flyer:

  • Click the orange button below to access the platform.
  • Click “Log in with Amplify.”
  • Enter the username and password provided on your Digital Access Flyer.
Digital Access

Navigation Tips

Below you will find helpful tips for navigating Amplify Desmos Math California. We recommend reading these pages alongside the program’s print materials and digital experience to gain a deeper understanding of the program. 

Click the links below to read about navigating program features including:

Built for California

The Amplify Desmos Math California program is designed around the vision articulated in the California Mathematics Framework to enable all California students to become powerful users of mathematics. Our program incorporates the latest research in student learning, meaning that we:

  • Focus on the Big Ideas: Amplify Desmos Math California’s courses, units, and lessons are centered around the Big Ideas. Big Ideas, like standards, are not considered in isolation. In addition to each unit and lesson’s focal Big Ideas, Amplify Desmos Math California also provides connections among the Big Ideas across units and lessons.
  • Center on open and engaging tasks: Amplify Desmos Math California is grounded in engaging tasks meant to address students’ often-asked question: “Why am I learning this?”  Students are invited into learning with low-floor, high-ceiling tasks that provide an entry point for all. Open tasks in Amplify Desmos Math California provide the space for students to try on multiple strategies and represent their thinking in different ways, and allow student explanation and discussion to serve as the center of the classroom. All lessons offer both print and digital representations of lessons.
  • Provide enhanced digital experiences: Amplify Desmos Math California includes digitally-enhanced lesson activities, incorporating interactive digital tools alongside print materials. These purposefully-placed resources allow students to visualize mathematical concepts, receive actionable feedback while practicing, encounter personalized learning support from an onscreen tutor, and engage in discussions about their thinking and approaches.
  • Treat core instruction and differentiation as integral partners: The Amplify Desmos Math California curriculum provides teachers with lessons, strategies, and resources to eliminate barriers and increase access to grade-level content without reducing the mathematical demand of tasks. Every activity has multiple entry points to ensure that all students are supported and challenged. Intervention and personalized learning activities are directly connected to lesson content and offer students the individualized support as they dive into the mathematics.

Category 1: Mathematics Content/Alignment with the Standards

Standards Maps

The links below provide the Standards Maps for Amplify Desmos Math California for each grade level.

Evaluation Criteria Map

Linked here is the Evaluation Criteria Map for grades K–8. Please note that you will need to be logged into the digital platform to access the links in the Evaluation Criteria Map.

Standards for Mathematical Practice

The links below provide the alignment of Amplify Desmos Math California to the Standards for Mathematical Practice at each grade level.

Drivers of Investigation and Content Connections

Amplify Desmos Math California incorporates the Drivers of Investigation (DIs) and Content Connection (CCs) throughout the program. Throughout the year, students engage with open and authentic tasks of varying durations — from lesson activities to unit-level Explore lessons and longer course-level Investigations. Every lesson and investigation opportunity is grounded around the why, how, and what of the learning experience, and helps teachers bring mathematical concepts to life. 

A three-column chart details: Drivers of Investigation, Standards for Mathematical Practice, and Content Connections, each with their respective codes and brief descriptions.

California English Language Development Standards

The links below provide the alignment of Amplify Desmos Math California to the California English Language Development Standards at each grade level.

California Environmental Principles and Concepts

Select lessons, performance tasks, and investigations across grade levels in Amplify Desmos Math California are aligned to one or more of the California Environmental Principles and Concepts. Click the links below to view how the California Environmental Principles and Concepts are represented in each grade level.

Category 2: Program Organization

Amplify Desmos Math California thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals.

Big Ideas

Amplify Desmos Math California’s courses, units, and lessons are centered around the Big Ideas. In addition to each unit and lesson’s focal Big Ideas, Amplify Desmos Math California also provides connections among the Big Ideas across units and lessons. Please refer to Keeping the Big Ideas at the Center (linked below) for specific lesson designs and alignment with the Big Ideas for each grade level.

Program Structure

Amplify Desmos Math California combines the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.

A diagram showing three stages: Core instruction, Integrated personalized learning, and Embedded intervention, under Screening and progress monitoring with daily tiered support.

Lessons and units in Amplify Desmos Math California are designed around a Proficiency Progression, a model that steps out problem-based learning by systematically building students’ curiosity into lasting grade-level understanding.

Five steps for learning: 1. Activate prior knowledge, 2. Collaborate, 3. Refine ideas, 4. Guide to understanding, 5. Practice and extend for lasting understanding.

In the Proficiency Progression, lessons begin by activating students’ natural curiosity and offering opportunities to generate new ideas through collaboration. Teachers are then able to refine ideas through intentional facilitation and guide students to grade-level understanding, while students retain the ability to use different strategies and methods to show their comprehension of the content. Students are provided ample opportunities to develop lasting understanding.

Scope and Sequence

Below you can view the scope and sequence for each grade level. 

A chart displaying seven kindergarten math units with themes, number of instructional days, and assessment days, totaling 136 suggested instructional days.
Grade 1 instructional units overview showing 7 units on math topics, total suggested days is 153, with each unit listing instructional and assessment days.
Grade 2 math curriculum map showing 8 units with topics, number of instructional and assessment days, and total days; suggested instructional days: 156.
Seven instructional units are shown, each with a title, icon, number of instructional and assessment days, and total days; a note suggests 150 instructional days in total.
A Grade 4 math curriculum overview showing seven units with titles, number of instructional days, and assessment days; the suggested total instructional days is 152.
A curriculum map displays seven math units with icons, titles, instructional days, and assessment days, totaling 149 suggested instructional days.
A chart showing Grade 6 math units, each with instructional days, assessment days, and optional days. Total suggested instructional days is 142, plus 19 optional days.
Overview of Grade 7 math curriculum units, showing unit titles, number of instructional, assessment, and optional days for each, with a total of 125 instructional days plus 22 optional days.
Eight illustrated cards display Grade 8 math units, each with the unit title, topics covered, number of instructional and assessment days, and a total of 131 suggested instructional days.
Curriculum chart showing eight units split into two volumes, with topics, instructional days, assessment days, and optional days listed for each unit over an accelerated 6th-grade year.
A chart displays the breakdown of Accelerated 7 math units, indicating topics, number of instructional days, assessment days, and optional days for each of the nine units across two volumes.

Lesson Design and Structure

A four-part diagram shows: Warm-Up, Activities with a graph of student ideas to grade-level understanding, Synthesis with notes, and Practice and differentiation with students building a structure.

Amplify Desmos Math California is designed with a structured approach to problem-based learning that systematically builds on students’ curiosity and allows students to grapple with the Big Ideas of the California Framework. Every lesson activity is organized into a Launch, Monitor, Connect format.

  • Launch: The launch is a short, whole-class conversation that creates a need or excitement, provides clarity, or helps students connect their prior knowledge or personal experience, which ensures that everyone has access to the upcoming work.  
  • Monitor: As students work individually, in pairs, or in groups, teachers explore student thinking, ask questions, and provide support to help move the conversations closer to the intended math learning goal. 
  • Connect: Teachers connect students’ ideas to the key learning goals of the lesson, facilitating class discussions that help synthesize and solidify the Big Ideas.  

Each lesson within Amplify Desmos Math California follows the same structure. 

  • Warm-Up: Every Amplify Desmos Math California lesson begins with a whole class Warm-Up. Warm-Ups are an invitational Instructional Routine intended to provide a social moment at the start of the lesson in which every student has an opportunity to contribute. Warm-Ups may build fluency or highlight a strategy that may be helpful in the current lesson or act as an invitation into the math of the lesson.
  • Lesson Activities: Each lesson includes one or two activities. These activities are the heart of each lesson. Students notice, wonder, explore, calculate, predict, measure, explain their thinking, use math to settle disputes, create challenges for their classmates, and more. Guidance is provided to help teachers launch, monitor, and connect student thinking over the course of the activity.
  • Synthesis and Show What You Know: The Synthesis is an opportunity for the teacher and students to pull all the learning of the lesson together into a lesson takeaway. Students engage in a facilitated discussion to consolidate and refine their ideas about the learning goals, and the teacher synthesizes students’ learning. Show What You Know is a daily assessment opportunity for students to show what they know about the learning goals and what they are still learning.
  • Centers (K–5): Centers are hands-on activities for students in grades K–5 to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts. In grades K–1, students have Daily Center Time built into every lesson. 
  • Practice and Differentiation: Daily practice problems for the day’s lesson are included both online and in the print Student Edition, including fluency, test practice, and spiral review.

Kindergarten–Grade 1

A lesson plan timeline showing phases: Warm-Up (5–10 min, whole class), Lesson Activities (25–30 min), Synthesis (10 min), Centers (15 min), and Practice (time varies).

Grades 2–5

A horizontal flowchart shows a classroom lesson sequence: Warm-Up (5–10 min), Lesson Activities (35 min), Synthesis (10 min), and Practice (time varies); groupings vary.

Grades 6–8

A horizontal timeline shows four lesson segments: Warm-Up (5 min), Lesson Activities (30 min), Synthesis (10 min), and Practice (time varies).

Routines

Amplify Desmos Math California features a variety of lesson routines. Instructional routines and Math Language Routines (MLRs) are used within lessons to highlight student-developed language and ideas, cultivate conversation, support mathematical sense-making, and promote meta-cognition. Both are called out at point-of-use within the Teacher Edition and Teacher Presentation Screens. Below are the types of routines used throughout the Amplify Desmos Math California curriculum:

Math Language Routines

  • MLR1: Stronger and Clearer Each Time
  • MLR2: Collect and Display
  • MLR3: Critique, Correct, Clarify
  • MLR5: Co-Craft Questions
  • MLR6: Three Reads
  • MLR7: Compare and Connect
  • MLR 8: Discussion Supports

Instructional Routines 

  • Decide and Defend
  • Notice and Wonder
  • Number Talk
  • Tell a Story
  • Think-Pair-Share
  • Which One Doesn’t Belong?

Category 3: Assessments

A variety of performance data in Amplify Desmos Math California provides evidence of student learning, while helping students bolster their skills and understanding.

Unit-Level Assessment

Amplify Desmos Math California has embedded unit assessments that offer key insights into students’ conceptual understanding of math. These assessments provide regular, actionable information about how students are thinking about and processing math, with both auto-scoring and in-depth rubrics that help teachers anticipate and respond to students’ learning needs.

  • Pre-Unit Check: Each unit in grades 2–8 begins with a formative assessment designed to identify the student skills that will be particularly relevant to the upcoming unit. This check is agnostic to the standards covered in the following unit and serves not as a deficit-based acknowledgment of what students do not know, but rather as an affirmation of the knowledge and skills with which students come in.
  • End-of-Unit Assessment: Students engage with rigorous grade-level mathematics through a variety of formats and tasks in the summative End-of-Unit Assessment. A combination of auto-scored (when completed digitally) and rubric-scored items provides deep insights into student thinking. All Amplify Desmos Math California End-of-Unit Assessments include two forms.
  • Sub-Unit Quizzes: Sub-Unit Quizzes are formative assessments embedded regularly in Grades Kindergarten through Algebra 1. In these checks, students are assessed on a subset of conceptual understandings from the unit, with rubrics that help illuminate students’ current understanding and provide guidance for responding to student thinking.
  • Sub-Unit Checklists: These checklists enable teachers to observe key skills and concepts that cannot be assessed on a pencil-and-paper assessment in Kindergarten–Grade 1. The checklists outline the supports students need to achieve mathematical growth and success.
  • Performance Tasks: At the end of each unit in grades 3–8, there is a summative assessment performance task provided to evaluate students’ proficiency with the concepts and skills addressed in the unit. 

Lesson-Level Assessments

Amplify Desmos Math California lessons include daily moments of assessment to provide valuable evidence of learning for both the teacher and student. Beyond formative, summative, and benchmark assessments, students also have opportunities for self-reflection with Watch Your Knowledge Grow. Students take ownership of their learning by reflecting and tracking their progress before and after each unit.

  • Show What You Know: Each lesson has a daily formative assessment focused on one of the key concepts in the lesson. Show What You Know moments are carefully designed to minimize completion time for students while maximizing daily teacher insights to attend to student needs during the following class. 
  • Responsive Feedback™: Teachers have the ability to see and provide in-the-moment feedback as students progress through a digital lesson. Responsive Feedback motivates students and engages them in the learning process.

Diagnostic Assessment

Every grade level features an asset-based diagnostic assessment designed to be administered at the beginning of the year.  Delivered digitally and to the whole class, our diagnostic assessment is uniquely designed to reveal underlying math thinking and identify what students know about grade-level math. With data beyond just right and wrong, teachers have the type of deeper level of insights need to take the right next step.

CAASPP-Aligned Assessment Preparation

Amplify Desmos Math is designed to support students’ mathematical development through problem-based learning, differentiation, and embedded assessments. The program’s emphasis on conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application aligns with the mathematical practices and content standards assessed by the CAASPP.

Amplify Desmos Math California includes a CAASPP-aligned Item Bank. This standards-aligned bank of questions allows teachers to filter and search by grade and standard to find items. Once assigned on the digital platform, students will experience CAASPP-like practice with the online digital tools.

Data and Reporting

Amplify Desmos Math California provides teachers and administrators with unified reporting and insights so that educators have visibility into what students know about grade-level math—and can plan instruction accordingly for the whole class, small groups, and individual students. Reporting functionality integrates unit assessments, lesson assessments, diagnostic data, and progress monitoring for a comprehensive look at student learning. Program reports show proficiency and growth by domain, cluster, standard, and priority concept using performance data from unit assessments, then highlight areas of potential student need to allow teachers to modify their instruction and target differentiated support.

Administrator reporting provides a complete picture of student, class, and district performance, allowing administrators to implement instructional and intervention plans.

Category 4: Access and Equity

The Amplify Desmos Math California curriculum provides teachers with lessons, strategies, and resources to eliminate barriers and increase access to grade-level content without reducing the mathematical demand of tasks. Our lessons are developed using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to proactively ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Every activity has multiple entry points to ensure that all students are supported and challenged. Intervention and personalized learning activities are directly connected to the day’s content and offer students the individualized supports they need to be successful.

Each lesson and unit contains guidance for teachers on how to identify students who may need support, students who need to keep strengthening their understanding, and students who may be ready to stretch their learning. In addition, teachers are provided with recommendations for resources to use with each group of students.

Universal Design for Learning

Each lesson in the program incorporates opportunities for engagement, representation, action, and expression based on the guidelines of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

  • Multiple Means of Engagement: Students engage in both print and digital learning, and are regularly participating in discussions and hands-on activities. Students are invited to build their own challenge for other students to solve, which provides opportunities for choice and
    autonomy, as well as joy and play.
  • Multiple Means of Representation: Students are encouraged to demonstrate their learning using mathematical representations, both print and digital, and regularly engage with their peers in analyzing multiple possible solutions. Classes engage in open-ended discussions about what individual students notice and wonder about mathematical concepts.
  • Multiple Means of Action and Expression: Learners differ in how they navigate learning environments and express what they know. Students can communicate their ideas in multiple ways, including in print, sketching, uploading photos, or recording an audio response.

Accessibility

Lesson facilitation supports

Every lesson includes at least one specific suggestion the teacher can use to increase access to the lesson without reducing the mathematical demand of the tasks. These suggestions address the following areas:

  • Visual-spatial processing
  • Conceptual processing
  • Executive functioning
  • Memory and attention
  • Fine motor skills

Accessibility tools

Students have the ability to control accessibility tools so that each learning experience is customized to their individual needs. In many instances, these tools can be turned on or off at any point of instruction.

  • Text to speech: Reads text instructions to students in multiple languages
  • Enlarged font: Increases the size of all text on screen
  • Braille mode: Includes narration of digital interactions
  • Language selection: Toggles between languages

Differentiation: In-Lesson Teacher Moves

Within every lesson activity, teachers can use the suggestions in the Differentiation Teacher Moves table to provide in-the-moment instructional support while students are engaged in the work of the lesson. This table can help teachers anticipate the ways students may approach the activity, and provides prompts that they can use during the lesson to Support, Strengthen, and Stretch individual students in their thinking. Teachers are provided with clear student actions and understanding to look for, each matched with immediately usable suggestions for how to respond to the student thinking illustrated in each row of the table. In addition to using these suggestions in the moment as teachers monitor student work, teachers can review the Differentiation table in advance to help them anticipate how students are likely to approach the activity.

A table showing differentiation teacher moves with examples of representing groups in different ways, support prompts, and a stretch question about patterns with more teams.

Differentiation: Beyond the Lesson

Teachers are provided with recommendations for resources to use with each group of students needing support, strengthening, and stretching after each lesson. Support, Strengthen, and Stretch resources include:

  • Mini-Lessons: 15-minute, small-group direct instruction lessons targeted to a specific concept or skill
  • Item Banks: Space for teachers to create practice and assessments by using filters and searching for standards, summative-style items, and more
  • Fluency Practice: Adaptive, personalized practice built out for basic operations and more
  • Centers (K–5): Lesson-embedded routines and practice for students that are vertically aligned across grade levels
  • Extensions: Lesson-embedded Teacher Moves including possible stretch questions and activities for students
  • Lesson Practice: Additional practice problems support every lesson
  • Math Adventures: Strategy-based math games where students engage with math concepts and practice skills in a fun digital environment
  • Lesson Summary Support: Support for students and caregivers that provides efficient explanation of the learning goal with clear examples

Math Identity and Community

The Math Identity and Community feature supports teachers in helping students build confidence in their own mathematical thinking, develop skills to work with and learn from others when doing math, and learn how math is an interwoven part of their broader community. The embedded prompts throughout the lessons are designed to highlight what it means to be good at math, the value of sharing ideas, and the power of flexible and creating thinking. Here are some examples of the Math Identity and Community supports embedded in each lesson:

  • I can be all of me in math class. You will work with partners every day in math class. What do you want your partners to know about you? 
  • We are a math community. What does good listening look like and sound like in a math community? 
  • I am a doer of math. What math strengths did you use today?

Unit Stories

Every unit in grades K–5 contains a Unit Story. These Unit Stories are brief fiction stories read aloud by the teacher at the beginning of each unit that connect to the math of the unit and introduce characters that students will get to know as they engage in the unit. Teachers read the story aloud from their Teacher Edition while projecting illustrations for students from the story, found in the Teacher Presentation Screens for the story. Across the unit, the Unit Story context and characters are used at appropriate points to inspire and engage students in the math as well as in reflections about their math identity and community.

Math Language Development

Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California includes opportunities for all students to develop mathematical language as they experience the content. Amplify Desmos Math California purposefully progresses language development from lesson to lesson and across units by supporting students in making their arguments and explanations stronger, clearer, and more precise. This systematic approach to the development of math language can be broken down into the following four categories of support:

  • Vocabulary: Units and lessons start by surfacing students’ language for new concepts, then building connections between their language and the new vocabulary for that unit. This honors the language assets that students bring into their learning.
  • Language goals: Language goals attend to the mathematics students are learning, and are written through the lens of one or more of four language modalities: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
  • Math Language Routines: Math Language Routines are used within lessons to highlight student-developed language and ideas, cultivate conversation, support mathematical sense-making, and promote meta-cognition.
  • Multilingual/English learner supports: Supports for multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) are called out at intentional points within each lesson. These specific, targeted suggestions support ML/ELs with modifications that increase access to a task, or through development of contextual or mathematical language (both of which can be supportive of all learners). 

Multilingual and English Learner Supports

Partnership with English Learner Success Forum

Amplify partnered with the English Learner Success Forum (ELSF), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for high-quality instructional materials that are inclusive of multilingual learners. ELSF reviewed Amplify Desmos Math California, and provided directional guidance and feedback to ensure that the program reflects their research-based instructional strategies for multilingual/English learners.

Math Language Development Resources

Our Math Language Development Resources book contains lesson-specific strategies and activities for all levels of English Learners (i.e., Emerging, Expanding, Bridging). With support for every lesson, teachers are empowered to help all students, regardless of their language skills, to participate fully, grasp the material, and excel in their mathematical journey.

Multilingual Glossary

Amplify Desmos Math California includes a digital glossary for languages other than Spanish. Translations will be provided for up to nine languages.

Spanish Version

Amplify Desmos Math California will include Spanish student-facing materials beginning in the 2026–27 school year.

Category 5: Instructional Planning and Support

Amplify Desmos Math California includes a variety of embedded instructional supports to empower teachers to lead effectively and gain actionable insights into student growth and progress. Teachers are equipped with a comprehensive set of resources designed to fulfill the requirements of Category 5.

Grade-level concepts

Within the Teacher Edition front matter:

  • Scope and sequence
  • Big Ideas, Drivers of Investigation, and Content Connections
  • Grade level standards
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • English Language Development Standards
  • Environmental Principals and Concepts

Within each Unit and Sub-Unit Overview:

  • Big Ideas, Drivers of Investigation, and Content Connections
  • Math that Matters Most
  • Grade level standards
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • English Language Development Standards
  • Environmental Principals and Concepts

Within each Lesson:

  • Big Ideas, Drivers of Investigation, and Content Connections
  • Grade level standards
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • English Language Development Standards
  • Environmental Principals and Concepts

How to implement the program

At the course level (within the Teacher Edition front matter):

  • Navigating the Program (both print and digital)
  • Facilitating Lesson Activities with Launch, Monitor and Connect
  • Overview of the Digital Facilitation Tools

At the lesson level:

  • Suggestions for timing
  • What materials to prep
  • How to organize and group students 
  • Key lesson takeaways with the Synthesis
  • Recommendations for Differentiation
  • Strategies for intervention and extensions (in the Intervention, Extensions, and Investigation Resources book)

At the activity level:

  • Differentiation recommendations
  • Accessibility tips
  • ML / EL tips
  • Teacher look-fors
  • Recommended Teacher Moves
  • Prompts for guiding student thinking 
  • Sample student responses

Development of Math Language

A variety of language development supports are provided within the Student and Teacher Editions and Math Language Development Resources book. 

At the lesson level:

  • Diagrams and visuals
  • Sentence frames and word banks
  • Graphic organizers, including Frayer models
  • Vocabulary routines
  • Embedded language supports aligned to the CA ELDs
  • Lesson-specific strategies for Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging

At the unit level: 

  • Words With Multiple Meanings
  • Contextual vocabulary

At the course level:

  • English/Spanish cognates
  • Multilingual Glossary 

Other Curriculum Guidance

  • Additional Practice Resources book
  • Assessment Resources book 
  • Assess and Respond guidance paired with each assessment opportunity
  • Show-What-You-Know activities
  • Answer keys and rubrics 
  • Performance tasks

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Help shape Amplify products.

Educators and students are at the center of what we do. That’s why we test our products with real users, visit classrooms across the country, and gather ideas and feedback from educators like you! This is how we ensure that we’re developing new products that meet your needs, as well as continuously improving our existing products to better support your classrooms.

That’s where our User Research Community comes in. This is a group of valued educators we look to for their expertise! They regularly participate in research and feedback opportunities and share their insights with our Product teams.

We hope you’ll consider joining Amplify’s User Research Community. When we have a study that’s a good fit for you, our team will reach out with details and next steps.

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When you sign up to join the Amplify User Research Community, we’ll ask you some questions that will help us match you with research studies. When an opportunity sounds like a good fit, we’ll send you an email and share the details up front, such as study topic, research format, time commitment, and compensation. Then, you can decide if you’d like to participate.

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We’re looking for all types of educators to join our User Research Community: new Amplify users, power users, and everyone in between. We’re also looking for people who don’t use our products. If you work in a school setting or support schools, we want to hear from you. Here are some of the people we’d love to connect with:

  • Classroom teachers (PreK–12)
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We have a separate research program for K–12 students. Learn more about our Playtesting program below.

Amplify runs a variety of research studies, and we’ll include the details of the study in our email. When you participate in one of our studies, you might be invited to:

  • Talk to a researcher in a video call: Share your experiences with a specific product.
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  • Complete a survey: Answer questions about your current practices and/or preferences.
  • Host a school visit: Have a few Amplify employees visit your classroom to observe our programs in action.
  • Participate in a long-form study: These studies may involve a small commitment for several days or over a few weeks. You may be asked to review new materials or designs or to try something out in your classroom. Our researchers may ask you to respond to questions or take notes based on your experience using a product.

The information you provide will only be used to match you with suitable research studies and won’t be shared or sold to external parties. All data is stored on a secure server. See our Privacy Policy for more detail.

Amplify’s goal is to design welcoming product experiences. To do this well, it’s important for us to get feedback from everyone. We collect demographic information to help ensure that study participants represent the educators, students, and school environments we serve. All questions are optional and your information is kept confidential in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

You can opt out at any time by clicking unsubscribe in any of our research emails.

We typically offer e-gift cards as a way of saying thank you to those who participate in our research studies. We’ll include the exact details of the thank-you gift in the email invitation for the session. If your session is eligible for a thank-you gift card, you should receive it within five business days after completing your session. Please note that not all study participants will receive a thank-you gift.

Amplify Playtesting Program

A fun and empowering experience for kids

Students in our Playtesting Program provide feedback on new Amplify games and features as they’re being developed. Our researchers work one-on-one with students for 30 minutes at a time, inviting them to interact with new games and designs and gathering their feedback. We then integrate that feedback directly into our product development. It’s a chance for students to share their thoughts and ideas and have a real impact on the programs we’re building.

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Who can participate?
Any students in kindergarten through grade 12 this school year can be part of our playtesting program, with parental permission.

What are the perks?
Aside from a fun time and a sneak peek at what’s in development, all students receive a $20 Amazon gift card for participating in a playtesting session.

When, where, and how do kids participate?
When playtesting needs arise, our User Research team will reach out to parents/caregivers to schedule a Google Meet session at a time that’s convenient for you and your child.

How can I sign my child up?
To enroll your student, please fill out this consent form. Your child will then be added to our playtesting program database. When a playtesting opportunity arises that we think would be a good fit, we’ll reach out!

S2-04: Gamification in the K–8 classroom

Podcast episode graphic featuring guest Fabian Hofmann, titled "Gamification in the K–8 classroom," from Science Connections Season 2, Episode 4, with an illustration of a planet.

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.

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT >

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):

  1. 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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What Fabian Hofmann says about science

“I want my students to come in and feel like they are playing the game. I used 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 set?”

– Fabian Hofmann

Middle School Educator, Albert Einstein Academies Middle School

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.

A man with short gray hair and a beard is smiling at the camera, photographed against a neutral background inside a circular frame with a small yellow sparkle accent, evoking the playful spirit of gamification.

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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Core literacy programs: Strengthen sessions

Professional development sets teachers and leaders up for success, whether they are new to or experienced with a program. Each Strengthen session promotes a deeper understanding of the program through targeted instructional practices.

Explore literacy Strengthen sessions by program below.

Professional Learning Partner Guide Certified Provider

Amplify professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

Contact us
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About Strengthen sessions

Support your Amplify implementation with sessions that target specific instructional practices for teachers and leaders who are in year one and beyond. When you’re ready to schedule your Strengthen session, contact us. An Amplify expert will work with you to identify the session(s) that will best support your students’ success.

Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as enhancements.

Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos

Built on the Science of Reading, Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) 2nd Edition (PreK–5) and 3rd Edition (K–5) combine deep content instruction with research-based foundational skills, empowering all students with rich background knowledge.

Amplify Caminos 1st Edition serves as the Spanish language arts partner to Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (K–5), while Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition is partnered with Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition. These aligned programs support our biliteracy principles and teaching models.

Explore Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos Strengthen sessions by package below.

Begin packages

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid on-site package (15 hr.) Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual  package
(7 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site,   3 hr. sessions On-site,   3 hr. sessions Virtual,     1 hr. session Virtual,    3 hr. sessions Virtual,     1 hr. session
Enhancing planning for teachers
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Enhancing practice for teachers
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Enhancing observations for leaders
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Language Studio Companion training for K–2 or 3–5 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Supporting all learners for teachers
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Pacing for teachers
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Student engagement for teachers
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Amplify CKLA 2nd–3rd Edition transition training for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Begin: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of your next unit by engaging in a step-by-step unit- and lesson-planning protocol. Leave prepared to implement your next unit with a completed unit plan and internalized lessons for your particular biliteracy model.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy

Audience: PreK (Amplify CKLA), K–2, or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Begin: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Practice implementing key lesson routines to strengthen your instruction. Leave with guidelines for routines you can implement in your biliteracy classroom tomorrow.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy

Audience: K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Begin: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Sharpen your program knowledge to support educators with effective program implementation. Observe a lesson in action and practice providing high-leverage feedback. Walk away prepared to provide educators with actionable feedback during your next classroom observation.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy

Prerequisite: Participants must complete the program overview for leaders before attending this session.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Language: This session is facilitated in English.

Begin: Language Studio companion training for teachers

On-site and virtual, 3 hours

Participants will be able to summarize the key features of Language Studio. During this session, they will connect key segments of Language Studio to ELD instructional best practices, identify the segments of Language Studio, and plan and practice a Language Studio lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd or 3rd Edition (Grade K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Supporting all learners for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dig into embedded supports offered in the Amplify curriculum and prepare to support all learners in your next lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy

Audience: K–2 and/or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Pacing for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn five specific strategies to support pacing in your next lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy

Audience: K–2 and/or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Student engagement for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore engagement strategies that cultivate a student-centered classroom. Leave with a plan to incorporate these strategies in an upcoming lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy

Audience: K–2 and/or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Amplify CKLA 2nd–3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify CKLA 2nd and 3rd Edition, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15 package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site,   
3 hr. session		 Virtual,     
3 hr. session		 Virtual, 1 hr. session Virtual, 3 hr. session
Enhancing planning for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing practice for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Maximizing impact: Data-informed remediation with the ARG/DERG for teachers
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Writing for teachers
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NEW: mCLASS DIBELS 8 + CKLA 3rd Edition data-driven instruction for K–5 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Supporting all learners for teachers
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Pacing for teachers
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Student engagement for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
NEW: Amplify Caminos 1st–3rd Ed. transition training for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
NEW: Amplify CKLA 2nd Ed./Caminos 1st Ed. to Amplify CKLA 3rd Ed./Caminos 3rd Ed. transition training for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

Practice: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of your next unit by engaging in a step-by-step unit- and lesson-planning protocol. Leave prepared to implement your next unit with a completed unit plan and internalized lessons for your particular biliteracy model.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy

Audience: PreK (Amplify CKLA), K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Practice implementing key lesson routines to strengthen your instruction. Leave with guidelines for routines you can implement in your biliteracy classroom tomorrow.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy

Audience: K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Sharpen your program knowledge to support educators with effective program implementation. Observe a lesson in action and practice providing high-leverage feedback. Walk away prepared to provide educators with actionable feedback during your next classroom observation.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st or 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy

Prerequisite: Participants must complete the program overview for leaders before attending this session.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Language: This session is facilitated in English.

Practice: Maximizing impact: Data-informed remediation with the ARG/DERG for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Walk away with a deeper understanding of the Assessment and Remediation Guide (K–3) and Decoding and Encoding Remediation Supplement (4–5), as well as a clear instructional plan for your intervention groups. Please note that for Grades K–2, this would only apply if you are using both strands or the Skills Strand only.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition is available July 2026.)

Audience: K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: This session is facilitated in English.

Practice: Writing for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of how to support students as they build writing skills. Leave this session prepared to teach an upcoming writing lesson based on your student work analysis. Bring samples of your students’ writing responses from your Amplify programs to this session.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos 1st Edition, or Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy

Audience: PreK, K–2, or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Available October 2026

Practice: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition + Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition data-driven instruction for K–5 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive deep into mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition reports and instructional recommendations to drive instructional decisions in Amplify CKLA and stronger student outcomes in your classroom. You will leave ready to leverage mCLASS progress monitoring and grouping tools to support a robust Multi-Tiered System of Supports program, with Amplify CKLA as your core instruction.

Session options: Only for educators using both Amplify CKLA (2nd or 3rd Edition) with mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition

Audience: PreK–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: This session is facilitated in English.

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Supporting all learners for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dig into the many embedded supports offered in the curriculum and prepare for specific ways to bolster all learners in your next lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos 1st Edition, or Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy

Audience: K–2 and/or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Pacing for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn five specific strategies to support pacing in your next lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos 1st Edition, or Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy

Audience: K–2 and/or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Student engagement

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore engagement strategies that cultivate a student-centered classroom. Leave with a plan to incorporate these strategies in an upcoming lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition or 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos 1st Edition, or Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy

Audience: K–2 and/or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify CKLA session is facilitated in English. The Amplify Caminos session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify CKLA/Caminos biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify Caminos 1st–3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition to Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Amplify ELA

Amplify ELA 2nd Edition is a blended English language arts curriculum designed specifically to support students in grades 6–8 and prepare them for high school and beyond. With Amplify ELA, students learn to tackle any complex text and make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves. The table below lists Amplify ELA 2nd Edition Strengthen sessions for Begin and beyond by package.

Click the session title or scroll down to learn more about each session.

Begin packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid 15, virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual package
(7 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site,
3 hr. session		 On-site,
3 hr. session		 Virtual,
1 hr. session		 Virtual,
3 hr. session		 Virtual,
1 hr. session
Enhancing planning for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing practice for teachers
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Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Teaching with print and digital for teachers
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Lesson planning for teachers
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Pacing for teachers
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Begin: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your program knowledge by unpacking learning outcomes, key assessment moments, and student engagement opportunities from an Amplify ELA 2nd Edition unit. Use backward planning to create a detailed plan for a unit of your choice and leave ready to begin the unit with your students.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Experience a close-reading lesson to increase your understanding of how close reading is taught in Amplify ELA 2nd Edition. Uncover which teacher moves will support students in tackling complex texts. Leave with a strong understanding of how to facilitate a close reading lesson that encourages student collaboration, drives analysis, and deepens understanding.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Elevate your program knowledge to support colleagues with effective Amplify ELA 2nd Edition implementation. Leave prepared to identify key instructional elements in an Amplify ELA lesson, analyze data, and conduct effective classroom observations.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Teaching with print and digital

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to administer Amplify ELA 2nd Edition lessons in your classroom using both digital and print curricula.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Lesson planning

Virtual, 1 hour

Deepen your understanding of the lessons in your next Amplify ELA 2nd Edition unit by engaging in a step-by-step lesson-planning protocol.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Pacing

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to identify and use essential activities, timing guidance, and knowledge of your students’ strengths and needs to determine pacing for individual activities and lessons within Amplify ELA 2nd Edition.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site,
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual,
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual,
1 hr. session		 Virtual,
3 hr. sessions
Enhancing planning for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing practice for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Writing: Improving through feedback for teachers
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Supporting all learners for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Data-informed instruction for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Teaching with print and digital for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Lesson planning for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Pacing for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Increasing student engagement for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Grading and assessment for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

Practice: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your program knowledge by unpacking learning outcomes, key assessment moments, and student engagement opportunities from an Amplify ELA 2nd Edition unit. Use backward planning to create a detailed plan for a unit of your choice and leave ready to begin the unit with your students.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Experience a close reading lesson to increase your understanding of how close reading is taught in Amplify ELA 2nd Edition. Uncover which teacher moves will support students in tackling complex texts. Leave with a strong understanding of how to facilitate a close reading lesson that encourages collaboration, drives analysis, and deepens understanding.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Elevate your program knowledge to support colleagues with effective Amplify ELA 2nd Edition implementation. Leave prepared to identify key instructional elements in an Amplify ELA lesson, analyze data, and conduct effective classroom observations.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Writing: Improving through feedback for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of how to support students as they build writing skills in Amplify ELA 2nd Edition. Leave this session prepared to provide targeted feedback that supports student growth in writing. Bring samples of your students’ writing responses from Amplify ELA to this session.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Supporting all learners

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to effectively use embedded differentiated supports in Amplify ELA 2nd Edition and the Classwork app to support all students—including multilingual/English learners, students with learning disabilities, struggling readers and writers, and advanced students. Walk away with a plan for supporting specific students within your classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Data-informed instruction for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Analyze your own student data and learn to turn Amplify ELA 2nd Edition data into differentiated and targeted instruction. Walk away ready to use the data provided in the Reporting and Classwork apps to align embedded support to your specific student needs. This session requires educators to analyze student data, so please bring 4–6 weeks of student data from Amplify ELA’s Reporting app to this session.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Teaching with print and digital

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to administer Amplify ELA 2nd Edition lessons in your classroom using both digital and print curricula.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Lesson planning

Virtual, 1 hour

Deepen your understanding of the lessons in your next Amplify ELA 2nd Edition unit by engaging in a step-by-step lesson-planning protocol.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Pacing

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to identify and use essential activities, timing guidance, and knowledge of your students’ strengths and needs to determine pacing for individual activities and lessons within Amplify ELA 2nd Edition.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Increasing student engagement

Virtual, 1 hour

Identify features within Amplify ELA 2nd Edition that increase student engagement, and determine ways to incorporate additional engagement strategies into lessons.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Grading and assessment

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use key formative and summative assessments within Amplify ELA 2nd Edition to develop a plan for grading based on the specific requirements of your school or district.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Get in touch with a PD expert.

Core literacy programs: Strengthen sessions

Professional development sets teachers and leaders up for success, whether they are new to or experienced with a program. Each Strengthen session promotes a deeper understanding of the program through targeted instructional practices.

Explore literacy Strengthen sessions by program below.

Amplify professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

Contact us
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About Strengthen sessions

Support Amplify implementation with sessions that target specific instructional practices for teachers and leaders who are in year one and beyond. When you’re ready to schedule your Strengthen session, contact us. An Amplify expert will support you in selecting the session that best fits your needs in order to push student results forward.

Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as enhancements.

Amplify ELAR and Amplify SLAR K–5

Built on the Science of Reading, Amplify Texas English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) sequences deep content knowledge with research-based foundational skills. Amplify ELAR is a PreK–5 literacy curriculum that inspires curiosity and drives results, empowering all students with rich background knowledge.

Amplify SLAR is the perfect Spanish language arts partner to Amplify ELAR for grades K–5. Following biliteracy principles and supporting multiple teaching models, the aligned programs combine rich content knowledge with systematic foundational skills instruction grounded in the Science of Reading.

The table below lists Amplify ELAR and Amplify SLAR Strengthen sessions by package for Begin and beyond. Click the session title or scroll down to learn more about each session.

Begin packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid on-site package (15 hr.) Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual  package
(7 hr.)
One session per package On-site,   3 hr. sessions On-site,   3 hr. sessions Virtual,     1 hr. session Virtual,    3 hr. sessions Virtual,     1 hr. session
Enhancing planning for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing practice for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing observations for leaders
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Supporting all learners for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Pacing for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Student engagement for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Begin: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of your next unit by engaging in a step-by-step unit- and lesson-planning protocol. Leave prepared to implement your next unit with a completed unit plan and internalized lessons for your particular biliteracy model.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Begin: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Practice implementing key lesson routines to strengthen your instruction. Leave with guidelines for routines you can implement in your biliteracy classroom tomorrow.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Begin: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Sharpen your program knowledge to support educators with effective program implementation. Observe a lesson in action and practice providing high-leverage feedback. Walk away prepared to provide educators with actionable feedback during your next classroom observation.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Prerequisite: Participants must complete the Program overview for leaders before attending this session.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Language: This session is facilitated in English.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Supporting all learners for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dig into embedded supports offered in the Amplify curriculum and prepare to support all learners in your next lesson.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Pacing for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn five specific strategies to support pacing in your next lesson.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Student engagement for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore engagement strategies that cultivate a student-centered classroom. Leave with a plan to incorporate these strategies in an upcoming lesson.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15 package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One session per package On-site,      3 hr. session Virtual,      3 hr. session Virtual, 1 hr. session Virtual, 3 hr. session
Enhancing planning for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing practice for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Writing for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Supporting all learners for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Pacing for teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Student engagement for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify ELAR 2nd Edition Grade 3 Skills supplement for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

Practice: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of your next unit by engaging in a step-by-step unit- and lesson-planning protocol. Leave prepared to implement your next unit with a completed unit plan and internalized lessons for your particular biliteracy model.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Practice implementing key lesson routines to strengthen your instruction. Leave with guidelines for routines you can implement in your biliteracy classroom tomorrow.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Sharpen your program knowledge to support educators with effective program implementation. Observe a lesson in action and practice providing high-leverage feedback. Walk away prepared to provide educators with actionable feedback during your next classroom observation.

Session options: Amplify ELAR K–5

Prerequisite: Participants must complete the Program overview for leaders before attending this session.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Language: This session is facilitated in English.

Practice: Writing for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of how to support students as they build writing skills. Leave this session prepared to teach an upcoming writing lesson based on your student work analysis. Bring samples of your students’ writing responses from your Amplify programs to this session.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Supporting all learners for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dig into the many embedded supports offered in the curriculum and prepare for specific ways to bolster all learners in your next lesson.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR K–5 session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR K–5 session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR K–5/SLAR K–5 biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Pacing for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn five specific strategies to support pacing in your next lesson.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Student engagement for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore engagement strategies that cultivate a student-centered classroom. Leave with a plan to incorporate these strategies in an upcoming lesson.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy

Audience: K–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The Amplify ELAR session is facilitated in English. The Amplify SLAR session is facilitated in Spanish. The Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy session is facilitated in English and Spanish.

New

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Amplify ELAR 2nd Edition Grade 3 Skills supplement for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of how to implement Amplify ELAR 2nd Edition Grade 3 Skills in their classrooms! Learn the foundational elements of Amplify ELAR 2nd Edition Grade 3 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Session options: Amplify ELAR 2nd Edition

Audience: Grade 3 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Amplify ELAR 6–8

Amplify ELAR 6–8 is a blended English language arts curriculum designed specifically to support students in grades 6–8 and prepare them for high school and beyond. With Amplify ELAR 6–8, students learn to tackle any complex text and make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves. The table below lists Amplify ELAR 6–8 Strengthen sessions for Begin and beyond by package.

Click the session title or scroll down to learn more about each session.

Begin packages

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid 15, virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual package
(7 hr.)
One session per package On-site,
3 hr. session		 On-site,
3 hr. session		 Virtual,
1 hr. session		 Virtual,
3 hr. session		 Virtual,
1 hr. session
Enhancing planning for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing practice for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Teaching with print and digital
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Lesson-planning
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Pacing
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Begin: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your program knowledge by unpacking learning outcomes, key assessment moments, and student engagement opportunities from an Amplify ELAR 6–8 unit. Use backward planning to create a detailed plan for a unit of your choice and leave ready to begin the unit with your students.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Experience a close reading lesson to increase your understanding of how close reading is taught in Amplify ELAR 6–8. Uncover which teacher moves will support students in tackling complex texts. Leave with a strong understanding of how to facilitate a close reading lesson that encourages student collaboration, drives analysis, and deepens understanding.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Elevate your program knowledge to support colleagues with effective Amplify ELAR 6–8 implementation. Leave prepared to identify key instructional elements in an Amplify ELAR 6–8 lesson, analyze data, and conduct effective classroom observations.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Teaching with print and digital

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to administer Amplify ELAR 6–8 lessons in your classroom using both digital and print curricula.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Lesson-planning

Virtual, 1 hour

Deepen your understanding of the lessons in your next Amplify ELAR 6–8 unit by engaging in a step-by-step lesson-planning protocol.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Pacing

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to identify and use essential activities, timing guidance, and knowledge of your students’ strengths and needs to determine pacing for individual activities and lessons within Amplify ELAR 6–8.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One session per package On-site,
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual,
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual,
1 hr. session		 Virtual,
3 hr. sessions
Enhancing planning for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing practice for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Writing: Improving through feedback
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Supporting all learners
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Data-informed instruction
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Teaching with print and digital
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Lesson-planning
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Pacing
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Increasing student engagement
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Grading and assessment
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

Practice: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your program knowledge by unpacking learning outcomes, key assessment moments, and student engagement opportunities from an Amplify ELAR 6–8 unit. Use backward planning to create a detailed plan for a unit of your choice and leave ready to begin the unit with your students.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Experience a close reading lesson to increase your understanding of how close reading is taught in Amplify ELAR 6–8. Uncover which teacher moves will support students in tackling complex texts. Leave with a strong understanding of how to facilitate a close reading lesson that encourages collaboration, drives analysis, and deepens understanding.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Elevate your program knowledge to support colleagues with effective Amplify ELAR 6–8 implementation. Leave prepared to identify key instructional elements in an Amplify ELAR 6–8 lesson, analyze data, and conduct effective classroom observations.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Writing: Improving through feedback

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of how to support students as they build writing skills in Amplify ELAR 6–8. Leave this session prepared to provide targeted feedback that supports student growth in writing. Bring samples of your students’ writing responses from Amplify ELAR 6–8 to this session.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Supporting all learners

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to effectively use embedded differentiated supports in Amplify ELAR 6–8 and the Classwork app to support all students—including English language learners, students with learning disabilities, struggling readers and writers, and advanced students. Walk away with a plan for supporting specific students within your classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Data-informed instruction

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Analyze your own student data and learn to turn Amplify ELAR 6–8 data into differentiated and targeted instruction. Walk away ready to use the data provided in the Reporting and Classwork apps to align embedded support to your specific student needs. This session requires educators to analyze student data, so please bring 4–6 weeks of student data from Amplify ELAR 6–8’s Reporting app to this session.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Teaching with print and digital

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to administer Amplify ELAR 6–8 lessons in your classroom using both digital and print curricula.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Lesson-planning

Virtual, 1 hour

Deepen your understanding of the lessons in your next Amplify ELAR 6–8 unit by engaging in a step-by-step lesson-planning protocol.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Pacing

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to identify and use essential activities, timing guidance, and knowledge of your students’ strengths and needs to determine pacing for individual activities and lessons within Amplify ELAR 6–8.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Increasing student engagement

Virtual, 1 hour

Identify features within Amplify ELAR 6–8 that increase student engagement, and determine ways to incorporate additional engagement strategies into lessons.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Grading and assessment

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use key formative and summative assessments within Amplify ELAR 6–8 to develop a plan for grading based on the specific requirements of your school or district.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Get in touch with a PD expert

We’re here to provide answers and guidance as you explore your PD journey. Fill out the form to connect with us and discover how Amplify PD can enhance your educational journey.

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Winter Wrap-Up 03: Ideas to build math fluency

Promotional graphic for "Math Teacher Lounge" episode featuring Valerie Henry, Ed.D., on ideas to build math fluency, with a photo of Valerie Henry in the bottom right corner.

Join us for the third episode in our Winter Wrap-Up! In this episode from season 3 of Math Teacher Lounge: The Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Valerie Henry to talk about math fluency and what that means for students. Listen as we dig into the research, hear Val’s three-part definition of fluency, and explore her five principles for developing it.

Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page. 

Download Transcript

Dan Meyer (00:03)

Hey folks. Welcome back. This is Math Teacher Lounge, and I am one of your hosts, Dan Meyer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:07):

And I’m your other host, Bethany Lockhart Johnson. Hi, Dan.

Dan Meyer (00:11):

Hey, great to see you. We have a big one this week to chat about and some fantastic guests. We are chatting about fluency, which is the sort of word and concept that I feel like people have very, very non-neutral associations with it. A lot of them are very negative, for a lot of people.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:26):

I saw you frown a little. What’s up with that, Dan? You kind of, like, shrank.

Dan Meyer (00:30):

I have strong feelings about it. You know, there’s lots of ways that people go about helping people become fluent in mathematics. And a lot of them are harmful for students, and ineffective. And it got me thinking about fluency as it exists outside of the world of mathematics, where we have a lot of very clear images of it. We’re getting fluent in things all the time. Like, as humans. Human development is the story of fluency. And I just was wondering….Bethany, would you describe yourself as fluent at something outside of the world of mathematics? What is that? How’d you get fluent at it? What was the process?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:05):

Hmm, I think I’m a pretty fluent reader. I read all the time. I’m a happier person if I’ve read that day. I once saw this poster in a classroom; it said “10 Ways to Become a Better Reader: Read, Read, Read, Read, Read…you know, 10 times. Get it? Reading? You get better at reading by reading! So I would say reading. And it’s been kind of cool—I have a one-year-old who, it’s been really exciting slash overwhelmingly anxiety-producing to see him get very fluent with walking slash running, ’cause he’s getting faster every day. And it’s kind of fun. When I think of what’s something somebody’s trying to get fluent with…walking! He’s trying to be more fluid. He’s practicing transitions. He doesn’t wanna hold my hand while he traverses rocky terrain. He’s getting better at it. He’s practicing. What about you? What’s something…?

Dan Meyer (02:08):

I think about driving a lot. I’m a very fluent driver and I think a lot about when I was first a driver, you know? And how l have my hands on 10 and 2, vice grip, and do not talk to me; do not ask me anything; don’t ask me my NAME. I need to focus so hard. And then a year later, you know, I’m driving with one hand, smash the turn signal, take a sip off of whatever, change the CD. And then it’s no big deal.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:38):

Wait, did you pass the first time? Your test?

Dan Meyer (02:40):

Yeah, I don’t like to brag about it. <laugh> But I do all the time. <laugh> But I got a hundred on my driving test. I don’t care who knows it. And I hope it’s everybody. But I guess all of this is just to say there are areas of life where fluency feels natural, with the case of walking. There’s areas of life where fluency feels motivating, with like driving—I wanna be able to switch the CD out or whatever. And there’s areas where fluency feels terrifying and hard to come by, like mathematics, sometimes. So we have a set of guests here. Our first guest will help us figure out what do we mean by fluency? And what’s the research say about what fluency is and how students develop it in mathematics? And then our other guests will help us think about what it looks like in practice in the classroom. What are some novel, new ways to work on fluency? So first up we have Val Henry, Dr. Val Henry.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:32):

So we knew we needed help with the fluency definition, because when we think about it, it’s kind of big, right? And we wanted to look at what research about fluency really says. So we called on Valerie Henry. Val is a nationally board-certified teacher, taught middle school for 17 years, and since 2002 has worked with undergraduates graduates, credential candidates as a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, one of my alma maters. So after doing her dissertation on addition and subtraction fluency in first grade, Val created a project to study ways to build addition and subtraction and multiplication and division fluency while also developing number sense in algebraic thinking. And the pilot grew and grew over the last 18 years into a powerful daily mini-lesson approach to facts fluency called FactsWise. And when we thought of fluency, the first person I thought of was Val. Welcome, Val Henry, to the Lounge! I’m so excited to have you here. Welcome.

Valerie Henry (04:36):

Thanks, Bethany. And thanks to you, Dan. It’s great to be here today.

Dan Meyer (04:41):

Great to have you; help yourself to whatever you find in the fridge. The names that people write down on those things in the bags are just recommendations. It’s potluck-style here. I’m curious, Val, if you’re, like, on an airplane, someone asks you what you do, and you say you study fluency…what is the layperson’s definition of what does it mean to be fluent in mathematics? And if you can give a brief tour through what the research says about what works and what doesn’t that would really help us orient our conversation here.

Valerie Henry (05:12):

The first thing I have to do when I talk to somebody on a plane is define the idea of fluency. And I often use an example of tying your shoelaces. Because that works with first graders as well as adults. This idea that when we first start trying to put our shoes on and get those shoelaces tied, somebody tries to, first of all, just do it for us. But then of course maybe tries to teach us the bunny-ears approach. And we struggle and struggle as little kids and eventually either the bunny-ears approach or something else starts to work for us. But we still have to pay attention to it. We have to think hard and it’s not easy. And then over time we get to the point where we basically don’t even think about it. When I tie my shoes in the morning. I’m not thinking about right-over-left and left-over-right and all of those things. I just do it. And so that’s a good, easy example of becoming fluent with something. I think what we’re talking about today though, is the basics, the adding and subtracting that we hope kids are going to have mastered maybe by second grade, and the multiplication and division facts that we wanna maybe have mastered by third, maybe fourth grade. So now what does that mean to become fluent with those basics? I have a three-part definition that seems to match up really nicely with the common core approach to fluency. Which is, first of all, we want the answers to be correct. And then second, we want the answers to be easy to know. And so what does that mean? Well, to me, it means without needing to count,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:12):

You mean without having to kind of muscle through it? Or say more about you mean.

Valerie Henry (07:16):

Well, I guess what I mean is that when you watch a young child try and solve something even as simple as two plus three, they might put up two fingers and then go 3, 4, 5 with three more fingers winding up on their hand, one or the other of their hands. While they’re doing that, they don’t really have a sense of whether even their answer is right or not, quite often. Especially when you get to the larger adding and subtracting problems, you can see a lot of errors happening as they’re trying to count. And it’s taking up cognitive energy to do that counting process, especially as you get to the larger quantities. So my definition of fluency now is “getting it right without needing to do that hard work like counting.” Now, some people might say, well, we just want them to have ’em memorized. But in my research, I’ve learned that a lot of very fluid adults don’t always have every fact memorized. In fact, if you ask a room full of adults, what’s seven plus nine, you might learn that they can all get it correct quickly, quickly…but they don’t all have it memorized. And so when you ask them, “How did you get that?” Many of them will say, “Well, I just gave one from the 7 to the 9 and I know that 10 plus 6 is 16.”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:53):

That’s such an important distinction. My brain literally just did that actually!

Valerie Henry (08:58):

<laugh> Right? <laugh> But you’re fluid with it, because it doesn’t take you much cognitive energy at all.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:05):

Right.

Valerie Henry (09:07):

So now we have “correct without needing to put that cognitive energy,” which usually means that you’re counting. And then the third thing is “relatively quickly,” so that you’re not spending 15 seconds trying to figure it out. Even that part-whole strategy approach can be done really quickly, almost instantaneously. Or it can take a long time. So if a student can get the answer correct within, you know, three or four seconds— is I’m pretty generous—I figure that they’re pretty darn fluent with that fact. So that’s my three-part definition of these basics, fluency.

Dan Meyer (09:55):

I love the distinction between getting it correct and getting it quick. It’s possible to be quick with wrong answers. It’s possible to be like, “Those are separate components there.” And I echo Bethany’s appreciation for this third option in between knowing it instantaneously through memorization and muscling through it. But there’s like a continuum there of how much energy it took you to come up with it that all feels extremely helpful.

Valerie Henry (10:21):

And you know, one of the things that I’ve noticed is that when kids are pressured to come up with those instantaneous answers, they often default to guessing and get it wrong.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:30):

Mm, yeah.

Valerie Henry (10:30):

So that’s one of the things that I’ve learned is that as we’re trying to help students develop fluency, it’s important to start with building their conceptual understanding of what it means to do, you know, 3 times 9 and what the correct answer is, maybe using manipulatives or representations of some sort. Not skip-counting! I really have found that skip-counting just perpetuates itself in many students’ minds and that they never stop skip-counting, which means they’re putting in not very much mental energy if it’s 2 times 3 but a ton of mental energy if it’s 7 times 8. Because frankly, it’s really hard to skip count by sevens. And by eights.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:18):

I can get to 14 and then I’m like, wait, wait, what was next? Right? No, no, no…21! What do you feel are some misconceptions that maybe teachers, maybe parents have about fluency in math?

Valerie Henry (11:30):

I think maybe one of the first ones is that if students count or skip-count, their answers repetitively over and over and over and over, that they’re bound to memorize them. And the study that I did back in 2004, I actually had a school that had decided that they were going to do time tests with their students every day, all year. And that undoubtedly by the end of the year, those students would be fluent.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:06):

And to clarify by time test, you mean like, sit down, pencil, paper, ready, go, worksheet kind of thing.

Valerie Henry (12:15):

Yes.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:16):

Some of us might remember quite vividly.

Valerie Henry (12:18):

<laugh> Very vividly. And you know, you have to get it done within a certain amount of time. So they made it fun for the students. Apparently the students enjoyed it. I was a little leery about that, but in the end, when I went and checked on the students and I did one-on-one assessments with half of the students in every class that were randomly selected so that I could get a sense of where they were with their fluency—and these were first graders—they basically had nothing memorized. They were simply counting as fast as they possibly could. And, you know, mostly getting the right answers. But they had not memorized. So that’s one of the myths, I think, is that repetitive practice of counting gets you to memorization.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:10):

If I put it in front of you enough times, you’ll become fluent.

Valerie Henry (13:14):

Right, right. Now these students didn’t really get any instruction, any help learning these. They just simply tested over and over and over. So that’s another thing that I think is a misconception. It’s that if we test students, but don’t really teach them fluency, then they’re going to become fluent. If we just test them every Friday or that kind of thing. And that they’ll learn them at home. But really what that means is a few lucky kids who have parents who have the time and the energy and the background to know how to help will take that job on at home. Not that many students are really that fortunate.

Dan Meyer (14:01):

It’s almost like the traditional approach, or the approach you’re describing, confuses process and product. It says, “Well, the product is that eventually fluent students will be able to do something like this, see these problems and answer them, answer them quickly,” and says, “Well, that must be the process then as well; let’s give them that products a whole lot.” But as I hear you describe fluency with bunny ears on shoelaces, there’s these images and approaches and techniques that require a very active teacher presence to support the development of it. That’s just kind of interesting to me.

Valerie Henry (14:35):

My initial project, the pilot project that I tried, was to simply ask teachers to follow five key principles. And the first one was to do something in the classroom every day for—I told them, even if you’ve only got five or 10 minutes, work on fluency for five or 10 minutes a day, and let’s see what happens. So that was one key element was just to teach it and to give students opportunities to get what the research calls for when you’re trying to memorize, which is actually immediate feedback. When I talk about immediate feedback with my student teachers, I say, “I’m talking about within one or two seconds of trying a problem, and then sort of immediately knowing, getting feedback of whether you got the answer right or not so that your brain can kind of gain that confidence. ‘Oh, not only did I come up with an answer, but somebody’s telling me it’s the correct answer.’”

Dan Meyer (15:38):

There’s a lot of apps now in the digital world that offer students questions about arithmetic or other kinds of mathematical concepts and give immediate feedback of a sort: the feedback of “You’re right; you’re wrong” sort. Is that effective fluency development, in your view?

Valerie Henry (15:57):

I haven’t heard and I haven’t seen them being super-effective. The ways I think about this are “Immediate feedback isn’t the only thing we need.” Probably one of the biggest things that we need is for students to develop strategies. And this is one of the other things I’ve learned from international research, from countries that do have students who become very fluent very early, is that they don’t shoot straight for memorization, but they go through this process of taking students from doing some counting and then quickly moving them to trying to use logic. So, “Hey, you really are confident that 2 + 2 is 4; so now let’s use that to think about 2 + 3.” Actually, as an algebra teacher, I would much rather have students that have a combination of memorization and these strategies, than students who’ve only memorized. Isn’t that interesting that my most successful algebra students were good strategy thinkers. Not just good memorizers.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:09):

So you mentioned there were five that kind of helped root this idea in like, “What can teachers do? What is the best thing that teachers can do to support with fact fluency?” So, everyday was key.

Valerie Henry (17:22):

Then the next principle that I really focus on is switching immediately to the connected subtractions so that students—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:33):

Not waiting until you’ve gotten all the way through addition. But making “Ooh!”

Valerie Henry (17:38):

Totally. And I didn’t do that the first year. And when we looked at the results of the assessments at the end of the year, we realized that our students were so much weaker in subtraction than addition. So the following pilot year, we tried this other approach of doing subtraction right after the students had developed some fluency with that small chunk of addition. And we got such better subtraction results.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (18:11):

What are the other principles?

Valerie Henry (18:13):

The biggest one is to use these strategies. So the strategies makes the third. And then the fourth I would say is to go from concrete to representational to abstract.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (18:27):

Don’t put away those manipulatives. Don’t put away those tools.

Valerie Henry (18:31):

Oh, so important to come back to them for multiplication and division. And my fifth principle is to wait on assessment. To use it as true assessment, but not race to start testing before students have had a chance to go through this three-phase process. Which is conceptual understanding with manipulatives; building strategies, usually with representations; and then working on building some speed until it’s just that natural fluency.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:07):

I wanna say thank you so much for offering your really learned perspective, because you have not only done the research, but seen it in action and seen how shifting our notions of fluency and what fluency can be and what a powerful foundation it can be for all mathematicians. Really, that shift is so powerful. And I appreciate you sharing it with our listeners and with us. So we’re so excited that we got to talk with you today, Val—

Dan Meyer (19:35):

Thank you, Dr. Henry.

Valerie Henry (19:37):

You’re welcome!

Dan Meyer (19:41):

With us now we have Graham Fletcher and Tracy Zager, a couple of people who understand fluency at a very deep and classroom level. I wanna introduce them and get their perspective on what we’re trying to solve here with fluency. So Graham Fletcher has served in education in a lot of different roles: as a classroom teacher, math coach, math specialist, and he’s continually seeking new and innovative ways to support students and teachers in their development of conceptual understanding in elementary math. He’s the author, along with Tracy, of Building Fact Fluency, a fluency kit we’ll talk about, and openly shares so much of his wisdom and resources at gfletchy.com. Tracy Johnson Zager is a district math coach who loves to get teachers hooked on listening to kids’ mathematical ideas. She is a co-author of this toolkit, Building Fact Fluency, and the author of Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms. Tracy also edits professional books for teachers at Stenhouse Publishers, including, yours truly. Thank you for all that insight, Tracy, and support on the book.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (20:49):

Dan and I were talking at the beginning of the episode about things we feel like, “Hey, I’m fluent in that. I’m fluent in that.”

Dan Meyer (20:55):

Just very curious: What’s something you would like to get fluent in outside of the world of mathematics, let’s say?

Tracy Zager (21:00):

I’ll say understanding the teenage brain, as the parent of a 13-year-old and 15-year-old. That’s the main thing I’m working on becoming fluent in!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:10):

Ooh!

Dan Meyer (21:13):

A language fluency, perhaps. All right, Graham. How about you?

Graham Fletcher (21:16):

For me typing, it’s always been an Achilles heel of mine. So voice-to-text has been my friend. But it’s also been my nemesis in much of my texting here and working virtually over the last couple years. So yeah, typing.

Dan Meyer (21:33):

Do you folks have some way of helping us understand the difference in how fluency is handled by instructors and by learners?

Tracy Zager (21:40):

I would say that the lay meaning of fluency is definitely a little different than what we mean in the math education realm. When we’re talking about math fact fluency, which is just one type of fluency. So you gotta think about procedural fluency and computational fluency; there are lots of types of fluency in math. And Graham and I had the luxury of really focusing in specifically on math fact fluency. We’re looking at kind of a subset of the procedural fluency. So the words you hear in all the citations are accurate, efficient, and flexible. There’s this combination of kids get the right answer in a reasonable amount of time and with a reasonable amount of work and they can match their strategy or their approach to the situation. That’s where that flexibility comes in. And there’s like lots more I wanna say about that about sort of…I think one issue that comes up around fluency is that people are in a little bit of a rush. So they tend to think of the fluency as this automaticity or recall of known facts without having to think about it. And that is part of the end goal, but that’s not the journey to fluency. So this is one of the things that Graham and I thought about a lot was the path to fluency. The goal here it’s that student in middle school who’s learning something new doesn’t have to expend any effort to gather that fact. And they might do it because they’ve done it so many different ways that they’ve got it, and now they just know it, or they might be like my friend who’s a mathematician who still, if you say, “Six times 8,” she thinks in her head, “Twelve, 24, 48…” and she does this double-double-double associative property strategy. And it’s so efficient, you would never know. And that’s totally great. That’s fine. That’s not slowing her down. That’s not providing a drag in the middle of a more complex problem or new learning. So we’re really focused on having elementary school students be able to enter the middle and high school standards without having that pull out of the new thinking.

Graham Fletcher (23:53):

And as I think about that, I think about how so many students will memorize their facts, but then they haven’t memorized them with understanding. So that when they move into middle school and they move into high school, it’s almost like new knowledge and new understanding that’s applied from a stand-alone skill.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (24:10):

So something that felt really unique to me, Graham, as I was diving into the toolkit, is your use of images, Tracy, Graham, is the way that you use images to help students notice and wonder to start making sense of these quantities and the decomposition of numbers using images. Can you talk a little bit about how images played a part in the way that you think about this building a fact fluency?

Graham Fletcher (24:41):

What I realized is so many times when we approach math with just naked numbers with so many of our elementary students, the numbers aren’t visible. The quantities. They can’t see them; they can’t move them. They’re just those squiggly figures that we were talking about earlier on. So how is it that we make the quantities visible, to where students feel as if they can grab an apple and move it around? Because a lot of times we start with the naked numbers and then if kids don’t get the naked numbers, then we kind of backfill it. But what would happen if we start with the images? And then from there, these rich, flourishing mathematical conversations develop from the images. And I think that was the premise and the goal of the toolkit.

Tracy Zager (25:22):

When you look at how fact fluency has traditionally been taught, it’s all naked numbers. And sometimes we wrote ’em sideways. Like, that’s it. That was our variety of task type. Right? Sometimes it’s vertical; sometimes it’s horizontal. And that was it. And I’ve just known way too many kids who couldn’t find a hook to hang their hat on with that. It didn’t connect to anything. And so part of why I knew Graham was the perfect person for this project was his strength in multimedia photography, art, video. And so we started from this idea of contexts that for each lesson string in the toolkit, there’s some kind of context. An everyday object, arranged in some kind of a way that reveals mathematical structure and invites students to notice the properties. So we start with images of everyday objects: tennis balls, paint pots…um, help me out; here are a million of them. Crayons—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:18):

Crayons, markers.

Tracy Zager (26:18):

Shoes, right? Sushi, origami paper, all kinds of things in the different toolkits. So there’s a series of images or a three-act task or both around those everyday objects, and then story problems grounded in that context. And then there are images with mathematical tools that bring out different ideas, but relate in some way to the image talks. And we do all of that before we get to the naked number talk. Which we do, and by the time you get to the number talk, it’s pretty quick, ’cause they’ve been reasoning about cups of lemonade. And now when you give them the actual numerals, they’re all over it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:03):

I have to say too, as somebody who—particularly in middle school—navigated math anxiety, we recently talked with Allison Hintz and Anthony Smith about their amazing book Mathematizing Children’s Literature.

Tracy Zager (27:14):

Yay!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:14):

And I was explaining, like, if I sat down at the beginning of a math class and my teacher opened a picture book and said, “We’re gonna start here,” I felt my whole body relax. And if we start with this image, if we start with just looking at an image and making sense of an image, I feel like that could be such a powerful touchstone for all the work you do from there.

Tracy Zager (27:41):

That’s core. That’s a core design principle, is that invitational access. There are no barriers to entry. There’s nothing to decode. There’s nothing formal. We’ve been learning from Dan for years about this, right? Of starting with the informal and then eventually layering in the formal. I was in a class in Maine where they were doing an image talk and it’s these boxes of pencils. It’s a stack of boxes of pencils and they’re open and you can see there are 10 pencils in each box. And so there are five boxes of pencils each with 10 pencils in it. And then the next image is 10 boxes of pencils and each box is half full. So now it’s 10 boxes each with five. And the kids are talking and talking and then the third image, I think there are seven boxes each with 10 pencils in it. And she said, “What do you think the next picture’s gonna be?” And this girl said, “You just never know with these people!” <laugh> I dunno!”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:37):

That’s kinda true. Knowing you both, it’s kinda true.

Tracy Zager (28:42):

Like if it’s seven boxes with 10 in it, one kid said, I think it’s gonna be 14 boxes of five. And other kids are like, I think it’s gonna be 10 boxes with seven. And they start talking about which of those there are and the relationships between—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:58):

But they’re making sense of numbers!

Tracy Zager (28:59):

Totally. So all the kids felt invited. They can offer something up. They’re noticing and wondering about that image. They’re talking about it in whatever informal language or home language that they speak. And that was core to us. That was a huge priority, because honestly, one of the motivations to talk about fluency is that it’s always been this gatekeeper. It has served to keep kids out of meaningful math. Particularly kids from marginalized or historically excluded communities. So they’re back at the round table, doing Mad Minutes, while the more advantaged kids are getting to do rich problem solving. And so, we thought, what if we could teach fact fluency through rich problem solving that everybody could access? That was like square one for us.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:45):

That’s huge.

Dan Meyer (29:46):

That’s great to hear. What’s been helpful for me is to understand that students who are automatic, that’s just kind of what’s on the surface of things. And that below that might be some really robust kind of foundation or scaffolding that bleeds to a larger building being built, or it might be just really rickety and not offer a sturdy place to build farther up. It’s been really exciting to hear that. I wonder if you’d comment for a moment about, in the digital age and—I’m at Desmos and our sponsors are Amplify and we all work in the digital world quite a bit. There are a lot of what report to be solutions to the fluency issue, to developing fluency in the digital world. Just lots and lots of them. Some that are quite well used, others that are just like X, Y, or Z app on the market. You can find something. Do you have perspectives on these kinds of digital fluency building apps? Like, what about them works or doesn’t work? Let us know. Graham, how about you? And then Tracy, I’d love to hear your thoughts too.

Graham Fletcher (30:47):

Yeah, I think that’s a great question, ’cause there’s a lot of shiny bells and whistles out there right now that can really excite a lot of teachers. But I always come back to what works for me as a classroom teacher is probably gonna work in a digital world as well. So what are the things that I love and honor most about being in front of students, and how can I capture that in that virtual world? I think one of the things that really helps students make connections is coherence. I think coherence, especially when you leave students for—you don’t get to talk with them after the lesson is done—so I think about how we can purposefully sequence things through a day-to-day basis. I think coherence is something that gets really lost when we talk about fluency, especially with whether it be digital or whether it be print, because what ends up happening is we say, “OK, we have all these strategies we need to teach,” and it becomes a checklist. So how is it that we can just provide students the opportunity to play around in a space, whether it be digital or in person, but in a meaningful way that allows them the time and the space and that area to breathe and think, but be coherent. And connecting those lessons along the way. And I think coherence is one thing that a lot of the times it’s harder to—when we’re in the weeds, it’s so hard and difficult to zoom back out and say, “Do all these lessons connect? How do they intentionally connect? And how do they purposefully connect?” And without coherence, everything’s kind of broken down into that granular level. So when looking at—I think about Desmos and I think about the Toolkit and I think about how Tracy and I talked a lot about, “Well, this, does it connect with the context problem, does it connect with the image talk, or the lessons? Like, how does it all connect and how are we providing students an opportunity to make connections between the day-to-day instruction and lessons that we tackle?”

Tracy Zager (32:44):

I’m reminded of a conversation that Dan, you and I had a long time ago, in Portland, Maine, in a bar. I’ll just be honest. <laugh> And we were talking about how, in the earlier days of Desmos, you were stressed out by what you saw, which was kids one-on-one, on a device, in a silent room. And you were like, no, this is not it. This is not what technology is here to serve. We can do so many things better using technology appropriately, but we can’t lose talk and we can’t lose relationships and we can’t lose formative assessment and teachers listening to kids and kids listening to each other and helping each other understand their thinking. Right? So when I think about the tech that’s out there for fact fluency, most of it is gonna violate all rules I have around time testing. So that a whole bunch of it, I would just toss on that premise. They’re really no different than flashcards. It’s just flashcards set in junkyard heaps. Or, you know, underground caverns. Or with a volcano or whatever. It’s the same thing. There are some lovely visuals—I’m thinking of Berkeley Everett’s Math Flips. Those are really pretty. Mathigon has some really nice stuff that’s digital. And I think that those resources invite you to kind of ponder and notice things and talk about them. All the tools that we design in the toolkit are designed to get people talking to each other, and give teachers opportunities to pull alongside kids and listen in and understand where they are. For example, our games, we didn’t design the games to be played digitally, even though you could, and people did during COVID, because we want kids on the rug, next to each other, on their knees; I’ve seen kids like across tables. I was in a school recently where a kid was like, “I hope you believe in God, ’cause you’re going…!” You know what I mean? <laugh>. Like they’re all pumped up.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:41):

They’re invested!

Tracy Zager (34:45):

They’re psyching each other up and down and they’re interacting and it’s social and the teacher’s walking around and she’s listening to the games. And they don’t actually need any bells and whistles. They need dice and they need counters and they need this game that is actually a game. In all of our conversations, games have to actually be games. Games cannot be “roll and record.” Games have to involve strategy. They have to be fun. So in designing those games, we didn’t feel like it brought any advantage to make that a digital platform. But things that did bring advantages digitally, like the ability to project these beautiful images or to use short video in the classroom, that really was a value-add that enabled us to do something different in math class than we had done before, and to get kids talking in a different way than they ever had before. When I think about fluency, historically, if you say like, “OK, it’s time to practice our math facts,” you hear a lot of groans. And when I see a Building Fact Fluency classroom and I say, “OK, it’s BFF time!” There’s like a “YEAAAAHHH!” You know? And so that’s what we’re after.

Graham Fletcher (35:47):

It’s all about kids, really, for us. And I think at the heart of it, we made all the decisions with teachers and kids at the forefront of it.

Tracy Zager (35:55):

I know of high schoolers who are newcomers, who have experienced very little formal education, and speak in other languages, are using it as high schoolers, because it involves language and math and all the deep work in the properties and it’s accessible, but it’s also not at all condescending or patronizing. Like we designed it to be appropriate for older kids. So that’s just something that I think we’re both really proud of. One thing we thought a lot about, especially in the multiplication-division kit is how a classroom teacher could use it and a coordinating educator in EL, Title, special education, intervention could also use it because there’s so much in it, that students could get to be experts, if they got extra time in it, using something that’s related and would give them additional practice. So they could play a game a little bit earlier than the rest of the classes. And they could come in already knowing about that game, or they could do a related task. We have all these optional tasks that no classroom teacher would ever have time to teach it all. So the special educator could use it and have kids doing a Same and Different or a True/False, or some of the optional games. And then the work in both special education and general education could connect.

Dan Meyer (37:20):

I just wanna say that this is an area that for so many students, as you’ve said, Tracy, it presents a barrier. It’s a very emotionally fraught area of mathematics. And we really appreciate the wisdom you brought here. And just the care you’ve brought to the product itself. Your knowledge of teaching, knowledge of math, and yeah, especially a love for students feels like it’s really infused throughout Building Fact Fluency. If our listeners want to know more outside of this podcast, outside of the product itself, where can they find your words, your voice? Where you folks at these days? Tell ’em, Graham would you?

Graham Fletcher (37:57):

You can find us at Stenhouse, Building Fact Fluency. And then Tracy and I, currently playing around, sharing ideas a lot on Twitter, under the hashtag #BuildingFactFluency. That’s kind of where we can all come together and share ideas. And then also on the Facebook community, where there’s lots of teachers sharing ideas.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (38:19):

If you were to ask our listeners like, “Hey, if you wanna keep thinking about this, here’s something you could try or here’s something you could go do,” what could be a challenge that we could share that could help us continue this conversation?

Graham Fletcher (38:35):

Online you can actually download a full lesson string. And a lesson string is a series of activities and resources that are purposefully connected. You can pick one or two of those from the Stenhouse web site, Building Fact Fluency. You can try the game. You can try one of those strategy-based games. You can try an image talk and just see how it goes. And just share and reflect back, whether on Twitter or on Facebook. But it’s kind of there, if you wanna give it a whirl. And as Tracy was sharing, even if you’re a middle-school teacher or a high-school teacher, we really tried to think about those middle-school and high-school students keeping it grade level-agnostic. Just so every student has those opportunities for those mathematical conversations. So download a lesson string and give it a whirl, and we’d love to hear how it goes.

Dan Meyer (39:25):

Bethany and I will be working the same challenge with people in our life.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:29):

Yes.

Dan Meyer (39:29):

Enjoying some fact fluency with people in our homes, perhaps. We’ll see. And we’ll be sharing the results in the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group. Graham and Tracy, thanks so much for being here. It was such a treat to chat with you both.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:42):

I love learning with you and just helping to shift this idea of fluency into something that can be accessible and powerful and positive.

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What Valerie Henry says about math

“A lot of very fluent adults don’t always have every fact memorized. ”

– Val Henry

Meet the guest

Valerie Henry has been a math educator since 1986. She taught middle school math for 17 years and has worked as a lecturer at University of California Irvine since 2002. After doing her 2004 dissertation research on addition/subtraction fluency in first grade, Valerie created FactsWise, a daily mini-lesson approach that simultaneously develops  fluency,  number sense, and algebraic thinking. Additionally, she has provided curriculum and math professional development for K-12 teachers throughout her career, working with individual schools, districts, county offices of education, Illustrative Mathematics, the SBAC Digital Library, and the UCI Math Project.

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Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

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Essential K-2 program materials:

  • Image Cards / Tarjetas de imágenes
  • Large Letter Cards / Tarjetas grandes de letras
  • Small Letter Cards / Tarjetas pequeñas de letras
  • Vocabulary Book – Teacher Guide / Libro de vocabulario: Guía del maestro
  • Vocabulary Book – Activity Book / Libro de vocabulario: Cuaderno del estudiante
  • Cursive Activity Book

Grado K

Grado 1

Grado 2

Amplify ELA CA Edition professional development

Amplify ELA is an engaging and rigorous curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. With Amplify ELA, students learn to tackle any complex text and make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves.

We’ve created a wide suite of professional development offerings that will help you meet your unique needs this school year. Find out more below!

Professional Learning Partner Guide Certified Provider

Amplify CKLA, ELA, and Science professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

Two women sit at a desk; one types on a laptop while the other writes in a spiral notebook. Both are smiling. Colorful posters are visible on the wall behind them.

Plan your professional development

We’re excited to partner with you on your Amplify journey. Flexible professional development pathways have been designed to meet your needs.

Illustration of three educational phases: a teacher launches a rocket, another reads a book, and four individuals discuss in a meeting setting.

Recommended professional development plan

Our team has curated a recommended professional learning path from initial launch to continuous support. Use the Professional Development Planning Guide below to discuss the plan that best meets your school or district needs with your Account Executive.

View the Professional Development Planning Guide

Sessions overview

Recomended sessions are highlighted below

Title Duration Modality Available
Launch
Comprehensive initial + ELD training for teachers 2 days consecutive Onsite Yes
Initial training for teachers 1 day Onsite Yes
Initial training for teachers 2 half days Remote Yes
Program overview Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Initial training for instructional leaders Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Comprehensive ELD training for teachers Half day Remote Yes
Basic ELD training for teachers 90 min. Remote Yes
Strengthen
Enhancing observations for leaders Half day Onsite/Remote 09/01/22
Enhancing planning and practice Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Analytic reading Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Supporting all learners Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Data-informed instruction Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Writing: Improving through feedback Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Strengthening consultation package 3 1-hour sessions Remote Yes
Strengthening consultation session 1 hour Remote Yes
Coach
Coaching sessions 2 days consecutive Onsite Yes
Coaching sessions 1 day Onsite/Remote Yes
Half day Onsite/Remote Yes

Launch

Comprehensive initial and ELD training

2 consecutive days (12 hours)

Prepare to implement and support Amplify ELA and Amplify ELD instruction in your schools! Learn about the integrated and designated approaches to supporting language learners using our ELD and ELA programs. Participants will learn how to navigate the Amplify platform, practice giving feedback on student work, and explore how to use Amplify ELA’s reporting features and embedded supports to monitor student progress. Multiple opportunities to practice components of Amplify ELA and Amplify ELD are incorporated throughout this training. Participants will leave feeling confident to begin teaching Amplify ELA and Amplify ELD. Recommended for schools or districts that want embedded practice time. This session is designed for schools who have purchased Amplify ELD, Amplify’s English Language Development program.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite

Initial training for teachers

1 day (6 hours)

Prepare to implement and support Amplify ELA instruction in your schools! Learn how Amplify ELA supports students through rigorous and engaging ELA instruction. Participants will navigate the Amplify ELA platform, learn how to give feedback on student work, and explore how to use Amplify ELA’s embedded supports and Reporting app to monitor student progress. Participants will leave with an action plan to begin teaching Amplify ELA.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants; Remote, maximum 15 participants

Modality: Onsite

Initial training for teachers

2 half days (3 hours per day, 6 hours total)

This full day initial training session (6 hours) is split into two half-day sessions (3 hours each). Part 1 and Part 2 may be scheduled consecutively on the same day or on different days, ideally within 2 weeks. The same participants should attend both sessions in order to receive all content about key components of Amplify ELA, which includes learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Remote

Program essentials

Half day (3 hrs)

Learn the program essentials, including how to navigate the digital curriculum and print materials components and how to locate assessments, data reports, and other features associated with the curriculum.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training for instructional leaders

Half day (3 hours)

This training will provide district-and school-level instructional leaders with an overview of Amplify ELA so that they can support their staff in implementing Amplify. Learn basic navigation and gain an understanding of Amplify ELA’s approach to reading, writing, and language instruction. Participants will then have the opportunity to choose how to best support teachers by either developing a school-wide implementation plan or learning strategies for effective classroom observations.

Audience: Ideal for instructional leaders, principals and district staff who oversee the implementation of the new curriculum, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite/Remote

Comprehensive ELD training

Half day (3 hours)

This session is designed for schools who have purchased Amplify ELD, Amplify’s English Language Development program. It reviews the integrated and designated approaches to supporting language learners using our ELA and ELD programs. Participants will learn how to navigate the Amplify ELD platform, plan to teach a lesson, and monitor student progress. Multiple opportunities to practice components of Amplify ELD are incorporated throughout this training. Participants will leave feeling confident to begin teaching Amplify ELD.

Audience: This is an add-on for schools who have already been using or attended an ELA Initial training, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Remote

Basic ELD training

90 min.

This session is designed for schools that have purchased Amplify ELD, Amplify’s English Language Development program. It reviews the integrated and designated approaches to supporting language learners using our ELA and ELD programs. Participants will learn how to navigate the Amplify ELD platform, plan to teach a lesson, and monitor student progress. Participants will leave feeling prepared to begin teaching Amplify ELD.

Audience: This is an add-on for schools who have already been using or attended an ELA Initial training, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Remote

Strengthen

Enhancing observations for leaders

Half day (3 hours)

Prerequisite training: Initial training for leaders

Elevate your program knowledge to support colleagues with effective ELA implementation! Practice analyzing ELA lessons and identify key instructional elements and next steps. Participants will be prepared to analyze data and enhance classroom observations.

Audience: Ideal for instructional leaders, principals and district staff who oversee the implementation of the new curriculum, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite/Remote

Enhancing planning and practice

Half day (3 hours)

Dig into one unit to unpack standards, assessments, and student engagement. Through backward planning, this session guides teachers to think deeply about learning outcomes and key moments of formative assessments. Teachers will leave this session with a detailed plan for a unit of their choice that includes learning outcomes, key assessment moments, and aligned instructional strategies.

Audience: Ideal for new or experienced Amplify ELA teachers or coaches, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite/Remote

Analytic reading

half day (3 hours)

Participants will learn how close reading functions in Amplify ELA and which teacher moves support students as they tackle complex texts. Participants will learn how to facilitate a close reading session to support key reading routines, as well as promote academic discourse and the type of collaboration that drives analysis and deepens understanding.

Audience: Ideal for new or experienced Amplify ELA teachers, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite/Remote

Supporting all learners

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will learn how to effectively use embedded and differentiated supports and the Classwork app to support all students, including ELLs, students with learning disabilities, struggling readers and writers, and advanced students.

Audience: Ideal for new teachers or instructional leaders who want to learn more about included supports in Amplify ELA, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-informed instruction

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will review their own student data using the Reporting and Classwork apps and align embedded supports to specific student needs. The goal of this session is to become proficient in turning Amplify ELA data into differentiated and targeted instruction.

Note: This course can be combined with the supporting all learners session to make a full day of training.

Prerequisite: 4–6 weeks of student data in Amplify’s Reporting app. It is recommended that teachers are in at least Unit B.

Audience: Ideal for teachers or support staff who want to learn how to use student data to inform instruction and provide differentiation, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite/Remote

Writing: Improving through feedback

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will learn how writing functions in Amplify ELA and which teacher moves support students as they build writing skills. Participants will learn how feedback supports student growth and will practice giving targeted feedback based on rubrics and assessment data.

Audience: This course tasks teachers to look at their students’ writing, so it is recommended for delivery after 4–6 weeks of curriculum use, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite/Remote

Strengthening consultation package

3 1-hour sessions

This package consists of three 60-minute sessions that can be delivered on the same day or on different days. Each session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding in ELA and equip them with the tools needed to drive stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district leadership team in advance of the session on the topic (chosen from a menu of options) that will best meet educators’ unique needs. The menu includes sessions on: engagement, pacing and grading/assessment.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Remote

Strengthening consultation session

1 hour

This 60-minute session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding in ELA and equip them with the tools needed to drive stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district leadership team in advance of the session on the topic (chosen from a menu of options) that will best meet educators’ unique needs. The menu includes sessions on engagement, pacing, and grading/assessment.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Remote

Coach

Coaching session

2 days consecutive (6 hours per day, 12 total)

Strengthen your implementation of Amplify ELA with an Onsite coaching visit for your teachers and/or leaders. Participants can choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: lesson modeling and debrief (conducted by an Amplify ELA coach), grade-level planning, classroom observations, and leadership consultation. The flexible onsite coaching design allows for a collaborative approach to support effective program implementation.

Audience: Teachers, coaches, and/or instructional leaders, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite

Coaching session

1 day (6 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of Amplify ELA with an Onsite coaching visit for your teachers and/or leaders. Participants can choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: lesson modeling and debrief (conducted by an Amplify ELA coach), grade-level planning, classroom observations, and leadership consultation. The flexible onsite coaching design allows for a collaborative approach to support effective program implementation.

Audience: Teachers, coaches, and/or instructional leaders

Modality: Onsite/Remote, maximum 30 participants

Coaching session

Half day (3 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of Amplify ELA with a Coaching session for your teachers and/or leaders. Participants can choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: lesson modeling and debrief (conducted by an Amplify ELA coach), grade-level planning, classroom observations, and leadership consultation. The flexible coaching design allows for a collaborative approach to support effective program implementation.

Audience: Teachers, coaches, and/or instructional leaders, maximum 30 participants

Modality: Onsite/Remote

Pricing

We offer the following pricing for training sessions and packages:

Session type Pricing
2 consecutive days onsite session $4,800
1-day onsite session $3,200
1-day remote session (2 half days remote) $1,500
Half-day onsite session $2,500
Half-day remote session $750
90-min. remote session $500
1-hour remote session $350
3 1-hour remote sessions $1,000

Please note that the prices are general ranges and may be subject to change.

Contact

Amplify welcomes the opportunity to partner with schools and districts to design professional development plans and answer your questions.

If you would like to order any of our professional development services, please contact your local Amplify sales representative or call (800) 823-1969.

Amplify ELA professional development

Amplify ELA is an engaging and rigorous curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. With Amplify ELA, students learn to tackle any complex text and make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves.

We’ve created a wide suite of professional development offerings that will help you meet your unique needs. Find out more below!

Professional Learning Partner Guide Certified Provider

Amplify CKLA, ELA, and Science professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

A male teacher in a red shirt explaining a lesson to a young female student who is reading a book in a classroom.

Plan your professional development

We’re excited to partner with you on your Amplify journey. Flexible professional development pathways have been designed to meet your needs.

Illustration of three educational phases: a teacher launches a rocket, another reads a book, and four individuals discuss in a meeting setting.

Recommended Professional Development Plan

Our team has curated a recommended professional learning path from initial launch to continuous support. Use the Professional Development Planning Guide below to discuss the plan that best meets your school or district needs with your Account Executive.

View the Professional Development Planning Guide

Sessions overview

Recomended sessions are highlighted below

Title Duration Modality Available
Launch
Comprehensive initial training for teachers 2 days consecutive Onsite Yes
Initial training for teachers 1 day Onsite Yes
Initial training for teachers 2 half days Remote Yes
Program overview Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Initial training for leaders Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Strengthen
Enhancing observations for leaders Half day Onsite/Remote 09/01/22
Enhancing planning and practice Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Analytic reading Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Supporting all learners Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Data-informed instruction Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Writing: Improving through feedback Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Strengthening consultation session 1 hour Remote Yes
Strengthening consultation package 3 1-hour sessions Remote Yes
Coach
Coaching sessions 2 days consecutive Onsite Yes
Coaching sessions 1 day Onsite/Remote Yes
Half day Onsite/Remote Yes

Launch

Comprehensive initial training for teachers

2 days consecutive (6 hours per day, 12 hours total)

Prepare to implement and support Amplify ELA instruction in your school! Learn how Amplify ELA supports students through rigorous and engaging ELA instruction. Participants will navigate the Amplify ELA platform, learn to give feedback on student work, and explore how to use Amplify ELA’s embedded supports and Reporting app to monitor student progress. Participants will have multiple opportunities to practice components of Amplify ELA and leave confident to begin teaching.

Audience: Teachers and coaches
Modality: Onsite, maximum 30 participants

Initial training for teachers

1 day (6 hours)

Prepare to implement and support Amplify ELA instruction in your schools! Learn how Amplify ELA supports students through rigorous and engaging ELA instruction. Participants will navigate the Amplify ELA platform, learn to give feedback on student work, and explore how to use Amplify ELA’s embedded supports and Reporting app to monitor student progress. Participants will leave with an action plan to begin teaching Amplify ELA.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Initial training for teachers

2 half days (3 hours per day, 6 hours total)

This full day initial training session (6 hours) is split into two half-day sessions (3 hours each). Part 1 and Part 2 may be scheduled consecutively on the same day or on different days, ideally within ~2 weeks. The same participants should attend both sessions in order to receive all content about key components of Amplify ELA, which includes learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Program essentials

Half day (3 hours)

Learn the program essentials, including how to navigate the digital curriculum and print materials and where to locate features like assessments and data reports.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training for instructional leaders

Half day (3 hours)

This training will provide district- and school-level instructional leaders with an overview of Amplify ELA so that they can support their staff in implementing Amplify.

Learn basic navigation and gain an understanding of Amplify ELA’s approach to reading, writing, and language instruction. Participants will then have the opportunity to choose how to best support teachers by either developing a school-wide implementation plan or learning strategies for effective classroom observations.

Audience: Ideal for instructional leaders, principals, and district staff who oversee the implementation of the new curriculum, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Strengthen

Enhancing observations for leaders

Half day (3 hours)

Elevate your program knowledge to support colleagues with effective ELA implementation! Practice analyzing ELA lessons and identify key instructional elements and next steps. Participants will be prepared to analyze data and enhance classroom observations.

Prerequisite training: Initial training for leaders
Audience: Ideal for instructional leaders, principals, and district staff who oversee the implementation of the new curriculum, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Enhancing planning and practice

Half day (3 hours)

Dig into one unit to unpack standards, assessments, and student engagement. Through backward planning, this session guides teachers to think deeply about learning outcomes and key moments of formative assessments. Teachers will leave this session with a detailed plan of a unit of their choice that includes learning outcomes, key assessment moments, and aligned instructional strategies.

Audience: Ideal for new or experienced Amplify ELA teachers or coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Analytic reading

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will learn how close reading functions in Amplify ELA and which teacher moves will support students tackling complex texts. Participants will also learn how to facilitate a close reading session to develop key reading routines, promote academic discourse, and encourage the type of collaboration that drives analysis and deepens understanding.

Audience: Ideal for new or experienced Amplify ELA teachers, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Supporting all learners

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will learn how to effectively use embedded and differentiated supports and the Classwork app to support all students, including ELLs, students with learning disabilities, struggling readers and writers, and advanced students.

Audience: Ideal for new teachers or instructional leaders who want to learn more about included supports in Amplify ELA, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-informed instruction

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will review their own student data using the Reporting and Classwork apps and align embedded supports to specific student needs. The goal of this session is to become proficient in turning Amplify ELA data into differentiated and targeted instruction.

Note: This course can be combined with the supporting all learners session to make a full day of training.

Prerequisite: 4–6 weeks of student data in Amplify’s Reporting app. It is recommended that teachers are in at least Unit B.
Audience: Ideal for teachers or support staff who want to learn how to use student data to inform instruction and provide differentiation, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Writing: Improving through feedback

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will learn how writing functions in Amplify ELA and which teacher moves support students as they build writing skills. Participants will learn how feedback supports student growth and will practice giving targeted feedback based on rubrics and assessment data.

Audience: This course asks teachers to look at their students’ writing, so it is recommended for delivery after 4–6 weeks of curriculum use, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Strengthening consultation session

1 hour

This 60-minute session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding in Amplify ELAR Texas and equip them with the tools needed to drive stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district leadership team in advance of the session on the topic (chosen from a menu of options) that will best meet educators’ unique needs. The menu includes sessions on: engagement, pacing and grading/assessment.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Strengthening consultation package

3 1-hour sessions

This package consists of three 60-minute session that can be delivered on the same day or on different days. Each session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding in ELA and equip them with the tools needed to drive stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district leadership team in advance of the session on the topic (chosen from a menu of options) that will best meet educators’ unique needs. The menu includes sessions on: engagement, pacing and grading/assessment.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Coach

Coaching session

2 days consecutive (6 hours per day, 12 total)

Strengthen your implementation of Amplify ELA with an onsite coaching visit for your teachers and/or leaders. Participants can choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: lesson modeling and debrief (conducted by an Amplify ELA coach), grade-level planning, classroom observations, and leadership consultation. The flexible onsite coaching design allows for a collaborative approach to support effective program implementation.

Audience: Teachers, coaches, and/or instructional leaders, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Coaching session

1 day (6 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of Amplify ELA with an onsite coaching visit for your teachers and/or leaders. Participants can choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: lesson modeling and debrief (conducted by an Amplify ELA coach), grade-level planning, classroom observations, and leadership consultation. The flexible onsite coaching design allows for a collaborative approach to support effective program implementation.

Audience: Teachers, coaches, and/or instructional leaders, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Coaching session

Half day (3 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of Amplify ELA with a coaching session for your teachers and/or leaders. Participants can choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: lesson modeling and debrief (conducted by an Amplify ELA coach), grade-level planning, classroom observations, and leadership consultation. The flexible coaching design allows for a collaborative approach to support effective program implementation.

Audience: Teachers, coaches, and/or instructional leaders, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Pricing

We offer the following pricing for training sessions and packages:

TypePricing
2-day onsite session$4,800
1-day onsite session$3,200
1-day remote session (2 half days remote)$1,500
Half-day onsite session$2,500
Half-day remote session$750
1-hour remote session$350
3 1-hour remote sessions$1,000

Please note that the prices are general ranges and may be subject to change.

Contact

Amplify welcomes the opportunity to partner with schools and districts to design professional development plans and answer your questions.

If you would like to order any of our professional development services, please contact your local Amplify sales representative or call (800) 823-1969.

9

Amplify Desmos Math lab classes

Hello math rock star!

Be one of the first to get your hands on our latest and most exciting new ideas for Amplify Desmos Math K–5 by joining our spring lab classes.

Spring lab classes are perfect for educators who:

  • Love math
  • Are interested in innovative new ways of teaching and learning, using print or digital tools for instruction
  • Are excited about the opportunity to share feedback on early prototypes so you can have an impact on math education
  • Have flexibility in their instructional calendar to try new things with their students this April, May and June

Sign up for our spring lab classes.

A stage with two geometric characters performing on the left, and a chart with school enrollment data next to a woman and child on the right.

Flexible, social problem-solving experiences both online and off

Amplify Desmos Math makes productive discourse easier to facilitate and more accessible for students. The program provides teachers with easy-to-follow instructional supports that makes the program more effective and enjoyable for both you and your students.

A laptop displays geometric shapes in a teaching demo. Nearby, a separate document with text and diagrams is visible.
A woman sits at a desk in a classroom, working on a laptop with an open binder and papers in front of her.

Signs you might be an amazing lab class teacher:

  • You love math.
  • You know young people are capable of just about anything.
  • You understand that giving candid feedback can help the next generation of students redefine what amazing looks like.
  • We are looking for a diverse set of classrooms and districts, with a variety of technology used (remote, hybrid, 1:1, blended—you name it!) and demographics (urban, suburban, rural).

Lab class teachers will receive:

  • Teacher and student prototype materials
  • Training with an Amplify Desmos Math expert
  • Compensation for your time

Amplify will collect feedback in a number of ways:

  • Quick surveys
  • Virtual interviews

Amplify may ask to visit your classroom if possible.

Want to learn more about how you could get involved with lab classes spring 2023? Sign up here.

S3 – 04. Ideas to build math fluency with Valerie Henry, Graham Fletcher, and Tracy Zager

Promotional image for "Math Teacher Lounge" Season 3, Episode 4 titled "Ideas to Build Math Fluency," featuring Valerie Henry, Tracy J. Zager, and Graham Fletcher.

Fluency in math can oftentimes be associated with negative experiences with its development— timed worksheets, for example. Bethany and Dan are joined by three guests to better understand fluency and how to make its approach fun. Dr. Val Henry shares her three-part definition of fluency and her five principles for developing it. Additionally, Tracy Zager and Graham Fletcher join Bethany and Dan to better understand fluency through a lens of equity and using multimedia as a tool.

Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page. 

Download Transcript

Dan Meyer (00:03)

Hey folks. Welcome back. This is Math Teacher Lounge, and I am one of your hosts, Dan Meyer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:07):

And I’m your other host, Bethany Lockhart Johnson. Hi, Dan.

Dan Meyer (00:11):

Hey, great to see you. We have a big one this week to chat about and some fantastic guests. We are chatting about fluency, which is the sort of word and concept that I feel like people have very, very non-neutral associations with it. A lot of them are very negative, for a lot of people.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:26):

I saw you frown a little. What’s up with that, Dan? You kind of, like, shrank.

Dan Meyer (00:30):

I have strong feelings about it. You know, there’s lots of ways that people go about helping people become fluent in mathematics. And a lot of them are harmful for students, and ineffective. And it got me thinking about fluency as it exists outside of the world of mathematics, where we have a lot of very clear images of it. We’re getting fluent in things all the time. Like, as humans. Human development is the story of fluency. And I just was wondering….Bethany, would you describe yourself as fluent at something outside of the world of mathematics? What is that? How’d you get fluent at it? What was the process?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:05):

Hmm, I think I’m a pretty fluent reader. I read all the time. I’m a happier person if I’ve read that day. I once saw this poster in a classroom; it said “10 Ways to Become a Better Reader: Read, Read, Read, Read, Read…you know, 10 times. Get it? Reading? You get better at reading by reading! So I would say reading. And it’s been kind of cool—I have a one-year-old who, it’s been really exciting slash overwhelmingly anxiety-producing to see him get very fluent with walking slash running, ’cause he’s getting faster every day. And it’s kind of fun. When I think of what’s something somebody’s trying to get fluent with…walking! He’s trying to be more fluid. He’s practicing transitions. He doesn’t wanna hold my hand while he traverses rocky terrain. He’s getting better at it. He’s practicing. What about you? What’s something…?

Dan Meyer (02:08):

I think about driving a lot. I’m a very fluent driver and I think a lot about when I was first a driver, you know? And how l have my hands on 10 and 2, vice grip, and do not talk to me; do not ask me anything; don’t ask me my NAME. I need to focus so hard. And then a year later, you know, I’m driving with one hand, smash the turn signal, take a sip off of whatever, change the CD. And then it’s no big deal.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:38):

Wait, did you pass the first time? Your test?

Dan Meyer (02:40):

Yeah, I don’t like to brag about it. <laugh> But I do all the time. <laugh> But I got a hundred on my driving test. I don’t care who knows it. And I hope it’s everybody. But I guess all of this is just to say there are areas of life where fluency feels natural, with the case of walking. There’s areas of life where fluency feels motivating, with like driving—I wanna be able to switch the CD out or whatever. And there’s areas where fluency feels terrifying and hard to come by, like mathematics, sometimes. So we have a set of guests here. Our first guest will help us figure out what do we mean by fluency? And what’s the research say about what fluency is and how students develop it in mathematics? And then our other guests will help us think about what it looks like in practice in the classroom. What are some novel, new ways to work on fluency? So first up we have Val Henry, Dr. Val Henry.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:32):

So we knew we needed help with the fluency definition, because when we think about it, it’s kind of big, right? And we wanted to look at what research about fluency really says. So we called on Valerie Henry. Val is a nationally board-certified teacher, taught middle school for 17 years, and since 2002 has worked with undergraduates graduates, credential candidates as a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, one of my alma maters. So after doing her dissertation on addition and subtraction fluency in first grade, Val created a project to study ways to build addition and subtraction and multiplication and division fluency while also developing number sense in algebraic thinking. And the pilot grew and grew over the last 18 years into a powerful daily mini-lesson approach to facts fluency called FactsWise. And when we thought of fluency, the first person I thought of was Val. Welcome, Val Henry, to the Lounge! I’m so excited to have you here. Welcome.

Valerie Henry (04:36):

Thanks, Bethany. And thanks to you, Dan. It’s great to be here today.

Dan Meyer (04:41):

Great to have you; help yourself to whatever you find in the fridge. The names that people write down on those things in the bags are just recommendations. It’s potluck-style here. I’m curious, Val, if you’re, like, on an airplane, someone asks you what you do, and you say you study fluency…what is the layperson’s definition of what does it mean to be fluent in mathematics? And if you can give a brief tour through what the research says about what works and what doesn’t that would really help us orient our conversation here.

Valerie Henry (05:12):

The first thing I have to do when I talk to somebody on a plane is define the idea of fluency. And I often use an example of tying your shoelaces. Because that works with first graders as well as adults. This idea that when we first start trying to put our shoes on and get those shoelaces tied, somebody tries to, first of all, just do it for us. But then of course maybe tries to teach us the bunny-ears approach. And we struggle and struggle as little kids and eventually either the bunny-ears approach or something else starts to work for us. But we still have to pay attention to it. We have to think hard and it’s not easy. And then over time we get to the point where we basically don’t even think about it. When I tie my shoes in the morning. I’m not thinking about right-over-left and left-over-right and all of those things. I just do it. And so that’s a good, easy example of becoming fluent with something. I think what we’re talking about today though, is the basics, the adding and subtracting that we hope kids are going to have mastered maybe by second grade, and the multiplication and division facts that we wanna maybe have mastered by third, maybe fourth grade. So now what does that mean to become fluent with those basics? I have a three-part definition that seems to match up really nicely with the common core approach to fluency. Which is, first of all, we want the answers to be correct. And then second, we want the answers to be easy to know. And so what does that mean? Well, to me, it means without needing to count,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:12):

You mean without having to kind of muscle through it? Or say more about you mean.

Valerie Henry (07:16):

Well, I guess what I mean is that when you watch a young child try and solve something even as simple as two plus three, they might put up two fingers and then go 3, 4, 5 with three more fingers winding up on their hand, one or the other of their hands. While they’re doing that, they don’t really have a sense of whether even their answer is right or not, quite often. Especially when you get to the larger adding and subtracting problems, you can see a lot of errors happening as they’re trying to count. And it’s taking up cognitive energy to do that counting process, especially as you get to the larger quantities. So my definition of fluency now is “getting it right without needing to do that hard work like counting.” Now, some people might say, well, we just want them to have ’em memorized. But in my research, I’ve learned that a lot of very fluid adults don’t always have every fact memorized. In fact, if you ask a room full of adults, what’s seven plus nine, you might learn that they can all get it correct quickly, quickly…but they don’t all have it memorized. And so when you ask them, “How did you get that?” Many of them will say, “Well, I just gave one from the 7 to the 9 and I know that 10 plus 6 is 16.”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:53):

That’s such an important distinction. My brain literally just did that actually!

Valerie Henry (08:58):

<laugh> Right? <laugh> But you’re fluid with it, because it doesn’t take you much cognitive energy at all.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:05):

Right.

Valerie Henry (09:07):

So now we have “correct without needing to put that cognitive energy,” which usually means that you’re counting. And then the third thing is “relatively quickly,” so that you’re not spending 15 seconds trying to figure it out. Even that part-whole strategy approach can be done really quickly, almost instantaneously. Or it can take a long time. So if a student can get the answer correct within, you know, three or four seconds— is I’m pretty generous—I figure that they’re pretty darn fluent with that fact. So that’s my three-part definition of these basics, fluency.

Dan Meyer (09:55):

I love the distinction between getting it correct and getting it quick. It’s possible to be quick with wrong answers. It’s possible to be like, “Those are separate components there.” And I echo Bethany’s appreciation for this third option in between knowing it instantaneously through memorization and muscling through it. But there’s like a continuum there of how much energy it took you to come up with it that all feels extremely helpful.

Valerie Henry (10:21):

And you know, one of the things that I’ve noticed is that when kids are pressured to come up with those instantaneous answers, they often default to guessing and get it wrong.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:30):

Mm, yeah.

Valerie Henry (10:30):

So that’s one of the things that I’ve learned is that as we’re trying to help students develop fluency, it’s important to start with building their conceptual understanding of what it means to do, you know, 3 times 9 and what the correct answer is, maybe using manipulatives or representations of some sort. Not skip-counting! I really have found that skip-counting just perpetuates itself in many students’ minds and that they never stop skip-counting, which means they’re putting in not very much mental energy if it’s 2 times 3 but a ton of mental energy if it’s 7 times 8. Because frankly, it’s really hard to skip count by sevens. And by eights.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:18):

I can get to 14 and then I’m like, wait, wait, what was next? Right? No, no, no…21! What do you feel are some misconceptions that maybe teachers, maybe parents have about fluency in math?

Valerie Henry (11:30):

I think maybe one of the first ones is that if students count or skip-count, their answers repetitively over and over and over and over, that they’re bound to memorize them. And the study that I did back in 2004, I actually had a school that had decided that they were going to do time tests with their students every day, all year. And that undoubtedly by the end of the year, those students would be fluent.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:06):

And to clarify by time test, you mean like, sit down, pencil, paper, ready, go, worksheet kind of thing.

Valerie Henry (12:15):

Yes.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:16):

Some of us might remember quite vividly.

Valerie Henry (12:18):

<laugh> Very vividly. And you know, you have to get it done within a certain amount of time. So they made it fun for the students. Apparently the students enjoyed it. I was a little leery about that, but in the end, when I went and checked on the students and I did one-on-one assessments with half of the students in every class that were randomly selected so that I could get a sense of where they were with their fluency—and these were first graders—they basically had nothing memorized. They were simply counting as fast as they possibly could. And, you know, mostly getting the right answers. But they had not memorized. So that’s one of the myths, I think, is that repetitive practice of counting gets you to memorization.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:10):

If I put it in front of you enough times, you’ll become fluent.

Valerie Henry (13:14):

Right, right. Now these students didn’t really get any instruction, any help learning these. They just simply tested over and over and over. So that’s another thing that I think is a misconception. It’s that if we test students, but don’t really teach them fluency, then they’re going to become fluent. If we just test them every Friday or that kind of thing. And that they’ll learn them at home. But really what that means is a few lucky kids who have parents who have the time and the energy and the background to know how to help will take that job on at home. Not that many students are really that fortunate.

Dan Meyer (14:01):

It’s almost like the traditional approach, or the approach you’re describing, confuses process and product. It says, “Well, the product is that eventually fluent students will be able to do something like this, see these problems and answer them, answer them quickly,” and says, “Well, that must be the process then as well; let’s give them that products a whole lot.” But as I hear you describe fluency with bunny ears on shoelaces, there’s these images and approaches and techniques that require a very active teacher presence to support the development of it. That’s just kind of interesting to me.

Valerie Henry (14:35):

My initial project, the pilot project that I tried, was to simply ask teachers to follow five key principles. And the first one was to do something in the classroom every day for—I told them, even if you’ve only got five or 10 minutes, work on fluency for five or 10 minutes a day, and let’s see what happens. So that was one key element was just to teach it and to give students opportunities to get what the research calls for when you’re trying to memorize, which is actually immediate feedback. When I talk about immediate feedback with my student teachers, I say, “I’m talking about within one or two seconds of trying a problem, and then sort of immediately knowing, getting feedback of whether you got the answer right or not so that your brain can kind of gain that confidence. ‘Oh, not only did I come up with an answer, but somebody’s telling me it’s the correct answer.’”

Dan Meyer (15:38):

There’s a lot of apps now in the digital world that offer students questions about arithmetic or other kinds of mathematical concepts and give immediate feedback of a sort: the feedback of “You’re right; you’re wrong” sort. Is that effective fluency development, in your view?

Valerie Henry (15:57):

I haven’t heard and I haven’t seen them being super-effective. The ways I think about this are “Immediate feedback isn’t the only thing we need.” Probably one of the biggest things that we need is for students to develop strategies. And this is one of the other things I’ve learned from international research, from countries that do have students who become very fluent very early, is that they don’t shoot straight for memorization, but they go through this process of taking students from doing some counting and then quickly moving them to trying to use logic. So, “Hey, you really are confident that 2 + 2 is 4; so now let’s use that to think about 2 + 3.” Actually, as an algebra teacher, I would much rather have students that have a combination of memorization and these strategies, than students who’ve only memorized. Isn’t that interesting that my most successful algebra students were good strategy thinkers. Not just good memorizers.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:09):

So you mentioned there were five that kind of helped root this idea in like, “What can teachers do? What is the best thing that teachers can do to support with fact fluency?” So, everyday was key.

Valerie Henry (17:22):

Then the next principle that I really focus on is switching immediately to the connected subtractions so that students—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:33):

Not waiting until you’ve gotten all the way through addition. But making “Ooh!”

Valerie Henry (17:38):

Totally. And I didn’t do that the first year. And when we looked at the results of the assessments at the end of the year, we realized that our students were so much weaker in subtraction than addition. So the following pilot year, we tried this other approach of doing subtraction right after the students had developed some fluency with that small chunk of addition. And we got such better subtraction results.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (18:11):

What are the other principles?

Valerie Henry (18:13):

The biggest one is to use these strategies. So the strategies makes the third. And then the fourth I would say is to go from concrete to representational to abstract.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (18:27):

Don’t put away those manipulatives. Don’t put away those tools.

Valerie Henry (18:31):

Oh, so important to come back to them for multiplication and division. And my fifth principle is to wait on assessment. To use it as true assessment, but not race to start testing before students have had a chance to go through this three-phase process. Which is conceptual understanding with manipulatives; building strategies, usually with representations; and then working on building some speed until it’s just that natural fluency.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:07):

I wanna say thank you so much for offering your really learned perspective, because you have not only done the research, but seen it in action and seen how shifting our notions of fluency and what fluency can be and what a powerful foundation it can be for all mathematicians. Really, that shift is so powerful. And I appreciate you sharing it with our listeners and with us. So we’re so excited that we got to talk with you today, Val—

Dan Meyer (19:35):

Thank you, Dr. Henry.

Valerie Henry (19:37):

You’re welcome!

Dan Meyer (19:41):

With us now we have Graham Fletcher and Tracy Zager, a couple of people who understand fluency at a very deep and classroom level. I wanna introduce them and get their perspective on what we’re trying to solve here with fluency. So Graham Fletcher has served in education in a lot of different roles: as a classroom teacher, math coach, math specialist, and he’s continually seeking new and innovative ways to support students and teachers in their development of conceptual understanding in elementary math. He’s the author, along with Tracy, of Building Fact Fluency, a fluency kit we’ll talk about, and openly shares so much of his wisdom and resources at gfletchy.com. Tracy Johnson Zager is a district math coach who loves to get teachers hooked on listening to kids’ mathematical ideas. She is a co-author of this toolkit, Building Fact Fluency, and the author of Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms. Tracy also edits professional books for teachers at Stenhouse Publishers, including, yours truly. Thank you for all that insight, Tracy, and support on the book.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (20:49):

Dan and I were talking at the beginning of the episode about things we feel like, “Hey, I’m fluent in that. I’m fluent in that.”

Dan Meyer (20:55):

Just very curious: What’s something you would like to get fluent in outside of the world of mathematics, let’s say?

Tracy Zager (21:00):

I’ll say understanding the teenage brain, as the parent of a 13-year-old and 15-year-old. That’s the main thing I’m working on becoming fluent in!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:10):

Ooh!

Dan Meyer (21:13):

A language fluency, perhaps. All right, Graham. How about you?

Graham Fletcher (21:16):

For me typing, it’s always been an Achilles heel of mine. So voice-to-text has been my friend. But it’s also been my nemesis in much of my texting here and working virtually over the last couple years. So yeah, typing.

Dan Meyer (21:33):

Do you folks have some way of helping us understand the difference in how fluency is handled by instructors and by learners?

Tracy Zager (21:40):

I would say that the lay meaning of fluency is definitely a little different than what we mean in the math education realm. When we’re talking about math fact fluency, which is just one type of fluency. So you gotta think about procedural fluency and computational fluency; there are lots of types of fluency in math. And Graham and I had the luxury of really focusing in specifically on math fact fluency. We’re looking at kind of a subset of the procedural fluency. So the words you hear in all the citations are accurate, efficient, and flexible. There’s this combination of kids get the right answer in a reasonable amount of time and with a reasonable amount of work and they can match their strategy or their approach to the situation. That’s where that flexibility comes in. And there’s like lots more I wanna say about that about sort of…I think one issue that comes up around fluency is that people are in a little bit of a rush. So they tend to think of the fluency as this automaticity or recall of known facts without having to think about it. And that is part of the end goal, but that’s not the journey to fluency. So this is one of the things that Graham and I thought about a lot was the path to fluency. The goal here it’s that student in middle school who’s learning something new doesn’t have to expend any effort to gather that fact. And they might do it because they’ve done it so many different ways that they’ve got it, and now they just know it, or they might be like my friend who’s a mathematician who still, if you say, “Six times 8,” she thinks in her head, “Twelve, 24, 48…” and she does this double-double-double associative property strategy. And it’s so efficient, you would never know. And that’s totally great. That’s fine. That’s not slowing her down. That’s not providing a drag in the middle of a more complex problem or new learning. So we’re really focused on having elementary school students be able to enter the middle and high school standards without having that pull out of the new thinking.

Graham Fletcher (23:53):

And as I think about that, I think about how so many students will memorize their facts, but then they haven’t memorized them with understanding. So that when they move into middle school and they move into high school, it’s almost like new knowledge and new understanding that’s applied from a stand-alone skill.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (24:10):

So something that felt really unique to me, Graham, as I was diving into the toolkit, is your use of images, Tracy, Graham, is the way that you use images to help students notice and wonder to start making sense of these quantities and the decomposition of numbers using images. Can you talk a little bit about how images played a part in the way that you think about this building a fact fluency?

Graham Fletcher (24:41):

What I realized is so many times when we approach math with just naked numbers with so many of our elementary students, the numbers aren’t visible. The quantities. They can’t see them; they can’t move them. They’re just those squiggly figures that we were talking about earlier on. So how is it that we make the quantities visible, to where students feel as if they can grab an apple and move it around? Because a lot of times we start with the naked numbers and then if kids don’t get the naked numbers, then we kind of backfill it. But what would happen if we start with the images? And then from there, these rich, flourishing mathematical conversations develop from the images. And I think that was the premise and the goal of the toolkit.

Tracy Zager (25:22):

When you look at how fact fluency has traditionally been taught, it’s all naked numbers. And sometimes we wrote ’em sideways. Like, that’s it. That was our variety of task type. Right? Sometimes it’s vertical; sometimes it’s horizontal. And that was it. And I’ve just known way too many kids who couldn’t find a hook to hang their hat on with that. It didn’t connect to anything. And so part of why I knew Graham was the perfect person for this project was his strength in multimedia photography, art, video. And so we started from this idea of contexts that for each lesson string in the toolkit, there’s some kind of context. An everyday object, arranged in some kind of a way that reveals mathematical structure and invites students to notice the properties. So we start with images of everyday objects: tennis balls, paint pots…um, help me out; here are a million of them. Crayons—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:18):

Crayons, markers.

Tracy Zager (26:18):

Shoes, right? Sushi, origami paper, all kinds of things in the different toolkits. So there’s a series of images or a three-act task or both around those everyday objects, and then story problems grounded in that context. And then there are images with mathematical tools that bring out different ideas, but relate in some way to the image talks. And we do all of that before we get to the naked number talk. Which we do, and by the time you get to the number talk, it’s pretty quick, ’cause they’ve been reasoning about cups of lemonade. And now when you give them the actual numerals, they’re all over it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:03):

I have to say too, as somebody who—particularly in middle school—navigated math anxiety, we recently talked with Allison Hintz and Anthony Smith about their amazing book Mathematizing Children’s Literature.

Tracy Zager (27:14):

Yay!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:14):

And I was explaining, like, if I sat down at the beginning of a math class and my teacher opened a picture book and said, “We’re gonna start here,” I felt my whole body relax. And if we start with this image, if we start with just looking at an image and making sense of an image, I feel like that could be such a powerful touchstone for all the work you do from there.

Tracy Zager (27:41):

That’s core. That’s a core design principle, is that invitational access. There are no barriers to entry. There’s nothing to decode. There’s nothing formal. We’ve been learning from Dan for years about this, right? Of starting with the informal and then eventually layering in the formal. I was in a class in Maine where they were doing an image talk and it’s these boxes of pencils. It’s a stack of boxes of pencils and they’re open and you can see there are 10 pencils in each box. And so there are five boxes of pencils each with 10 pencils in it. And then the next image is 10 boxes of pencils and each box is half full. So now it’s 10 boxes each with five. And the kids are talking and talking and then the third image, I think there are seven boxes each with 10 pencils in it. And she said, “What do you think the next picture’s gonna be?” And this girl said, “You just never know with these people!” <laugh> I dunno!”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:37):

That’s kinda true. Knowing you both, it’s kinda true.

Tracy Zager (28:42):

Like if it’s seven boxes with 10 in it, one kid said, I think it’s gonna be 14 boxes of five. And other kids are like, I think it’s gonna be 10 boxes with seven. And they start talking about which of those there are and the relationships between—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:58):

But they’re making sense of numbers!

Tracy Zager (28:59):

Totally. So all the kids felt invited. They can offer something up. They’re noticing and wondering about that image. They’re talking about it in whatever informal language or home language that they speak. And that was core to us. That was a huge priority, because honestly, one of the motivations to talk about fluency is that it’s always been this gatekeeper. It has served to keep kids out of meaningful math. Particularly kids from marginalized or historically excluded communities. So they’re back at the round table, doing Mad Minutes, while the more advantaged kids are getting to do rich problem solving. And so, we thought, what if we could teach fact fluency through rich problem solving that everybody could access? That was like square one for us.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:45):

That’s huge.

Dan Meyer (29:46):

That’s great to hear. What’s been helpful for me is to understand that students who are automatic, that’s just kind of what’s on the surface of things. And that below that might be some really robust kind of foundation or scaffolding that bleeds to a larger building being built, or it might be just really rickety and not offer a sturdy place to build farther up. It’s been really exciting to hear that. I wonder if you’d comment for a moment about, in the digital age and—I’m at Desmos and our sponsors are Amplify and we all work in the digital world quite a bit. There are a lot of what report to be solutions to the fluency issue, to developing fluency in the digital world. Just lots and lots of them. Some that are quite well used, others that are just like X, Y, or Z app on the market. You can find something. Do you have perspectives on these kinds of digital fluency building apps? Like, what about them works or doesn’t work? Let us know. Graham, how about you? And then Tracy, I’d love to hear your thoughts too.

Graham Fletcher (30:47):

Yeah, I think that’s a great question, ’cause there’s a lot of shiny bells and whistles out there right now that can really excite a lot of teachers. But I always come back to what works for me as a classroom teacher is probably gonna work in a digital world as well. So what are the things that I love and honor most about being in front of students, and how can I capture that in that virtual world? I think one of the things that really helps students make connections is coherence. I think coherence, especially when you leave students for—you don’t get to talk with them after the lesson is done—so I think about how we can purposefully sequence things through a day-to-day basis. I think coherence is something that gets really lost when we talk about fluency, especially with whether it be digital or whether it be print, because what ends up happening is we say, “OK, we have all these strategies we need to teach,” and it becomes a checklist. So how is it that we can just provide students the opportunity to play around in a space, whether it be digital or in person, but in a meaningful way that allows them the time and the space and that area to breathe and think, but be coherent. And connecting those lessons along the way. And I think coherence is one thing that a lot of the times it’s harder to—when we’re in the weeds, it’s so hard and difficult to zoom back out and say, “Do all these lessons connect? How do they intentionally connect? And how do they purposefully connect?” And without coherence, everything’s kind of broken down into that granular level. So when looking at—I think about Desmos and I think about the Toolkit and I think about how Tracy and I talked a lot about, “Well, this, does it connect with the context problem, does it connect with the image talk, or the lessons? Like, how does it all connect and how are we providing students an opportunity to make connections between the day-to-day instruction and lessons that we tackle?”

Tracy Zager (32:44):

I’m reminded of a conversation that Dan, you and I had a long time ago, in Portland, Maine, in a bar. I’ll just be honest. <laugh> And we were talking about how, in the earlier days of Desmos, you were stressed out by what you saw, which was kids one-on-one, on a device, in a silent room. And you were like, no, this is not it. This is not what technology is here to serve. We can do so many things better using technology appropriately, but we can’t lose talk and we can’t lose relationships and we can’t lose formative assessment and teachers listening to kids and kids listening to each other and helping each other understand their thinking. Right? So when I think about the tech that’s out there for fact fluency, most of it is gonna violate all rules I have around time testing. So that a whole bunch of it, I would just toss on that premise. They’re really no different than flashcards. It’s just flashcards set in junkyard heaps. Or, you know, underground caverns. Or with a volcano or whatever. It’s the same thing. There are some lovely visuals—I’m thinking of Berkeley Everett’s Math Flips. Those are really pretty. Mathigon has some really nice stuff that’s digital. And I think that those resources invite you to kind of ponder and notice things and talk about them. All the tools that we design in the toolkit are designed to get people talking to each other, and give teachers opportunities to pull alongside kids and listen in and understand where they are. For example, our games, we didn’t design the games to be played digitally, even though you could, and people did during COVID, because we want kids on the rug, next to each other, on their knees; I’ve seen kids like across tables. I was in a school recently where a kid was like, “I hope you believe in God, ’cause you’re going…!” You know what I mean? <laugh>. Like they’re all pumped up.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:41):

They’re invested!

Tracy Zager (34:45):

They’re psyching each other up and down and they’re interacting and it’s social and the teacher’s walking around and she’s listening to the games. And they don’t actually need any bells and whistles. They need dice and they need counters and they need this game that is actually a game. In all of our conversations, games have to actually be games. Games cannot be “roll and record.” Games have to involve strategy. They have to be fun. So in designing those games, we didn’t feel like it brought any advantage to make that a digital platform. But things that did bring advantages digitally, like the ability to project these beautiful images or to use short video in the classroom, that really was a value-add that enabled us to do something different in math class than we had done before, and to get kids talking in a different way than they ever had before. When I think about fluency, historically, if you say like, “OK, it’s time to practice our math facts,” you hear a lot of groans. And when I see a Building Fact Fluency classroom and I say, “OK, it’s BFF time!” There’s like a “YEAAAAHHH!” You know? And so that’s what we’re after.

Graham Fletcher (35:47):

It’s all about kids, really, for us. And I think at the heart of it, we made all the decisions with teachers and kids at the forefront of it.

Tracy Zager (35:55):

I know of high schoolers who are newcomers, who have experienced very little formal education, and speak in other languages, are using it as high schoolers, because it involves language and math and all the deep work in the properties and it’s accessible, but it’s also not at all condescending or patronizing. Like we designed it to be appropriate for older kids. So that’s just something that I think we’re both really proud of. One thing we thought a lot about, especially in the multiplication-division kit is how a classroom teacher could use it and a coordinating educator in EL, Title, special education, intervention could also use it because there’s so much in it, that students could get to be experts, if they got extra time in it, using something that’s related and would give them additional practice. So they could play a game a little bit earlier than the rest of the classes. And they could come in already knowing about that game, or they could do a related task. We have all these optional tasks that no classroom teacher would ever have time to teach it all. So the special educator could use it and have kids doing a Same and Different or a True/False, or some of the optional games. And then the work in both special education and general education could connect.

Dan Meyer (37:20):

I just wanna say that this is an area that for so many students, as you’ve said, Tracy, it presents a barrier for their inclusion in mathematics. It’s a very emotionally fraught area of mathematics. And we really appreciate the wisdom you brought here. And just the care you’ve brought to the product itself. Your knowledge of teaching, knowledge of math, and yeah, especially a love for students feels like it’s really infused throughout Building Fact Fluency. If our listeners want to know more outside of this podcast, outside of the product itself, where can they find your words, your voice? Where you folks at these days? Tell ’em, Graham would you?

Graham Fletcher (37:57):

You can find us at Stenhouse, Building Fact Fluency. And then Tracy and I, currently playing around, sharing ideas a lot on Twitter, under the hashtag #BuildingFactFluency. That’s kind of where we can all come together and share ideas. And then also on the Facebook community, where there’s lots of teachers sharing ideas.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (38:19):

If you were to ask our listeners like, “Hey, if you wanna keep thinking about this, here’s something you could try or here’s something you could go do,” what could be a challenge that we could share that could help us continue this conversation?

Graham Fletcher (38:35):

Online you can actually download a full lesson string. And a lesson string is a series of activities and resources that are purposefully connected. You can pick one or two of those from the Stenhouse web site, Building Fact Fluency. You can try the game. You can try one of those strategy-based games. You can try an image talk and just see how it goes. And just share and reflect back, whether on Twitter or on Facebook. But it’s kind of there, if you wanna give it a whirl. And as Tracy was sharing, even if you’re a middle-school teacher or a high-school teacher, we really tried to think about those middle-school and high-school students keeping it grade level-agnostic. Just so every student has those opportunities for those mathematical conversations. So download a lesson string and give it a whirl, and we’d love to hear how it goes.

Dan Meyer (39:25):

Bethany and I will be working the same challenge with people in our life.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:29):

Yes.

Dan Meyer (39:29):

Enjoying some fact fluency with people in our homes, perhaps. We’ll see. And we’ll be sharing the results in the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group. Graham and Tracy, thanks so much for being here. It was such a treat to chat with you both.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:42):

I love learning with you and just helping to shift this idea of fluency into something that can be accessible and powerful and positive.

Stay connected!

Join our community and get new episodes every other Tuesday!

We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month.

What Valerie Henry says about math

“A lot of very fluent adults don’t always have every fact memorized. ”

– Val Henry

Meet the guests

Valerie Henry has been a math educator since 1986. She taught middle school math for 17 years and has worked as a lecturer at University of California Irvine since 2002. After doing her 2004 dissertation research on addition/subtraction fluency in first grade, Valerie created FactsWise, a daily mini-lesson approach that simultaneously develops  fluency,  number sense, and algebraic thinking. Additionally, she has provided curriculum and math professional development for K-12 teachers throughout her career, working with individual schools, districts, county offices of education, Illustrative Mathematics, the SBAC Digital Library, and the UCI Math Project.

Graham Fletcher has served in education as a classroom teacher, a math coach, and currently as a math specialist. He is continually seeking new and innovative ways to support students and teachers in their development of conceptual understanding in elementary mathematics. He is the author of Building Fact Fluency and openly shares many of his resources at gfletchy.com. Follow him on Twitter.

Tracy Johnston Zager is a district math coach who loves to get teachers hooked on listening to kids’ mathematical ideas. She is a co-author of the Building Fact Fluency toolkits and the author of Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms. Tracy also edits professional books by teachers, for teachers at Stenhouse Publishers. Follow her on Facebook.

A collage of three headshots: an older woman with glasses, a man with a beard in a blue shirt, and a woman with dark hair smiling in front of greenery.
A graphic with the text "Math Teacher Lounge with Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer" on colored overlapping circles.

About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

You might also like:

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Amplify Desmos Math California

Welcome, Algebra 1 Reviewers!

We’re honored to introduce you to Amplify Desmos Math California. We’re confident you’ll find this comprehensive program to be a powerful tool for bringing the vision of the California Math Framework to life in classrooms across the state.

Please start with the video on the right to learn how to navigate the program and access key features referenced within our submission. Below you’ll find additional resources to support your review.

Your Review Samples

As a curriculum that incorporates both print and digital resources, it’s important that you explore both our physical materials (delivered to you in grade-specific tubs) and our digital materials (accessible through our platform). We invite you to explore both types of resources using the instructions and tips below.

Print Samples

Your print samples should have arrived in grade-specific tubs with a copy of your Reviewer Binder contained within the Algebra 1 shipping box. As you begin the process of organizing your materials, please refer to the inventory checklist found inside the tub as well as within your Reviewer Binder.

Digital Samples

In order to access your digital samples, you’ll need to log into our platform using your unique login credentials found on a Digital Access Flyer inside of your Reviewer Binder. Once you have located the flyer:

  • Click the orange button below to access the platform.
  • Click “Log in with Amplify.”
  • Enter the username and password provided on your Digital Access Flyer.
Digital Access

Navigation Tips

Below you will find helpful tips for navigating Amplify Desmos Math California. We recommend reading these pages alongside the program’s print materials and digital experience to gain a deeper understanding of the program. 

Click the links below to read about navigating program features including:

Built for California

The Amplify Desmos Math California program is designed around the vision articulated in the California Mathematics Framework to enable all California students to become powerful users of mathematics. Our program incorporates the latest research in student learning, meaning that we:

  • Focus on the Big Ideas: Amplify Desmos Math California’s courses, units, and lessons are centered around the Big Ideas. Big Ideas, like standards, are not considered in isolation. In addition to each unit and lesson’s focal Big Ideas, Amplify Desmos Math California also provides connections among the Big Ideas across units and lessons.
  • Center on open and engaging tasks: Amplify Desmos Math California is grounded in engaging tasks meant to address students’ often-asked question: “Why am I learning this?”  Students are invited into learning with low-floor, high-ceiling tasks that provide an entry point for all. Open tasks in Amplify Desmos Math California provide the space for students to try on multiple strategies and represent their thinking in different ways, and allow student explanation and discussion to serve as the center of the classroom. All lessons offer both print and digital representations of lessons.
  • Provide enhanced digital experiences: Amplify Desmos Math California includes digitally-enhanced lesson activities, incorporating interactive digital tools alongside print materials. These purposefully-placed resources allow students to visualize mathematical concepts, receive actionable feedback while practicing, encounter personalized learning support from an onscreen tutor, and engage in discussions about their thinking and approaches.
  • Treat core instruction and differentiation as integral partners: The Amplify Desmos Math California curriculum provides teachers with lessons, strategies, and resources to eliminate barriers and increase access to grade-level content without reducing the mathematical demand of tasks. Every activity has multiple entry points to ensure that all students are supported and challenged. Intervention and personalized learning activities are directly connected to lesson content and offer students the individualized support as they dive into the mathematics.

Category 1: Mathematics Content/Alignment with the Standards

Standards Map

Linked here is the Standards Map for Amplify Desmos Math California for Algebra 1.

Evaluation Criteria Map

Linked here is the Evaluation Criteria Map Algebra 1. Please note that you will need to be logged into the digital platform to access the links in the Evaluation Criteria Map.

Standards for Mathematical Practice

Linked here is the alignment of Amplify Desmos Math California to the Standards for Mathematical Practice at Algebra 1.

Drivers of Investigation and Content Connections

Amplify Desmos Math California incorporates the Drivers of Investigation (DIs) and Content Connection (CCs) throughout the program. Throughout the year, students engage with open and authentic tasks of varying durations — from lesson activities to unit-level Explore lessons and longer course-level Investigations. Every lesson and investigation opportunity is grounded around the why, how, and what of the learning experience, and helps teachers bring mathematical concepts to life.

A three-column chart details: Drivers of Investigation, Standards for Mathematical Practice, and Content Connections, each with their respective codes and brief descriptions.

California English Language Development Standards

Linked here is the alignment of Amplify Desmos Math California to the California English Language Development Standards for Algebra 1.

California Environmental Principles and Concepts

Select lessons, performance tasks, and investigations across grade levels in Amplify Desmos Math California are aligned to one or more of the California Environmental Principles and Concepts. Click this link to view how the California Environmental Principles and Concepts are represented in Amplify Desmos Math California Algebra 1.

Category 2: Program Organization

Amplify Desmos Math California thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals.

Big Ideas

Amplify Desmos Math California’s courses, units, and lessons are centered around the Big Ideas. Big Ideas, like standards, are not considered in isolation. In addition to each unit and lesson’s focal Big Ideas, Amplify Desmos Math California also provides connections among the Big Ideas across units and lessons. Please refer to Keeping the Big Ideas at the Center, linked here, for the Amplify Desmos Math California Algebra 1 lesson design and alignment to the Big Ideas.

Program Structure

Amplify Desmos Math California combines the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.

A diagram showing three stages: Core instruction, Integrated personalized learning, and Embedded intervention, under Screening and progress monitoring with daily tiered support.

Lessons and units in Amplify Desmos Math California are designed around a Proficiency Progression, a model that steps out problem-based learning by systematically building students’ curiosity into lasting grade-level understanding.

Five steps for learning: 1. Activate prior knowledge, 2. Collaborate, 3. Refine ideas, 4. Guide to understanding, 5. Practice and extend for lasting understanding.

In the Proficiency Progression, lessons begin by activating students’ natural curiosity and offering opportunities to generate new ideas through collaboration. Teachers are then able to refine ideas through intentional facilitation and guide students to grade-level understanding, while students retain the ability to use different strategies and methods to show their comprehension of the content. Students are provided ample opportunities to develop lasting understanding.

Scope and Sequence

Below you can view the scope and sequence for Amplify Desmos Math California Algebra 1. 

A chart showing Algebra 1 units across two volumes, detailing instructional days, assessment days, and optional days for each unit, totaling 180 days plus 40 optional days.

Lesson Design and Structure

A four-part diagram shows: Warm-Up, Activities with a graph of student ideas to grade-level understanding, Synthesis with notes, and Practice and differentiation with students building a structure.

Amplify Desmos Math California is designed with a structured approach to problem-based learning that systematically builds on students’ curiosity and allows students to grapple with the Big Ideas of the California Framework. Every lesson activity is organized into a Launch, Monitor, Connect format.

Launch: The launch is a short, whole-class conversation that creates a need or excitement, provides clarity, or helps students connect their prior knowledge or personal experience, which ensures that everyone has access to the upcoming work.  

Monitor: As students work individually, in pairs, or in groups, teachers explore student thinking, ask questions, and provide support to help move the conversations closer to the intended math learning goal. 

Connect: Teachers connect students’ ideas to the key learning goals of the lesson, facilitating class discussions that help synthesize and solidify the Big Ideas.  

Each lesson within Amplify Desmos Math California follows the same structure. 

Warm-Up: Every Amplify Desmos Math California lesson begins with a whole class Warm-Up. Warm-Ups are an invitational Instructional Routine intended to provide a social moment at the start of the lesson in which every student has an opportunity to contribute. Warm-Ups may build fluency or highlight a strategy that may be helpful in the current lesson or act as an invitation into the math of the lesson.

Lesson Activities: Each lesson includes one or two activities. These activities are the heart of each lesson. Students notice, wonder, explore, calculate, predict, measure, explain their thinking, use math to settle disputes, create challenges for their classmates, and more. Guidance is provided to help teachers launch, monitor, and connect student thinking over the course of the activity.

Synthesis and Show What You Know: The Synthesis is an opportunity for the teacher and students to pull all the learning of the lesson together into a lesson takeaway. Students engage in a facilitated discussion to consolidate and refine their ideas about the learning goals, and the teacher synthesizes students’ learning. Show What You Know is a daily assessment opportunity for students to show what they know about the learning goals and what they are still learning.

Practice and Differentiation: Daily practice problems for the day’s lesson are included both online and in the print Student Edition, including fluency, test practice, and spiral review.

Flowchart showing classroom activity timing: Warm-Up (5 min), Lesson Activities (30 min), Synthesis and Show What You Know (10 min), Practice and Differentiation (time varies).

Routines

Amplify Desmos Math California features a variety of lesson routines. Instructional routines and Math Language Routines (MLRs) are used within lessons to highlight student-developed language and ideas, cultivate conversation, support mathematical sense-making, and promote meta-cognition. Both are called out at point-of-use within the Teacher Edition and Teacher Presentation Screens. Below are the types of routines used throughout the Amplify Desmos Math California curriculum:

Math Language Routines

  • MLR1: Stronger and Clearer Each Time
  • MLR2: Collect and Display
  • MLR3: Critique, Correct, Clarify
  • MLR5: Co-Craft Questions
  • MLR6: Three Reads
  • MLR7: Compare and Connect
  • MLR 8: Discussion Supports

Instructional Routines 

  • Decide and Defend
  • Notice and Wonder
  • Number Talk
  • Tell a Story
  • Think-Pair-Share
  • Which One Doesn’t Belong?

Category 3: Assessments

A variety of performance data in Amplify Desmos Math California provides evidence of student learning, while helping students bolster their skills and understanding.

Unit-Level Assessment

Amplify Desmos Math California has embedded unit assessments that offer key insights into students’ conceptual understanding of math. These assessments provide regular, actionable information about how students are thinking about and processing math, with both auto-scoring and in-depth rubrics that help teachers anticipate and respond to students’ learning needs.

Pre-Unit Check: Each unit begins with a formative assessment designed to identify the student skills that will be particularly relevant to the upcoming unit. This check is agnostic to the standards covered in the following unit and serves not as a deficit-based acknowledgment of what students do not know, but rather as an affirmation of the knowledge and skills with which students come in.

End-of-Unit Assessment: Students engage with rigorous grade-level mathematics through a variety of formats and tasks in the summative End-of-Unit Assessment. A combination of auto-scored (when completed digitally) and rubric-scored items provides deep insights into student thinking. All Amplify Desmos Math California End-of-Unit Assessments include two forms.

Sub-Unit Quizzes: Sub-Unit Quizzes are formative assessments embedded regularly in Algebra 1. In these checks, students are assessed on a subset of conceptual understandings from the unit, with rubrics that help illuminate students’ current understanding and provide guidance for responding to student thinking.

Performance Tasks: At the end of each unit there is a summative assessment performance task provided to evaluate students’ proficiency with the concepts and skills addressed in the unit. 

Lesson-Level Assessments

Amplify Desmos Math California lessons include daily moments of assessment to provide valuable evidence of learning for both the teacher and student. Beyond formative, summative, and benchmark assessments, students also have opportunities for self-reflection with Watch Your Knowledge Grow. Students take ownership of their learning by reflecting and tracking their progress before and after each unit.

Show What You Know: Each lesson has a daily formative assessment focused on one of the key concepts in the lesson. Show What You Know moments are carefully designed to minimize completion time for students while maximizing daily teacher insights to attend to student needs during the following class. 

Responsive Feedback™: Teachers have the ability to see and provide in-the-moment feedback as students progress through a digital lesson. Responsive Feedback motivates students and engages them in the learning process.

Diagnostic Assessment

Every grade level features an asset-based diagnostic assessment designed to be administered at the beginning of the year.  Delivered digitally and to the whole class, our diagnostic assessment is uniquely designed to reveal underlying math thinking and identify what students know about grade-level math. With data beyond just right and wrong, teachers have the type of deeper level of insights need to take the right next step.

CAASPP-Aligned Assessment Preparation

Amplify Desmos Math is designed to support students’ mathematical development through problem-based learning, differentiation, and embedded assessments. The program’s emphasis on conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application aligns with the mathematical practices and content standards assessed by the CAASPP.

Amplify Desmos Math California includes a CAASPP-aligned Item Bank. This standards-aligned bank of questions allows teachers to filter and search by grade and standard to find items. Once assigned on the digital platform, students will experience CAASPP-like practice with the online digital tools.

Data and Reporting

Amplify Desmos Math California provides teachers and administrators with unified reporting and insights so that educators have visibility into what students know about grade-level math—and can plan instruction accordingly for the whole class, small groups, and individual students. Reporting functionality integrates unit assessments, lesson assessments, diagnostic data and progress monitoring for a comprehensive look at student learning. Program reports show proficiency and growth by domain, cluster, standard, and priority concept using performance data from unit assessments, then highlight areas of potential student need to allow teachers to modify their instruction and target differentiated support.

Administrator reporting provides a complete picture of student, class, and district performance, allowing administrators to implement instructional and intervention plans.

Category 4: Access and Equity

The Amplify Desmos Math California curriculum provides teachers with lessons, strategies, and resources to eliminate barriers and increase access to grade-level content without reducing the mathematical demand of tasks. Our lessons are developed using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to proactively ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Every activity has multiple entry points to ensure that all students are supported and challenged. Intervention and personalized learning activities are directly connected to the day’s content and offer students the individualized supports they need to be successful.

Each lesson and unit contains guidance for teachers on how to identify students who may need support, students who need to keep strengthening their understanding, and students who may be ready to stretch their learning. In addition, teachers are provided with recommendations for resources to use with each group of students.

Universal Design for Learning

Each lesson in the program incorporates opportunities for engagement, representation, action, and expression based on the guidelines of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

  • Multiple Means of Engagement: Students engage in both print and digital learning, and are regularly participating in discussions and hands-on activities. Students are invited to build their own challenge for other students to solve, which provides opportunities for choice and autonomy, as well as joy and play.
  • Multiple Means of Representation: Students are encouraged to demonstrate their learning using mathematical representations, both print and digital, and regularly engage with their peers in analyzing multiple possible solutions. Classes engage in open-ended discussions about what individual students notice and wonder about mathematical concepts.
  • Multiple Means of Action and Expression: Learners differ in how they navigate learning environments and express what they know. Students can communicate their ideas in multiple ways, including in print, sketching, uploading photos, or recording an audio response.

Accessibility

Lesson facilitation supports

Every lesson includes at least one specific suggestion the teacher can use to increase access to the lesson without reducing the mathematical demand of the tasks. These suggestions address the following areas:

  • Conceptual Processing
  • Visual-Spatial Processing
  • Executive Functioning
  • Memory and Attention
  • Fine Motor Skills

Accessibility tools

Students have the ability to control accessibility tools so that each learning experience is customized to their individual needs. In many instances, these tools can be turned on or off at any point of instruction.

  • Text to speech: Reads text instructions to students in multiple languages
  • Enlarged font: Increases the size of all text on screen
  • Braille mode: Includes narration of digital interactions
  • Language selection: Toggles between languages

Differentiation: In-Lesson Teacher Moves

Within every lesson activity, teachers can use the suggestions in the Differentiation Teacher Moves table to provide in-the-moment instructional support while students are engaged in the work of the lesson. This table can help teachers anticipate the ways students may approach the activity, and provides prompts that they can use during the lesson to Support, Strengthen, and Stretch individual students in their thinking. Teachers are provided with clear student actions and understanding to look for, each matched with immediately usable suggestions for how to respond to the student thinking illustrated in each row of the table. In addition to using these suggestions in the moment as teachers monitor student work, teachers can review the Differentiation table in advance to help them anticipate how students are likely to approach the activity.

A chart outlines three differentiation strategies—Support, Strengthen, and Stretch—with specific actions for each. A Math Language Development box is shown at the bottom.

Differentiation: Beyond the Lesson

Teachers are provided with recommendations for resources to use with each group of students needing support, strengthening, and stretching after each lesson. Support, Strengthen, and Stretch resources include:

  • Mini-Lessons: 15-minute, small-group direct instruction lessons targeted to a specific concept or skill
  • Item Banks: Space for teachers to create practice and assessments by using filters and searching for standards, summative-style items, and more
  • Fluency Practice: Adaptive, personalized practice built out for basic operations and more
  • Extensions: Lesson-embedded Teacher Moves including possible stretch questions and activities for students
  • Lesson Practice: Additional practice problems support every lesson
  • Math Adventures: Strategy-based math games where students engage with math concepts and practice skills in a fun digital environment
  • Lesson Summary Support: Support for students and caregivers that provides efficient explanation of the learning goal with clear examples

Math Identity and Community

The Math Identity and Community feature supports teachers in helping students build confidence in their own mathematical thinking, develop skills to work with and learn from others when doing math, and learn how math is an interwoven part of their broader community. The embedded prompts throughout the lessons are designed to highlight what it means to be good at math, the value of sharing ideas, and the power of flexible and creating thinking. Here are some examples of the Math Identity and Community supports embedded in each lesson:

  • I can be all of me in math class. You will work with partners every day in math class. What do you want your partners to know about you? 
  • We are a math community. What does good listening look like and sound like in a math community? 
  • I am a doer of math. What math strengths did you use today?

Math Language Development

Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California includes opportunities for all students to develop mathematical language as they experience the content. Amplify Desmos Math California purposefully progresses language development from lesson to lesson and across units by supporting students in making their arguments and explanations stronger, clearer, and more precise. This systematic approach to the development of math language can be broken down into the following four categories of support:

  • Vocabulary: Units and lessons start by surfacing students’ language for new concepts, then building connections between their language and the new vocabulary for that unit. This honors the language assets that students bring into their learning.
  • Language Goals: Language goals attend to the mathematics students are learning, and are written through the lens of one or more of four language modalities: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
  • Math Language Routines: Math Language Routines are used within lessons to highlight student-developed language and ideas, cultivate conversation, support mathematical sense-making, and promote meta-cognition.
  • Multilingual/English Learner Supports: Supports for multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) are called out at intentional points within each lesson. These specific, targeted suggestions support ML/ELs with modifications that increase access to a task, or through development of contextual or mathematical language (both of which can be supportive of all learners). 

Multilingual and English Learner Supports

Partnership with English Learner Success Forum

Amplify partnered with the English Learner Success Forum (ELSF), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for high-quality instructional materials that are inclusive of multilingual learners. ELSF reviewed Amplify Desmos Math California, and provided directional guidance and feedback to ensure that the program reflects their research-based instructional strategies for multilingual/English learners.

Math Language Development Resource

Our Math Language Development Resources book contains lesson-specific strategies and activities for all levels of English Learners (i.e., Emerging, Expanding, Bridging). With support for every lesson, teachers are empowered to help all students, regardless of their language skills, to participate fully, grasp the material, and excel in their mathematical journey.

Multilingual glossary

Amplify Desmos Math California includes a digital glossary for languages other than Spanish. Translations will be provided for up to nine languages.

Spanish version

Amplify Desmos Math California will include Spanish student-facing materials beginning in the 2026–27 school year.

Category 5: Instructional Planning and Support

Amplify Desmos Math California includes a variety of embedded instructional supports to empower teachers to lead effectively and gain actionable insights into student growth and progress. Teachers are equipped with a comprehensive set of resources designed to fulfill the requirements of Category 5.

Grade-level concepts

Within the Teacher Edition front matter:

  • Scope and sequence
  • Big Ideas, Drivers of Investigation, and Content Connections
  • Grade level standards
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • English Language Development Standards
  • Environmental Principals and Concepts

Within each Unit and Sub-Unit Overview:

  • Big Ideas, Drivers of Investigation, and Content Connections
  • Math that Matters Most
  • Grade level standards
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • English Language Development Standards
  • Environmental Principals and Concepts

Within each Lesson:

  • Big Ideas, Drivers of Investigation, and Content Connections
  • Grade level standards
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • English Language Development Standards
  • Environmental Principals and Concepts

How to implement the program

At the course level (within the Teacher Edition front matter):

  • Navigating the Program (both print and digital)
  • Facilitating Lesson Activities with Launch, Monitor and Connect
  • Overview of the Digital Facilitation Tools

At the lesson level:

  • Suggestions for timing
  • What materials to prep
  • How to organize and group students 
  • Key lesson takeaways with the Synthesis
  • Recommendations for Differentiation
  • Strategies for intervention and extensions (in the Intervention, Extensions, and Investigation Resources book)

At the activity level:

  • Differentiation recommendations
  • Accessibility tips
  • ML / EL tips
  • Teacher look-fors
  • Recommended Teacher Moves
  • Prompts for guiding student thinking 
  • Sample student responses

Development of Math Language

A variety of language development supports are provided within the Student and Teacher Editions and Math Language Development Resources book. 

At the lesson level:

  • Diagrams and visuals
  • Sentence frames and word banks
  • Graphic organizers, including Frayer models
  • Vocabulary routines
  • Embedded language supports aligned to the CA ELDs
  • Lesson-specific strategies for Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging

At the unit level: 

  • Words With Multiple Meanings
  • Contextual vocabulary

At the course level:

  • English/Spanish cognates
  • Multilingual Glossary 

Other Curriculum Guidance

  • Additional Practice Resources book
  • Assessment Resources book 
  • Assess and Respond guidance paired with each assessment opportunity
  • Show-What-You-Know activities
  • Answer keys and rubrics 
  • Performance tasks

Amplify Desmos Math California

Welcome, Math 1 Reviewers!

We’re honored to introduce you to Amplify Desmos Math California. We’re confident you’ll find this comprehensive program to be a powerful tool for bringing the vision of the California Math Framework to life in classrooms across the state.

Please start with the video on the right to learn how to navigate the program and access key features referenced within our submission. Below you’ll find additional resources to support your review.

Your Review Samples

As a curriculum that incorporates both print and digital resources, it’s important that you explore both our physical materials (delivered to you in grade-specific tubs) and our digital materials (accessible through our platform). We invite you to explore both types of resources using the instructions and tips below.

Print Samples

Your print samples should have arrived in grade-specific tubs with a copy of your Reviewer Binder contained within the Math 1 shipping box. As you begin the process of organizing your materials, please refer to the inventory checklist found inside the tub as well as within your Reviewer Binder.

Digital Samples

  • In order to access your digital samples, you’ll need to log into our platform using your unique login credentials found on a Digital Access Flyer inside of your Reviewer Binder. Once you have located the flyer:
    • Click the orange button below to access the platform.
    • Click “Log in with Amplify.”
    • Enter the username and password provided on your Digital Access Flyer.
Digital Access

Navigation Tips

Below you will find helpful tips for navigating Amplify Desmos Math California. We recommend reading these pages alongside the program’s print materials and digital experience to gain a deeper understanding of the program. 

Click the links below to read about navigating program features including:

Built for California

The Amplify Desmos Math California program is designed around the vision articulated in the California Mathematics Framework to enable all California students to become powerful users of mathematics. Our program incorporates the latest research in student learning, meaning that we:

  • Focus on the Big Ideas: Amplify Desmos Math California’s courses, units, and lessons are centered around the Big Ideas. Big Ideas, like standards, are not considered in isolation. In addition to each unit and lesson’s focal Big Ideas, Amplify Desmos Math California also provides connections among the Big Ideas across units and lessons.
  • Center on open and engaging tasks: Amplify Desmos Math California is grounded in engaging tasks meant to address students’ often-asked question: “Why am I learning this?”  Students are invited into learning with low-floor, high-ceiling tasks that provide an entry point for all. Open tasks in Amplify Desmos Math California provide the space for students to try on multiple strategies and represent their thinking in different ways, and allow student explanation and discussion to serve as the center of the classroom. All lessons offer both print and digital representations of lessons.
  • Provide enhanced digital experiences: Amplify Desmos Math California includes digitally-enhanced lesson activities, incorporating interactive digital tools alongside print materials. These purposefully-placed resources allow students to visualize mathematical concepts, receive actionable feedback while practicing, encounter personalized learning support from an onscreen tutor, and engage in discussions about their thinking and approaches.
  • Treat core instruction and differentiation as integral partners: The Amplify Desmos Math California curriculum provides teachers with lessons, strategies, and resources to eliminate barriers and increase access to grade-level content without reducing the mathematical demand of tasks. Every activity has multiple entry points to ensure that all students are supported and challenged. Intervention and personalized learning activities are directly connected to lesson content and offer students the individualized support as they dive into the mathematics.

Category 1: Mathematics Content/Alignment with the Standards

Standards Map

Linked here is the Standards Map for Amplify for Math 1.

Evaluation Criteria Map

Linked here is the Evaluation Criteria Map for Math 1. Please note that you will need to be logged into the digital platform to access the links in the Evaluation Criteria Map.

Standards of Mathematical Practice

Linked here is the alignment of Amplify Desmos Math California to the Standards for Mathematical Practice at Math 1.

Drivers of Investigation and Content Connections

Amplify Desmos Math California incorporates the Drivers of Investigation (DIs) and Content Connection (CCs) throughout the program. Throughout the year, students engage with open and authentic tasks of varying durations — from lesson activities to unit-level Explore lessons and longer course-level Investigations. Every lesson and investigation opportunity is grounded around the why, how, and what of the learning experience, and helps teachers bring mathematical concepts to life. 

A chart with three columns: Drivers of Investigation, Standards for Mathematical Practice, and Content Connections. Each column lists related activities and skills.

California English Language Development Standards

Linked here is the alignment of Amplify Desmos Math California to the California English Language Development Standards for Math 1.

California Environmental Principles and Concepts

Select lessons, performance tasks, and investigations across grade levels in Amplify Desmos Math California are aligned to one or more of the California Environmental Principles and Concepts. Click this link to view how the California Environmental Principles and Concepts are represented in Amplify Desmos Math California Math 1.

Category 2: Program Organization

Amplify Desmos Math California thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals.

Big Ideas

Amplify Desmos Math California’s courses, units, and lessons are centered around the Big Ideas. Big Ideas, like standards, are not considered in isolation. In addition to each unit and lesson’s focal Big Ideas, Amplify Desmos Math California also provides connections among the Big Ideas across units and lessons. Please refer to Keeping the Big Ideas at the Center, linked here, for the Amplify Desmos Math California Math 1 lesson design and alignment to the Big Ideas.

Program Structure

Amplify Desmos Math combines the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.

A flowchart diagram showing "Screening and progress monitoring" linked to three phases: Core instruction, Integrated personalized learning, and Embedded Intervention, with daily support noted.

Lessons and units in Amplify Desmos Math California are designed around a Proficiency Progression, a model that steps out problem-based learning by systematically building students’ curiosity into lasting grade-level understanding.

Five steps for learning: 1. Activate prior knowledge, 2. Collaborate, 3. Refine ideas, 4. Guide to understanding, 5. Practice and extend for lasting understanding.

In the Proficiency Progression, lessons begin by activating students’ natural curiosity and offering opportunities to generate new ideas through collaboration. Teachers are then able to refine ideas through intentional facilitation and guide students to grade-level understanding, while students retain the ability to use different strategies and methods to show their comprehension of the content. Students are provided ample opportunities to develop lasting understanding.

Scope and Sequence

Below you can view the scope and sequence for Amplify Desmos Math California Math 1. 

Mathematics I syllabus: Unit 1 to Unit 7 across two volumes, covering various math topics with instructional, assessment, and optional days detailed for each unit.

Lesson Design and Structure

Infographic showing a learning process: Warm-Up, Activities, Synthesis, and Reinforcement. Activities aim to increase student understanding over time.

Amplify Desmos Math California is designed with a structured approach to problem-based learning that systematically builds on students’ curiosity and allows students to grapple with the Big Ideas of the California Framework. Every lesson activity is organized into a Launch, Monitor, Connect format.

Launch: The launch is a short, whole-class conversation that creates a need or excitement, provides clarity, or helps students connect their prior knowledge or personal experience, which ensures that everyone has access to the upcoming work.  

Monitor: As students work individually, in pairs, or in groups, teachers explore student thinking, ask questions, and provide support to help move the conversations closer to the intended math learning goal. 

Connect: Teachers connect students’ ideas to the key learning goals of the lesson, facilitating class discussions that help synthesize and solidify the Big Ideas.  

Each lesson within Amplify Desmos Math California follows the same structure. 

Warm-Up: Every Amplify Desmos Math California lesson begins with a whole class Warm-Up. Warm-Ups are an invitational Instructional Routine intended to provide a social moment at the start of the lesson in which every student has an opportunity to contribute. Warm-Ups may build fluency or highlight a strategy that may be helpful in the current lesson or act as an invitation into the math of the lesson.

Lesson Activities: Each lesson includes one or two activities. These activities are the heart of each lesson. Students notice, wonder, explore, calculate, predict, measure, explain their thinking, use math to settle disputes, create challenges for their classmates, and more. Guidance is provided to help teachers launch, monitor, and connect student thinking over the course of the activity.

Synthesis and Show What You Know: The Synthesis is an opportunity for the teacher and students to pull all the learning of the lesson together into a lesson takeaway. Students engage in a facilitated discussion to consolidate and refine their ideas about the learning goals, and the teacher synthesizes students’ learning. Show What You Know is a daily assessment opportunity for students to show what they know about the learning goals and what they are still learning.

Practice and Differentiation: Daily practice problems for the day’s lesson are included both online and in the print Student Edition, including fluency, test practice, and spiral review.

Flowchart showing classroom activity timing: Warm-Up (5 min), Lesson Activities (30 min), Synthesis and Show What You Know (10 min), Practice and Differentiation (time varies).

Routines

Amplify Desmos Math California features a variety of lesson routines. Instructional routines and Math Language Routines (MLRs) are used within lessons to highlight student-developed language and ideas, cultivate conversation, support mathematical sense-making, and promote meta-cognition. Both are called out at point-of-use within the Teacher Edition and Teacher Presentation Screens. Below are the types of routines used throughout the Amplify Desmos Math California curriculum:

Math Language Routines

  • MLR1: Stronger and Clearer Each Time
  • MLR2: Collect and Display
  • MLR3: Critique, Correct, Clarify
  • MLR5: Co-Craft Questions
  • MLR6: Three Reads
  • MLR7: Compare and Connect
  • MLR 8: Discussion Supports

Instructional Routines 

  • Decide and Defend
  • Notice and Wonder
  • Number Talk
  • Tell a Story
  • Think-Pair-Share
  • Which One Doesn’t Belong?

Category 3: Assessments

A variety of performance data in Amplify Desmos Math California provides evidence of student learning, while helping students bolster their skills and understanding.

Unit-Level Assessment

Amplify Desmos Math California has embedded unit assessments that offer key insights into students’ conceptual understanding of math. These assessments provide regular, actionable information about how students are thinking about and processing math, with both auto-scoring and in-depth rubrics that help teachers anticipate and respond to students’ learning needs.

Pre-Unit Check: Each unit begins with a formative assessment designed to identify the student skills that will be particularly relevant to the upcoming unit. This check is agnostic to the standards covered in the following unit and serves not as a deficit-based acknowledgment of what students do not know, but rather as an affirmation of the knowledge and skills with which students come in.

End-of-Unit Assessment: Students engage with rigorous grade-level mathematics through a variety of formats and tasks in the summative End-of-Unit Assessment. A combination of auto-scored (when completed digitally) and rubric-scored items provides deep insights into student thinking. All Amplify Desmos Math California End-of-Unit Assessments include two forms.

Sub-Unit Quizzes: Sub-Unit Quizzes are formative assessments embedded regularly in Math 1. In these checks, students are assessed on a subset of conceptual understandings from the unit, with rubrics that help illuminate students’ current understanding and provide guidance for responding to student thinking.

Performance Tasks: At the end of each unit there is a summative assessment performance task provided to evaluate students’ proficiency with the concepts and skills addressed in the unit. 

Lesson-Level Assessments

Amplify Desmos Math California lessons include daily moments of assessment to provide valuable evidence of learning for both the teacher and student. Beyond formative, summative, and benchmark assessments, students also have opportunities for self-reflection with Watch Your Knowledge Grow. Students take ownership of their learning by reflecting and tracking their progress before and after each unit.

Show What You Know: Each lesson has a daily formative assessment focused on one of the key concepts in the lesson. Show What You Know moments are carefully designed to minimize completion time for students while maximizing daily teacher insights to attend to student needs during the following class. 

Responsive Feedback™: Teachers have the ability to see and provide in-the-moment feedback as students progress through a digital lesson. Responsive Feedback motivates students and engages them in the learning process.

Diagnostic Assessment

Every grade level features an asset-based diagnostic assessment designed to be administered at the beginning of the year.  Delivered digitally and to the whole class, our diagnostic assessment is uniquely designed to reveal underlying math thinking and identify what students know about grade-level math. With data beyond just right and wrong, teachers have the type of deeper level of insights need to take the right next step.

CAASPP-Aligned Assessment Preparation

Amplify Desmos Math is designed to support students’ mathematical development through problem-based learning, differentiation, and embedded assessments. The program’s emphasis on conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application aligns with the mathematical practices and content standards assessed by the CAASPP.

Amplify Desmos Math California includes a CAASPP-aligned Item Bank. This standards-aligned bank of questions allows teachers to filter and search by grade and standard to find items. Once assigned on the digital platform, students will experience CAASPP-like practice with the online digital tools.

Data and Reporting

Amplify Desmos Math California provides teachers and administrators with unified reporting and insights so that educators have visibility into what students know about grade-level math—and can plan instruction accordingly for the whole class, small groups, and individual students. Reporting functionality integrates unit assessments, lesson assessments, diagnostic data, and progress monitoring for a comprehensive look at student learning. Program reports show proficiency and growth by domain, cluster, standard, and priority concept using performance data from unit assessments, then highlight areas of potential student need to allow teachers to modify their instruction and target differentiated support.

Administrator reporting provides a complete picture of student, class, and district performance, allowing administrators to implement instructional and intervention plans.

Category 4: Access and Equity

The Amplify Desmos Math California curriculum provides teachers with lessons, strategies, and resources to eliminate barriers and increase access to grade-level content without reducing the mathematical demand of tasks. Our lessons are developed using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to proactively ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Every activity has multiple entry points to ensure that all students are supported and challenged. Intervention and personalized learning activities are directly connected to the day’s content and offer students the individualized supports they need to be successful.

Each lesson and unit contains guidance for teachers on how to identify students who may need support, students who need to keep strengthening their understanding, and students who may be ready to stretch their learning. In addition, teachers are provided with recommendations for resources to use with each group of students.

Universal Design for Learning

Each lesson in the program incorporates opportunities for engagement, representation, action, and expression based on the guidelines of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

  • Multiple Means of Engagement: Students engage in both print and digital learning, and are regularly participating in discussions and hands-on activities. Students are invited to build their own challenge for other students to solve, which provides opportunities for choice and
    autonomy, as well as joy and play.
  • Multiple Means of Representation: Students are encouraged to demonstrate their learning using mathematical representations, both print and digital, and regularly engage with their peers in analyzing multiple possible solutions. Classes engage in open-ended discussions about what individual students notice and wonder about mathematical concepts.
  • Multiple Means of Action and Expression: Learners differ in how they navigate learning environments and express what they know. Students can communicate their ideas in multiple ways, including in print, sketching, uploading photos, or recording an audio response.

Accessibility

Lesson Facilitation Supports

Every lesson includes at least one specific suggestion the teacher can use to increase access to the lesson without reducing the mathematical demand of the tasks. These suggestions address the following areas:

  • Conceptual Processing
  • Visual-Spatial Processing
  • Executive Functioning
  • Memory and Attention
  • Fine Motor Skills

Accessibility Tools

Students have the ability to control accessibility tools so that each learning experience is customized to their individual needs. In many instances, these tools can be turned on or off at any point of instruction.

  • Text to speech: Reads text instructions to students in multiple languages
  • Enlarged font: Increases the size of all text on screen
  • Braille mode: Includes narration of digital interactions
  • Language selection: Toggles between languages

Differentiation: In-Lesson Teacher Moves

Within every lesson activity, teachers can use the suggestions in the Differentiation Teacher Moves table to provide in-the-moment instructional support while students are engaged in the work of the lesson. This table can help teachers anticipate the ways students may approach the activity, and provides prompts that they can use during the lesson to Support, Strengthen, and Stretch individual students in their thinking. Teachers are provided with clear student actions and understanding to look for, each matched with immediately usable suggestions for how to respond to the student thinking illustrated in each row of the table. In addition to using these suggestions in the moment as teachers monitor student work, teachers can review the Differentiation table in advance to help them anticipate how students are likely to approach the activity.

A differentiation guide for Lesson 3 showing strategies for support, strengthen, and stretch, plus a section on math language development resources, all in a structured layout.

Differentiation: Beyond the Lesson

Teachers are provided with recommendations for resources to use with each group of students needing support, strengthening, and stretching after each lesson. Support, Strengthen, and Stretch resources include:

  • Mini-Lessons: 15-minute, small-group direct instruction lessons targeted to a specific concept or skill
  • Item Banks: Space for teachers to create practice and assessments by using filters and searching for standards, summative-style items, and more
  • Fluency Practice: Adaptive, personalized practice built out for basic operations and more
  • Extensions: Lesson-embedded Teacher Moves including possible stretch questions and activities for students
  • Lesson Practice: Additional practice problems support every lesson
  • Math Adventures: Strategy-based math games where students engage with math concepts and practice skills in a fun digital environment
  • Lesson Summary Support: Support for students and caregivers that provides efficient explanation of the learning goal with clear examples

Math Identity and Community

The Math Identity and Community feature supports teachers in helping students build confidence in their own mathematical thinking, develop skills to work with and learn from others when doing math, and learn how math is an interwoven part of their broader community. The embedded prompts throughout the lessons are designed to highlight what it means to be good at math, the value of sharing ideas, and the power of flexible and creating thinking. Here are some examples of the Math Identity and Community supports embedded in each lesson:

  • I can be all of me in math class. You will work with partners every day in math class. What do you want your partners to know about you? 
  • We are a math community. What does good listening look like and sound like in a math community? 
  • I am a doer of math. What math strengths did you use today?

Math Language Development

Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California includes opportunities for all students to develop mathematical language as they experience the content. Amplify Desmos Math California purposefully progresses language development from lesson to lesson and across units by supporting students in making their arguments and explanations stronger, clearer, and more precise. This systematic approach to the development of math language can be broken down into the following four categories of support:

  • Vocabulary: Units and lessons start by surfacing students’ language for new concepts, then building connections between their language and the new vocabulary for that unit. This honors the language assets that students bring into their learning.
  • Language Goals: Language goals attend to the mathematics students are learning, and are written through the lens of one or more of four language modalities: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
  • Math Language Routines: Math Language Routines are used within lessons to highlight student-developed language and ideas, cultivate conversation, support mathematical sense-making, and promote meta-cognition.
  • Multilingual/English Learner Supports: Supports for multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) are called out at intentional points within each lesson. These specific, targeted suggestions support ML/ELs with modifications that increase access to a task, or through development of contextual or mathematical language (both of which can be supportive of all learners). 

Multilingual and English Learner Supports

Partnership with English Learner Success Forum

Amplify partnered with the English Learner Success Forum (ELSF), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for high-quality instructional materials that are inclusive of multilingual learners. ELSF reviewed Amplify Desmos Math California, and provided directional guidance and feedback to ensure that the program reflects their research-based instructional strategies for multilingual/English learners.

Math Language Development Resource

Our Math Language Development Resources book contains lesson-specific strategies and activities for all levels of English Learners (i.e., Emerging, Expanding, Bridging). With support for every lesson, teachers are empowered to help all students, regardless of their language skills, to participate fully, grasp the material, and excel in their mathematical journey.

Multilingual Glossary

Amplify Desmos Math California includes a digital glossary for languages other than Spanish. Translations will be provided for up to nine languages.

Spanish Version

Amplify Desmos Math California will include Spanish student-facing materials beginning in the 2026–27 school year.

Category 5: Instructional Planning and Support

Amplify Desmos Math California includes a variety of embedded instructional supports to empower teachers to lead effectively and gain actionable insights into student growth and progress. Teachers are equipped with a comprehensive set of resources designed to fulfill the requirements of Category 5.

Grade-level concepts

Within the Teacher Edition front matter:

  • Scope and sequence
  • Big Ideas, Drivers of Investigation, and Content Connections
  • Grade level standards
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • English Language Development Standards
  • Environmental Principals and Concepts

Within each Unit and Sub-Unit Overview:

  • Big Ideas, Drivers of Investigation, and Content Connections
  • Math that Matters Most
  • Grade level standards
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • English Language Development Standards
  • Environmental Principals and Concepts

Within each Lesson:

  • Big Ideas, Drivers of Investigation, and Content Connections
  • Grade level standards
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • English Language Development Standards
  • Environmental Principals and Concepts

How to implement the program

At the course level (within the Teacher Edition front matter):

  • Navigating the Program (both print and digital)
  • Facilitating Lesson Activities with Launch, Monitor and Connect
  • Overview of the Digital Facilitation Tools

At the lesson level:

  • Suggestions for timing
  • What materials to prep
  • How to organize and group students 
  • Key lesson takeaways with the Synthesis
  • Recommendations for Differentiation
  • Strategies for intervention and extensions (in the Intervention, Extensions, and Investigation Resources book)

At the activity level:

  • Differentiation recommendations
  • Accessibility tips
  • ML / EL tips
  • Teacher look-fors
  • Recommended Teacher Moves
  • Prompts for guiding student thinking 
  • Sample student responses

Development of Math Language

A variety of language development supports are provided within the Student and Teacher Editions and Math Language Development Resources book.

At the lesson level:

  • Diagrams and visuals
  • Sentence frames and word banks
  • Graphic organizers, including Frayer models
  • Vocabulary routines
  • Embedded language supports aligned to the CA ELDs
  • Lesson-specific strategies for Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging

At the unit level: 

  • Words With Multiple Meanings
  • Contextual vocabulary

At the course level:

  • English/Spanish cognates
  • Multilingual Glossary

Other Curriculum Guidance

  • Additional Practice Resources book
  • Assessment Resources book 
  • Assess and Respond guidance paired with each assessment opportunity
  • Show-What-You-Know activities
  • Answer keys and rubrics 
  • Performance tasks

Welcome, Florida middle school educators!

Amplify ELA Florida is the program built for Florida middle school teachers and students. We designed the program to help ensure the B.E.S.T standards are covered; the skills are taught; the test is prepped for; and your students are scaffolded and encouraged. We want you to spend your time bringing the text to life, making the classroom hum, and letting every student know you are paying attention to their growth.

Amplify ELA Florida Program Guide

Illustration of a ship with diverse elements including human figures, nature motifs, and space elements on a black background.
A teacher assists two students with a laptop in a classroom, one wearing a hijab, conveying a supportive educational environment.

Instruction matters

Florida’s new standards have been crafted to give your students the B.E.S.T. Amplify ELA Florida’s lessons explore the most compelling aspect of a text and target the standards that best support that analysis through reading, writing, and communication. These key standards are identified as the lesson’s Spotlight benchmark.  Strategic connections are attained in the program through:

  • Florida model texts including rich literature and compelling non-fiction, taught in engaging new ways for today’s learners.
  • Benchmark stacks that build connections within lessons and across units.
  • Foundational instruction that targets key standards and multiple learning modes.
  • Writing that builds directly from reading complex text and is evaluated by Amplify’s Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE).
  • Reading with the B.E.S.T. Modules have been built to guide teachers and students as they begin to work with Florida’s new reading standards, providing an introduction to each grade-level B.E.S.T. Reading Benchmark. (Example module: Grade 6, Understanding Rhetoric)

Knowledge matters

Texts in the Amplify ELA Florida Edition curriculum cover a wide range of topics, themes, and genres with differentiated supports that ensure that all students can work through each reading and lesson. Taken as a whole, the texts show students a diverse picture of the world and help foster a lifelong love of reading. Comprehension develops as students engage with literary and informational text selections that are complex, rich, and meaningful. 

Texts were selected for Amplify ELA Florida Edition using the following criteria: 

  • Text complexity as defined by qualitative, quantitative, and reader and task measurements as required by the B.E.S.T. Standards and the Amplify Text Complexity Index
  • Balance of literary and informational texts
  • Varied representation of genres: novels, plays, poetry, biographies, and other full-length texts
  • Diverse cultures, perspectives, and authors
  • Engaging texts that extend learning and support students as they build knowledge
  • Grade-appropriate texts, with scaffolding and compelling activities to support student engagement with 100% authentic texts
  • A library with more than 700 complete books, both classic and contemporary, encompassing a wide range of genres, topics, and cultural perspectives
Collage featuring a violinist with glowing eyes, a man with a background of space, a robotic arm, a tiger on a grassy knoll, and a city skyline under a starry sky.

Curriculum matters

Amplify ELA Florida is a blended curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. The heart of every lesson is the text. Each grade includes six units centered on literary or informational texts, delivered in several forms of media. Your classroom will also benefit from two or three immersive, project-based experiences and a dedicated Story Writing unit.

  • Full B.E.S.T. coverage: Standards are clearly labeled in each lesson, so teachers can save time planning and get back to what they love: teaching. Also included are Benchmark Modules that support teachers’ and students’ introduction to the new standards for Florida.
  • Five levels of differentiation: Based on each student’s needs and the performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, a teacher can choose the differentiation level that’s the right fit for everyone.
  • Embedded Assessments: Teachers benefit from uninterrupted instructional time and a continuously updated picture of each student’s progress with key skills and standards.
  • Powerful feedback tools: Comprehensive tools help teachers maximize both the quantity and quality of feedback.
  • Robust reporting: Our reporting app offers information on student progress to help inform instructional decisions.

All in one place: Embedded teacher support, differentiation tools, student data, text, and other curriculum features—they’re all right there.

Materials

Amplify ELA Florida Edition is a blended curriculum that seamlessly integrates print and digital resources to be used in any learning environment. The resources are designed to facilitate instruction for planning, teaching, learning, and assessment.

Student materials

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

  • Student Edition will engage students with high-quality narrative and informational texts.
  • Digital experience will provide videos, a library of more than 700 texts, audio supports, and other online experiences that capture their attention.
A laptop displays a web page titled "read like a movie director, part 1" from amplify ela, featuring text and an eyeball image under the lesson tab.
A laptop displaying a webpage from "amplify ela" featuring the title "brain science" and various educational topics alongside an illustrated collage of diverse human figures.

Teacher materials

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

  • From detailed lesson plans.
  • Video teacher tips embedded in the lesson.
  • B.E.S.T. standards alignment and assessments including exit tickets.
  • Real-time differentiation strategies.
  • Clarify and Compare lessons.
  • Robust reporting.

Professional learning

Amplify employs a national cohort of more than 50 ELA facilitators, all of whom have experience as former classroom teachers and many of whom are former school and/or district leaders. Our professional learning team has decades of experience working with large districts across the nation. Amplify has experience supporting district launches over multiple years and has partnered with districts of all sizes nationwide. We partner deeply with districts and tailor professional learning to their unique needs.

Florida ELA Implementation

Two women are seated at a desk, smiling and working together on a project with a laptop and notebook in an office setting.

Florida Review Resources

Florida Program Guide

Literature for Florida

Welcome to Amplify Desmos Math California!

California educators, welcome to math that motivates. Introducing Amplify Desmos Math California, a curiosity-driven TK–12 program that builds lifelong math proficiency. Each lesson poses problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals. Students encounter math problems they’re eager to solve, while teachers spend more time where it’s most impactful—creating a collaborative classroom of learners.

Keep reading to learn more about the program and explore sample materials.

About the program

Amplify Desmos Math California is a TK–12 core math program designed to meet the CA Math Framework and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Amplify Desmos Math California thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application through a structured approach to problem-based learning. Through engaging activities, Amplify Desmos Math California invites curiosity and math discourse into the classroom to create lifelong math proficiency.

Continue reading to learn more about the K–8, Algebra 1, and Math 1 programs and to explore sample materials. (Spanish, TK and high school materials are in development and will be available in the 2026–27 school year. Geometry and Algebra 2 beta pilots will be available in the 2025–26 school year.)

A powerful math suite

Amplify Desmos Math California combines the best of assessment, problem-based core lessons, personalized practice, and intervention into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.

Laptop displaying a math problem interface with student assessment reports in the background.

Screening and progress monitoring

mCLASSⓇ Math benchmark assessments, along with the embedded program assessments, measure not just what students know, but how they think. The asset-based assessment system provides teachers with targeted, actionable insights, linked to core instruction and intervention resources. Unit- and lesson-level core assessments give teachers data at their fingertips to guide and differentiate instruction. In grades 3–8, core assessments and performance tasks are designed to prepare students for success on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) testing.

Core instruction

Amplify Desmos Math California core lessons pair problems students are eager to solve with clear instructional moves for teachers. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals. With built-in differentiation and multilingual/English learner support, Amplify Desmos Math California enables every student to find success in the math classroom.

A digital math activity asks users to choose a block that makes 10 with a given number; a worksheet shows a similar "make 10" math exercise with blank spaces to fill in.
A digital educational screen showing a math problem about converting meters to centimeters. It involves a diving toy sinking 5 meters into a pool. Text prompts users to input the conversion.

Personalized Learning

Boost Personalized Learning activities help students access grade-level math through engaging, independent digital practice. Responsive Feedback adjusts to students’ work, providing item-level adaptivity to further support their learning.

Differentiation and intervention

Amplify Desmos Math views differentiation as an ongoing process where teachers are both reactive and proactive to student needs, ensuring that all students have clear pathways to proficiency. Through rich data and teacher support, Amplify Desmos Math uses flexible categories of intervention and enrichment that adjust daily according to student thinking.

In-the-moment differentiation supports are available for every lesson, both digitally and in the print Teacher Edition.

Learn more
Two pages of a math worksheet and teacher’s guide about determining coordinates after a rotation, featuring diagrams, tables, and step-by-step problem-solving instructions.

An approach that supports teachers

Clear, step-by-step instructional moves help teachers plan and teach student-centered lessons that use
student thinking to differentiate instruction and guide to grade-level understanding. They include:

  • Guidance on what to listen for and how
    to respond.
  • Clear learning objectives to keep learning on
    track for each activity and lesson.
  • Daily reinforcement activities to provide direct
    instruction when needed.
A woman writes on a whiteboard using math teaching resources while a man sits at a desk, smiling. There are books and papers on the desk.
Network diagram with interconnected nodes labeled: Measure and Compare Objects, Represent Data, Dollars and Cents, Problem Solving with Measure, Skip Counting to 100, Number Strategies, Squares in an Array, Seeing Fraction in Shapes.

Big Ideas

The CA Mathematics Framework encourages a shift from power standards to thinking about math as a series of connected Big Ideas. Each Amplify Desmos Math California lesson supports one or more Big Ideas and the connections between them. The grade-level diagram changes through the course based on the math concepts addressed within.

Please refer to the following Keeping the Big Ideas at the Center documents to review specific lesson designs and alignments with the Big Ideas for each grade level.

Click here to see how the Big Ideas are represented within the K–8 core lessons.

Focus, coherence, and rigor

Amplify Desmos Math California incorporates the Drivers of Investigation (DIs) and Content Connection (CCs) throughout the program. Throughout the year, students engage with open and authentic tasks of varying durations—from lesson activities to unit-level Explore lessons and longer course-level Investigations. Every lesson and investigation opportunity is grounded in the why, how, and what of the learning experience, and helps teachers bring mathematical concepts to life.

An educational slide on addition story problems, detailing goals for solving problems, language goals, and strategies using equal expressions, tens and ones, and number sense.

Please refer to the following Amplify Desmos Math California alignments to the Standards for Mathematical Practice, provided by grade level.

A screen titled "Match the Score" with a 2D target graph showing various scores. Instructions request four ordered pairs to total 400. Four pairs are listed: (4, 2), (7, 4), (7, 6), (10, 6). A "Try again" button is shown.

Built-in authentic tasks

Mathematics is not learning in isolation. Students are connected to each other’s thinking and can use math to understand the world. With accessible invitations to authentic tasks, all students can experience mathematical success. Amplify Desmos Math California provides these authentic invitations in a variety of ways:

Each unit begins with an “Explore” lesson, which allows students to engage with authentic exploration in low-floor, high-ceiling tasks. These tasks are designed to promote an inclusive and differentiated learning environment—allowing all students to access basic mathematical concepts, while offering advanced exploration and problem-solving for those ready for more complex work.

Our innovative course-level investigations are designed to facilitate multi-part exploration. Students grapple with Big Ideas, diving deep into key concepts that encourage comprehensive understanding. Data science is infused into the approach, giving students a solid foundation from which to interpret and apply data-driven solutions. They’re also encouraged to understand and appreciate the interrelatedness of Earth’s environmental systems via our lesson’s focus on the Environmental Principles and Concepts (EP&Cs).

Explicit support for multilingual/English learners

Three overlapping educational worksheets for first grade math, including a cover page, a list of learning goals, and a lesson plan with bilingual English and Spanish text.

Amplify partnered with the English Learner Success Forum (ELSF), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for high-quality instructional materials that are inclusive of multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs). ELSF reviewed Amplify Desmos Math California, and provided directional guidance and feedback to ensure that the program reflects their research-based instructional strategies for multilingual/English learners.

Amplify Desmos Math California recognizes the diverse language needs of our students and is designed to be inclusive. Each lesson in the program features a parallel language activity, designed to be available to all students, in the form of teacher guidance and student activities. The activities in the Math Language Development Resources have level ELD differentiation to support all levels of ML/ELs. This approach ensures that all students, regardless of their language skills, can participate fully, grasp the material, and excel in their mathematical journey.

Our Multilingual Glossary includes, in addition to Spanish, nine languages: Simplified Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, European French, Russian, Brazilian-Portuguese, Haitian-Creole, and Urdu.

Amplify Desmos Math California will include Spanish student-facing materials beginning in the 2026–27 school year.

Assessments

By starting with what students already know, Amplify Desmos Math helps build a strong foundation for success to guide and support future learning. Teachers are empowered to transform every classroom into an engaged math community that invites, values, and develops student thinking. With explicit guidance on what to look for and how to respond, teachers can effectively support students as they develop their understanding.

Open math workbook showing an End-of-Unit Assessment with multiple-choice and written response questions on fractions and equivalent values.

Program assessments

A variety of performance data in Amplify Desmos Math provides evidence of student learning while helping students bolster their skills and understanding.

Unit-Level Assessments

Our embedded unit assessments offer key insights into students’ conceptual understanding of math. These assessments provide regular, actionable information about how students are thinking about and processing math, with both auto-scoring and in-depth rubrics that help teachers anticipate and respond to students’ learning needs.

Lesson-Level Assessments

Amplify Desmos Math lessons are centered around sense-making and in-the-moment feedback. Daily moments of assessment provide valuable evidence of learning for both the teacher and student.

Learn more

Data and reporting

Amplify Desmos Math provides teachers and administrators with unified reporting and insights so that educators have visibility into what students know about grade-level math—and can plan instruction accordingly for the whole class, small groups, and individual students.

A table displays students' performance levels across various items, with a detailed score distribution for a specific assessment shown in a separate overlay. Geometric design elements accented the background, providing an engaging visual touch ideal for any math classroom using Amplify Desmos Math.

Assessment reports

Reporting functionality integrates unit assessments, lesson assessments, personalized learning, Benchmark assessments, and Progress Monitoring for a comprehensive look at student learning.

Our reports show proficiency and growth by domain, cluster, standard, and priority concept using performance data from unit assessments. Then our reports highlight areas of potential student need to allow teachers to modify their instruction and target differentiated support.

At-a-glance views of unit-level assessment results inform your instructional planning, and you can also drill down to item-level analysis.

Standards reports

Our standards report allows you to monitor proficiency at the class and individual student levels. Proficiency and growth are shown by domain, cluster, standard, and priority concepts. Areas of potential student need are highlighted to allow teachers to modify their instruction and target differentiated support.

Administrator reports

Amplify Desmos Math provides a complete picture of student, class, and district performance, allowing administrators to implement instructional and intervention plans.

  • Track student, class, and district performance with usage, completion, and assessment data.
  • Accurately group students and classes with the Benchmark and Progress Monitoring data of mCLASS Assessments and allow teachers to reliably implement and track the progress of Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention.
  • Provide one data-driven solution that educators can rely on for high-quality math instruction.

Elementary review resources

To learn about the elementary program, please start by watching the Amplify Desmos Math California Elementary Program Overview video.

For additional program information and helpful navigation tips, download the Amplify Desmos Math California Elementary Program Guide.

View the Elementary Program Components Guide here. 

View the Hands-on manipulatives brochure here.

Middle School review resources

To learn about the middle school program, please start by watching the Amplify Desmos Math California Middle School Program Overview video.

For additional program information and helpful navigation tips, download the Amplify Desmos Math California Middle School Program Guide.

View the Middle School Program Components Guide here.

View the middle school manipulative kit components here.

The digital experience

In Amplify Desmos Math, embedded interactions and animations allow students to test predictions, get feedback, share ideas, and connect representations.

The digital interactions included in lesson activities are designed to elicit student thinking in a way that feels fun and inviting. As students play and explore math concepts, teachers can highlight the ideas that students share, connect those ideas to other students’ ideas, and build on their thinking through productive class discussion.

Watch the video to preview the digital experience and for helpful platform navigation tips.

A laptop displays a math activity about platform heights and tube length, while a worksheet titled "Hamster Homes" is visible in the background.

Explore grade level samples

All lessons in Amplify Desmos Math California include print materials and rich digital experiences. Every lesson is supported with Student Edition pages, teacher presentation screens, and interactive digital resources for practice and differentiation. Some lessons also enable students to use devices to interact with lesson content.

You’ll find sample materials by grade level in the following drop-downs. Please refer to your physical samples and the digital platform (accessed through the demo account provided by your account executive) for a comprehensive program review.

Screenshot of a kindergarten curriculum outline featuring units like Math in Our World, Numbers 1-10, Positions and Shapes, Understanding Addition, Making 10, and Shapes All Around Us. This comprehensive program utilizes New York Math standards to build foundational skills.
Scope and sequence
Cover of Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Teacher Edition featuring three children playing with math-related objects and a group of rabbits sitting nearby, aligning with the engaging curriculum seen in New York math classrooms.
Teacher Edition
Three children use large counters and a vertical frame to solve a math problem outdoors, with a fourth child sitting nearby. The cover is labeled "Amplify Desmos Math California, Kindergarten, Volume 1.
Student Edition
Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Grade K" featuring a 3D letter "L" and section about Math Language Development Resources.
Math Language Development Resources
A curriculum overview for Grade 1 with seven units listed, each showing a title, instructional days, assessment days, and total days. Suggested days for completion is 154.
Scope and sequence
Three children play a math game with orange counters and cards. Fish and turtles are pictured above them. The book cover is labeled "Amplify Desmos Math California, Grade 1 Teacher Edition.
Teacher Edition
Three children use counters and cards to solve a math activity underwater, with fish and seaweed in the background. The cover is for Amplify Desmos Math California, Grade 1, Volume 1.
Student Edition
Cover of a Grade 1 Amplify Desmos Math California resource featuring a yellow block letter "L" and a label for math language development resources.
Math Language Development Resources
Scope and sequence chart for Grade 2 shows eight instructional units with titles, illustrated icons, days per unit, and assessment days listed in a grid format on a white background.
Scope and sequence
Cover of a Grade 2 math textbook showing a teacher and two students measuring a number line and holding a sign that reads "120 in." with math visuals in the background.
Teacher Edition
Three children measure and mark a path on the ground with a ruler and tape, next to a large green base ten block and a 120-inch sign, on a math textbook cover.
Student Edition
Cover of Amplify Desmos Math California Grade 2 Math Language Development Resources, featuring a green geometric "L" and a list of included supports for language learners.
Math Language Development Resources
A table displays a Grade 3 math curriculum outline with six units, each showing unit topics, number of instructional and assessment days, and total days per unit.
Scope and sequence
Illustration of four children in a two-story house doing math activities; one holds "3 x 2," another “3 x 3,” another “3 x 5,” and one paints a wall. Grade 3 math teacher edition cover.
Teacher Edition
Illustration of four children in a house-like structure, one painting, one holding a book, one holding a math sign, and one reading, on the cover of a math textbook labeled "Grade 3.
Student Edition
Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Grade 3" featuring a 3D geometric shape, blue accents, and a section describing included resources for math language development.
Math Language Development Resources
A curriculum overview for Grade 4 showing seven math units with titles, illustrations, instructional days, and pacing details, organized in a grid layout.
Scope and sequence
Four children, one in a wheelchair, interact with math symbols and measurements outdoors, overseen by a teacher. The cover reads "Amplify Desmos Math California, Grade 4, Teacher Edition.
Teacher Edition
Four children stand and work around a large plant and number tiles outdoors, with one child in a wheelchair and another holding a clipboard. The cover reads "Amplify Desmos Math California 4.
Student Edition
Cover of the Amplify Desmos Math California Grade 4 Math Language Development Resources, featuring a blue geometric "L" shape and a description box in the bottom left corner.
Math Language Development Resources
A Grade 5 math curriculum overview showing six units, each with instructional days and assessment information, arranged in a grid on a white background.
Scope and sequence
Cover of a 5th grade math teacher edition book showing children interacting with math concepts outdoors, including measuring, drawing, and stacking cubes.
Teacher Edition
Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Student Edition 5, Volume 1" featuring students engaging in math activities outdoors and one standing on colorful cubes holding a "Grade 5" sign.
Student Edition
Cover of Amplify Desmos Math California Grade 5 Math Language Development Resources, featuring a 3D letter "L" and a brief description of included supports.
Math Language Development Resources
Grade 6 math curriculum chart showing eight units with titles, instructional days, assessment days, optional days, and icons for each unit. Suggested days: 143 out of 147 instructional days.
Scope and sequence
Illustration of children outdoors interacting with oversized math symbols and objects. Text reads "Amplify Desmos Math California Teacher Edition, Grade 6, Volume 1.
Teacher Edition
Illustrated cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Student Edition, Grade 6, Volume 1" showing students interacting with math symbols in an outdoor setting.
Student Edition
Cover of Amplify Desmos Math California Grade 6 book featuring a 3D geometric “L” shape and a description of included math language development resources.
Math Language Development Resources
Grade 7 math curriculum map with eight units, each showing topic, days per unit, and breakdown of instructional and assessment days. Suggested total days: 124.
Scope and sequence
Illustration of people interacting with geometric shapes, city buildings, and a crane on a cover titled "Amplify Desmos Math California, Grade 7, Teacher Edition, Volume 1.
Teacher Edition
Illustrated cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Student Edition 7, Volume 1," showing people constructing geometric shapes and mathematical tools in a cityscape.
Student Edition
Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math California Grade 7" resource, featuring a purple 3D geometric "L" shape and informational text about language development resources.
Math Language Development Resources
Grade 8 math curriculum overview with nine units displayed in a grid; each unit lists instructional days, assessment days, and total days.
Scope and Sequence
Illustration of children at a playground with adults, working on math activities near water tanks and a slide. The cover reads "Amplify Desmos Math California, Grade 8, Teacher Edition, Volume 1.
Teacher Edition
Illustration of children playing on and around a slide with geometric shapes and graphs, on the cover of a math textbook labeled "Amplify Desmos Math California, Student Edition, Grade 8.
Student Edition
Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Grade 8" featuring a 3D geometric letter "L" and a list of included math language development resources.
Math Language Development Resources
A curriculum overview for Algebra 1 with eight units, each showing a title, number of instructional and assessment days, and simple illustrative icons. Total suggested days: 153.
Scope and Sequence
Illustration of people interacting with algebraic graphs, grids, and mathematical tools, with others exploring underwater and a map of California in the corner. Text reads "Amplify Desmos Math California.
Teacher Edition
Cover of a California Amplify Desmos Math A1 Student Edition book showing people interacting with mathematical graphs and underwater divers observing marine life.
Student Edition
Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Algebra 1 A1 Math Language Development Resources" featuring a 3D geometric "L" shape and text describing included resources.
Math Language Development Resources
A curriculum chart displays seven math units, each listing instructional and assessment days; the suggested total is 138 days, with titles like Patterns and Sequences and Linear Equations.
Scope and sequence
Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Teacher Edition, Math 1 Volume 1" with illustrated people interacting with geometric shapes and graphs.
Teacher Edition
Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math California Student Edition Volume 1" featuring people interacting with math symbols and geometric shapes in a stylized, modern landscape.
Student Edition
Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Math 1," featuring a geometric L-shaped figure and a blue header labeled "Math Language Development Resources.
Math Language Development Resources

Scope and Sequence

Math 2–3 is currently being developed and will be available in the 2026–27 school year.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Teacher Edition GEO Volume 1" featuring abstract geometric illustrations and people engaged in mathematical activities.
Scope and Sequence (National Edition)

The Amplify Desmos Math Geometry Beta National Edition is available for piloting in the 2025–26 school year. Amplify Desmos Math California Geometry will be available in the 2026–27 school year.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Geo Volume 1 Student Edition" featuring geometric shapes and small illustrated people interacting with mathematical elements.
Geometry sampler

This sampler includes Teacher Edition front matter for program overview information, plus Teacher Edition and Student Edition pages for Units 1–2.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California A2 Teacher Edition," featuring a Ferris wheel, math graphs, and students interacting with mathematical concepts.
Scope and sequence (National Edition)

The Amplify Desmos Math Algebra 2 Beta National Edition is available for piloting in the 2025–26 school year. Amplify Desmos Math California Algebra 2 will be available in the 2026–27 school year.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math California Student Edition A2 Volume 1" featuring mathematical graphs, a Ferris wheel, and students interacting with math concepts.
Algebra 2 sampler

This sampler includes Teacher Edition front matter for program overview information, plus Teacher Edition and Student Edition pages for Units 1–2.

Contact us

For questions, samples, or more information, please contact your local Amplify account executive:

Erin King
Sales Director, CA
(512) 736-3162
eking@amplify.com

Northern CA
Wendy Garcia
Senior Account Executive
(510) 368-7666
wgarcia@amplify.com

Bay Area
Lance Burbank
Account Executive
(415) 830-5348
lburbank@amplify.com

Central Valley and Central Coast
Demitri Gonos
Senior Account Executive
(559) 355-3244
dgonos@amplify.com

Ventura and L.A. County
Jeff Sorenson
Associate Account Executive
(310) 902-1407
jsorenson@amplify.com

Orange and L.A. County
Lauren Sherman
Senior Account Executive
(949) 397-5766
lsherman@amplify.com

San Bernardino and L.A. County
Michael Gruber
Senior Account Executive
(951) 520-6542
migruber@amplify.com

Riverside and L.A. County
Brian Roy
Senior Account Executive
(818) 967-1674
broy@amplify.com

San Diego County
Kirk Van Wagoner
Senior Account Executive
(760) 696-0709
kvanwagoner@amplify.com

Under 2300 students in Bay Area, Sacramento Valley, and Northern Counties
Kevin Mauser
Lead Account Executive
(815) 534-0148
kmauser@amplify.com

Under 2300 students in Southern CA, Central Coast, and Southern Central Valley Counties
Charissa Snyder
Account Executive
(720) 936-6802
chsnyder@amplify.com

Utah ELA Review for Grades PK–5

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

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

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

Step 1: Program Introduction

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

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

Step 2: Program Overview

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

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

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

Evidence-based design

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

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

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

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

Key features

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

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

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

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

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

Watch this video to learn more!

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

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

Hear from Natalie Wexlered
Webinar Links

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

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

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

Read our EdReports review
Read our Knowledge Matters review

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

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

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

Click the buttons below to learn more:

Step 3: Program Resources

Easy-to-use print materials

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

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

Engaging CKLA digital experience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CKLA review resources

Step 4: State Review Resources

Step 5: Program Access

Explore as a teacher

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

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

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

Ready to explore as a Student? Follow these instructions:

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

Oregon Enhanced ELA State Review for K–5

To view this protected page, enter the password below:



Amplify Desmos Math NY Pilot

To view this protected page, enter the password below:



mCLASS Intervention professional development

mCLASS® Intervention (formerly known as Burst: Reading) is a staff-led reading intervention that does the heavy lifting of data analysis and lesson sequencing, freeing up teachers to teach the reading skills each student needs.

We’ve created a wide suite of professional development offerings that will help you meet your unique needs this school year. Find out more below!

A woman and a young boy looking at a book together in a classroom, with colorful artwork displayed in the background.

Plan your professional development

We’re excited to partner with you on your Amplify journey. Flexible professional development pathways have been designed to meet your needs.

Infographic describing three stages of an educational program: Launch, Strengthen, Coach. Each stage includes brief descriptions and a graphic illustration.

Recommended Professional Development Plan

Our team has curated a recommended professional learning path from initial launch to continuous support. Use the Professional Development Planning Guide below to discuss the plan that best meets your school or district needs with your Account Executive.

View the Professional Development Planning Guide

Do you also use Amplify CKLA, mCLASS, and/or Boost Reading?

View the planning guide below to explore learning plans for teachers and leaders who are either new to or currently using multiple early literacy products.

View the Early Literacy Professional Development Planning Guide

mCLASS intervention overview

What’s the difference between mCLASS Intervention and mCLASS Intervention Universal?

An mCLASS Intervention school screens with mCLASS with DIBELS® 8th Edition.* An mCLASS Intervention Universal school screens with any other screener on the market. Some of the most common are iReady, iStation, MAP, AIMSweb, and paper/pencil DIBELS.

What else is different?

Here are a few other areas in which the programs differ:

AreamCLASS InterventionmCLASS Intervention Universal
Onboarding processDoes not require Amplify’s Implementation team to explain staff and student enrollment because staff and students are already enrolled in our system.Requires Amplify’s implementation team to explain staff and student enrollment since the tech coordinator hasn’t yet enrolled any students in mCLASS.
Professional developmentFacilitator does not spend time practicing DIBELS measures with staff because they’re already familiar with these measures.Facilitator spends time practicing DIBELS measures with staff because they usually haven’t administered them before.
AssessmentsThese schools administer DIBELS to all students because they have paid to use mCLASS as a screener.These schools administer DIBELS only to intervention students because they haven’t paid to use mCLASS as a screener.

*Utah and Colorado schools screen with mCLASS: Acadience Reading (formerly called mCLASS:DIBELS Next).

Getting optimal results with mCLASS Intervention

There are two critical roles at a school that need to work together in order for mCLASS Intervention to deliver optimal results. At some schools, an individual may hold both roles.

  • Intervention Coordinator
    Oversees the mCLASS Intervention program, groups students, determines group assignments and adjusts schedules, and works closely with your school’s Interventionists.
  • Interventionist
    Teaches mCLASS Intervention lessons to small groups of students based on the assignments and schedules provided by your school’s Intervention Coordinator and progress monitors students every two weeks.

mCLASS Intervention sessions overview

Audience Title Duration Modality
Launch packages  
New mCLASS + mCLASS Intervention customers mCLASS + mCLASS Intervention initial training bundle 4 half days, non-consecutive Remote
New mCLASS + mCLASS Intervention customers mCLASS + mCLASS Intervention initial training bundle 2 days of onsite training, consecutive Onsite
Launch  
New mCLASS Intervention customers (mCLASS has been trained in the past) mCLASS Intervention initial training 1 day onsite or 2 half days remote Onsite/Remote
Interventionists online course Self-paced Online
Coach  
All mCLASS Intervention customers Coaching session 1 day Onsite
All mCLASS Intervention customers Coaching session Half day Onsite/Remote
Coaching session 60 mins Remote

Launch packages

mCLASS initial training + mCLASS Intervention initial training

2 days (12 hours); consecutive

Prepare to launch mCLASS Intervention with fidelity! This bundle is intended for schools or districts who are implementing mCLASS Intervention for the first time and want the highest levels of support.

The first day will prepare all educators to administer the mCLASS assessment.

The second day will prepare all educators (including Intervention Coordinators) to implement mCLASS Intervention, including instruction on how to prepare for lessons, practice lesson delivery, administer the diagnostic and progress monitoring measures, and configure grouping and scheduling for maximum effectiveness.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators and Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

mCLASS initial training + mCLASS Intervention initial training

2 days (12 hours) or 4 half days (12 hours); non-consecutive

Prepare to launch mCLASS Intervention with fidelity! This bundle is intended for schools or districts who are implementing mCLASS Intervention for the first time and want the highest levels of support.

The first part will prepare all educators to administer the mCLASS assessment.

The second part will prepare all educators (including Intervention Coordinators) to implement mCLASS Intervention: how to prepare for lessons, practice lesson delivery, administer the diagnostic and progress monitoring measures, and configure grouping and scheduling for maximum effectiveness.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators and Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Launch

mCLASS Intervention initial training

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days (6 hours)

This session is intended for those schools or districts that have been trained in mCLASS in the past.

This training will prepare all educators (including Intervention Coordinators) to implement mCLASS Intervention: how to prepare for lessons, practice lesson delivery, administer the diagnostic and progress monitoring measures, and configure grouping and scheduling for maximum effectiveness.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators and Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Interventionists online course

Self-paced

This PD is an individual seat to our self-paced, on-demand online course that contains approximately 3 hours of training. Participants will learn how to prepare for lessons and administer the diagnostic and progress monitoring measures. Participants will access and revisit the course anytime for up to one year as a refresher.

Audience: Interventionists
Modality: Online course

Coach

Coaching session

1 day (6 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of mCLASS Intervention with a Coaching session for your teachers and/or leaders! A certified mCLASS Intervention facilitator can visit 1–2 school sites per day. Participants may choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: observing lessons and providing feedback, analyzing mCLASS Intervention data and planning instruction, refining groups and schedules, or co-planning and modeling lessons.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators and/or Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Coaching session

Half day (3 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of mCLASS Intervention with a Coaching session for your teachers and/or leaders! A certified Intervention facilitator will visit one school site. Participants may choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: observing lessons and providing feedback; analyzing mCLASS Intervention data, reviewing student progress, and planning next steps; refining groups and schedules; or co-planning and modeling lessons.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators and/or Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Coaching session

60 min.

Strengthen your implementation of mCLASS Intervention with a quick Coaching session to improve implementation or student outcomes. During this remote hourly session, a certified mCLASS Intervention facilitator will help school leaders and/or Intervention Coordinators review usage, student progress data, and work to define an opportunity and develop a solution.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators and/or Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

mCLASS Intervention Universal sessions overview

Title Duration Modality
Launch packages
Hybrid PD package Half day, then 1 day Hybrid (remote, then onsite)
Remote PD package Half day, then 2 half days Remote
Launch sessions
Training for Interventionists 1 day or 2 half days Onsite/Remote
Training for Intervention Coordinators Half day Remote
Coach
Coaching session 1 day Onsite
Coaching session Half day Onsite
Coaching session Hourly Remote

Launch packages

Hybrid PD Package

Half day, then 1 day (9 hours)

Prepare to launch mCLASS Intervention Universal with fidelity! This package is intended for schools or districts implementing mCLASS Intervention Universal for the first time and want the highest levels of support.

Session 1 will prepare Intervention Coordinators to develop the school’s mCLASS Intervention Universal implementation plan, learn how to strategically group students, and schedule intervention supports.

Session 2 will prepare Interventionists to do an in-depth exploration of lesson activities and engage in real-time practice with diagnostic and progress monitoring measures.

Both sessions should be scheduled at least two weeks apart so the Intervention Coordinator has time to group students, draft schedules, and select the team of interventionists.

Audience:
Session 1: Intervention Coordinators, maximum 30 participants
Session 2: Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Hybrid

Remote PD Package

3 half days (9 hours)

Prepare to launch mCLASS Intervention Universal with fidelity! This package is intended for schools or districts implementing mCLASS Intervention Universal for the first time.

Session 1 will prepare Intervention Coordinators to develop the school’s mCLASS Intervention Universal implementation plan, learn how to strategically group students, and schedule intervention supports.

Both sessions should be scheduled at least two weeks apart so the Intervention Coordinator has time to group students, draft schedules, and select the team of interventionists.

Audience:
Session 1: Intervention Coordinators, maximum 30 participants
Session 2: Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Launch

Training for Interventionists

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This one-day training will ensure that Interventionists are prepared to teach mCLASS Intervention Universal with fidelity and accurately progress monitor students with the mCLASS platform throughout the year. Participants will do an in-depth exploration of lesson activities and engage in real-time practice with diagnostic and progress monitoring measures.

This session is ideal for new Interventionists at a school or district that has been previously implementing mCLASS Intervention Universal. We encourage the Coordinator to attend this session as well.

Audience: Interventionists (Intervention Coordinators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Training for Intervention Coordinators

Half day (3 hours)

This half-day training will ensure that Intervention Coordinators are prepared to launch mCLASS Intervention Universal at their school site(s) with fidelity and best practice. Participants will consider grouping and scheduling configurations to make the most of the program, and create launch plans.

This session is paired with the Training for Interventionists full-day session.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Coach

Coaching session

1 day onsite (6 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of mCLASS Intervention Universal with a Coaching session for your teachers and/or leaders! A certified mCLASS Intervention Universal facilitator can visit 1–2 school sites per day. Participants may choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: observing lessons and providing feedback, analyzing mCLASS Intervention Universal data and planning instruction, refining groups and schedules, or co-planning and modeling lessons, maximum 30 participants.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators and/or Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Coaching session

Half day onsite (3 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of mCLASS Intervention with a Coaching session for your teachers and/or leaders! A certified Intervention facilitator will visit one school site. Participants may choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: observing lessons and providing feedback; analyzing mCLASS Intervention data, reviewing student progress, and planning next steps; refining groups and schedules; or co-planning and modeling lessons.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators and/or Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Coaching session

60 min.

Strengthen your implementation of mCLASS Intervention with a quick Coaching session to improve implementation or student outcomes. During this remote hourly session, a certified mCLASS Intervention facilitator will help school leaders and/or Intervention Coordinators review usage, student progress data, and work to define an opportunity and develop a solution.

Audience: Intervention Coordinators and/or Interventionists, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Pricing

We offer the following pricing for training sessions and packages:

Session typePricing
mCLASS + mCLASS Intervention initial training bundle, 2 days onsite, consecutive$4,800
mCLASS + mCLASS Intervention initial training bundle, 2 days onsite, non-consecutive$6,400
mCLASS + mCLASS Intervention initial training bundle, 4 half days remote$3,000
mCLASS Intervention initial training, onsite$3,200
mCLASS Intervention initial training, remote, 2 half-days$1,500
Interventionists self-paced online course$49 per individual seat
Intervention Coordinators self-paced online course$49 per individual seat
mCLASS Intervention Universal hybrid PD package$3,950
mCLASS Intervention Universal remote PD package$2,250
mCLASS Intervention Universal training for Interventionists, onsite$3,200
mCLASS Intervention Universal training for Interventionists, remote$1,500
1-day coaching session, onsite$3,200
Half-day coaching session, onsite$2,500
Remote coaching, hourly$350

Please note that the prices are general ranges and may be subject to change.

Contact

Amplify welcomes the opportunity to partner with schools and districts to design professional development plans and answer your questions.

If you would like to order any of our professional development services, please contact your local Amplify sales representative or call (800) 823-1969.

Welcome, Indiana Department of Education!

Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition builds on the principles and instruction of previous editions to provide better-than-ever support for teaching and learning. The focus continues on delivering evidence-based instruction across a system of multi-tiered supports aligned with the Science of Reading and Writing.

We’re excited to share this site, where you’ll find a range of materials and literacy tools including Reviewer Resources and Teaching Materials (Teacher Guides, Activity Books, and Student Readers) organized by grade and unit.

We welcome your thoughts and questions!

An astronaut floats in space near the Moon, with a speech bubble displaying

Reviewer resources

Overview and program resources:

Alignment and scope and sequence:

Curriculum maps by grade:

Kindergarten

Explore all available resources for Kindergarten, organized by strand and unit.

Knowledge Strand

Unit 1: Star Light, Star Bright: Nursery Rhymes and Fables

Unit 2: See, Hear, Smell, Taste, Touch: The Five Senses

Unit 3: Underdogs and Heroes: Stories

Unit 4: See How They Grow: Plants

Unit 5: Moo, Cluck, Oink: Farms

Unit 6: Deep Roots: Introduction to Native American Cultures

Unit 7: All Around the World: Geography

Unit 8 (Choice): Royal Tales: Monarchs

Unit 8 (Choice): National Icons: Presidents and American Symbols

Unit 9 (Choice): Our Planet: Taking Care of the Earth

Unit 9 (Choice): Rain and Rainbows: Seasons and Weather

Unit 10: Shaped by Nature: Art and the World Around Us

Skills Strand

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

Unit 5

Unit 6

Unit 7

Unit 8

Unit 9

Unit 10

Ancillary Components

Grade 1

Explore all available resources for Grade 1, organized by strand and unit.

Knowledge Strand

Unit 1: The Moral of the Story: Fables and Tales

Unit 2: From Nose to Toes: How Your Body Works

Unit 3: Common Threads: Different Lands, Similar Stories

Unit 4: Reach for the Stars: Astronomy

Unit 5: Charting the World: Geography

Unit 6: A World of Homes: Animals and Habitats

Unit 7: A New Nation: American Independence

Unit 8 (Choice): Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tales

Unit 8 (Choice): Our Planet: The History of the Earth

Unit 9 (Choice): From Babylon to the Nile: Early World Civilizations

Unit 9 (Choice): Early Americas: Maya, Aztec, and Inca

Unit 10: Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge

Skills Strand

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

Unit 5

Unit 6

Unit 7

Ancillary Components

Grade 2

Explore all available resources for Grade 2, organized by strand and unit.

Knowledge Strand

Unit 1: Fortunes and Feats: Fairy Tales and Tall Tales

Unit 2: The Birthplace of Democracy: Ancient Greece

Unit 3: Legends and Heroes: Greek Myths

Unit 4: Our Planet: Cycles in Nature

Unit 5: Butterflies, Bees, and Beetles: Insects

Unit 6: A House Divided: The American Civil War

Unit 7: Sounds and Stanzas: Poetry

Unit 8 (Choice): Journeys to America: Immigration

Unit 8 (Choice): Making a Difference: Creating Change

Unit 9 (Choice): Building Blocks: All About Nutrition

Unit 9 (Choice): Early Asian Civilizations: India and China

Unit 10: Taking Flight: The Age of Aviation

Skills Strand

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

Unit 5

Unit 6

Ancillary Components

    

Grade 3

Explore all available resources for Grade 3, organized by unit.

Core Units

Explore all available resources for Grade 3, organized by unit.

Unit 1: Timeless Tales: Classic Stories

Unit 2: Fur, Fins, and Feathers: Animal Classification

Unit 3: Rhythm and Rhyme: Poetry

Unit 4: Rise and Fall: Ancient Rome

Unit 5: Our Solar System and Beyond: Astronomy

Unit 6: Regions and Cultures: Native Americans

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: Charlotte’s Web

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: Stella Díaz Has Something to Say

Unit 8 (Choice): Systems and Senses: The Human Body

Unit 8 (Choice): From Glow to Echo: Light and Sound

Unit 9: From Blues to Bebop: All That Jazz

Ancillary Components

Supplemental Skills Units

Grade 3 Skills resources are included in core classroom kits, although the instruction isn’t required for Grade 3 standards coverage.

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

    

Grade 4

Explore all available resources for Grade 4, organized by unit.

Unit 1: My Story, My Voice: Personal Narratives

Unit 2: Knights and Castles: Europe’s Middle Ages

Unit 3: Meaning and Metaphor: Poetry

Unit 4: Eureka! Student Inventor

Unit 5: Our Planet: Geology

Unit 6: Road to Independence: The American Revolution

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: The Season of Styx Malone

Unit 8 (Choice): Crafting Stories: A World of Tales

Unit 8 (Choice): Adventure on the High Seas: Treasure Island

Unit 9: Inspiration and Ingenuity: American Innovation

Ancillary Components

Grade 5

Explore all available resources for Grade 5, organized by unit.

Unit 1: In My Own Words: Personal Narratives

Unit 2: Early Americas: Maya, Aztec, and Inca

Unit 3: Visions in Verse: Poetry

Unit 4: A Knight’s Tale: Don Quixote

Unit 5: The Deep Blue World: Oceans

Unit 6: Cultures and Histories: Native Americans

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: The Phantom Tollbooth

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: The Science of Breakable Things

Unit 8 (Choice): Arts and Culture: The Renaissance

Unit 8 (Choice): Through the Forest: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Unit 9: Building Up the World: Global Architecture

Ancillary Components

Digital platform

In the 2025-26 school year, Amplify CKLA’s all-in-one platform will offer essential tools that streamline instruction for teachers and engage students with meaningful content. Teachers can plan and deliver lessons efficiently, while students can access assignments, assessments, and fun practice games.

A digital interface showing an assessment report on a monitor and a multiple-choice question on a tablet screen. Both screens display educational content from Amplify's assessment tools, providing personalized learning for multilingual learners.

Presentation Screens
Deliver interactive lessons with ready-made, customizable slides for every lesson.

Auto-scored digital assessments
Assess vocabulary, comprehension, and knowledge development at the end of each K–2 Knowledge and 3–5 Integrated Unit.

Standards-based reports
Identify strengths and growth areas for individuals, small groups, or your entire class. Interactive dashboards offer detailed results from assessments and activities.

Skill-building practice games
Engage students with interactive games that reinforce concepts and make learning fun. Powered by Boost Reading™, these games align with lessons and provide real-time feedback.

eReader
Students access texts, take notes, and use audio-enabled eReaders to enhance their reading experience.

Sound Library
Students watch articulation videos and listen to songs for each sound to support phonological awareness.

Vocab App
Helps students in Grades 3-5 practice Amplify CKLA Tier 2 vocabulary words with fun, interactive games.

Intervention Toolkit
Offers user-friendly resources designed to aid educators in identifying and addressing deficiencies in students’ foundation skills.

Program support resources

Additional program resource documents:

Welcome to the Interactive Classroom trial!

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S3-04: Using AI and ChatGPT in the science classroom

A graphic with the text "Science Connections" and "Amplify" features colorful circles and curved lines on a dark gray background.

In the latest episode of the Science Connections podcast, we explore AI in education and its impact on students. Listen as I sit down with teachers Donnie Piercey and Jennifer Roberts to discuss ChatGPT and how we can use it to build science and literacy skills in K–12 classrooms while preparing students for the real world.

And don’t forget to grab your Science Connections study guide to track your learning and find additional resources!

We hope you enjoy this episode and explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page!

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

Jennifer Roberts (00:00:00):

If a kid graduates from school without knowing that AI exists, they’re not gonna be prepared for what they face out in the world.

Eric Cross (00:00:07):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross.

Eric Cross (00:00:12):

This season of the podcast, we’re making the case for everyone’s favorite underdog, science. Recently we’ve been highlighting the magic that can come from integrating science and literacy. So if you haven’t checked out those recent episodes, definitely go back in your feed after you’re done with this one. This time around, we’re going to deep dive into what artificial intelligence means for literacy instruction, and how science can be a force for good, in responsibly exposing students to AI. To help me out, I’m joined by two extremely accomplished educators. Jen Roberts, a veteran high-school English teacher from San Diego, who among many things runs the website LitAndTech.com. And I’m also joined by fifth-grade teacher Donnie Piercey. In addition to being Kentucky’s 2021 Teacher of the Year, Donnie also has an upcoming book about bringing AI into the classroom. Whether you’ve never heard of ChatGPT or whether you’re already using it every day, I think you’ll find this a valuable discussion about the intersection of science, English, and technology. Here’s Jen and Donnie.

Eric Cross (00:01:17):

So first off, welcome to the show. It’s good to see you all. What I wanna do is kind of start off by introducing both of you. And so we’ll just go K–12. So <laugh>, Donnie.

Jennifer Roberts (00:01:30):

Donnie goes first.

Eric Cross (00:01:31):

Donnie’s gonna go first. Donnie out in Kentucky. Just a little background. What do you teach; how long you’ve been in the classroom; and what are you having fun with right now?

Donnie Piercey (00:01:38):

Yeah, so my name is Donnie Piercey. I’m a fifth-grade teacher from Kentucky. Live and teach right here in Lexington, Kentucky, right in the center of the state. I’m the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year. But I’ve been teaching elementary school for the past … I think this is year 16 or 17. It’s long enough where I’ve lost count, and I can’t even count on fingers anymore. My friends like to joke that I’ve taught long enough where now I can count down. You know, it’s like, “All right, only so many more years left.” But yeah, teach all subjects. Science definitely is one of the subjects that I don’t just try to squeeze into my day, but make sure that … it’s not even a devoted subject, but one that I definitely try to — don’t just have that set time, but also try to do some cross-curricular stuff with it. So definitely the rise of AI in these past few months, which feels like years by this point, has definitely played quite the role, in not just changing the way that I’ve been teaching science, but really all my subjects. So, excited to chat with y’all about it.

Eric Cross (00:02:47):

Nice. I’m excited that you’re here. And Jen?

Jennifer Roberts (00:02:51):

Hi, I’m Jen Roberts. I teach ninth-grade English at Point Loma High School, and that’s where I usually stop when I introduce myself. But for your sake—

Eric Cross (00:03:00):

I will keep introducing you if you stop there. <laugh>

Jennifer Roberts (00:03:04):

I am nationally board-certified in English Language Arts for early adolescence. I am the co-author of a book called Power Up: Making the Shift to 1:1 Teaching and Learning, from Stenhouse, with my fabulous co-author Diana Neebe. Shout out to Diana. I blog at LitAndTech.com about teaching and technology and literacy and the intersection of those things. And I’m looking forward to talking about how AI is showing up in my classroom and the fun things I’m doing with it.

Donnie Piercey (00:03:31):

And one of us is actually secretly a robot, and you have to guess which one.

Jennifer Roberts (00:03:35):

Have to guess which one. Yes. <laugh>

Eric Cross (00:03:37):

That would be super-meta. And you were the CUE — Computer-Using Educator — outstanding teacher or educator? Whatever. Either one. Of the year.

Jennifer Roberts (00:03:45):

I was the CUE ’22 Outstanding Educator. Yes. And I’ve won a few other things as well.

Eric Cross (00:03:53):

The gaming backpack.

Jennifer Roberts (00:03:54):

I’ve won a gaming backpack recently! Yes. I once won an iPad in a Twitter chat.

Eric Cross (00:03:58):

What?

Donnie Piercey (00:03:58):

What’s a gaming backpack? Hold on. We need to talk about that.

Jennifer Roberts (00:04:01):

We will talk about that. <laugh> And then, I was once a finalist for county Teacher of the Year. That’s as close as I got to Donnie. Donnie was the Kentucky Teacher of the Year. He got to go to the White House and stuff. That was exciting.

Donnie Piercey (00:04:13):

<laugh> I mean, to be fair, there’s only three million people in Kentucky, and about what, 50 million people that live in California? <Laugh> So odds are definitely stacked in my favor, I think.

Jennifer Roberts (00:04:23):

So you’re saying we’re even there? Is that, is that what you’re going for?

Donnie Piercey (00:04:25):

Yeah, evens out. Evens out.

Eric Cross (00:04:27):

So I’ve been looking forward to talking to you both for a while now, and talking about artificial intelligence. It’s like the big thing. And both of you, at different ends of the spectrum and in my life, have contributed to this. Donnie, you’ve been sharing so much great information online about how you’re using AI in elementary. Jen, you are the reason I got into education technology years ago, right when I was becoming a teacher. And so being able to talk with you both about it excites me a lot. So first off, for the listeners who may not have any experience with it — and there’s still a lot of people out there who have not been exposed to it, haven’t got their feet wet with it yet — I’m hoping we could start off maybe with an explanation of … we could do AI, ChatGPT, I know that’s the big one. But simply explaining what it is, just for the new person. And whoever wants to start off can tell us about it. Or maybe we’ll start … we’ll, let’s actually, let’s do this: Let’s continue going like K–12? So Donnie, maybe you could … what’s your pitch to the new person of, “Hey, this is what it is”?

Donnie Piercey (00:05:31):

All right. So, AI, artificial intelligence, probably the way that most people are exposed to it, at least since November when it launched, is through ChatGPT. Where if you Google it, you know it’s made by a company called OpenAI. The best way to describe what it is … when you go there for the first time, make an account, it’s free. You have like a little search window, looks like a Google search bar. And instead of searching for information, you can ask it to create stuff for you. So for example, like on Google search, you might type in a question like, “Who was the 19th president of the United States?” Where on ChatGPT, instead of just searching for information, it creates stuff for you. So you could say, you could ask it to, “Hey, write a poem about the 19th president of the United States.” Or, “Write a short little essay comparing, I don’t know, Frederick Douglass to Martin Luther King Jr.” And it would do that for you. You know, that’s most people’s first exposure to AI, at least in these past few months. Instead of … you know, it’s artificial intelligence, but it’s not just chatbots. There’s lots of other AI that exist out there.

Jennifer Roberts (00:06:47):

And I think that’s the thing: that people don’t realize how much AI is already in their lives.

Donnie Piercey (00:06:51):

For sure. Yeah.

Jennifer Roberts (00:06:52):

You know, they just haven’t seen … the term that I see being used a lot now is “generative AI.” AI that can produce something. It can produce writing, it can produce art, it can produce a script, it can produce a character. But the AI that has been helping you pick what to watch next on Netflix and the AI that’s helping Google help you get where you wanna go on Google Maps faster, those are forms of artificial intelligence as well.

Donnie Piercey (00:07:21):

Yeah. I mean, even those, when you get that that message in Gmail, and instead of having to type out that response that says, “Yeah, that sounds great,” you can just click the little button that says, “Yeah, that sounds great.” I mean, that’s been in Gmail for years, but that’s artificial intelligence too.

Eric Cross (00:07:39):

Absolutely. So why is it important, do you think, for educators to, to be familiar with it? Like, why are we all so excited about it?

Jennifer Roberts (00:07:47):

So, educators need to know what kids are into, and kids are obviously into ChatGPT. And anyone who’s an educator right now has probably already had something cross their desk — or more likely their computer screen — that was written by AI and passed off as a student’s own work. And that is, of course, the great fear among teachers everywhere, that this is what kids are just gonna do these days and they won’t be able to catch it and children won’t be doing their own work and this and this. But I think the big reason teachers need to know what’s going on is because teachers need to be futurists. Our clientele will live in the future. We teach kids, kids will become adults, adults will live in the world. And so if we’re not thinking about and trying to predict on some level what’s gonna happen 5, 10, 15 years from now … we might be wrong, but what if we’re right?

Jennifer Roberts (00:08:38):

And if we’re not at least trying to think about what is their future world gonna look like, then we’re not serving our students well. I did a whole night talk on that. So I think ChatGPT is part of that. I teach seniors. I had this moment of realization I felt a few months ago. I’m like, “This is gonna be the world they graduate into. They need to know what this is before they leave me.” If I don’t teach them how to use this well, and not the way they’re using it — which is to copy and paste the teacher’s assignment and drop it into ChatGPT and take whatever it spits out and turning that in without even looking at it — if I don’t teach ’em how to use it critically, if I don’t teach them how to write effective prompts, if I don’t teach them how to use the AI as a tool, as a collaborator, then they’re gonna graduate into a world where they lose out to people who do know how to do that. And I think the advantage goes to kids who have access and knowledge of what’s in front of them and what’s available, and can use all of the tools at their disposal. Because when you’re writing in school and you write with a collaborator, that could be considered cheating. But when you do that out in the adult world, that’s considered doing a good job. <Laugh> Being a team player. <Laugh> You know, adults don’t work alone for the most part. And adults are expected to churn out beautiful, perfect content no matter how they got there. So if I’m not teaching my kids how to use this, they’re not being ready. They’re not gonna be ready to be the adults that I want them to be.

Donnie Piercey (00:10:07):

A hundred percent agree. And I also believe … as you know, I teach elementary school. I also don’t think anybody is saying that on the first day of kindergarten, you hand a kid a Chromebook and load up an AI chatbot or ChatGPT and say, Hey, this thing’s gonna do all your work for you for the next 12 years; just coast through life. You don’t have to think creatively. You don’t have to learn how to develop a paragraph or learn how to write a speech or develop an idea. Like, I don’t think anybody’s saying that, because as an elementary school teacher, there’s many days when I’m like, “Y’all, we’re just putting the Chromebooks away today and we’re just gonna go old-school. We’re just gonna maybe just jot down five quick ideas and stand up and present those ideas to the class.”

Donnie Piercey (00:10:54):

Because while AI definitely will, like you were saying, Jen, play a significant role in the lives of our students who are, not just graduating, but the 10- and 11-year-olds in my classroom this year. A significant role in their lives. It’s also really important to recognize that we’re not saying that this means that “Hey, kids don’t have to work anymore.” They still have to put forth that effort. There’s still — one of the ways that you become a good writer is by trial and error. And sometimes that trial and error comes through talking to a teacher or talking like you were saying to a peer or collaborating with a peer and saying to them, “Well, this sentence here, this paragraph here, really doesn’t make sense.” And I do believe one of the ways — especially as AI starts to become more fine-tuned and starts to be embedded more and more in tools like Google Docs and Microsoft Word — is it’s almost going to be a tutor to students.

Donnie Piercey (00:11:56):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> Where I could very easily see in a few years, or maybe a few months, who knows what Google or any of these other big companies has rolling out, where a student could highlight a paragraph that they wrote simply, and then say, “Hey, proofread this for me,” or “Check for coherence.” Or even just ask a simple question: “Does this paragraph make sense?” Because you can already do that. You can copy a paragraph over into a chatbot and say, “Hey, does this make sense?” You know, “Rate my idea from one to 10,” and it’ll do that for ’em.

Jennifer Roberts (00:12:26):

We did that last week <laugh>.

Donnie Piercey (00:12:28):

Yeah. Right. I mean, that’s the thing. That technology exists now. It’s just not totally embedded yet. But based on what I’ve read and what I’ve seen, that’s gonna happen sooner rather than later. And it’s really, really important that we teach our students that, “No, you’re not just gonna use this, this tool to cheat, but you can use this tool to help you become a more creative student.”

Jennifer Roberts (00:12:50):

This is the use case in my classroom. Can I talk about that? You ready for that?

Eric Cross (00:12:53):

Please.

Jennifer Roberts (00:12:54):

OK.

Eric Cross (00:12:54):

Please.

Jennifer Roberts (00:12:55):

So my ninth graders are writing a comparative analysis essay, where I took them to the student art gallery and I made them pick two pieces of completely unknown student art and take notes on it, so they could go back and write this essay. And as soon as we got back to class, I said, can ChatGPT write this for you? And they all kind of froze ’cause I didn’t tell them what ChatGPT was. And they weren’t sure if they were allowed to know or not. And finally one of them kind of bravely raised his hand and said, “No.” And I said, “Why not?” And he said, “Well, the AI hasn’t seen the art. How can it write an essay about art when the art is completely original that we just went and looked at?” I said, “It’s almost like I planned it that way, isn’t it?” And they laughed nervously. And then I said, “Does that mean it can’t help us with this assignment?” And they said, “Well, no — of course it can’t help us, because it has not seen the art.” And I said, “Well. …” And I open ChatGPT, and I typed in what they were trying to do: “I need to write a comparative analysis essay comparing two pieces of student art on these reasons. And I need to choose which one did it better, basically. Can you help me with an outline?” and ChatGPT produced a lovely outline. And I looked at that with my students and we looked at it together and I said, “This is what it gave us. Would this be helpful to you?” And they’re like, “Yeah, that would be helpful to us.” So we — to be clear here, I was the only one using ChatGPT in the room. They were not actually using it. We were using it together. I copied and pasted the outline that it gave us and put it in their learning management system where they could access it so they could use the outline that the robot provided, and then they could use that to make their own writing better. So then I let them write for a little while, and, after they’d written for a little while, I said, “Does anybody wanna let me share your first paragraph with ChatGPT and see what it thinks of how you’re doing?” And a brave student raised his hand and we took his paragraph and we put it in ChatGPT, and it spit back advice. We said, “This is what I have so far for my first paragraph. Do you have any advice for me?” And we gave it the writing, and the first piece of advice it gave back was very generic, you know, “Add a hook,” you know, like kind of thing. But after that, it started to get more specific about things he was actually doing in his writing. And it started to give him some feedback. And we looked at that together as a class. And I said, “Does any of that feedback help you?” And he said, “Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m gonna go add some revisions to my paragraph.” And other students did too. They looked at the feedback he got and used that to improve their writing. And so everybody went and revised. And I said, “Look, if you take what the robot gives you and you copy and paste it, and you turn it in as your own work, it’s gonna get flagged for plagiarism. And that’s not gonna go well. But if it gives you writing advice the same way I would give you writing advice, and you decide that advice is good, and you take that advice and you incorporate it into your own writing yourself, then the robot’s making you better, but you’re still the one doing your own writing.” And the writing they turned in from that assignment was, was better. It wasn’t written by ChatGPT; it was still about the student art that they found in the gallery. But I showed them a path. Like, it can help you with an outline, it can help you with feedback. Right? These are fair ways to use it that’s gonna make you better. And they really liked that. They really liked — no one had shown them that before. The idea that you don’t just take the teacher’s prompt and give it to it … like, these are new uses to students and worked well.

Eric Cross (00:16:17):

So right now, you both just laid out these ways that you’re using it. And I do this with people that I’m trying to introduce to ChatGPT or AI. ‘Cause I get excited. Anyone could write a 500-word persuasive essay on the use of color in The Great Gatsby or The Outsiders, and they can get something back within seconds. But for a lot of educators, it might feel like the sky is falling.

Donnie Piercey (00:16:43):

Oh, understandably! Understandably. I mean, that totally makes sense.

Eric Cross (00:16:49):

What would you say to them? Donnie, go ahead.

Donnie Piercey (00:16:51):

Yeah. Well, I feel like every teacher kind of goes through the same experience when they see like a generative chatbot. I mean, all these major companies are gonna start incorporating AI, the generative AI piece. And a lot of times, when they see it for the first time, two things. First they’ll say “Oh, but I’ll know that that’s not my students’ writing.” Which, frankly, I think is a good thing, because that tells me that the teachers know their students’ writing. They’ve seen them write in person. They’ve conferenced with them one-on-one. And if a student were to turn something in to me, who I know might be a struggling writer, maybe it’s not their strength, and all of a sudden they’re turning in this10-page dissertation-worthy thesis written at a PhD level, I’m like, “All right, man, you’re nine. Can we talk about where this came from?” <laugh> But I also don’t think that at like the heart, I don’t feel like kids want to cheat. I really don’t. I feel like sometimes like kids are in a situation where they’re like, “OK, I’ve got nothing left. I gotta get this assignment done.” And when those kind of things happen, that’s when we as teachers, we have those one-on-one conversations. Even when I showed my students ChatGPT and even some of the AI image-generating stuff for the first time, and I talked to them about, “What do y’all think about this?” Because, you know, they’re under 13. In my district, ChatGPT is blocked for students. Staff, we have access to it. And that’s just because one, it’s so new, and at the same time, we need to figure out, “What’s the best way they can go about using this tool?” But when we were talking about it as a class, you know, I didn’t want to ignore the elephant in the room. So I asked them, I said, “Hey, do you feel like this is something that you all would use to. …” I mean, I used the word. I said “cheat.” And to be honest, the majority of the students in my class, they were taken aback. They’re like, “What? You think we just would cheat all the time?” Right? <Laugh> And I’m like, “Oh, well good. I’m glad to know that integrity is still alive and well.” But yeah, that’s definitely my thoughts on it, as far as not only the student integrity piece — I think that that’s the big thing that you need to just bring up with your students. Because again, I like to think that I’ve seen my students write enough that if they were going to turn something in that wasn’t their voice, or it didn’t sound like them, like I could have that conversation. And don’t be surprised, too, if in the next … I don’t know, one month to a year, there’s lots of AI detectors that exist. A lot of them are these like third-party things. You can go ahead, but I would not be surprised if in the next year or so, like you start to see those AI detectors be built into Google Docs, into Microsoft Word, into even Canva. And honestly, it’s almost like a fail-safe button for teachers, that we could say “All right, this is telling me that this is 99% probably written by AI.” So you can have that conversation with a student that way.

Jennifer Roberts (00:20:03):

I mean, if you’re worried about it, Formative, right now, will even tell you if something is copy-and-pasted into the boxes that they give you for students to write in. I find that kids who cheat are desperate, you know. Especially at the high school level. They’re panic mode. And, and usually their panic comes from, “I have no idea how to even start this assignment.” And so part of what I wanna use ChatGPT for is to lower that barrier for them. Like, you’ve got an assignment, you don’t know where to start. Tell the robot, tell ChatGPT, about the assignment and ask it for a list of steps. You know, ask it for an outline. Ask it for a time management plan. I see so much tremendous potential for this to help many of my students with IEPs who have executive functioning issues.

Donnie Piercey (00:20:49):

Oh, a hundred percent, right?

Jennifer Roberts (00:20:51):

Yes, a hundred percent. This can be their personal assistant who, you know, instead of me sitting with them one-on-one and saying, you know, “This is the task you need to do, let’s break it down into these six discrete chunks,” the artificial intelligence can do that for them. And it can do that for teachers too. <laugh>

Donnie Piercey (00:21:09):

Jen, I was just thinking about, how long until we see like the phrase artificial intelligence written onto a student’s IEP? I could see that happening very, very soon.

Jennifer Roberts (00:21:20):

Right? They should be able to use that. And then, also, of course, all of its amazing beneficials for teachers. I had to completely rewrite a unit of my curriculum. I knew what I wanted to do. I had some ideas of things I wanted to put in there. And I resorted to, I went to EducationCopilot.com and typed in my stuff that I had: You know, what standards I wanted to cover, what outcomes I was hoping for mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it generated an eight-week unit for me. And I actually told it then to go back and do it as a 12-week unit so that I’d have more stuff in there to go and cherry-pick to decide what I really wanted to do. But it gave me ideas. It gave me places to start. It saved me an hour of just brainstorming. And I don’t think that was cheating. I still got to go in and decide which ideas were valid. And I still got to … you know, I mean, I’m a teacher. Can I get accused of cheating? I don’t think that’s a thing. It’s—

Eric Cross (00:22:18):

That’s collaborating! It’s collaborating!

Donnie Piercey (00:22:20):

Collaborating! It’s a feature! It’s a feature.

Jennifer Roberts (00:22:22):

It’s Tony Stark talking to Jarvis. You know, they’re figuring it out together.

Donnie Piercey (00:22:26):

Oh, when you use the AI, Jennifer, do you call yours Jarvis? In my class we call him Jeeves. ‘Cause remember Ask Jeeves?

Jennifer Roberts (00:22:33):

I think Eric calls it Jarvis.

Eric Cross (00:22:35):

Yeah. Jarvis is gonna be the AI’s name when, when I can get that fully functioning. There are some things that you had said, I just wanna circle back on. Donnie, Jen — so what I heard was like, best intentions. The part you said about integrity and students wanting to cheat … even the mindset that we go in assuming our students, what they would want to do and assuming best intentions, really kind of frames how you look at this kind of technology. And then Jen, you kind of brought up why students cheat, and realizing that either they don’t feel equipped, or maybe it’s time management, or something else. But most people — and I believe this as an educator — most students want to learn, and they want to be able to perform and achieve. And when they cheat, it’s because they didn’t feel like they could, for whatever reason. Whether it’s it’s outside factors, whether it’s something internal, motivation, whatever it is.

Jennifer Roberts (00:23:24):

Or they were very disconnected and just didn’t care.

Eric Cross (00:23:27):

Sure.

Jennifer Roberts (00:23:27):

This is just busy work the teacher’s giving me, so I’m gonna give it very little of my time and energy. But I think, yeah, it can be that. But if the kid cares about it, if they wanna learn, they wanna learn, you know?

Eric Cross (00:23:40):

Right.

Jennifer Roberts (00:23:40):

This is the day of the internet. Any kid can learn anything they really want to learn. And we see that all the time in our classes. The kid who has zero interest in what I’m teaching in English, but he is an expert coder, and that’s what he wants to spend his time learning. He’s like, “Can I read this C++ book as my independent reading book?” And I’m like, “You know, actually, you can. Go ahead.” <Laugh>

Eric Cross (00:24:01):

Yeah. And for both of you, saying that this makes content more accessible … and I think Donnie, or Jen, you said something about IEPs. I actually put in having it write an IEP to see what would happen. I gave it a prompt for a student’s ability level and I asked it to create a plan. And then I asked it to create a rationale. And it did! And it was good! I went through and vetted it. And right now … you know, a lot of it is funny, ’cause the conversation I’m having with different teachers is kind of like the Wikipedia one. Remember when Wikipedia first got out and everyone was like trying to discourage everybody from using it, because, well, it could be changed by anybody? And now everyone’s like, “Oh, check Wikipedia, and then steal the sources, ’cause they’re already done for you.” Like, the mindset has shifted since then. And I was talking to someone and they said, “Well. …” And I said, “We can use AI, it could be a tutor, these other things. …” And they said, “Yeah, but what happens?” And then insert apocalyptic scenario. Like, what happens if you don’t have access to wifi? And it reminded me of, for some reason, cooking classes. So in the 1700s you probably had to be able to farm to be able to generate your food. Right? Like, you had to get it from somewhere. But if you take a culinary class now, you just go to the grocery store. And someone might say, “Well, but you should know how to farm, ’cause what if there was this worldwide apocalypse and nobody could go to the grocery stores?” <Laugh> And you’re like, “Well, balance of probability though.” You know, it’s like we’ve been really been living in these iterations of life, and I think this next step for some folks … like, we don’t even realize, even like something like bank statements, right? So many folks are paperless. And there’s always a what-if scenario. What if you need it and the internet goes down. But we get so used to to to technology advancing and making our lives different. This kind of seems like that next iteration. And I wanna ask you this question: Are we looking at like the next calculator? The next internet, with this tech? Or do you think it’s too early to say?

Donnie Piercey (00:26:01):

Well, I’ve seen a lot of people compare ChatGPT to a calculator. I’ve seen that pop up on social media. There’s, “Oh well, no, this is like when the calculator was invented. Everyone was up in arms about how ‘that’s not what math students should do.’ Math should be pencil and paper, math should be this.’” However, you can give a kid a calculator and you can give ’em a word problem and they can punch in all the numbers, but they could do the wrong operation or they could put the decimal point in the wrong place, ’cause the student is still the one who’s controlling what’s on the calculator. Where with AI, all you gotta do is just copy it and then paste it into the bot and it’ll spit out whatever the question asked it for. Whether it was, you know, a 500-word rationale or proof for something in geometry, or if it’s analyzing data on a chart, it’ll do all that.

Jennifer Roberts (00:27:00):

Yes. But it’s not that magical. It’s back to what Eric did with the IEP. He put in a prompt and then he knew enough to ask for a rationale and then he knew enough about IEPs to critically read the results he got and make sure they actually worked for what he needed. He had to know all that. He was an expert using it to do an expert thing. My husband’s a computer scientist; he got ChatGPT to help him write an app, and it was a new programming language to him, and he could put in the data and he could ask for things that I would’ve never thought to ask for. But because he knows the language of computer science, he knew what to ask for. And when it gave him results that were bad, he could see that, and he could say, “Yes, but do it again, but without this,” or “make this part more efficient.” He, again, knew what to ask for. So I think the generative AI is, as a partner with humans, a powerful thing. But if the human doesn’t know what they’re doing, yeah. You’re still not gonna get great results.

Donnie Piercey (00:28:03):

<laugh> And I think that’s why I’m coming at this from the elementary school perspective, right? Because in K–5 students are still learning, like, “Hey, where does the decimal point go?” They’re still learning, you know, if you’re dividing by a two-digit number, where does the first digit go, if you go in the old long-division algorithm? And so they’re still acquiring that base-level knowledge that … I don’t know, maybe this is similar to in Jurassic Park when Jeff Goldblum says, “It didn’t take any knowledge to attain,” you know, “they stood on the shoulders of geniuses,” that whole thing. Like they had to acquire the knowledge for themselves, was his whole point. And so that’s why I don’t think it’s exactly the same as the calculator. It is definitely going to change things, in a similar way that the calculator did. But to me it’s just a whole new animal. And I don’t know if it’s going to be like the next internet, Eric — if you’re gonna get little devices that have AI built into it, like a Star Wars kind of thing, like a droid or something that follows you around — all that would be kind of cool, not gonna lie. But whether it’s something that you’ll access through the internet, something that’s built into your TV, that part I don’t know. But I do know that there’s a reason why all of these apps and all these companies are investing so much — not just energy, but time and money into it. Because they’re recognizing. “OK, this really has the potential to change things.” But if used well, and used safely, to change people’s lives for the better.

Eric Cross (00:29:41):

So I definitely hear that you both agree with the statement that if AI ChatGPT was used in the classroom, it could be a force for good. And literacy development. And I wanna shift gears a bit and then come back to the AI. So with that said — and we’re gonna get into some best practices in a minute — in Science Connections right now in this season, we’re making the case for how science can do more in classrooms and in schools. And so I’m I’m curious about what both of you think about the role in science fostering a better future when it comes to AI and education. And this season we’re really talking a lot about literacy. You know, in schools, so often it’s taught in a siloed way. And Donnie, you’re doing multi-subject. Jen, you’re single-subject: English. And we’ve really been trying to make this case for how science can actually support literacy, and these skills that students are trying to develop. So we’re going a little old-school, kind of diving into your content specialty, but maybe even pre-AI, or maybe AI has a component in this. But Don, maybe we’ll start with you. How has science been a way that has been helpful for your own literacy instruction? I know you do a lot of science, because I see your Google Earth stuff and the thing you did with the solar systems back in the day. And I think —.

Donnie Piercey (00:30:54):

Oh my gosh! You remember my <laugh> … wow.

Eric Cross (00:30:58):

That was amazing!

Donnie Piercey (00:31:00):

We haven’t done that since the pandemic. But I had my students go out, and using Google Earth, we built a scale model. Each of the students partnered up and they planned out on Google Earth a scale model of the solar system. They picked an object from around their house and we talked about like, “Don’t pick something bigger than a beach ball, or else, you know, your Neptune’s gonna end up like 10 miles away.” But you know, they just picked like a small ball, like a basketball, soccer ball, something like that. Or football, for international friends. And then we calculated the size of every other planet. And then on Google Earth, using their front lawn as where the sun was, then we went and we calculated where other planets would be, and then we actually drove to those locations and like held up the objects that would represent Neptune, Jupiter, Saturn, and all that. But it was a lot of fun.

Eric Cross (00:31:59):

And is that still accessible? ‘Cause I know you have some websites that you put resources out there.

Donnie Piercey (00:32:03):

Yeah. Yeah, I can … I wanna say on my Resources page — Resources.MrPiercey.com — I’ve got a link on there to a couple of student examples that I can share. And if not, when we get off this call, I’m gonna go on and put them on there <laugh> so people can find it. I’ll even throw on there just the assignment itself. So if you wanted to copy that and do that with your students, you could.

Eric Cross (00:32:27):

Donnie, the reason why I brought that up is because I saw that you had posted that or shared it a long time ago, and I just thought it was the coolest thing that you could totally do with middle-school students or high-school students. Jen, when I became a teacher, you said, “We’re all teachers of literacy.”

Jennifer Roberts (00:32:43):

<laugh> Yeah. I think we forgot to tell them that I was one of your professors.

Eric Cross (00:32:47):

Yes. <Jennifer laughs> One of the people who’ve definitely influenced and shaped my teaching. And that statement has never left my mind: that we’re all teachers of literacy. And I want to ask you, at the high-school level, how can science educators, or how can science — how have you seen it, or how does it, support literacy, when it’s done right?

Jennifer Roberts (00:33:09):

Like I said, I think we’re all teachers of literacy, but I think literacy is bigger than just reading and writing. I don’t think someone is literate if they can’t talk somewhat knowledgeably about what’s happening with climate change. I don’t think someone’s literate if they don’t know what’s going on in the world. And I think so much of what’s going on in the world has to do with science. We’re doing that all the time. If I could teach English just by giving kids articles about science, things to read, that would make my day. Right? We would never read another piece of fiction again. It would all be, you know, what’s happening to the ice sheet in Greenland. My students thrive on reading non-fiction. And then whenever that non-fiction touches on science is even more interesting. And whenever I can get them writing about data, particularly their own data that they collected, I think that’s building those science literacy skills as well. So I think science and English blend together very, very well. I think the literacy aspects of that are fantastic. There are more subject-specific vocabulary words, advanced vocabulary words, in science than any other discipline. And I don’t see why those shouldn’t come up in English as well. You know, my seniors will do a unit at the end of the year on the new space race. Unless I replace it with a unit about generative AI, which I’m seriously considering doing, ’cause I think they really need to learn about bias in AI algorithms and things like that. And I would like to have them read a whole bunch about that stuff. And I wanna give them the open letter that all those CEOs signed that said that AI research should slow down, and make them part of that live conversation about what’s happening in that field. So science comes into that. You know, when we read Into the Wild, we start talking about a whole bunch of scientific concepts. And when it rains in Southern California, we pull up weather maps and look at radar and talk about that and how that works.

Donnie Piercey (00:34:59):

That’s like once every 10 years, Jen? <Laugh>

Jennifer Roberts (00:35:02):

Well, actually, this year it rained a lot. It rained a lot in San Diego. Which is actually very high-interest for them. ‘Cause they wanna know, is it gonna be raining at lunchtime?

Eric Cross (00:35:12):

Jen, you said something … you have your students writing about data?

Jennifer Roberts (00:35:16):

Oh yeah.

Eric Cross (00:35:17):

Can you tell me more about that?

Jennifer Roberts (00:35:19):

So, this is something we’ve done with the ninth grade team for a long time now, is writing about their own data. So it started with a unit about stereotypes and stereotype threat. And they would collect data individually and then they would enter that data into a Google form and then we would give them the spreadsheet of the aggregate data from the whole ninth grade. And then we morphed that unit into one about academic honesty, and they filled out a survey at the beginning of the unit about their feelings about academic honesty and about experiences with academic honesty and cheating and homework and things like that. And then we would do the unit. We’d do all the readings in the unit. And they’d have these “aha” moments about things that were happening at other schools. And then at the end of the unit, we would give them back their own aggregate data and ask them to write about whether or not academic honesty was an issue at our school. And then to support that answer with evidence from their own dataset. So they had that spreadsheet to comb through and figure out, you know, where am I gonna stand on this? We give them the multiple-choice questions we gave them as the graphs, in Google Slides, so that they could write about them and talk about them, too. So yeah, getting kids to write about data. And the the sentence frames we gave them were sentence frames out of, They Say, I Say, from the chapter on writing about science. And <laugh> as they write this stuff, they’re like, “I feel so smart writing this way.” And I’m like, “I know, ’cause you’re writing about big important topics!” Right? And writing about their own data come to think of it is another great way to make an assignment both very personal to them, but also make it ChatGPT-proof, you know, if you’re looking for something that kids can’t just hand to the robot, the robot doesn’t have that data set.

Eric Cross (00:37:08):

Absolutely. And Donnie, at the elementary level, do you, do you make connections between science and literacy? In your class? You talked about with math, definitely with the solar system, but now, I’m curious, what are your newer projects? What have you been working on lately?

Jennifer Roberts (00:37:23):

What’s up now, Donnie?

Eric Cross (00:37:24):

Yeah, what are you doing?

Donnie Piercey (00:37:25):

Oh, man. Well, let me think. I’m just trying to think of some fun projects that we’ve done this year. Science that we can tie in Literacy and also some student creation. Just recently we had a … so I’ve wanted to expose my students to famous scientists that weren’t just white dudes from Europe. So for this year, what I did — and I actually used AI for this — I went into ChatGPT and I asked for 64 famous scientists and it listed them all off. And then I asked it, like, how many of these were white? And I think it said like 61 of them. You know, it had like Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and a couple of other … I didn’t know who they were. So I’m like, “All right, so we need to make this more diverse and make this more equitable.” ‘Cause you know, with the student population in my classroom, try to find equal representation to make sure they can see themselves in some of these scientists. So, eventually got it narrowed down to where I had about 64 scientists. Half are women, half are men from all continents except Antarctica. I assigned these scientists to my students. Some got two; some got three. And their assignment was to go and one, do some individual research on this person, find out what they were famous for, what they were most well-known for, turn it actually into a persuasive piece, where I said, “Hey, you’re gonna have one slide.” And I’ll tell you why I gave him one slide in a minute. On that one slide, you’ve gotta convince the person who sees it that this scientist is the most important scientist since the dawn of creation. I said, “You could use images, text — I don’t care if they were famous for something that you didn’t even understand what it was. It’s a persuasive piece. You’re 10. Go all out. Add gifs, do that whole thing.

Eric Cross (00:39:21):

This is awesome.

Jennifer Roberts (00:39:21):

I wanna do this project.

Donnie Piercey (00:39:23):

And if you picked up on the number 64, and I did this in March, so what we did was throughout the weeks of March Madness of the women’s and men’s NCAA tournament, whenever a game was going on, we had another round of voting. I just paired ’em up. I was gonna like seed them, like 1 to 64 — that’s just way too much work for me <laugh>. So I just kind of did random kind of thing. But all the students had to do — they just saw the slides side-by-side, and the only question they had was, “Based on what you see here, who is the most important scientist? This person or this person?” And it eventually came down to Carl Sagan going up against Marie Curie.

Eric Cross (00:40:04):

OK, that’s a good matchup.

Donnie Piercey (00:40:06):

Yeah, well, the Marie Curie slide, they just liked the radium piece. So they added like some green glowing gifs. And I said, “Guys, it doesn’t always grow glow green.” But whatever. Anyway, eventually Carl Sagan, in case you wanted to know, according to the 10-year-olds in my classroom, is the most important scientist in the history of the world. So I don’t know if I agree with that per se — I think maybe Newton or somebody else might have had something else to say about it — but fun assignment. It was a unique way to expose my students to a bunch of ideas. I remember the student that I assigned Newton, the only thing that that she knew about Isaac Newton was “Didn’t he get hit in the head with an apple?” And I said, “Well, not exactly, I think you might have read or maybe seen too many like old-school cartoons or whatever.” But she ended up doing some research. She’s like, “Oh, I’ve heard of that before! That equal and opposite reaction thing.” Didn’t know what it meant. I had another student that just got really … you know, if you’ve ever been on one of those YouTube kicks where it’s just, you go like nine levels deep onto like, “What does this theorem mean?” Student sits in back of my classroom, I walked by one day and he’s just watching something on like the fifth dimension and what it might be. And I said, “Oh, your scientist got you started on that.” So definitely was a lot of fun. Unique way to combine reading, writing, but also expose my students to some ideas. And we’re definitely gonna do it again. I’ve actually done this assignment before. I picked 64 random elements on the periodic table. But their only slide that they have to make is “What’s your element? What is it used for? And then, why is this the most important element since the dawn of creation?” <Laugh> And, you know, there’s always that student that gets hydrogen. They’re just like “Sweet!” Right? They get excited about that one. <laugh>

Eric Cross (00:41:59):

Explosions.

Donnie Piercey (00:42:00):

Yeah. But then, for that kid who likes a challenge, or that student with the “gifted” label, you give them, like, einsteinium or palladium. Some of the more challenging ones. And they go all out with this. I didn’t use AI for that one, but it was kind of fun, and I figured it’d be neat to share an idea that another teacher could try.

Eric Cross (00:42:20):

Well you probably have at least two teachers right now that are gonna go and try that. And we’re both looking at you. So.

Donnie Piercey (00:42:24):

Go for it.

Eric Cross (00:42:25):

Thanks for that idea. I’m imagining my students coming in with jerseys with “neon.”

Donnie Piercey (00:42:29):

Oh yeah. <laugh>

Eric Cross (00:42:30):

“Neon” on it. Just all ’80s out.

Donnie Piercey (00:42:33):

The game behind it, too, is you tell kids — again, this is just so the 10-year-olds in my class don’t get their feelings hurt — but I say, “Hey, and if your element gets knocked out, you just have to start cheering for whoever beats you in the tournament.” So by the end, you kind of got half the class cheering for one and half the class cheering for whatever.

Jennifer Roberts (00:42:53):

So the only thing I got outta that whole story that I’ve got for you is, as a child I met Carl Sagan. That’s all I got.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:02):

For real?

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:02):

For real.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:03):

So did he talk with that cadence and tone?

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:06):

Yes.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:06):

Like in real life? Wow.

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:07):

Yes. My father was one of the cinematographers on the original Cosmos. And I got to go to the set a few times.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:14):

That’s incredible!

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:15):

I did not appreciate what I was seeing as a child. But as an adult, I’m like, “That was cool. I was there.”

Donnie Piercey (00:43:20):

“You can see my shadow off in the distance.”

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:23):

I mean, maybe that’s part of why I’ve always had an interest in science. I’ve always had fantastic science teachers. Every science teacher I ever had was amazing.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:31):

I credit mine to Mr. Wizard. I don’t know if you ever watched Mr. Wizard and Beakman’s World?

Eric Cross (00:43:35):

I remember Mr. Wizard. Yep. Yep. I definitely remember Mr. Wizard, Beakman’s World, all those. That was on Nickelodeon back in the day. I had to get up early to watch that one. But there’s a YouTube video—

Donnie Piercey (00:43:44):

Six am!

Eric Cross (00:43:44):

<laugh> It was! It was super-early! But there was one, Don, I don’t know if you’ve seen this on YouTube, but it said “Mr. Wizard Is Mean,” and it’s just clips of when he’s—

Donnie Piercey (00:43:56):

Yelling at kids!

Eric Cross (00:43:56):

Chastising. Or being really direct. It’s just one after another.

Donnie Piercey (00:44:02):

He always asked ’em a question and if the kid, you know, didn’t answer it right, he’d be like, “Well, you’re not right, but you’re wrong.” You know, whatever. <Laugh>

Eric Cross (00:44:14):

I have to make sure I’m not subconsciously saying Mr. Wizard quotes when I’m talking in the classroom, when things are happening. But yeah, that video’s hilarious. So I just want to bring us back to AI, and ask this question: Do you think science has a special role to play when it comes to teaching kids about AI responsibly? Does science have a special role in that?

Jennifer Roberts (00:44:36):

I think the responsible piece of AI I wanna teach my students about is the part about the bias in the algorithms and the bias in the training. And I want them to understand how it works, well enough to make informed decisions about how it impacts their lives.

Donnie Piercey (00:44:56):

Hmm.

Jennifer Roberts (00:44:57):

Because I do have concerns about a tool that was trained on the internet. And the answers it gives you is the average of the internet. And do we trust the internet? And the answer from kids is always, “Well sorta, no.” <Laugh> So I want them to understand the social science behind that.

Donnie Piercey (00:45:18):

Yeah. And just along that same point, having the students recognize that just because, you know, you copy-and-paste a question in, the answer it spits out might not always be correct. So, teaching them that just like you would with a source that you find about a topic that you’re researching, you’ve gotta fact-check.

Jennifer Roberts (00:45:44):

It’s just like being a good scientist. A good scientist wouldn’t always accept a single result or the first result. You know, you would look at multiple angles. You would try things different ways. Last week I took the article my seniors were reading about victim compensation after 9-11, and in front of them, I gave ChatGPT, I said, “Are you familiar with this article by Amanda Ripley? And ChatGPT came back and said, “Oh yes, this was written in the Atlantic in 2020 and it’s about these things, blah, blah blah.” And my students looked at that and went, “That’s not the article we read.” And I said, “I know. It got it wrong. That’s amazing!” Yeah. And I was so happy that it got it wrong! ‘Cause I wanted them to see that happen.

Donnie Piercey (00:46:21):

And I guess one of the big science questions there, or one of the big science components there, is that idea of inquiry. Right? It’s almost like you have to teach students how to ask those deep questions about what AI spits out.

Eric Cross (00:46:35):

All of those tips are great. And it leads me to this last question I want to ask. New teachers that are out there — it actually doesn’t even matter; new teachers, experienced teachers, all of us are kind of new at different levels of this race. We’re all kind of starting it together. I mean, it hit mainstream. We’re all getting exposed to it. You all really dive into it. When tech comes out, I know you two really like, “OK, how can we use this to transform education and do awesome things for kids?”

Donnie Piercey (00:47:04):

Usually, when new tech comes out, “How can this make my life easier?” is usually the question. Yeah.

Jennifer Roberts (00:47:09):

“How can I save myself time with this?” Yes.

Donnie Piercey (00:47:11):

“How can this result in me watching more TV and you know, less grading,” sometimes.

Eric Cross (00:47:16):

And I start there like you, but then I end up more time that I fill with another project. And I need to learn how to stop doing that. I’m like, “Oh! I got more free time! … to go take on this other task.”

Jennifer Roberts (00:47:28):

Oh, all of my tech adoption is driven by “how can I work less?”

Eric Cross (00:47:32):

So you’re you’re talking to a new teacher, teacher’s getting exposed to this, they’re starting the school year or they’re just getting their feet wet with it. What advice would you give them about AI, incorporated into content or even just best practices? Where you’re at right now in your own journey, and someone’s asking you about it —what would you share with ’em? And Jen, I want to start with you.

Jennifer Roberts (00:47:53):

So, the first thing I did is I was in the middle of grading, you know, 62 essays from my seniors about Into the Wild, when ChatGPT became a thing last November. And I wanted to see what would happen. So the first thing I did was take the prompt that I had given my students and gave it to ChatGPT, ’cause I had just graded a whole bunch of those essays and my brain was very attuned to what my rubric was doing and what I was expecting as the outcome. So I could take what ChatGPT gave me as that quote unquote “essay” and evaluate it critically. And I was ready to do that. So my first advice is take something you’re already asking students to do and ask ChatGPT to do the same thing. So that as you look at the student results, you can compare that to what ChatGPTgives you. If what you’re finding is that ChatGPT can generate something that would earn a decent grade from you, you might need to change that assignment. And it doesn’t need to be a big change, but it might need a tweak or something, so that it, it does rely on the student voice, the students to do something more personal. I’m finding very helpful in my classroom is having my kids do projects where they are recording themselves on — I like Flip. So they’re writing a scene together and they’re having to record the scene together. And I’m emphasizing more of the speaking roles than the writing roles necessarily. So yes, first, take something you’re already doing, paste in to ChatGPT, see what the results are, see how that fits with what your students are doing, and then do that for every assignment you give and just sort of see what comes out of that, and see which assignments are failing and which assignments are working. ‘Cause that’s gonna give you a sense, when you do see one of those results from your students, you’ll be able to recognize it. But it’ll also help you tweak your assignments and decide, “How can I make this a little more original or a little bit more authentic for my students?” And if the robot, if the AI, can’t generate a response, what could the AI do that would be helpful to your students? Would be my next question. So can you use the AI to help them generate an outline? Can you use the AI to help them generate a list of steps to help them get started? And when you’re comfortable enough doing that by yourself, then don’t be afraid to open it in front of your class. If it’s not blocked at your school site, which I hope it’s not. Because I think the advantage goes to kids who have access to this in the long run, or at least see what it is and know what it is. Right? Because if a kid graduates from school without knowing that AI exists, they’re not gonna be prepared for what they face out in the world. So give them a chance to see you using it. Model effectively using it. I have a blog post about that. I just wrote it. LitAndTech.com. You can check that out. “Introducing 9th graders to ChatGPT.” How it went, right? There’s a chart there you can have. It’s my very first draft of this, but it seems to be very popular. So, you know, show students how it can be used as their mentor. If I can’t come read your paragraph because I have 36 kids in my classroom and I cannot stop and read everybody’s first paragraph, can you, if you want to, give your first paragraph to ChatGPT and ask for advice? And will that advice be helpful to you? So showing students how it can be used responsibly is, I think, something every teacher should be doing right now. And don’t hold back just because you’re afraid you’re gonna be teaching them what this is. They know what this is. Right?

Donnie Piercey (00:51:13):

They know what it is.

Jennifer Roberts (00:51:13):

Especially if you teach high school. They know what it is. I’ve had parents thank me for showing them how to use it responsibly. You know, this can actually be a really useful tool, but if you’re trying to make it do your work for you, it will probably fail you. If you’re trying to use it to help you do your work, it will probably be helpful. Sort of the way I’m breaking it down for them at this point. You want the great metaphor? The great metaphor is if you build a robot and send it to the top of a mountain, did you climb that mountain? No. If you build a robot and ask it to help you get to the top of the mountain, and you and the robot go together, did you climb that mountain? Yes.

Eric Cross (00:51:53):

I like that. I’m thinking through this. I’m processing that now.

Donnie Piercey (00:51:57):

Me too.

Eric Cross (00:51:59):

Yeah. I just imagine a robot holding my hand climbing Mount Everest and I’m like, “Yeah, I did it.”

Donnie Piercey (00:52:04):

If I got a robot though, like I would have to dress it like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2. Like I would just have to.

Eric Cross (00:52:10):

Of course.

Donnie Piercey (00:52:10):

Of course.

Eric Cross (00:52:13):

Donnie, same question. Advice. Teachers getting immersed into it. Tips. What would you say?

Donnie Piercey (00:52:20):

So, I would definitely agree with everything that Jen said. Just, if anything else, to familiarize yourself with it. Almost like pretend like it’s a student in your classroom and it’s answering questions, just so that way you can see what it can do. And you’re kind of training yourself, like, “Oh, well, if I ever need examples, exemplars.” If you’re in a writing piece and you don’t wanna sit there and write out four different types of student responses — you know, advanced writer, beginning writer, whatever — great way to to do that is you just—

Jennifer Roberts (00:52:48):

Oh yeah. We did that.

Donnie Piercey (00:52:48):

—copy the prompt in and give a beautifully written piece that a fifth grader would be impressed with. Boom. It’ll do it for you. In my classroom, the way that I approach it is I kinda look at AI as almost like this butler that I don’t have to pay. That if I need it to do something for me, it’s just bookmarked. I can click it. And I mean, sometimes I just talk to it like it’s a person. And it’s almost like, in the chat window, I’m just rambling at it, what I’m trying to do. And it’s almost like I’m talking to a coworker, and I’m trying to hedge out some ideas for a lesson. Simple example: For a science lesson, if you’re trying to come up with … let’s say you’re a fifth-grade — or, sorry, I teach fifth grade. Say you’re a seventh-grade science teacher. And you’re trying to teach the students in your class about Newton’s third law of motion. You know, every action [has an ] equal and opposite reaction. Look around your room. See what you have. Maybe look around and you’re like, “All right, I got a whiteboard, microscope, I’ve got magnets, a cylinder. …” And you just copy all this stuff into ChatGPT. Say, like, “Hey, I have all of these items. Cotton balls, peanut butter, whatever.” And say, “I’m trying to teach students Newton’s third law of motion. Give me some ideas of some ways I could teach it using some of these materials.” And it’ll do it! It’ll give you like five to 10 ideas!

Jennifer Roberts (00:54:15):

And then tell it what your students are into. Like, my students are really into basketball. Can you work that into this lesson?

Donnie Piercey (00:54:21):

Yeah! They’re into the Avengers! Hey, find some way to tie Spider-Man into this. You know, that was a pun that didn’t go so well. But, you know <laugh> figure out some way that you could incorporate this and it’ll do it. And Eric, like you said, it won’t be perfect. Right? But if anything else, if you’re a starting teacher and you’re trying to brainstorm ideas — try it.

Eric Cross (00:54:44):

And Donnie, as you were saying that, I was thinking — first, I imagined Spider-Man shooting cotton balls with peanut butter all over them — and then my mind went to having students have these items, like you were saying. And then they create labs, working alongside AI. To do inquiry. To create a lab about something, and then going and performing and collecting data. OK, that’s — now I wanna go do that tomorrow!

Donnie Piercey (00:55:10):

Listen, it is so easy to do. If you have an extra computer in your classroom. … We were talking about Jarvis and Iron Man and Tony Stark earlier. Make a new chat in ChatGPT. Tell it, “I want you to pretend that you are Tony Stark. Only answer questions as if you are Tony Stark.” Or “Pretend you’re Jarvis.” Whatever. “Stay in character the whole time. I’m going to have sixth grade students come up to you and ask you questions about science or forces of nature, and only answer questions like you’re Iron Man.” And guess what? You keep that station in your classroom. Students are working on a project — you know, in elementary school, a lot of times we’ll have that, “ask three before me” — you’re supposed to ask three friends before you go and bug the teacher. Well, maybe one of those “three before me” can be that little computer station, where they go up and ask Tony Stark a question, and then it answers them as Jarvis or Iron Man. I mean, we’re really just scratching the surface with all this AI stuff. And as more and more companies and more and more creatives are gonna start to realize everything that it can do, we’re gonna start to see it more and more. And hopefully we as teachers can really figure out how to use this tool to, of course, help students, but also help them be creative and explore and learn on their own.

Eric Cross (00:56:35):

That’s amazing. And just both of you are just dropping gems right now. And I wanna wrap up by saying — and I’ve said this before on earlier podcasts I’ve done — but at this phase in my life, the people that I’m the biggest fans of are teachers. And it’s true. I don’t mean that in a cliche way. When I watch celebrities and things like that, when I watch professional sports, that doesn’t fill me the way it used to when I was a kid. At this point, as a professional, I get inspired by other educators who are just doing awesome things. And when I think about educators who are doing that, you two are on that list of people that make me better. And when I get better, I can do better things for my kids. And so, one, I want to thank you for staying in the classroom and continue to support students. They’re so lucky to have you both. The second thing I wanted to say is, Jen, I wanna start with you. Where can people — and I know we said at the beginning — but where can people find the stuff that you put out? You got blogs, your social, your book.

Jennifer Roberts (00:57:28):

I got lots of social. Twitter, I’m JenRoberts1 on Twitter. And then my blog is LitAndTech.com. And then I’m on lots of the new social too, the Mastodons, the Spoutables, the Posts — those kinds of things — as just Jen Roberts, because I got in early and I got my real name without a 1. And there was some other one I’m on recently that I’ve forgotten about. But there’s lots of ’em. They’re fun. And I’m Jen Roberts. You can find me there.

Donnie Piercey (00:57:56):

And I’m SergeantPepperD on AOL, if anyone’s interested.

Eric Cross (00:58:00):

If you wanna hit Donnie up on AIM. <Laugh>

Donnie Piercey (00:58:03):

SergeantPepperD.

Jennifer Roberts (00:58:04):

You know, speaking of rock stars and people who do amazing things, I did write a blog post about using ChatGPT in the classroom, but I hear Donnie wrote a whole book.

Eric Cross (00:58:13):

Oh yeah. So, Donnie! Donnie, that’s a great segue. Thanks Jen. Donnie, how do people find out more? And can you tell us about this book you wrote, that’s coming out in the summer?

Donnie Piercey (00:58:22):

Yeah, so the book I wrote is called 50 Strategies for Integrating AI Into the Classroom. It’s published by Teacher Created Materials. They reached out to me. They had seen some of the stuff that I was doing, not just with ChatGPT, but also some image-generating AI stuff. You know, I got featured on Good Morning America, which was kind of cool. And they saw that and they said, ‘Hey, that looks really neat.” Reached out to me and asked me to write a book. And the idea behind the book, that launches this summer, it’s just 50 ideas, 50 prompts, different things that, as a classroom teacher, that you can do. So, you know, I think there’s so many AI books that are out there now. A lot of them are big ideas, which I think are important. Definitely important discussions that need to be, have around, the ethics of AI. What’s the role that AI should play in the classroom. But I just wanted to write a book, kind of like the discussion that, that Jen and I were just having, which is like, “Can we just share a whole bunch of ideas, different things that we could try with our students?” So definitely check it out. And I appreciate you giving me a shout-out too. That was cool, Eric. Thank you.

Eric Cross (00:59:35):

Of course. Definitely. And Donnie, your Twitter is again. …

Donnie Piercey (00:59:39):

Oh, @MrPiercey, M R P I E R C E Y.

Eric Cross (00:59:44):

Follow Donnie. Follow Jen. Tons of stuff on there. Both of you, thank you so much. For your time, for talking about students and how we can take care of them, science, literacy, AI. I hope we can talk about this again. I feel like even if in just six months, we might be saying different things. In a year, the landscape might completely change. And that makes it really fun. But thank you both for being on the show.

Jennifer Roberts (01:00:04):

Thank you for having us, Eric.

Donnie Piercey (01:00:05):

Thank you so much, Eric. We appreciate it, bud.

Eric Cross (01:00:10):

Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Jen Roberts and Donnie Piercey. Jen Roberts is a veteran English teacher at San Diego’s Point Loma High School and author of the book Power Up: Making the Shift to 1:1 Teaching and Learning. You can keep up with her at LitAndTech.com. And Donnie Piercey is a fifth-grade teacher from Lexington, Kentucky. He hosts the podcast Teachers Passing Notes. Stay up-to-date with him at Resources.MrPiercey.com. And let us know what you think of this episode in our Facebook discussion group, Science Connections: The Community. Make sure you don’t miss any new episodes of Science Connections by subscribing to the show, wherever you get podcasts. And as always, we’d really appreciate it if you can leave us a review. It’ll help more people and AI robots find the show. You can find more information on all of Amplify’s shows on our podcast hub, Amplify.com/hub. Thanks again for listening.

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What Jennifer Roberts says about science

“If I’m not teaching my students how to use this, then they’re not going to turn into the adults we need them to be… If we’re not at least trying to think about what our future world is going to look like, then we’re not serving our students well.”

– Jennifer Roberts

High School English Teacher

Meet the guests

Jen Roberts is a Nationally Board Certified high school English teacher with 25+ years of experience teaching Social Science and English Language Arts in grades 7-12. She has had 1:1 laptops for her students since 2008 and is the co-author of Power Up: Making the Shift to 1:1 Teaching and Learning. A Google for Education Certified Innovator since 2011, Jen was named the CUE Outstanding Educator in 2022. Her interests include literacy instruction, standards based grading, and leveraging Google tools to make her teaching more efficient and effective.

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Donnie Piercey, the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, is a fifth-grade teacher in Lexington, Kentucky.  With a passion for utilizing technology to promote student inquiry, learning, and engagement, he has been teaching since 2007. In addition to being in the classroom, he runs a podcast, Teachers Passing Notes that is produced by the Peabody Award winning GZMShows, and holds several recognitions, including a National Geographic Fellowship to Antarctica in 2018. His most recent work in Artificial Intelligence has not gone unnoticed, earning him multiple appearances on Good Morning America, the Associated Press, and PBS. His upcoming book, “50 Strategies for Integrating AI in the Classroom” published by Teacher Created Materials, is written for educators looking for practical classroom approaches to using AI. All told, Donnie has been invited to keynote and present at schools in thirty-three states and on five continents.

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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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    • Why? We use this information to remember returning users and facilitate ease of login, to customize the function and appearance of the Products, and to improve the learning experience. This information also helps us track product usage for various purposes, including website optimization, to ensure proper system capacity, troubleshoot and fix errors, provide technical assistance and customer support, provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Products, monitor and address security concerns, and compile analytics for product improvement and other internal purposes.
    • How? Cookies and Similar Technologies. We collect device and usage data through “cookies,” Web beacons, HTML5 local storage, and other similar technologies, which are used in some of our Products solely to support operation of the Products as described above. While we may use third party cookies and similar technologies for advertising and marketing purposes on our website (in accordance with our Website Privacy Policy), we do not permit such tracking technologies to be present on Student-facing portions of the Products. In particular, we only use the following types of cookies in our Products:
      • Strictly necessary cookies – These are cookies that are required for the operation of our websites and applications that host our Products. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Products. These cookies are not generally stored beyond the browser session and are less likely to include personal information. This category of cookies cannot be disabled.
      • Functionality Cookies – We use these cookies so that we recognize you on the websites and apps that host our Products and remember your previously selected preferences. These cookies are stored on your device between browsing sessions but expire after a pre-defined period. These cookies enable us to “recognize” you when you use our Products, including your preferences such as your preferred language, time, and location. A mix of first party (placed by us) and third-party cookies (placed by third parties) are used.
      • Performance Cookies – These cookies help us and service providers acting on our behalf compile statistics and analytics about users of our Products that are accessed via websites and apps, including Device and Usage Information.
    • Learn how to opt out of cookies and similar technologies by reading the “What Rights and Choices Do You Have?” section of this Privacy Policy below.

3. How do we use personal information?

Student Data. Amplify uses Student Data for educational purposes, to provide the Products, and to ensure secure and effective operation of our Products, including:

  • to provide and improve our educational Products;
  • to support School and Authorized School Users’ activities;
  • to ensure secure and effective operation of our Products;
  • for purposes requested or authorized by the School or Authorized School User or as otherwise permitted by Applicable Laws;
  • for customer support purposes, to respond to the inquiries and fulfill the requests of the School and their Authorized School Users;
  • to enforce Product access and security controls; and
  • to conduct system audits and improve protections against the misuse of our Products, or to detect and prevent fraud and other harmful activities.
  • to enable the adaptive and personalized learning features of the Products.

Non-Student Data. Amplify may use Non-Student Data for the purposes for which Student Data is used as set forth above. In addition, Amplify may use Non-Student Data to provide customized content, advertising and marketing in limited circumstances (e.g. to periodically send newsletters and other promotional materials) directed to Educators and Home Users. For sake of clarity, we do not use Student Data for marketing purposes and we do not direct marketing to Students. Amplify may also use Non-Student Data for internal research and analytics, including generating insights on the use of our Products by Educators in certain Schools so that we can better serve those communities. We will also use Non-Student Data as otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection. Learn how to opt out of these communications by reading the “What Rights and Choices Do You Have?” section of this Privacy Policy below.

Amplify may use aggregate or de-identified data as described in the Aggregate/De-identified Data section below.

4. To whom do we disclose personal information?

Student Data. We disclose Student Data to third parties only as needed to provide the Products under the Agreement, as directed or permitted by the School or Authorized School User, and as required by law. Such disclosures may include but are not limited to the following:

  • to other Authorized School Users of the School entitled to access such data in connection with the Products;
  • to our service providers, subprocessors, or vendors who have a legitimate need to access such data in order to assist us in providing or supporting our Products, such as platform, infrastructure, and application software. We contractually bind such parties to protect Student Data in a manner consistent with those practices set forth in this Privacy Policy and in accordance with Applicable Laws. A list of Amplify subprocessors is available at https://www.amplify.com/subprocessors;
  • to comply with the law, respond to requests in legal or government enforcement proceedings (such as complying with a subpoena), protect our rights in a legal dispute, or seek assistance of law enforcement in the event of a threat to our rights, security, or property or that of our affiliates, customers, Authorized Users, or others;
  • in the event Amplify or all or part of its assets are acquired or transferred to another party, including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings, provided that successor entity will be required to comply with the privacy protections in this Privacy Policy with respect to information collected under this Privacy Policy, or we will provide the School with notice and an opportunity to opt out of the transfer of such data prior to the transfer; and
  • except as restricted by Applicable Laws or contracts with the School, we may also share Student Data with Amplify’s affiliated education companies, provided that such disclosure is solely for the purposes of providing Products and at all times is subject to this Policy.

Non-Student Data. Amplify discloses Non-Student Data for the purposes for which Student Data is used as set forth above. Amplify may also disclose Non-Student Data as otherwise required or permitted, or as disclosed at the time of collection. Please note that we do not share mobile information or opt-in consent with third parties / affiliates for their own marketing or promotional purposes.

5. Aggregate/De-identified data

Amplify may use de-identified or aggregate data for purposes allowed under FERPA and other Applicable Laws, to research, develop, and improve educational sites, services, and applications and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Amplify Products. Amplify will not attempt to re-identify de-identified data. We may use aggregate information (which is information that has been collected in summary form such that the data cannot be associated with any individual) for analytics and reports. For example, our promotional materials may note the total number of students served by our programs in the prior year, but that information cannot be used to identify any one student. We may also share de-identified or aggregate data with research partners to help us analyze the information for product improvement and development purposes.

Records and information are de-identified when all personal information has been removed or obscured, such that the remaining information does not reasonably identify a specific individual. We de-identify Student Data in compliance with Applicable Laws and in accordance with the guidelines of NIST SP 800-122. Amplify has implemented internal procedures and controls to protect against the re-identification of de-identified Student Data. Amplify does not disclose de-identified data to its research partners unless that party has agreed in writing not to attempt to re-identify such data.

6. Data prohibitions, Advertising, Advertising limitations

Amplify will not:

  • sell Student Data to third parties;
  • use or disclose Student Data to inform, influence, or enable targeted advertising to a Student based on Student Data or information or data inferred over time from the Student’s usage of the Products;
  • use Student Data to develop a profile of a Student for any purpose other than providing the Products to a School or Authorized School User, or as authorized by a parent or legal guardian;
  • use Student Data for any commercial purpose other than to provide the Products to the School or Authorized School User, or as permitted by Applicable Laws.

7. External third-party services

This Privacy Policy applies solely to Amplify’s Products and practices. Schools and other Authorized Users may choose to connect or use our Products in conjunction with third-party services and Products. Additionally, our sites and Products may contain links to third-party websites or services . This Privacy Policy does not address, and Amplify is not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of such third parties. Schools should carefully consider which third-party applications to include among the Products and services they provide to Students and vet the privacy and data security standards of those providers.

Authorized Users may be able to log in to our Products using third-party sign-in services such as Clever, ClassLink or Google. These services authenticate your identity and provide you with the option to share certain personal information with us, including your name and email address, to pre-populate our account sign-up form. If you choose to enable a third party to share your third-party account credentials with Amplify, we may obtain personal information via that mechanism. You may configure your accounts on these third-party platform services to control what information they share.

8. Security

Amplify maintains a comprehensive information security program and uses industry standard administrative, technical, operational, and physical measures to safeguard Student Data in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure, or modification. Amplify performs periodic risk assessments of its information security program and prioritizes the remediation of identified security vulnerabilities. Please see https://amplify.com/security for a detailed description of Amplify’s security program.

In the event Amplify discovers or is notified that Student Data within our possession or control was disclosed to, or acquired by, an unauthorized party, we will investigate the incident, take steps to mitigate the potential impact, and notify the School in accordance with Applicable Laws.

Non-Student Data

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

9. Data Storage and Transfers

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

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

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

10. Data Retention / Deletion

Student Data

Upon request, we provide the School the opportunity to review and delete the personal information collected from Students. We will retain Student Data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy and our Agreement with the School. We do not knowingly retain Student Data beyond the time period required to support the School or Authorized School User’s educational purpose, unless authorized by the School or Authorized School User. Upon request, Amplify will return, delete, or destroy Student Data stored by Amplify in accordance with applicable law and customer requirements. We may not be able to delete all data in all circumstances, such as information retained in technical support records, customer service records, back-ups, and similar business records. All such information will be protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our Agreement until it has been permanently deleted. Unless otherwise notified by the School, we will delete or de-identify Student Data after termination of our Agreement with the School.

Non-Student Data

Outside of Student Data, we keep personal information as long as it is necessary or relevant for the practices described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise required by our Agreement with the School, if applicable. We determine the appropriate retention period for personal information on the basis of the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal information being processed, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of the personal information, whether we can achieve the purposes of the processing through other means, and on the basis of applicable legal requirements (such as applicable statutes of limitations).

11. What rights and choices do you have?

What Choices Do You Have?

Marketing/Advertising

As noted above, we do not use Student Data for marketing purposes and we do not direct marketing to Students. Amplify does not use third party cookies and similar technologies for advertising and marketing purposes on Student-facing portions of the Products. The choices below apply to Non-Student Authorized Users.

Opt-out of Marketing Communications. If you want to stop receiving promotional materials from Amplify, you can follow the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email or email us at privacy@amplify.com. Amplify does not send marketing communications to Students.

Opt-out of Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies. With respect to cookies, you may be able to reject cookies through your browser or device controls. Note that you have to opt-out of cookies on each browser or device that you use. If you replace, change, or upgrade your browser or device, or delete your cookies, you may need to use these opt-out tools again. Please be aware that disabling cookies may negatively impact your experience as some features may not work properly. To learn more about browser cookies, including how to manage or delete them, check the “Help,” “Tools,” or similar section of your browser.

What Rights Do You Have?

Individuals in the U.S.

  • What Rights Do You Have With Respect to Student Data?
    • Review and Correction. FERPA requires schools to provide parents with access to their children’s education records, and parents may request that the school correct records that they believe to be inaccurate or misleading.
    • If you are a parent or guardian and would like to review, correct, or update your child’s data stored in our Products, contact your School. Amplify will work with your School to enable your access to and, if applicable, correction of your child’s education records.
    • If you have any questions about whom to contact or other questions about your child’s data, you may contact us using the information provided below.
    • Other Privacy Rights? Please see section 3 of our supplemental disclosures: “Additional U.S. State Privacy Law Rights” for more information about your U.S. privacy rights

Individuals in the EU/UK

Please see section 4 of our supplemental disclosures: “Notice for European Economic Area and United Kingdom Customers” for more information about your EU/UK privacy rights.

12. COPPA

We do not knowingly collect personal information from a Child User unless and until a School or Educator, with the permission of the School, has authorized us to collect such information to provide the Products. Amplify relies on the School acknowledging that it is acting as the parent’s agent and consenting on the parent’s behalf to process personal information of Child Users in accordance with all applicable provisions of COPPA. To the extent COPPA applies to the information we collect, we process such information for educational purposes only, and no other commercial purpose, at the direction of the School and on the basis of the School’s authorization. If you are a parent or guardian and have questions about your child’s use of the Products and any personal information collected, please direct these questions to your child’s school.

Please refer to the Appendix–Supplemental Disclosures if you are a Home User.

13. Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy in the future. For example, we may update it to comply with new laws or regulations, to conform to industry best practices, or to reflect changes in our product offerings. When these changes do not reflect material changes in our practices with respect to use and/or disclosure of Authorized Users’ personal information, including Student Data, such changes to the Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on our website. In the event there are material changes in our practices that would result in Authorized Users’ personal information being used in a materially different manner than was disclosed when the information was collected, with respect to Student Data, we will notify the School, and with respect to other information, we will notify you via email and provide an opportunity to opt out before such changes take effect.

14. Contact us

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

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

To report a security vulnerability, visit https://amplify.com/report-a-vulnerability/.

Appendix – Supplemental Disclosures

1. Mathigon and Amplify Classroom accounts

While our Products are geared towards Schools we do provide a limited opportunity for Home Users to use the Products at home—outside of the school context. We do not allow persons under the age of 13 (or those under the age of consent in any applicable jurisdiction) to register for an account with us outside the school context.

If you are a Home User, you are prohibited from collecting or providing any personal information from students or minors. You are permitted to access the platform for instructional purposes, but you may not enroll or roster minors, create accounts for minors, or input any personal information of minors into the Product.

Please note that most parts of Mathigon can be used without creating an account or providing any personal information that directly identifies you.

What Rights Do You Have? If you are a Child User who is 13 or older with a legacy Mathigon account (or the parent or guardian of a Child User with a legacy Mathigon account), you may request that we provide for your review, delete from our records, or cease collecting any Child User personal information. To the extent that you are unable to exercise these rights through self-service features within your account with us, please contact us by sending an email to: help@amplify.com and we will provide assistance.

2. U.S. Notice at Collection

Personal Information We Collect How We Use Personal Information

Student Data, which includes:

  • Roster Information
  • Demographic Data, such as race and national origin
  • School Records
  • Account Information
  • Schoolwork and Student Generated Content
  • Teacher Comments and Feedback
  • Device and Usage Data
  • To provide and improve our educational Products;
  • To support Schools’ and Authorized School Users’ activities;
  • To ensure secure and effective operation of our Products;
  • For purposes requested or authorized by the School or Authorized School Users, or as otherwise permitted by Applicable Laws;
  • For adaptive or personalized learning features of the Products; provided that Student Data is not disclosed;
  • For customer support purposes, to respond to the inquiries and fulfill the requests of the School and their Authorized School Users;
  • To enforce product access and security controls; and
  • To conduct system audits and improve protections against the misuse of our Products, or to detect and prevent fraud and other harmful activities.

Authorized Users, which includes:

  • Contact Information
  • Account Information
  • Survey Responses
  • Device and Usage Data
  • For the purposes for which Student Data is used as set forth above;
  • For marketing purposes in limited circumstances (e.g. to periodically send newsletters and other promotional materials), which will not be based on Student Data or directed to K–12 students;
  • For internal research and analytics; and
  • As otherwise required or permitted, or as we may notify you at the time of collection.

Some of the information described above may be considered “sensitive” under the laws of certain jurisdictions (i.e., account credentials and race/national origin) (“Sensitive Information”). We use Sensitive Information for necessary or reasonably expected purposes – specifically, to provide you with our Services (i.e., account credentials are used to allow account logins and race/national origin are used for the School’s reporting purposes when voluntarily provided by the School).

We do not sell or share your personal information, as described in California law.

We retain your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes disclosed in the chart above. Additional information about our retention of Student Data and personal information from other Authorized Users can be found in Section 10 of this Privacy Policy.

Please see the Additional U.S. State Privacy Law Rights section of this appendix for information about your privacy rights pursuant to applicable U.S. law.

Notice of Financial Incentive

From time to time, to support our services, we offer opportunities to complete surveys and questionnaires. As an incentive for completing the survey or questionnaire, you can voluntarily provide personal information as an entry into a raffle drawing or to obtain other benefits, discounts, offers, or deals that may constitute a financial incentive under California law (“Financial Incentive”). The categories of personal information required for us to provide the Financial Incentives include: contact information and any other information that you choose to provide when you complete the survey.

Participation is voluntary and you can opt out at any time before the survey is complete. We do not allow students to participate in our surveys.

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

3. Additional U.S. State Privacy Law Rights

Note for Requests Relating to Student Data: Because Amplify provides the Products to Schools as a “School Official,” we collect, retain, use, and disclose Student Data only for or on behalf of the School for educational purposes, including the purpose of providing the Products specified in our Agreement with the School and for no other commercial purpose. Accordingly, we act as a “service provider” for the School with respect to School Data. We work with the School to support and assist them in addressing privacy requests relating to School Data. Please reach out to your School directly if you wish to exercise any privacy rights that may be available to you.

For all other requests: With respect to Amplify Data, individuals residing in certain U.S. states have the following rights, regarding your personal information (each of which is subject to various exceptions and limitations):

  • Access. You have the right to request, up to two times every 12 months, that we disclose to you the categories of personal information collected about you; the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected; the categories of personal information sold or shared; the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing the personal information; the categories of third parties with whom personal information was shared; and the specific pieces of personal information collected about you.
  • Correction. You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information collected from you.
  • Deletion. You have the right to request that we delete the personal information that we maintain about you. Even after the deletion of your account, some personal information may remain on our servers, such as in technical support logs, server caches, data backups, or email conversations. These will be automatically deleted after a reasonable amount of time, unless we are legally required to retain information for longer, or unless there is a legitimate business reason (e.g. security and fraud prevention or financial record-keeping). We are not required to delete any information which has been aggregated or de-identified in accordance with Section 5.
  • No Discrimination. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.
  • Appeals. You have a right to appeal decisions concerning your ability to exercise your consumer rights.

See Submitting Requests section below for details on submitting a request to exercise these rights.

4. Notice for European Economic Area (EEA) and United Kingdom (UK) Customers

As detailed at the beginning of our Privacy Policy (under the section titled “Our Role”), Amplify operates primarily as a processor that collects personal information on behalf of the School, and we act as a controller in limited circumstances where we offer Products outside the school context.

If you represent a School in the EEA or the UK, please note that we process personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, our Acceptable Use Policy, and our standard Data Protection Agreement, which sets out our responsibilities when it comes to our processing activities. Schools must send an email to privacy@amplify.com to enter into that DPA.

Lawful Basis for Processing

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

  • Consent;
    • We obtain your consent to use cookies to collect and process device and usage data to understand how individuals use our Products.
  • Pursuant to a contract for use of our Products;
    • We process School Data to provide our Products (e.g., to create, authenticate and manage your account, to verify your identity, to manage our Products) pursuant to the Agreement between us and the School, as required in order for us to perform our obligations.
  • To comply with our legal obligations;
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to ensure the safety and security of our Products where we are complying with security requirements under data protection and cyber and information security law.
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to comply with our legal obligations which includes, for example, to access, retain or share certain personal information where we receive a valid request from a government body, law enforcement body, judicial body regulator or similar, to deal with legal claims and prospective legal claims, and to ensure we are complying with applicable laws.
  • When we have a legitimate interest in doing so, which is not outweighed by the risks to the individual.
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to support the provision, effective management, and improvement of our Products where such activities are not strictly required under our contract. This is in our legitimate interests to ensure that we are providing the best possible service.
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to ensure the safety and security of our services where this is important but not required under the data protection law or cyber and information security laws. This is in our legitimate interests to ensure the security of our services and systems, to prevent threats, abuse or fraudulent or unlawful activity, to promote safety and security and to ensure our Products are used in accordance with our terms and conditions.
    • We process the contact information of Non-Student Authorized Users to manage our relationship, including to respond to queries or otherwise communicate with you in relation to our Products and the operation of our business where this is not strictly required under a contract with you. This is in our legitimate interests to communicate with and resolve queries from users of our Products and to ensure that we are providing the best possible service.

We process the contact information and survey data of Non-Student Authorized Users for internal research and marketing purposes in limited circumstances (e.g. to periodically send newsletters and other promotional materials), which will not be based on Student Data or directed to Students. This is in our legitimate interests to understand our customers and prospective customers, understand how our products and services are perceived in the market, to promote our products, and to grow and develop our business.

Your Data Subject Rights

Note for Requests Relating to School Data: Amplify acts as processor to its School customers with respect to all School Data. We work with our School customers to support and assist them in addressing privacy requests relating to School Data. Please reach out to your School directly if you wish to exercise any privacy rights that may be available to you.

For all other Requests – With respect to Amplify Data, you have the following rights if you are in the EEA or UK, subject to certain exceptions:

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

See Submitting Requests section below for details on submitting a request to exercise these rights.

5. Submitting Requests

To exercise any of the rights described in sections 2 and 3 of this appendix, email us at privacy@amplify.com and specify which privacy right you intend to exercise. We may require additional information from you to allow us to confirm your identity. The verification steps will vary depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and whether you have an account with us. Please note that your rights may not apply in all cases. For example, we may need to retain your personal information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and enforce our agreements. We will inform you if we are not able to fully respond to your requests. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. When submitting the request, please ensure the authorized agent identifies himself/herself/itself as an authorized agent and can show written permission from you to represent you. We may contact you directly to confirm that you have authorized the agent to act on your behalf or confirm your identity.

Complaints

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

6. Google APIs

Amplify uses Google’s Application Programming Interface (API) Services to enable Authorized Users to log in to Amplify, import classes and rosters from Google Classroom, create assignments in Google Classroom, and copy, edit, and publish Amplify content using Google Slides. Amplify will use and transfer information received from Google’s API in accordance with Google API Service User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Update History:

Update: 6/13/2025: This Policy has been updated to align with product updates and to provide additional context for authorized educational use of Amplify’s Products.

Update 6/27/2024: The Policy has been updated to include an explanation regarding Google APIs in the Appendix — Supplemental Disclosures section.

Update 6/30/2023: This Privacy Policy has been updated to address new state law data privacy requirements.

Acceptable Use Policy

Amplify Education, Inc. (“Amplify”) products support classroom instruction and learning and include Amplify CKLA, Amplify ELA, Amplify Science, Amplify Desmos Math, Desmos Math, Boost Reading, Boost Math, mCLASS, Mathigon, services at classroom.amplify.com (for creating and assigning activities) and student.amplify.com (for use of the activities or curricula as directed by an instructor), and any other product or service that links to this Acceptable Use Policy (together, the “Products”). This Acceptable Use Policy (the “AUP”) provides the general terms and conditions applicable to your use of the Products. By accessing, downloading, or using the Products, you agree to be bound by the terms of this AUP. 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing in this AUP supersedes or limits your rights under the terms of any other agreement you or your institution have entered into with Amplify regarding the use of Products. In the event of any conflict between the AUP and the terms and conditions of an applicable agreement that you or your institution have entered into with Amplify, the terms and conditions of such agreement shall control.

Our Products are geared towards K–12 students, educators, and staff who use the Products as authorized by their School District or State Agency (each as defined in the Privacy Policy (defined below), and together, “School”) (“Authorized School Users”). Student Data (defined below) is owned and controlled by the School, and Amplify receives Student Data as a “school official” under Section 99.31 of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (“FERPA”) for the purpose of providing the Products hereunder. In addition, we rely on the School acknowledging that it is acting as the parent’s agent and consenting on the parent’s behalf to process personal information of students under the age of 13 (“Child Users”) in accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). 

Schools may provide authorization in two ways: 

(1) by the School agreeing to our Customer Terms and Conditions located at amplify.com/customer-terms or another agreement between Amplify and the School, as applicable; or 

(2) by an educator, staff member, or agent of a School (“Educator”) agreeing to this AUP. If you are an Educator and wish to use the Products in your classroom, you represent and warrant that the use of the Products in your classroom has been authorized by your School, and that you are authorized to accept this AUP on behalf of the School.

In each case, we provide these Products solely for the benefit of the School and for no other commercial purpose. We require all Schools to review our Privacy Policy, available at amplify.com/customer-privacy (“Privacy Policy”), and to make a copy of the Privacy Policy available to the parents or guardians of Child Users.

We also provide limited opportunities for individual users to sign up for a restricted account for at-home use of our Products (together, with Authorized School Users, “Authorized Users”). Please see Additional terms for Mathigon and Amplify Classroom accounts (Section 18) for additional information.

1. License

Subject to compliance with this AUP, you are granted a non-transferable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Products. You understand that your use of the Products does not confer to you any intellectual property rights held by Amplify or its licensors. Unless otherwise indicated, any future release, update, or other addition to functionality or content of the Products will be subject to this AUP. 

2. Restrictions

You may access and use the Products solely for non-commercial instructional and administrative purposes. Guidelines for such purposes may be set forth at http://amplify.com/amplify-program-usage-guidelines and additional guidelines may be detailed in materials associated with the Product You are accessing. Further, You may not, except as expressly authorized by Amplify: (a) copy, modify, translate, distribute, disclose, or create derivative works based on the contents of, sell, or otherwise exploit, the Products, or any part thereof; (b) decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer the Products, or otherwise use the Products to develop functionally similar products or services; (c) modify, alter, or delete any of the copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices in or on the Products; (d) rent, lease, or lend the Products or use the Products for the benefit of any third party; (e) avoid, circumvent, or disable any security or digital rights management device, procedure, protocol, or mechanism in the Products; (f) use any content from the Products, including but not limited to text, images, videos, assessments, lesson plans, or code, as input or training material for any machine learning or artificial intelligence system, including large language models, neural networks, or other algorithmic models, for any purposes, commercial or non-commercial; or (g) permit any Authorized User or third party to do any of the foregoing. You also agree that any works created in violation of this section are derivative works, and, as such, You agree to assign, and hereby assign, all right, title, and interest in such works to Amplify. The Products and derivatives thereof may be subject to export control laws, restrictions, regulations, and orders of the U.S. and other jurisdictions (together, “Export Laws”). You agree to comply with all applicable Export Laws, and will not, and will not permit Authorized Users to, export, or transfer for the purpose of re-export, any Product to any prohibited or embargoed country in violation of any U.S. export law or regulation. Further, You represent that You are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, subject to sanctions by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, or included on any restricted party list maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security. The software and associated documentation portions of the Products are “commercial items” (as defined at 48 CFR 2.101), comprising “commercial computer software” and “commercial computer software documentation,” as those terms are used in 48 CFR 12.212. Accordingly, if You are associated with the U.S. Government or its contractor, You will receive only those rights set forth in this Agreement in accordance with 48 CFR 227.7201-227.7204 (for Department of Defense and their contractors) or 48 CFR 12.212 (for other U.S. Government licensees and their contractors).

3. Use of the products

In connection with your access to and use of the Products, you agree not to: (a) post, upload, or otherwise transmit or link to content that is: unlawful; threatening; harmful; abusive; pornographic or includes nudity; offensive; harassing; excessively violent; tortious; defamatory; false or misleading; obscene; vulgar; libelous; hateful; or discriminatory; (b) violate the rights of others, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, privacy, publicity, contract, or other proprietary rights; (c) harass or harm another person; (d) exploit or endanger a minor; (e) impersonate any person or entity; (f) introduce or engage in activity that involves the use of viruses, bots, worms, Trojan horses, time bombs, spyware, or any other computer code, files, or programs that interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment, or otherwise permit the unauthorized access to or use of a computer or a computer network; (g) interfere with, damage, disable, disrupt, impair, create an undue burden on, or gain unauthorized access to the Products or any account (as defined below), or Amplify’s servers or networks; (h) restrict or inhibit any other person from using the Products (including by hacking or defacing the Products); (i) remove, disable, block, or obscure any portion of the Products; (j) use technology or any automated system, such as scripts or bots, to collect user names, passwords, email addresses, or any other data from or through the Products, or to circumvent or modify any security technology or software that is part of the Products; (k) send or cause to send (directly or indirectly) unsolicited bulk messages or other unsolicited bulk communications of any kind through the Products; (l) solicit, collect, or request any information for commercial or unlawful purposes; (m) post, upload, or otherwise transmit an image, audio recording, or video of another person without that person’s consent; (n) use the Products to advertise, promote, or engage in any commercial activity (including engaging in advertising, sales, contests, sweepstakes, or other promotions) without Amplify’s prior written consent; (o) frame or mirror the Products without Amplify’s express prior written consent; (p) use the Products in a manner inconsistent with any applicable law, rule, or regulation; (q) use any robot, spider, search/retrieval application, or other manual or automatic device to retrieve, index, “scrape,” “data mine,” or in any way gather content of the Products or reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Products; (r) attempt, facilitate, or encourage others to do any of the foregoing. In addition to the foregoing restrictions, your use of the Products may also be subject to an additional acceptable use policy provided to you by your School, as applicable. You are responsible for meeting the hardware, software, telecommunications, and other requirements listed at amplify.com/customer-requirements.

4. Intellectual property

The Products and any Product logo, and certain other of the names, logos, and materials displayed in the Products, may constitute trademarks, trade names, or service marks (“Marks”) of Amplify or other entities. You are not authorized to use any such Marks. Ownership of all such Marks and the goodwill associated therewith remains with Amplify or those other entities. The content provided to you in the Products, including the software, graphs, text, and graphics, is protected under copyright laws, is subject to other intellectual property and proprietary rights and laws, and is owned by Amplify or its licensors. Your access to the Products does not transfer to you or any third party any rights, title, or interest in or to such intellectual property rights. You may not use the content of the Products, in whole or in part, to train or fine-tune any machine learning or artificial intelligence model or system, including for research, product development, commercial services, or any other purpose, commercial or non-commercial. Such use constitutes unauthorized derivative work and a violation of Amplify’s intellectual property rights. Your rights to make use of the Products are limited to those provided under this AUP, any additional terms as may be agreed upon between your School and Amplify, and any available exceptions under applicable intellectual property laws. Amplify Products are protected by patents (see amplify.com/virtual-patent-marking).

5. Account information

Your authentication to enable your access and use of these Products is based in part upon information supplied by you. You are required to (a) provide accurate information to Amplify and promptly report any changes to such information, (b) not share or allow others to use your account, (c) maintain the confidentiality and security of your account information, and (d) use the Products solely via such authorized accounts. You may not share your credentials (i.e., username and password) to access the Products with anyone except the person for whom that account was created. You agree to notify Amplify immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or related authentication information. Amplify will not be responsible for any losses arising out of the unauthorized use of your account.

6. Student data

The parties acknowledge and agree that in the course of providing the Products, Amplify may collect, receive, or generate information that directly relates to an identifiable current or former student of a School (“Student Data”). Student Data may include personal information from a student’s “educational records,” as defined by FERPA. Student Data is owned and controlled by the School and Amplify receives Student Data as a “school official” under Section 99.31 of FERPA for the purpose of providing the Products hereunder. Individually and collectively, Amplify and School agree to uphold our obligations, as applicable, under FERPA, COPPA, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (“PPRA”), and applicable state laws relating to Student Data privacy. Amplify’s Privacy Policy governs the collection, use, and disclosure of Student Data collected or stored on behalf of the School under this AUP. The School is responsible for providing notice or obtaining appropriate consents under applicable laws to authorize Authorized School Users’ use of the Products, including making a copy of the Privacy Policy available to the parents or guardians of Child Users. Please see Additional Terms for Mathigon and Amplify Classroom accounts (Section 18) for additional information.

7. Confidentiality

You acknowledge that in connection with these terms, Amplify may provide you with certain sensitive or proprietary information (“Confidential Information”), including software, source code, assessment instruments, research, designs, methods, processes, customer lists, training materials, product documentation, know-how, or trade secrets, in whatever form. You agree (a) not to use Confidential Information for any purpose other than use of the Products in accordance with the AUP, and (b) to take all steps reasonably necessary to maintain and protect the Confidential Information of Amplify in strict confidence. Confidential Information shall not include information that, as evidenced by your contemporaneous written records: (i) is or becomes publicly available through no fault of your own; (ii) is rightfully known to you prior to the time of its disclosure; (iii) has been independently developed by you without any use of the Confidential Information; or (iv) is subsequently learned from a third party not under any confidentiality obligation.  

8. User materials

You represent, warrant, and covenant that you have all the necessary rights, including consents and intellectual property rights, in connection with any data, information, content, and other materials provided to or collected by Amplify from you or on your behalf in connection with your use of the Products, including materials and content that you post, upload, transmit, email, or otherwise make available on, through, or in connection with the Products (“User Materials”), and that except as otherwise agreed by your School and Amplify, you retain any ownership rights that you have in your User Materials. You hereby grant to Amplify and its affiliates, licensees, and authorized users, a perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid-up, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), transferable (in whole or in part), worldwide license to use, modify, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and compilations based upon, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such User Materials in connection with the Products, subject to Amplify’s Privacy Policy. You and your School are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, completeness, quality, legality, and safety of such User Materials. You further represent and warrant that the posting of such User Materials through or in connection with the Products does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights, or any other rights of any person or entity. Amplify and your School reserve the right (but have no obligation) to monitor the Products, including for inappropriate content or conduct, and to remove any content in their discretion without liability to you or any third party. Further, Amplify reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in Amplify’s discretion, violates this AUP or attempts to do so, including terminating or suspending a user’s account or access to or use of the Products, or reporting any content or conduct to law enforcement authorities. You are solely responsible for creating and maintaining your own backup copies of your User Materials. Amplify is not responsible for any loss, theft, or damage of any kind to any User Materials. 

9. Feedback

If you provide us with any ideas, proposals, or suggestions related to the Products (“Feedback”), you hereby acknowledge and agree that your provision of any Feedback is gratuitous, unsolicited, and without restriction, and does not place Amplify under any fiduciary or other obligation. You hereby grant to Amplify a worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, and fully sublicensable (through multiple tiers) license to reproduce, distribute, perform and/or display (publicly or otherwise), adapt, modify, and otherwise use such Feedback, in any format or media now known or hereafter developed, and you hereby represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights to grant the foregoing license.

10. Third party links and services

The Products may make available, or third parties may provide, links to websites, software, applications, resources, advertisements, content, or other products or services created, hosted, or made available by third parties (“Third Party Services”). When you access or use a Third-Party Service, you are interacting with the applicable third party, not with Amplify, and you do so at your own risk. Inclusion of any Third-Party Service or a link thereto within the Products does not imply approval or endorsement of such Third-Party Service. Amplify does not control any content that is not Amplify content, and as such, you may be exposed to offensive, indecent, inaccurate, or otherwise objectionable content in the course of accessing or using such Third-Party Services linked from the Products. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Products, providers of Third-Party Services, and any other third parties with whom you interact on, through, or in connection with the Products. AMPLIFY IS NEITHER RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY SERVICES, INCLUDING THE ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, COMPLETENESS, QUALITY, LEGALITY, USEFULNESS, OR SAFETY OF, OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS RELATING TO, SUCH THIRD-PARTY SERVICES. ANY ACCESS TO OR USE OF SUCH THIRD-PARTY SERVICES MAY BE SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND INFORMATION COLLECTION, USAGE, AND DISCLOSURE PRACTICES OF THIRD PARTIES. THIS AUP DOES NOT CREATE ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND ANY PROVIDER OF THIRD-PARTY SERVICES, AND NOTHING IN THIS AUP WILL BE DEEMED TO BE A REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY BY AMPLIFY WITH RESPECT TO ANY THIRD-PARTY SERVICE.

11. Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”) provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you believe that any material residing on or linked to from the Products infringes your copyright, please send (or have your agent send) to Amplify’s Copyright Agent, by email, fax, or regular mail, a written notification of claimed infringement with all of the following information: (a) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works; (b) identification of the claimed infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material on the Products (such as the URL(s) of the claimed infringing material); (c) information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an e-mail address; (d) a statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, the copyright owner’s agent or the law; (e) a statement by you that the above information in your notification is accurate, and a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed, or that you are authorized to act on such owner’s behalf; and (f) your physical or electronic signature. Amplify’s Copyright Agent for notification of claimed infringement can be reached as follows: Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington Street #800, Brooklyn NY 11201; Attn: Copyright Agent. Amplify’s Copyright Agent for notification of claimed infringement can also be reached electronically at legal@amplify.com. Amplify reserves the right to terminate infringers’ and suspected infringers’ accounts or their access to or use of the Products.

12. Changes to the products

Amplify may, without prior notice, change any Product or stop providing any features of any Product. We may permanently or temporarily terminate or suspend your access to any Product features without notice for any reason, including if in our sole determination you violate any provision of this AUP. Upon termination, you continue to be bound by this AUP.

13. Warranty disclaimer

PRODUCTS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND BY AMPLIFY. AMPLIFY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY AS TO TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE. YOU ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR SELECTING THE PRODUCTS TO ACHIEVE YOUR INTENDED RESULTS AND FOR THE ACCESS AND USE OF THE PRODUCTS, INCLUDING THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE PRODUCTS. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, AMPLIFY MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE PRODUCTS WILL BE ERROR-FREE OR FREE FROM INTERRUPTIONS OR OTHER FAILURES OR WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. AMPLIFY IS NEITHER RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY CONTENT OR SOFTWARE INCLUDED IN PRODUCTS, INCLUDING THE ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, COMPLETENESS, QUALITY, LEGALITY, USEFULNESS, OR SAFETY OF, OR IP RIGHTS RELATING TO, SUCH THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND SOFTWARE. ANY ACCESS TO OR USE OF SUCH THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND SOFTWARE MAY BE SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND INFORMATION COLLECTION, USAGE, AND DISCLOSURE PRACTICES OF THIRD PARTIES.

14. Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT WILL AMPLIFY BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, RELIANCE, OR COVER DAMAGES, DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOST BUSINESS, OR ANY OTHER INDIRECT DAMAGES, EVEN IF AMPLIFY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, AMPLIFY’S ENTIRE LIABILITY TO YOU ARISING OUT OF PERFORMANCE OR NONPERFORMANCE BY AMPLIFY OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS AUP, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE CLAIM FOR SUCH DAMAGES IS BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, WILL NOT EXCEED $100 IN AGGREGATE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL AMPLIFY BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES OF ANY UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THE PRODUCTS THAT VIOLATES THIS AUP OR ANY APPLICABLE LAW OR REGULATION.

15. Termination

Amplify may terminate or suspend your access to the Products at any time for any reason, including if Amplify believes that you have violated the AUP or have engaged in conduct that violates applicable law or is otherwise harmful to the interests of Amplify, any other Amplify user, or any third party. Upon termination, you will: cease using the Products and return, purge, or destroy all copies of any Products and, if so requested, certify to Amplify in writing that such surrender or destruction has occurred. Sections 3–13, 16, and 17 will survive the termination of this Agreement.

16. Governing Law

This Agreement will be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the U.S., state of New York, without giving effect to the choice of law rules thereof.

17. Additional terms for iOS apps

By downloading any Products through Apple, Inc.’s App Store (“iOS Products”), you agree that the following additional terms apply to your use of our iOS Products:

  1. This AUP is not a legal agreement with Apple, Inc. (“Apple”). As between Amplify and Apple, Amplify (not Apple) is responsible for the iOS Products and the contents thereof.
  2. The license to use the iOS Products under Section 3 above is limited to use (i) on iOS devices that you or your School owns or controls, separate from and in addition to any specific technical requirements for any iOS Product, and (ii) as permitted by the Usage Rules set forth in Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions.
  3. You must comply with applicable third-party terms of agreement when using the Products.
  4. Without limiting Section 13 above and solely as between Amplify and Apple, you acknowledge that: (i) Apple has no obligation whatsoever to furnish any maintenance and support services with respect to the iOS Products; (ii) Amplify (not Apple) is responsible for addressing any claims of yours or of any third party relating to the iOS Products or your possession and/or use of the iOS products, including but not limited to (1) product liability claims, (2) any claim that the iOS Products fail to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement, and (3) claims arising under consumer protection, privacy, or similar legislation; (iii) in the event of any failure of the iOS Products to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price for the iOS Products to you; to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple will have no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the iOS Products, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, or expenses attributable to any failure to conform to any warranty will be Amplify’s sole responsibility; and (iv) in the event of any third-party claim that the iOS Products or your possession and use of the iOS Products infringes that third party’s intellectual property rights, Amplify (not Apple) will be responsible for any investigation, defense, settlement, and discharge of any such intellectual property infringement claim.
  5. You represent and warrant that: (i) you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a “terrorist supporting” country; and (ii) you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
  6. Apple and Apple’s subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and upon your acceptance of these Terms, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary thereof.
  7.  Any questions, complaints, or claims with respect to the Products should be directed to: 

Email: privacy@amplify.comMail: Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington St. #800, Brooklyn, NY, 11201

18. Additional terms for Mathigon and Amplify Classroom accounts.

a. Mathigon updates: Amplify no longer offers accounts for Child Users, but we will continue to allow Child Users to access their active legacy Mathigon accounts where verifiable parental consent was obtained. We will continue to protect personal information in accordance with the Privacy Policy and applicable law.

b. Mathigon and Amplify Classroom:

i. School Use:

  1. Educators: If you are an Educator, you can create a Mathigon or an Amplify Classroom account using any existing email or through an existing third-party account (e.g. Google, Microsoft). Go to https://mathigon.org/signup#teacher  to sign up for Mathigon. Go to classroom.amplify.com to sign up for Amplify Classroom.
  2. Students can also sign up using a unique class code provided by an Educator. Educators are responsible for gaining appropriate authorization or permission from their School to use the Products with students, including Child Users, before providing their unique class code or linking the Products to a third-party service like Google Classroom. For such use in the school context, we do not request additional consent from parents in accordance with the “school official” exception under FERPA and relevant COPPA guidance. For more information, visit our Privacy Policy, which describes how we collect, use, and disclose personal information and data through the provision of our Products in schools. 

ii. Outside of School Use: If you are an individual user using the Products at home or otherwise outside of the school context, you are prohibited from collecting or providing any personal information from students or minors. You are permitted to access the platform for instructional purposes, but you may not enroll or roster minors, create accounts for minors, or input any personal information of minors into the Product.

19. Updates to this policy

We may change this Acceptable Use Policy in the future. For example, we may update it to address changes in our product offerings, or to address changes in the law or best practices. If we make changes that materially impact your legal rights or use of our products, we will provide prominent notification to you (e.g. via the Site or by email).  Otherwise, we will post any updates to the policy with an updated “Last Revised Date” and all changes will become effective immediately. Please check the Last Revised Date to confirm if the policy has been revised.

Last Modified: February 2, 2026

We are middle school.

Amplify ELA was designed to respond to the distinct opportunities and challenges faced by middle school students and teachers. It was conceived to support middle school students at this critical developmental moment.

The program helps teachers ensure that skills are taught, standards are covered, and the test is prepped—and it does this work in the background so that teachers can spend their time bringing text to life and providing each student the right instruction at the right time. Request a sample to take a closer look.

Illustrated scene with people in various poses, including a person holding a mask and a child looking up at butterflies. Background includes abstract shapes and an outdoor setting.

Overview

A teacher stands in front of a classroom while students, seated at desks with laptops, raise their hands eagerly.

Amplify ELA is a blended curriculum designed for middle school students and teachers. It provides:

  • An engaging digital program with comprehensive print materials, including Teacher Editions, Student Editions, and Writing Journals for grades 6–8.
  • A year’s worth of instruction for each grade.
  • Complex, content-rich literary and informational texts.
  • Differentiation that supports all students with reading complex texts, and an interactive eReader with an array of multimedia tools.
  • Embedded assessments that allow for uninterrupted instructional time.
  • The Amplify Library—a digital collection of more than 650 full-length texts.

Why Amplify?

We designed every Amplify ELA lesson to help teachers teach the essential skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, in a classroom where students thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

We use six proven pedagogical approaches to help teachers build a literate community in every middle school classroom:

Middle school collaboration

1. Critical and collaborative engagement

With Amplify ELA, students engage with learning because they engage with each other. Amplify ELA fosters a classroom community that thrives on a wide range of student observations. The lessons immerse students in interactive close reading activities and cognitively challenging work, and keep them engaged through a variety of collaborative activities.

2. Integrated approach to target all standards

Every lesson requires students to work across multiple learning objectives—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—while focusing on one primary standard. Result: students work with complex texts that demand working across standards, while receiving instruction focused on building a specific skill.

Middle school standards
Middle school texts

3. Text at the center

Amplify puts complex text at the center of every lesson and activity to develop the critical capacities and build the vocabulary, knowledge, and skills students need to succeed in middle school, high school, and beyond. Great texts spark curiosity, reveal layered meanings, reflect a diversity of perspectives and identities, and cultivate meaningful conversation and reflection.

4. Multimodal and strategic technology

Activities harness multiple learning modes, using media tools, digital apps, and a variety of visual and physical experiences to strategically support and enhance student learning.

Middle school engagement
Middle school differentiation

5. High expectations and strong supports

Strong supports built in at all levels give every student a chance to meet the highest possible expectations. Struggling readers, students ready for advanced work, English language learners: all can take on the challenge of rigorous work while data delivery and digital tools allow teachers to ensure progress.

6. Timely feedback and actionable data

Formative assessment measures and targeted feedback tools are embedded in every lesson. Result: teachers can make timely decisions about instructional strategy and provide the guidance students need to thrive as readers and writers.

Middle school assessments

What teachers say

What teachers are saying about Amplify ELA

“It was engaging for students, fun and easy to teach, and led to deeper discussions and written responses than I have seen in a long time! The embedded differentiation helped ensure students had just the right amount of challenge/supports. I wish I had this earlier in my teacher career!”

Ashley

Teacher

What teachers are saying about Amplify ELA

“Amplify has put it all together in one place so we can hook our kids with engaging material, then track how well they’re performing.

Brent

Principal

What teachers are saying about Amplify ELA

“Amplify uses technology to enhance best practices, not instead of best practices. It is multimodal and encourages movement, readers theater, writing, drawing, etc… It isn’t just a series of copied pdfs and worksheets made digital.”

Karen

Teacher

Blended model

Amplify ELA’s new blended curriculum can be used in classrooms with limited access to devices, allowing teachers to make choices about when their students use devices without compromising learning or full standards coverage.
Amplify ELA’s blended approach keeps a strong connection between print and digital by having the teacher project uniquely digital moments as students work in their print Student Editions and Writing Journals. This approach works when Wi-Fi or devices are unavailable for both brief or extended periods of time.

Amplify ELA Teacher Components
Amplify ELA Student Components

Resources

ELA Program Guide

Program guide

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about Amplify ELA, includin…

ELA grade overviews

Grade overviews

Explore the texts included in each unit and their level of complexity.

ELA assessments

Formative and summative assessments…

Learn about our embedded assessments, reporting tools, and feedback system.

ELA CCSS alignment

Common Core State Standards alignme…

Common Core State Standards unit level standards alignment.

middle school engagement

Principles of true middle school en…

Learn actionable strategies that will help you in supporting students to meet ke…

Amplify Science California supports you every step of the way on your journey to the California NGSS.

Professional Development

View offerings that are designed to meet the unique needs of teachers and instru…

Try Amplify ELA

Ready to take a closer look at Amplify ELA? No problem. Just complete the form to get immediate access to:

  • Digital: trial that includes two units per grade level
  • Print: preview of Teacher Edition
Amplify ELA trial

Welcome Reviewers, to Amplify Desmos Math!

Amplify Desmos Math thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals.

Scroll to learn more about the program and explore sample materials.

About the program

We believe in math that motivates. Our structured approach to problem-based learning builds on students’ curiosity to develop lasting grade-level understandings for all students. 

The program thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, fluency, and application, motivating students with interesting problems they are eager to solve. Teachers can spend more time where it’s most impactful: creating a collaborative classroom of learners.

A powerful suite of math resources

Amplify Desmos Math combines the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.

A digital interface displays a math screener report on the left and a math problem involving division, alongside a visual representation of students lined up on the right, integrating rich math resources from Amplify Desmos Math.

Screening and progress monitoring

mCLASS® Assessments, along with daily formative checks, measure not only what students know, but also how they think. The asset-based assessment system provides teachers with targeted, actionable insights, linked to core instruction and intervention resources.

Two side-by-side math activities for children: on the left, a caterpillar-themed block challenge, and on the right, a worksheet for finding pairs that sum to 10. These exercises are fantastic ways to amplify children's engagement with math concepts.

Core instruction

Amplify Desmos Math lessons provide a structured approach to problem-based learning, helping teachers create a collaborative math community with students at its center. Each lesson systematically builds on students’ curiosity to develop lasting grade-level understandings for all students.

Two pages from a New York math textbook on determining coordinates after a rotation. Includes sections on modeled review, guided practice, and teacher's notes, with diagrams and examples that amplify the learning experience.

Differentiation and intervention

Integrated resources like Mini-Lessons, Fluency Practice, and Math Adventures provide targeted intervention on a specific concept or skill connected to daily instruction. Extensions are also available to stretch students’ understanding.
Boost™ Personalized Learning activities help students access grade-level math through engaging, independent digital practice. Responsive Feedback™ adjusts to students’ work, providing item-level adaptivity to further support their learning.

Two pages from a New York math textbook on determining coordinates after a rotation. Includes sections on modeled review, guided practice, and teacher's notes, with diagrams and examples that amplify the learning experience.

An approach that supports teachers

Clear, step-by-step instructional moves help teachers plan and teach student-centered lessons that use student thinking to differentiate instruction and guide to grade-level understanding. They include:

  • Guidance on what to listen for and how to respond.
  • Clear learning objectives to keep learning on track for each activity and lesson.
  • Daily reinforcement activities to provide direct instruction when needed.

A structured approach to problem-based learning

Problem-based learning asks students to make sense of and think strategically about mathematically interesting problems. This approach allows students’ ideas to take
center stage, so they are active and engaged in their learning process. Teachers are able to hear and respond to student thinking in real time, guiding and differentiating instruction right in the moment.

Moving from “I do, We do, You do” to “You do, We do, I do”
Lessons begin by activating student’s prior knowledge and curiosity, inviting them to explore the math, collaborate, and refine their thinking. By focusing on developing student thinking first, teachers can better connect ideas, guide learning, and synthesize learning objectives.

Lessons that are rigorous and delightful

Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math is designed to put students at the center of their learning. Utilizing research-based best practices, students engage in meaningful work based on rich problems and real-world experiences.

Two young girls build with colorful blocks at a table while an adult woman observes and assists them in a classroom setting.

Warm-Up

Lessons begin by inviting every student to contribute to the mathematical discussion. Instructional routines are often used to build fluency, set the context, activate prior knowledge, or highlight a strategy that may be helpful in the lesson. 

Rich learning activities

Math knowledge is built through experiences and meaningful interactions. Students notice, wonder, explore, calculate, predict, measure, explain their thinking, use math to settle disputes, create challenges for their classmates, and more. Teachers serve as a guide, using a Launch, Monitor, Connect framework:

  • Launch: Teachers offer a short introduction to the problem or challenge
  • Monitor: As students work individually, in pairs, or in groups, teachers ask questions and provide support to move student thinking closer to the intended math goal.
  • Connect: Teachers connect student ideas to the Key Takeaway of the activity to help students synthesize and solidify the big ideas.

Synthesis

Teachers ensure that students end the lesson with accurate and enduring understandings of the math goal through synthesis of student ideas, explicit instruction, and reflection.

A short Show What You Know assessment allows students to show what they know about the learning goals of the lesson and reveal what they are still learning.

Differentiation and practice

Lasting understanding requires reinforcement. Every lesson offers Lesson Practice instructional recommendations to Support, Strengthen, and Stretch learning.

Two side-by-side math activities for children: on the left, a caterpillar-themed block challenge, and on the right, a worksheet for finding pairs that sum to 10. These exercises are fantastic ways to amplify children's engagement with math concepts.

Print for every lesson with engaging digital experiences

Whether in print or digital form, engaging interactions enable students and teachers to openly exchange ideas. Each lesson includes student print materials, interactive teacher Presentation Screens, and digital resources for practice and differentiation. Some lessons also use manipulatives or provide options for students to use devices individually or in pairs. Device recommendations for student use are age-appropriate, with more frequent usage in middle and high school.

Demo access

Please login to the digital platform to experience our full program as part of your review. In order to access the digital platform, you’ll need to log into using your unique login credentials below.

  • Click the orange button below to access the platform.
  • Click “Log in with Amplify.”
  • Enter the username and password:
    • Username:
    • Password:
  • View the video for helpful platform navigation tips.
Digital Access

Assessments

By starting with what students already know, Amplify Desmos Math helps build a strong foundation for success to guide and support future learning. Teachers are empowered to transform every classroom into an engaged math community that invites, values, and develops student thinking. With explicit guidance on what to look for and how to respond, teachers can effectively support students as they develop their understanding.

Open math workbook showing an End-of-Unit Assessment with multiple-choice and written response questions on fractions and equivalent values.

Program assessments

A variety of performance data in Amplify Desmos Math provides evidence of student learning while helping students bolster their skills and understanding.

Unit-Level Assessments

Our embedded unit assessments offer key insights into students’ conceptual understanding of math. These assessments provide regular, actionable information about how students are thinking about and processing math, with both auto-scoring and in-depth rubrics that help teachers anticipate and respond to students’ learning needs.

Lesson-Level Assessments

Amplify Desmos Math lessons are centered around sense-making and in-the-moment feedback. Daily moments of assessment provide valuable evidence of learning for both the teacher and student.

Learn more

Data and reporting

Amplify Desmos Math provides teachers and administrators with unified reporting and insights so that educators have visibility into what students know about grade-level math—and can plan instruction accordingly for the whole class, small groups, and individual students.

A table displays students' performance levels across various items, with a detailed score distribution for a specific assessment shown in a separate overlay. Geometric design elements accented the background, providing an engaging visual touch ideal for any math classroom using Amplify Desmos Math.

Assessment reports

Reporting functionality integrates unit assessments, lesson assessments, personalized learning, Benchmark assessments, and Progress Monitoring for a comprehensive look at student learning.

Our reports show proficiency and growth by domain, cluster, standard, and priority concept using performance data from unit assessments. Then our reports highlight areas of potential student need to allow teachers to modify their instruction and target differentiated support.

At-a-glance views of unit-level assessment results inform your instructional planning, and you can also drill down to item-level analysis.

Standards reports

Our standards report allows you to monitor proficiency at the class and individual student levels. Proficiency and growth are shown by domain, cluster, standard, and priority concepts. Areas of potential student need are highlighted to allow teachers to modify their instruction and target differentiated support.

Administrator reports

Amplify Desmos Math provides a complete picture of student, class, and district performance, allowing administrators to implement instructional and intervention plans.

  • Track student, class, and district performance with usage, completion, and assessment data.
  • Accurately group students and classes with the Benchmark and Progress Monitoring data of mCLASS Assessments and allow teachers to reliably implement and track the progress of Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention.
  • Provide one data-driven solution that educators can rely on for high-quality math instruction.

Differentiation and intervention

Amplify Desmos Math views differentiation as an ongoing process where teachers are both reactive and proactive to student needs, ensuring that all students have clear pathways to proficiency. Through rich data and teacher support, Amplify Desmos Math uses flexible categories of intervention and enrichment that adjust daily according to student thinking.

In-the-moment differentiation supports are available for every lesson, both digitally and in the print Teacher Edition.

Learn more
A teacher sits at a table with two students, using small objects and a workbook to provide individualized instruction during a Boost Math lesson in a classroom with large windows.
A table showing differentiation teacher moves with examples of representing groups in different ways, support prompts, and a stretch question about patterns with more teams.

In-lesson differentiation

Within every lesson activity, teachers can use the suggestions in the Differentiation Teacher Moves table to provide in-the-moment instructional support while students are engaged in the work of the lesson. This table can help teachers anticipate the ways students may approach the activity, and provides prompts that they can use during the lesson to Support, Strengthen, and Stretch individual students in their thinking. Teachers are provided with clear student actions and understanding to look for, each matched with immediately usable suggestions for how to respond to the student thinking illustrated in each row of the table. In addition to using these suggestions in the moment as teachers monitor student work, teachers can review the Differentiation table in advance to help them anticipate how students are likely to approach the activity.

Differentiation: Beyond the Lesson

Teachers are provided with recommendations for resources to use with each group of students needing support, strengthening, and stretching after each lesson. Support, Strengthen, and Stretch resources include:

  • Mini-Lessons: 15-minute, small-group direct instruction lessons targeted to a specific concept or skill
  • Item Banks: Space for teachers to create practice and assessments by using filters and searching for standards, summative-style items, and more
  • Fluency Practice: Adaptive, personalized practice built out for basic operations and more
  • Centers (K–5): Lesson-embedded routines and practice for students that are vertically aligned across grade levels
  • Extensions: Lesson-embedded Teacher Moves including possible stretch questions and activities for students
  • Lesson Practice: Additional practice problems support every lesson
  • Math Adventures: Strategy-based math games where students engage with math concepts and practice skills in a fun digital environment
Two pages from a math workbook on determining coordinates after a rotation, with diagrams, problem sets, and instructional text, displayed on a yellow and gray background.
A classroom teaching guide displays strategies for discussing pre-image and image in math, goals for a parallelogram lesson, and tips for supporting multilingual learners.

Multilingual/English Learner supports

Supports for multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) are called out at intentiSupports for multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) are called out at intentional points within each lesson. These suggested supports are specific, targeted actions that are beneficial for ML/ELs. They often describe a modification to increase access to the task or provide support with contextual or mathematical language development that can often be helpful to all learners. ML/EL supports may also be attached to Math Language Routines.onal points within each lesson. These suggested supports are specific, targeted actions that are beneficial for ML/ELs. They often describe a modification to increase access to the task or provide support with contextual or mathematical language development that can often be helpful to all learners. ML/EL supports may also be attached to Math Language Routines.

Math Language Development

Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math includes opportunities for all students to develop mathematical language as they experience the content. Amplify Desmos Math purposefully progresses language development from lesson to lesson and across units by supporting students in making their arguments and explanations stronger, clearer, and more precise. This systematic approach to the development of math language can be broken down into the following four categories of support:

  • Vocabulary: Units and lessons start by surfacing students’ language for new concepts, then building connections between their language and the new vocabulary for that unit.
  • Language goals: Language goals attend to the mathematics students are learning, and are written through the lens of one or more of four language modalities: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
  • Math Language Routines: Math Language Routines are used within lessons to highlight student-developed language and ideas, cultivate conversation, support mathematical sense-making, and promote meta-cognition.
  • Multilingual/English learner supports: Supports for multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) are called out at intentional points within each lesson.
Two girls sit at a table with open books, one making hand gestures while smiling, the other looking at her and giving a thumbs up. Behind them are shelves filled with books, capturing the lively atmosphere of a math classroom.
Digital educational material showing an activity named "Hamster Homes" involving tube length and platform heights for a hamster cage. Includes a diagram with platforms measuring 9 inches.

K-5 sample materials

Click the links in the drop-down sections below to explore sample materials from each grade. For a full program review, please login to the digital platform or request physical samples.

For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components.

Cover of Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Teacher Edition featuring three children playing with math-related objects and a group of rabbits sitting nearby, aligning with the engaging curriculum seen in New York math classrooms.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 2: Counting and Comparing Images.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition Kindergarten," featuring an illustration of three children playing with math-related toys. A group of small white animals, possibly hamsters, play nearby. The scene brilliantly captures the joy of New York math exploration for young learners.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 2: Counting and Comparing Images.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Centers Resources" featuring a large, stylized red and pink "C" on a light pink background with simple geometric designs. This distinctive cover complements New York math curriculums with its engaging visual elements.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A digital activity screen, crafted in the style of Amplify Desmos Math, shows two paths with different quantities of mushrooms. The user is prompted to choose the path with more mushrooms. A bear is on the left side of the screen.

In this lesson, students apply their understanding of how to compare groups of images as they determine which group has more or fewer and then compare their strategies by guiding a bear through a path that has more mushrooms than the other.

Children interact with math activities on a large tablet while observing fish illustrations. The text reads "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 1 Teacher Edition, aligned with New York Math standards.

Skills Unit 2 Teacher Guide

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting Within 10.

Illustration of three children engaged in math activities from the "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition 1" textbook. One child holds a number card, while the others manipulate counters and images, experiencing an exciting approach inspired by New York math techniques.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting Within 10.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Centers Resources" for Grade 1, featuring a yellow and white 3D letter "C" on a light background.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

An educational game screen, inspired by New York math standards, shows a subtraction problem, "4 - 1," with a frog moving along numbered lily pads to reveal the answer "3.

In this lesson, students find differences when subtracting 1 and 2 from the same number by helping a frog reach a lily pad where it can eat a bug.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 2 Teacher Edition, showcasing children measuring with rulers and a poster displaying a mathematical equation, set against whimsical scenery with a colorful dragon. Perfect for New York math classrooms.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 2" showing three children performing a New York math activity with blocks and measurements.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting.

Cover of an educational book titled "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2 Centers Resources" featuring a green "C" on a light green background, perfect for enhancing New York math education.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

An educational activity where users must select the block with the correct number to make a total of 10 using the given block numbers. The UI, inspired by New York math standards, features a caterpillar and two tree stumps to amplify engagement with Desmos Math tools.

Students continue to develop fluency by finding the number that makes 10 by helping a millipede reach its favorite food – a clump of leaves!

Cover of a "Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition" book, featuring a cutaway building with diverse students and a teacher working on New York math problems and organizing materials.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 3: Data on Scaled Graphs.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 3" showcasing illustrated children engaged in various mathematical activities inside a glass house structure, reflecting the dynamic energy of New York math.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 3: Data on Scaled Graphs.

Cover of the Amplify Desmos Math Grade 3 Centers Resources book, featuring a 3D letter "C" in blue and white on a minimalistic background, perfect for aligning with New York math standards.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A page titled "Activity 2" features a table showing counts of rabbits, raccoons, and foxes, an image of animal stickers, and a bar graph representing the number of each animal, designed to amplify your New York math lesson with engaging visual data.

Students compare data represented on bar graphs with different scales by using animal stickers to create scaled bar graphs.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Teacher Edition Grade 4" showing children learning New York Math outdoors, using large mathematical tools and numbers, with one child in a wheelchair.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 2: Using Factors and Multiples.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Teacher Edition Grade 4" showing children learning New York Math outdoors, using large mathematical tools and numbers, with one child in a wheelchair.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 2: Using Factors and Multiples.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 4 Centers Resources book, featuring a large, stylized blue letter "C" on a light blue background. This essential resource for New York math educators ensures engaging and effective instruction.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

Interactive educational activity asking users to determine platform heights using a 3-inch tube. The interface, inspired by Desmos math tools, features a dragging function and feedback system with a checkbox and "Try another" option, amplifying the learning experience.

Students choose tube lengths to connect to platform heights for hamster homes, identifying possible heights using what they know about multiples.

Illustration of three students engaging with various math activities outdoors and around large blocks. Text at the top reads "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 5, Teacher Edition" - a perfect resource for New York math educators.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 3: Volume of Solid Figures.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition, Grade 5" featuring students engaged in various mathematical activities outside, such as block building, measuring, and gardening—a perfect resource aligning with New York math standards.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 3: Volume of Solid Figures.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 5 Centers Resources" featuring a large purple letter C on a light purple background, showcasing the innovative approach of Amplify Desmos Math that's making waves in New York math education.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

An interactive screen showing an activity about decomposing a figure into prisms, with a touch of Desmos Math integration. The user is asked to drag points to demonstrate the decomposition. Two prism illustrations are displayed, offering a glimpse of New York Math's approach.

Students decompose a figure into rectangular prisms and determine the volume of the figure by adding the volumes of the individual prisms.

6-A1 sample materials

Click the links in the drop-down sections below to explore sample materials from each grade. For a full program review, please login to the digital platform or request physical samples. 

For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components.

A laptop displays a math warm-up activity with shapes and a scale, in front of two Amplify Desmos Math teacher edition books for grades 1 and 7.
Cover of the Grade 6 Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition, showcasing students engaging in various mathematical activities around a balance scale with variables, inspired by New York math educational standards.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 1: Solving Equations.

Cover of “Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 6” featuring an illustration of children engaging in various New York math-related activities outdoors.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 1: Solving Equations.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math" for Grade 6, featuring a 3D pink letter "I" and the text "Intervention and Extension Resources." This New York math edition supports students with comprehensive resources.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A digital math activity shows foxes on a seesaw balanced with 18-pound weights. A multiple-choice question and text box ask for the weight of a fox in pounds.

Students use equations and tape diagrams to represent seesaw situations and to determine unknown animal weights, helping them make connections between diagrams that represent equations of the form `x+p=q` or `px=q`.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition Grade 7" featuring an illustration of students engaging in math-related activities with geometric shapes and construction elements against a New York cityscape background.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 3: Inequalities.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 7" showing students engaged in math activities against a cityscape reminiscent of New York, with purple geometric structures and a crane in the background.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 3: Inequalities.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Grade 7 – Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a stylized 3D "I" on a light purple background, ideal for both New York math and national curricula.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A digital math activity screen shows a character above a number line and a box with the inequality "x > -10" entered. A cursor points to the "Edit my response" button.

Students solve inequalities with positive and negative coefficients to solve a variety of challenges featuring a fictional sheep who eats grass according to an inequality.

Illustration of children engaging in learning activities outdoors near a large slide. The title "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 8 Teacher Edition" is shown at the top, highlighting its relevance to New York math curriculum standards.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 2: Analyzing Numerical Data.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Student Edition for Grade 8, featuring students engaging in various mathematical activities in a stylized outdoor New York setting.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 2: Analyzing Numerical Data.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 8: Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a stylized "I" on a gray background, tailored for New York math standards.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A graph plots four robot colors by height and eye distance; on the right, matching colored robots stand side by side, labeled Red, Purple, Blue, and Green.

Students connect points on a scatter plot with individuals in a population and rows of data in a table. The analysis of scatter plots continues with data about the eye distances and heights of robots.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Algebra 1, Teacher Edition" featuring diverse characters engaged in mathematical activities, with a graph and a bridge in the background, illustrating the vibrant energy of New York math.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from two complete sub-units on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Units 1–2: One-Variable Equations and Multi-Variable Equations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math" Student Edition A1, featuring an illustration of diverse characters engaging in New York math activities against a backdrop of graphs and mathematical concepts.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from two complete sub-units on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Units 1–2: One-Variable Equations and Multi-Variable Equations.

Cover of an Amplify Desmos Math Algebra 1 ancillary sampler, featuring students interacting with graphs and mathematical models, including a rocket and a parabola.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A math activity screen shows a cartoon snail, purple blocks, and a table comparing blocks and a math equation; a cursor hovers over the "Edit my response" button.

Students represent the solutions of a situation using a table, a graph, and multiple forms of an equation to identify multiple combinations of blocks that can help Shelley the Snail cross a gap.

Oklahoma ELA Review for grades K–5

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for K–5.

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) is a cutting-edge and effective core ELA program for students in grades K–5. It was developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation, was specifically designed to help teachers implement Science of Reading principles, and features proven evidence-based instructional practices.

Getting started

On this site, you’ll find a variety of resources designed to support your review and evaluation of the program. Before you start scrolling, watch the video below to learn about CKLA.

Curriculum background

Pedagogical overview

In the video below, Amplify’s Chief Academic Officer Susan Lambert shares the big picture of Amplify CKLA, explaining why it was created and the impact it’s making across the country.

Program overview

In the video below, learn about CKLA’s structure and materials, as well the research behind the curriculum.

Program features

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

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

When students build a solid foundation of phonological awareness and phonics, reading words on the page becomes automatic so that comprehension and critical thinking can happen.

  • Step-by-step lessons with multisensory approaches, clear lesson objectives, and embedded formative assessments.
  • Decodable books and Student Readers with ebook and audiobook versions that feature engaging plots and relatable characters.
  • An engaging sound library with fun songs and videos that develop phonological awareness.
  • An interactive App featuring engaging activities with immediate feedback and automated, customized instruction based on student performance.

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

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

Getting students caught up on reading skills requires more than just an extra mini-lesson here or there. It requires targeted and intensive instruction delivered in short bursts. Our intervention component:

  • Assesses and analyzes students’ areas of mastery and growth.
  • Automatically groups students with like needs.
  • Provides educators with ready-to-teach, research-based instructional progressions that last 10 days.
  • Progress monitors students, updates their skill profiles, and reforms groups for the next 10-day period.

Student-led reading practice should be purposeful and connected to the core. In addition to practicing skills directly tied to the skills they’ve been working on during ELA time, Amplify CKLA students have opportunities to interact with adaptive content that addresses their personal gaps and bolsters foundational skills at a pace that supports their individual development.

Our collection of 40+ adaptive games targets foundational reading skills and develops them in alignment with Science of Reading principles. Unlike other adaptive games, ours ensure students:

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

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

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

Download the Remote and hybrid learning guide to learn how we support in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction.

Digital experience overview

In the video below, learn about CKLA’s digital tools for teachers and students across both classroom and asynchronous environments.

Curriculum review

Digital navigation walkthrough

Physical materials walkthrough

Access the program

Explore as a teacher

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

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the CKLA Teacher Resource Site button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the teacher username and password found on the login flyer PDF provided to you.
  • Click the CKLA Teacher Resource icon.
  • Select a grade level.
CKLA Teacher Resource Site

Explore as a student

Before logging in, watch this brief video on navigating the CKLA Student Hub.

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the CKLA Student Hub button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username and password found on the login flyer PDF provided to you.
  • Click the CKLA Student Hub icon.
  • Select a grade level.
CKLA Student Hub

Check out these additional resources

Oklahoma submission resources:

CKLA review resources:

New Mexico ELA review Amplify ELA (6–8)

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify ELA for New Mexico. Below you’ll find access to our print and digital materials as well as other resources to support your review and allow you to experience our program.

Illustration of a diverse group of people and nature elements, featuring a prominent figure with floral hair decorations and a scene of communal interaction in the background.

Program overview presentation

Amplify ELA is a blended English language arts curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. With Amplify ELA, students learn to tackle complex text, make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find reading relevance for themselves.

Online platform videos

The content and instruction in Amplify ELA’s digital program mirrors the content provided in the print Teacher Guides and Student Editions. Additionally, the digital program offers enhanced opportunities to engage students through the use of multimedia and a variety of learning apps. Teachers will also find embedded apps that make it easy to score student work, provide feedback, differentiate instruction, and report on progress.

Download this teacher navigation guide and watch this video walkthrough to support your digital review.

Key program features

Amplify ELA’s structured yet flexible lessons are grounded in regular routines while still allowing for a variety of learning experiences and continuous student engagement.

Take a closer look at the program’s structure and the sequence of activity types that appear in a typical lesson.

Amplify ELA features high-quality lessons grounded in great books, with powerful multimedia tools to immerse young adolescents in reading, writing, and speaking.

Our rich and relevant texts are more than just excerpts. With more than 700 full titles in our digital library plus a variety of Novel Guides, Amplify ELA engages and inspires middle schoolers with great works, including poetry, rhetoric, and Spanish selections.

Amplify ELA’s new, hybrid curriculum can be used in classrooms with limited access to devices. Our engaging print highlights the many digital experiences that can be shared with students through classroom projections. Teachers can make choices about when their students use devices without compromising learning and while providing 100% standards coverage.

Download the Remote and Hybrid Learning Guide to learn how we support in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction.

Based on individual student needs and performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, teachers are able to select the differentiation level that’s best for each student. When students reach an activity, the platform delivers the assigned differentiation, allowing all students to experience the same lesson with supports tailored to their unique needs.

What’s more, when logging in each morning, teachers will be greeted by their Amplify ELA Homescreen where they can view a snapshot of student performance, access reports, see which students are struggling, and easily return to where they left off the day before.

  • Our close reading apps bring texts to life for students. Students zoom in on specific moments of the text and map out character traits, trace emotions throughout a text, and gather evidence to build a case. These apps are also flexible so teachers can create their own activities for Amplify ELA core texts, texts in the library, and texts they bring in from other sources.
  • The Vocab App strengthens vocabulary skills with fun and fully differentiated adaptive games, repeated encounters with new words across multiple contexts, and an interactive stats page that helps students track their own progress.
  • Quests are fun, week-long explorations that help students practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills while building a strong classroom community. In each Quest, students step into the world of the text they have been reading. They interact with different complex texts in multiple formats and media, gather evidence from these texts and interactions with classmates, and work together to achieve the Quest goal.

With Amplify ELA, your students will benefit from embedded assessments that maximize instructional time and allow them to keep learning without the disruption of step-away performance tests.

And as students complete activities within lessons and units, Amplify ELA teacher and admin reports provide a continuously updated picture of how each student is progressing with key skills and standards. Data is gathered from daily learning moments, allowing you to keep teaching while building a clear understanding of student performance.

Providing feedback has never been easier. With Classwork, teachers can review student writing and multiple choice answers and easily add scores and comments (and even emoji!) all in one place, giving students the immediate feedback they need to further develop their confidence and literacy skills.

Additional materials to support your review

CKLA Review for Scottsdale

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for K–5.

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) is a cutting-edge and effective core ELA program for students in grades K–5. It was developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation, was specifically designed to help teachers implement Science of Reading principles, and features proven evidence-based instructional practices.

Step 1: Program Introduction

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

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

Step 2: Program Overview

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

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

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

Evidence-based design

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

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

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

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

Key features

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

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

Great reading instruction starts with helping kids develop great decoding skills. By building a solid foundation of phonological awareness and phonics, reading the words on the page becomes automatic so that comprehension and critical thinking can happen. Our instruction is supported by:

  • Step-by-step lessons with multi-sensory approaches, clear lesson objectives, and embedded formative assessments.
  • Decodable books and student readers with ebook and audiobook versions that feature engaging plots and relatable characters.
  • An engaging sound library with fun songs and videos that develop phonological awareness.
  • An interactive Vocab App featuring engaging activities with immediate feedback and automated, customized instruction based on student performance.

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

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

Getting students caught up on reading skills requires more than just an extra mini-lesson here or there. It requires targeted and intensive instruction delivered in short bursts. Our intervention component:

  • Assesses and analyzes students’ areas of mastery and growth.
  • Automatically groups students with like needs.
  • Provides educators with ready-to-teach, research-based instructional progressions that last 10-days.
  • Progress monitors students, updates their skill profiles, and reforms groups for the next 10-day period.

Student-led reading practice should be purposeful and connected to the core. In addition to practicing skills directly tied to the skills they’ve been working on during ELA time, Amplify CKLA students have opportunities to interact with adaptive content that addresses their personal gaps and bolsters foundational skills at a pace that supports their individual development.

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

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

From the printed page to the screen, we bring foundational skills and knowledge to life in the classroom.

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

Download the Remote and hybrid learning guide to learn how we support in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction.

Engaging digital experience

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

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

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

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

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

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

Step 3: Program Resources

Digital navigation walkthrough

Physical materials walkthrough

Step 4: Arizona Review Resources

Arizona resources:

CKLA review resources:

Step 5: Demo Program Access

Explore as a teacher

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

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Amplify CKLA Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the teacher username: t1.scottsdaleunified@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-scottsdaleunified
  • Click the CKLA icon.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Amplify CKLA Teacher Platform

Explore as a student

Before logging in, watch this brief video on navigating the CKLA Student Hub.

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the CKLA Student Hub button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username: s1.scottsdaleunified@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-scottsdaleunified
  • Click the Hub icon
  • Select a grade level.
CKLA Student Hub

CKLA Review for Arizona

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for K–5.

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) is a cutting-edge and effective core ELA program for students in grades K–5. It was developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation, was specifically designed to help teachers implement Science of Reading principles, and features proven evidence-based instructional practices.

Step 1: Program Introduction

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

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

Step 2: Program Overview

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

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

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

Evidence-based design

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

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

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

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

Key features

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

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

Great reading instruction starts with helping kids develop great decoding skills. By building a solid foundation of phonological awareness and phonics, reading the words on the page becomes automatic so that comprehension and critical thinking can happen. Our instruction is supported by:

  • Step-by-step lessons with multi-sensory approaches, clear lesson objectives, and embedded formative assessments.
  • Decodable books and student readers with ebook and audiobook versions that feature engaging plots and relatable characters.
  • An engaging sound library with fun songs and videos that develop phonological awareness.
  • An interactive Vocab App featuring engaging activities with immediate feedback and automated, customized instruction based on student performance.

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

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

Getting students caught up on reading skills requires more than just an extra mini-lesson here or there. It requires targeted and intensive instruction delivered in short bursts. Our intervention component:

  • Assesses and analyzes students’ areas of mastery and growth.
  • Automatically groups students with like needs.
  • Provides educators with ready-to-teach, research-based instructional progressions that last 10-days.
  • Progress monitors students, updates their skill profiles, and reforms groups for the next 10-day period.

Student-led reading practice should be purposeful and connected to the core. In addition to practicing skills directly tied to the skills they’ve been working on during ELA time, Amplify CKLA students have opportunities to interact with adaptive content that addresses their personal gaps and bolsters foundational skills at a pace that supports their individual development.

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

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

From the printed page to the screen, we bring foundational skills and knowledge to life in the classroom.

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

Download the Remote and hybrid learning guide to learn how we support in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction.

Engaging digital experience

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

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

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

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

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

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

Step 3: Program Resources

Digital navigation walkthrough

Physical materials walkthrough

Step 4: Arizona Review Resources

Arizona resources:

CKLA review resources:

Amplify CKLA Review for Alabama

To view this protected page, enter the password below:



What is Boost Reading?

Boost Reading is a K–5 student-driven literacy program that provides both enrichment and remediation for all students, leveraging the power of compelling storytelling to engage students in personalized reading instruction and practice. It features:

  • High quality, research-based instruction based on the science of reading
  • Unparalleled personalized learning pathways
  • Compelling and imaginative storylines
  • Social and emotional learning
  • Insightful reports tied to actionable next steps
Young girl reading a tablet intently with educational graphics and the text "built on the science of reading" around her.

How does Boost Reading work?

Boost Reading uses students’ latest reading assessment data to ensure they practice the right skills at the right time. In cases where no student assessment data is available, our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level.

From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.

Summary of games

Four educational game screens featuring word and phonics activities for children, including character selection, word building, and answering questions.

With over 40 adaptive games, Boost Reading helps students of all levels grow across 13 critical skills areas, including explicit instruction in comprehension processes.

  • Phonological awareness
  • Letter sound correspondence
  • Letter combinations
  • Early decoding
  • Advanced decoding
  • Comprehension processes
  • Key ideas and details
  • Craft and structure
  • Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • Vocabulary
  • Connected texts
  • Fluency
  • Close reading

See pages 16-78 of this guide for a detailed explanation of every game in the program.

How does Boost Reading integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?

Boost Reading + mCLASS® with DIBELS® 8th Edition

mCLASS automatically places students on an adaptive path within Boost Reading, which provides them the exact practice–both remediation and acceleration–that they need.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and the mCLASS Assessment System work together.

Boost Reading + Amplify CKLA

Boost Reading extends core instruction with Amplify CKLA with personalized practice that follows the same scope and sequence.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and Amplify CKLA work together.

What makes Boost Reading different?

Multiple dimensions

Boost Reading features full adaptivity. That means students progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.

Always-positive feedback

Boost Reading supports positive participation by giving students immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Focus on SEL

Sustained academic success depends upon social and emotional learning (SEL) as well as the mastery of fundamental literacy skills. Consistent with the most widely-recognized framework and standards for SEL (from the CASEL consortium, which includes 25 states), Boost Reading also focuses on the five areas of social and emotional learning:

  • Self-awareness
  • Self-management
  • Social awareness
  • Relationship skills
  • Responsible decision-making

Ready-to-teach mini-lessons

Boost Reading turns data into action with reports that help educators know exactly who needs support and ready-to-teach mini-lessons that deliver targeted reinforcement and remediation.

Accelerated growth

Boost Reading accelerates student growth at all reading levels and reduces the number of students at risk of reading difficulty. In one study of 3rd graders in a large urban district who used Boost Reading for only one semester:

  • 54% of students who used Boost Reading made above average progress, whereas only 44% of students in the comparison group made above average progress.
  •  54% of English learners in that same study made above average growth, whereas only 45% of English learners in the comparison group made above average growth.

Check out the above results and more in this efficacy paper.

Demo access

Follow the instructions below to login to your demo account.

  • Click the Boost Reading Demo button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: atahan
  • Enter the password: Abcd1234
  • Click the mCLASS®: Boost Reading Edition tile.
Boost Reading Demo

Check out these additional resources

Boost Reading review resources:

What is Boost Reading?

Boost Reading is a K–5 student-driven literacy program that provides both enrichment and remediation for all students, leveraging the power of compelling storytelling to engage students in personalized reading instruction and practice. It features:

  • High quality, research-based instruction based on the Science of Reading.
  • Unparalleled personalized learning pathways.
  • Compelling and imaginative storylines.
  • Social and emotional learning.
  • Insightful reports tied to actionable next steps.
A young girl uses a tablet, surrounded by illustrated animals and books, with a badge reading "Built on the Science of Reading" in the top right corner.

How does Boost Reading work?

Boost Reading uses students’ latest reading assessment data to ensure they practice the right skills at the right time. In cases where no student assessment data is available, our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level.

From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.

Summary of games

Four educational game screens featuring word and phonics activities for children, including character selection, word building, and answering questions.

With over 40 adaptive games, Boost Reading helps students of all levels grow across 13 critical skills areas, including explicit instruction in comprehension processes.

  • Phonological awareness
  • Letter sound correspondence
  • Letter combinations
  • Early decoding
  • Advanced decoding
  • Comprehension processes
  • Key ideas and details
  • Craft and structure
  • Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • Vocabulary
  • Connected texts
  • Fluency
  • Close reading

See pages 16-78 of this guide for a detailed explanation of every game in the program.

What makes Boost Reading different?

Multiple dimensions

Boost Reading features full adaptivity. That means students progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.

Always-positive feedback

Boost Reading supports positive participation by giving students immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Focus on SEL

Sustained academic success depends upon social and emotional learning (SEL) as well as the mastery of fundamental literacy skills. Consistent with the most widely-recognized framework and standards for SEL (from the CASEL consortium, which includes 25 states), Boost Reading also focuses on the five areas of social and emotional learning:

  • Self-awareness
  • Self-management
  • Social awareness
  • Relationship skills
  • Responsible decision-making

Ready-to-teach mini-lessons

Boost Reading turns data into action with reports that help educators know exactly who needs support and ready-to-teach mini-lessons that deliver targeted reinforcement and remediation.

Accelerated growth

Boost Reading accelerates student growth at all reading levels and reduces the number of students at risk of reading difficulty. In one study of 3rd graders in a large urban district who used Boost Reading for only one semester:

  • 54% of students who used Boost Reading made above average progress, whereas only 44% of students in the comparison group made above average progress.
  •  54% of English learners in that same study made above average growth, whereas only 45% of English learners in the comparison group made above average growth.

Check out the above results and more in this efficacy paper.

How does Boost Reading integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?

Boost Reading + mCLASS® with DIBELS® 8th Edition

mCLASS automatically places students on an adaptive path within Boost Reading, which provides them the exact practice–both remediation and acceleration–that they need.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and the mCLASS Assessment System work together.

Boost Reading + Amplify CKLA

Boost Reading extends core instruction with Amplify CKLA with personalized practice that follows the same scope and sequence.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and Amplify CKLA work together.

Check out these additional resources

Boost Reading review resources:

What is Boost Reading?

Boost Reading is a K–5 student-driven literacy program that provides both enrichment and remediation for all students, leveraging the power of compelling storytelling to engage students in personalized reading instruction and practice. It features:

  • High quality, research-based instruction based on the Science of Reading.
  • Unparalleled personalized learning pathways.
  • Compelling and imaginative storylines.
  • Social and emotional learning.
  • Insightful reports tied to actionable next steps.
A young girl uses a laptop, surrounded by colorful illustrated animals and a bookshelf; a badge reads “Built on the Science of Reading.”.

How does Boost Reading work?

Boost Reading uses students’ latest reading assessment data to ensure they practice the right skills at the right time. In cases where no student assessment data is available, our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level.

From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.

Summary of games

Four educational game screens featuring word and phonics activities for children, including character selection, word building, and answering questions.

With over 40 adaptive games, Boost Reading helps students of all levels grow across 13 critical skills areas, including explicit instruction in comprehension processes.

  • Phonological awareness
  • Letter sound correspondence
  • Letter combinations
  • Early decoding
  • Advanced decoding
  • Comprehension processes
  • Key ideas and details
  • Craft and structure
  • Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • Vocabulary
  • Connected texts
  • Fluency
  • Close reading

See pages 16-78 of this guide for a detailed explanation of every game in the program.

What makes Boost Reading different?

Multiple dimensions

Boost Reading features full adaptivity. That means students progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.

Always-positive feedback

Boost Reading supports positive participation by giving students immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Focus on SEL

Sustained academic success depends upon social and emotional learning (SEL) as well as the mastery of fundamental literacy skills. Consistent with the most widely-recognized framework and standards for SEL (from the CASEL consortium, which includes 25 states), Boost Reading also focuses on the five areas of social and emotional learning:

  • Self-awareness
  • Self-management
  • Social awareness
  • Relationship skills
  • Responsible decision-making

Ready-to-teach mini-lessons

Boost Reading turns data into action with reports that help educators know exactly who needs support and ready-to-teach mini-lessons that deliver targeted reinforcement and remediation.

Accelerated growth

Boost Reading accelerates student growth at all reading levels and reduces the number of students at risk of reading difficulty. In one study of 3rd graders in a large urban district who used Boost Reading for only one semester:

  • 54% of students who used Boost Reading made above average progress, whereas only 44% of students in the comparison group made above average progress.
  •  54% of English learners in that same study made above average growth, whereas only 45% of English learners in the comparison group made above average growth.

Check out the above results and more in this efficacy paper.

How does Boost Reading integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?

Boost Reading + mCLASS® with DIBELS® 8th Edition

mCLASS automatically places students on an adaptive path within Boost Reading, which provides them the exact practice–both remediation and acceleration–that they need.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and the mCLASS Assessment System work together.

Boost Reading + Amplify CKLA

Boost Reading extends core instruction with Amplify CKLA with personalized practice that follows the same scope and sequence.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and Amplify CKLA work together.

Demo access

Follow the instructions below to login to your demo account.

  • Click the Boost Reading Demo button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: atahan
  • Enter the password: Abcd1234
  • Click the mCLASS®: Boost Reading Edition tile.
Boost Reading Demo

Check out these additional resources

Boost Reading review resources:

What is Boost Reading?

Boost Reading is a K–5 student-driven literacy program that provides both enrichment and remediation for all students, leveraging the power of compelling storytelling to engage students in personalized reading instruction and practice. It features:

  • High quality, research-based instruction based on the Science of Reading.
  • Unparalleled personalized learning pathways.
  • Compelling and imaginative storylines.
  • Insightful reports tied to actionable next steps.
A young girl uses a tablet, surrounded by illustrated animals and books, with a badge reading "Built on the Science of Reading" in the top right corner.

How does Boost Reading work?

Boost Reading uses students’ latest reading assessment data to ensure they practice the right skills at the right time. In cases where no student assessment data is available, our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level.

From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.

Summary of games

Educational app screens featuring phonics and reading games with animated characters and interactive spelling exercises for children.

With over 40 adaptive games, Boost Reading helps students of all levels grow across 13 critical skills areas, including explicit instruction in comprehension processes.

  • Phonological awareness
  • Letter sound correspondence
  • Letter combinations
  • Early decoding
  • Advanced decoding
  • Comprehension processes
  • Key ideas and details
  • Craft and structure
  • Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • Vocabulary
  • Connected texts
  • Fluency
  • Close reading

See pages 16-78 of this guide for a detailed explanation of every game in the program.

What makes Boost Reading different?

Multiple dimensions

Boost Reading features full adaptivity. That means students progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.

Always-positive feedback

Boost Reading supports positive participation by giving students immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Ready-to-teach mini-lessons

Boost Reading turns data into action with reports that help educators know exactly who needs support and ready-to-teach mini-lessons that deliver targeted reinforcement and remediation.

Accelerated growth

Boost Reading accelerates student growth at all reading levels and reduces the number of students at risk of reading difficulty. In one study of 3rd graders in a large urban district who used Boost Reading for only one semester:

  • 54% of students who used Boost Reading made above average progress, whereas only 44% of students in the comparison group made above average progress.
  •  54% of English learners in that same study made above average growth, whereas only 45% of English learners in the comparison group made above average growth.

Check out the above results and more in this efficacy paper.

How does Boost Reading integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?

Boost Reading + mCLASS® with DIBELS® 8th Edition

mCLASS automatically places students on an adaptive path within Boost Reading, which provides them the exact practice–both remediation and acceleration–that they need.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and the mCLASS Assessment System work together.

Boost Reading + Amplify CKLA

Boost Reading extends core instruction with Amplify CKLA with personalized practice that follows the same scope and sequence.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and Amplify CKLA work together.

Demo access

Follow the instructions below to login to your demo account.

  • Click the Boost Reading Demo button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: atahan
  • Enter the password: Abcd1234
  • Click the mCLASS®: Boost Reading Edition tile.
  • Follow the instructions on pages 5 and 6 of this document.
Boost Reading Demo

Check out these additional resources

Boost Reading review resources:

We are the program for Indiana’s middle school students and teachers.

Amplify ELA is a blended curriculum. We built Amplify ELA to help you make sure the standards are covered, the skills are taught, the test is prepped for, and your students are scaffolded and encouraged. What’s more, everything is done in the background. That way, you can spend your time bringing the text to life, making the classroom hum, and letting each student know you are paying attention to their growth.

View Caravan Schedule

Program overview

Amplify ELA is a hybrid curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. The heart of every lesson is the text. Each grade includes six units centered on literary or informational texts, delivered in several forms of media. Your classroom will also benefit from two or three immersive learning experiences called Quests and a dedicated Story Writing unit.

  • Full standards coverage: Standards are clearly labeled in each lesson overview, so teachers can save time planning and get back to what they love: teaching.
  • Five levels of differentiation: Based on each student’s needs and the performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, a teacher can choose the differentiation level that’s the right fit for everyone.
  • Embedded assessments: Teachers benefit from uninterrupted instructional time and a continuously updated picture of each student’s progress with key skills and standards.
  • Powerful feedback tools: Comprehensive tools help teachers maximize both the quantity and quality of feedback.
  • Robust reporting: Our reporting app offers information on student progress to help inform instructional decisions.
  • All in one place: Embedded teacher support, differentiation tools, student data, text and other curriculum features—they’re all right there.

Materials

Discover print and digital materials included in the program.

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

  • engaging students with high-quality narrative and informational texts, providing videos, audio supports, and digital experiences that capture their attention, and
  • keeping all of their writing in one place with the personal writing journal.

Teacher edition

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

  • detailed lesson plans
  • video teacher tips embedded in the lesson
  • standards alignment and exit tickets
  • real-time differentiation strategies
  • robust reporting

Interactive Quests
Fun, week-long explorations where students practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, all while building a strong classroom community.

Digital library for independent reading
Amplify Library: Our expansive digital library includes more than 650 fiction and nonfiction, classic, and contemporary titles.

Resources

Learn more about Amplify ELA and how we address the unique needs of middle school students.

Program sample guide

Table of Contents

Four Principles of True Engagement in Middle School ELA
Empower students to become critical thinkers webinar recording
Provide opportunities and supports for all students to work “up” webinar recording
Support feedback systems that develop strengths webinar recording

Experts & presenters

Deb Sabin
Chief Academic Officer, Amplify ELA
Deb Sabin leads Amplify’s curriculum development teams for ELA. Previously she was Director of Instruction and Training for The Writer’s Express. She’s been an ELA teacher in a variety of classrooms from alternative high schools to elite prep schools and international dual language programs.

Jeff Dannemiller
Product Specialists, Amplify
Jeff works with educators across the country, helping them get the most out of their middle school students with reading, writing, and developing all the other skills necessary for high school and beyond.

Contacts

Nathan Toles
Field Manager
ntoles@amplify.com
(317) 430-7879

Jackie Roper
Senior Account Executive
jroper@amplify.com
(312) 202-2598

Casie Rayes
crayes@amplify.com

(480) 549-7531

Welcome, reviewers!

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify ELA for grades 6–8. With Amplify ELA, we enable teachers to foster skills through texts and develop their students’ ability to build meaning through reading. Students dive into complex texts to make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves.

Amplify ELA offers middle school teachers rich texts, opportunities to form better connections with their students through powerful differentiation and assessment tools, and step-by-step instructional guides and resources that save them time and simplify their days.

Illustration of a woman with long hair and earrings, eyes closed in a serene pose, surrounded by plants and butterflies.

Overview

This site will allow you to experience our blended program, with access to the Amplify ELA print materials, digital curriculum, and resources to support your review. Our blended model enables teachers to design instruction based on their classroom needs and resources. Our engaging print edition highlights the many digital experiences teachers can share with students through classroom projections. Teachers can make choices about when their students use devices while providing 100-percent standards coverage and without compromising learning.

Amplify ELA’s embedded, easy-to-find features include:

  • Full standards coverage. Standards are clearly labeled in each lesson overview, so teachers can save time planning and get back to what they love—teaching.
  • Six levels of differentiation. Based on each student’s needs and the performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, a teacher can choose the differentiation level that’s right for everyone.
  • Assessments. Teachers benefit from uninterrupted instructional time and a continuously updated picture of each student’s progress with key skills and standards.
  • Powerful feedback tools. Comprehensive tools help teachers maximize both the quantity and quality of feedback.
  • Robust reporting. Our reporting app offers information on student progress to help inform instructional decisions.

Digital program

The content and instruction in Amplify ELA’s digital program mirror the content provided in the print Teacher Edition and Student Edition, though the digital program offers more opportunity to engage students through the use of multimedia and a variety of learning apps. Teachers will find embedded apps to help with scoring, providing student feedback, and reporting on the digital platform, accessible whether students or working with devices or in print.

Visit learning.amplify.com/ela-trial to review Amplify ELA’s digital program.

Access free trial

Grade 6 print samples

Three stacked educational book covers titled "Amplify ELA: Mysteries & Investigations" with illustrations of detective-themed elements and characters.

6B: Mysteries & Investigations:

Educational material cover for "the titanic collection" featuring a collage of the titanic, an iceberg, a ship's captain, and various themed illustrations.

6F: The Titanic Collection

Grade 7 print samples

Collage of educational materials and brain imagery for "amplify ela" program, featuring books, colorful abstract designs, and icons related to learning and brain science.

7C: Brain Science

Promotional material for "amplify ela," featuring a collage of edgar allan poe with thematic imagery like skulls and a raven, intended for educational use in teaching poetry and poe.

7D: Poetry & Poe

Grade 8 print samples

Collage of illustrations featuring a mix of science fiction and historical figures, including a central image of a man with pointed ears and high hair. text labels include "amplify ela" and "science & science fiction".

8C: Science & Science Fiction

Collage of illustrations depicting various aspects of the space race, including an astronaut, a rocket in space, and mission control personnel.

8F: The Space Race Collection

Resources

A stack of Amplify ELA textbooks, each with colorful illustrated covers featuring diverse people and various scenes, such as dining, reading, and travel.

Get to know Amplify ELA

Start by taking a look at the Amplify ELA Program Guide, where you’ll find:

  • Grade-level overviews for grades 6–8 (pages 11–31)
  • Amplify ELA pedagogy (page 10)
  • Sample lesson routine (page 38)
  • Amplify ELA foundations (pp 70-80)

Want to go deeper or look at Amplify ELA’s approach to writing, vocabulary, grammar, and differentiation? Check out the Table of Contents for all this and much more! 

Navigating the curriculum

Amplify ELA is a truly blended curriculum, designed specifically for grades 6–8. The program includes instructional guidance and student materials for a year of instruction, with lessons and activities that keep students engaged every day. Materials can be accessed either digitally or through print materials, depending on what your class needs.

Navigating in print

  1. Watch this video exploring the print resources available for students and teachers in Amplify ELA.
  2. Follow this link to open an ebook version of the print materials for your grade level and explore Unit A (the first unit).

Navigating digital

  1. Watch this video exploring the digital curriculum platform and the many resources available for teachers and students.
  2. Log in to the curriculum at learning.amplify.com using the demo account and password provided by your Sales rep.
  3. Once you have finished the tour, try out the scavenger hunt below!

Amplify ELA Scavenger Hunt

Download now

Inside a lesson

1. Overview & planning

Screenshot of an educational webpage for "Lesson 2: Your Movie Crew" on Amplify ELA, showing lesson navigation, overview, and a stylized illustration of a masked figure.

The Lesson Brief equips teachers with the tools they need to plan instruction. It begins with an Overview, which describes the big ideas students will grapple with and summarizes the lesson’s sequence of activities. Next, there is a Preparation section, which points out key moments and materials to prepare. The Preparation section also describes the location and content of the lesson’s Exit Ticket.

The Lesson Brief also includes: the Lesson Objective, which details the reading, writing, and/or speaking and listening objectives; Words to Use, which points out key vocabulary from the reading; Skills & Standards, which lists the focus and coverage standards; and Differentiation, which describes differentiated supports and provides additional suggestions for modifying activities.

2. Vocab App

The Vocab App helps students master vocabulary words through game-like activities based on morphology, analogy, synonyms/ antonyms, and deciphering meaning. These activities help students develop dictionary skills by focusing on parts of speech, etymology, and multiple meanings. There are also activities for ELL-appropriate words from the unit’s texts, asking students to match an English definition, Spanish translation, context sentence, audio pronunciation, and visual definition. These activities also align to vocabulary standards.

Vocab App (Teacher View)

3. Work Visually

Visualization activities are an essential part of Amplify ELA, as they open the door to more comprehensive understanding of complex texts. In these learning experiences, students break apart the text in visual ways or use visual cues to “see” key details as they construct meaning.

In this early lesson from grade 7, students unpack propaganda images and short videos from the Chinese Cultural Revolution to build their understanding of the setting before beginning the memoir Red Scarf Girl.

Other units include visualization activities such as using an app to “see” the evidence for and against scientific theories, making storyboards and planning visual adaptations of texts to “read like a movie director,” and comparing and contrasting illustrations with key textual moments.

4. Author Videos & Dramatic Readings

Students benefit from using listening comprehension skills as they build fluency with complex texts. In these close reading experiences, students listen to the text, perform the text out loud, or watch a dramatic reading of the text.

In this lesson, students listen and watch as author Ji-Li Jiang reads the opening prologue of her memoir, Red Scarf Girl. Her facial expressions, tone of voice, and emphasis help students develop early ideas about what matters to this narrator.

Additional author videos and dramatic readings are embedded in other units. In Unit 8D: Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, students watch WordPlay Shakespeare videos where actors perform each selected scene next to the text of that excerpt. In Unit 8B: Liberty & Equality, two members of the Marvel cinematic universe—Chadwick Boseman and Elizabeth Olsen—offer masterful performances of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave and A Confederate Girl’s Diary.

5. Reading/eReader

Reading standards establish high expectations for all students, even as they enter the middle grades at a variety of reading levels. In Amplify ELA lessons, students access universal supports embedded in the eReader (and built into the print versions of the text) to help them participate fully in grade-level activities.

Point-of-use vocab in print: The print Student Edition places key vocabulary words and their relevant definitions in the text margin to support students and keep them reading.

Reveal: By clicking on these pre-selected words, students access short contextual definitions for key and challenging vocabulary.

Highlight, Bookmark, and Notes: The digital highlighting, bookmarking, and annotation tools allow students to save and review any text notes from any lesson.

Text size and line spacing: Students can adjust text size and line spacing to find what works best for them

6. Writing

Two or three times a week, students complete their reading work by developing a piece of writing to refine their reading analysis. They write for 10–15 minutes, focusing on one claim in response to a prompt, and using evidence from the text in support of their claim.

In this lesson, students build on their discussion of the setting and their analysis of the passage to determine the author’s point of view at the start of her memoir.

Differentiated supports: Five levels of differentiated supports can be assigned in the moment or in advance to help every student work productively. Levels can be assigned ahead of time (by simply dragging and dropping students into groups) and students remain in their assigned levels until they’re changed by the teacher. For more information on differentiation in Amplify ELA, click here.

Automated Writing Evaluation: The Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tool has been developed in conjunction with Amplify’s regular writing activities, which ask students to use textual evidence to develop one focused idea or claim about the text and communicate that idea clearly and effectively to an audience. AWE is a tool designed to help teachers understand, track, and support student skill progress with these key foundational skills, which are a strong indicator of a student’s analytic writing proficiency. AWE provides auto scores for Focus and Conventions, allowing teachers to prioritize their assessment of a student’s progress with Use of Evidence, a skill that is relatively new for many middle-grade students.

7. Share

Establishing a supportive writing community in the classroom helps students develop their voices as writers. Each writing activity is coupled with a sharing session, where clear routines and student-facing feedback protocols support students as they share and respond to each other’s writing. Here, students try out their writing with an audience of their peers to figure out how to express their ideas in a clear and convincing way. In addition, these sharing sessions allow students to learn from the range of perspectives in the classroom.

Clear and consistent Response Starters ensure that students provide feedback that targets key skills and focuses on where a student is using a skill effectively, fostering an effective and supportive feedback environment.

8. Solos

Solos are an important part of the ELA curriculum, and are designed to be completed as homework—but not every student has a computer at home. However, most students DO have access to a mobile device. The new Mobile Solos give every student access to this part of the curriculum, protecting valuable classroom time for lessons and group activities.

Navigating the first unit

Dig into Unit A

It’s time to continue your journey by exploring the first unit!

  1. Choose a 6th-, 7th-, or 8th-grade Unit A.
  2. Find the Print Materials for your grade level’s Unit A and review the unit overview. (password: middle678school)
  3. Log in to the curriculum and navigate to your chosen unit.
  • Scroll down to the unit guide. Open each section and read it.
  • Read the background and context document in the Materials section.
  • Go to Sub-unit 3 and read the Sub-unit Overview.
  • Choose two lessons to explore further.
  • Open the first lesson and read the Lesson Overview. Be sure to open and read each section in the Lesson Overview.
    • Open each activity tab and read the teacher Instructional Guide. Familiarize yourself with the entire lesson and note where students are building reading and writing skills
    • Repeat with the second lesson.

Diving Deeper

Check out Amplify ELA’s professional learning website, featuring self-guided training modules and videos to help you with planning and pacing, navigation, and learning key curriculum features. 

You can log in using your Amplify credentials or the demo account and password provided by your sales rep.  

Additional support

As you continue to explore the curriculum, you may also want to take a look at the Amplify ELA Resources Website, which is full of additional information on the program. If you have any questions, please contact us through the Amplify Help section.

And you’ll find even more information by watching this session from our Literacy Symposium, in which Sarah Kitzmiller from the Niswonger Foundation and Teddy Redding from Amplify discuss some of the challenges of the 2020–21 school year. 

Amplify’s Literacy Symposium session: Focusing on the Fundamentals to Start the Year Right

You may choose to view other sessions from the Literacy Symposium as well, all accessible from the schedule menu in the top left corner. 

This webinar also offers valuable insight, with Baltimore City middle school ELA teacher Lucas Drerup describing his experiences with Amplify ELA and discussing how he brings middle school ELA to life, even in a remote teaching setting. 

How to bring middle school ELA to life: A teacher’s perspective

Support

Program overview

A woman assists another woman wearing a red headscarf as they look at a laptop.

Amplify ELA is a hybrid curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. The heart of every lesson is the text. Each grade includes six units centered on literary or informational texts, delivered in several forms of media. Your classroom will also benefit from two or three immersive learning experiences called Quests and a dedicated Story Writing unit.

  • Full standards coverage: Standards are clearly labeled in each lesson overview, so teachers can save time planning and get back to what they love: teaching.
  • Five levels of differentiation: Based on each student’s needs and the performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, a teacher can choose the differentiation level that’s the right fit for everyone.
  • Embedded assessments: Teachers benefit from uninterrupted instructional time and a continuously updated picture of each student’s progress with key skills and standards.
  • Powerful feedback tools: Comprehensive tools help teachers maximize both the quantity and quality of feedback.
  • Robust reporting: Our reporting app offers information on student progress to help inform instructional decisions.
  • All in one place: Embedded teacher support, differentiation tools, student data, text and other curriculum features—they’re all right there.

Materials

Discover print and digital materials included in the program.

Laptop displaying a webpage with a dark theme and an eyeball graphic, and a tablet showing colorful illustrations of historical and mythological figures.
Student edition

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

  • engaging students with high-quality narrative and informational texts, providing videos, audio supports, and digital experiences that capture their attention, and
  • keeping all of their writing in one place with the personal writing journal.
Collage of historical and literary figures on left, and a laptop displaying a webpage about brain science on right, titled "amplify ela.
Teacher edition

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

  • detailed lesson plans
  • video teacher tips embedded in the lesson
  • standards alignment and exit tickets
  • real-time differentiation strategies
  • robust reporting
Laptop displaying an educational software titled "who killed edgar allan poe?" featuring interactive lesson interfaces with graphics and text.
Interactive Quests

Fun, week-long explorations where students practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, all while building a strong classroom community.

Laptop displaying a library website with a search bar and book collections categorized under "adventures" and "fantasy".
Digital library for independent reading

Amplify Library: Our expansive digital library includes more than 650 fiction and nonfiction, classic, and contemporary titles.

Resources

Learn more about Amplify ELA and how we address the unique needs of middle school students.

Cover of "program sample guide grades 6-8" featuring an illustrated native american girl with long hair, surrounded by plants and butterflies.

Program sample guide

Illustration of poseidon with a trident on the "table of contents" page for grades 6-8, featuring a dynamic blue wave design.

Table of Contents

A graphic design featuring a woman with a stern expression, surrounded by illustrations of plants, atop an orange geometric shape, titled "white paper middle school engagement.

Four Principles of True
Engagement in Middle School ELA

Promotional poster for a webinar on critical thinking, featuring a stylized illustration of a person with a robotic face mask surrounded by butterflies and foliage.

Empower students to become
critical thinkers webinar recording

Promotional image for a webinar titled "differentiation," featuring a stylized illustration of a zombie-like character holding an axe, with pink clouds in the background.

Provide opportunities and supports
for all students to work “up”
webinar recording

Graphic design for "webinar feedback" featuring a collage of a smiling woman, a bear, sun rays, and a car on a white background.

Support feedback systems that
develop strengths webinar
recording

Experts & presenters

A middle-aged woman with blonde hair smiling at the camera against a plain white background.

Deb Sabin
Chief Academic Officer, Amplify ELA
Deb Sabin leads Amplify’s curriculum development teams for ELA. Previously she was Director of Instruction and Training for The Writer’s Express. She’s been an ELA teacher in a variety of classrooms from alternative high schools to elite prep schools and international dual language programs.

A smiling man in a dark blazer and light blue shirt against a white background.

Jeff Dannemiller
Product Specialists, Amplify
Jeff works with educators across the country, helping them get the most out of their middle school students with reading, writing, and developing all the other skills necessary for high school and beyond.

Contacts

A smiling woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, wearing an orange blouse and gold earrings, against a light background.

Chasity O’Quinn
Account Executive for East Tennessee
coquinn@amplify.com
(865) 599-5101

Portrait of a smiling woman with short brown hair, wearing glasses, a black blouse, and a pearl necklace against a maroon background.

Ann Patterson
Account Executive for West Tennessee
apatterson@amplify.com
(704) 813-7757

High Impact Tutoring: ESC Training of Trainers

To view this protected page, enter the password below:



The power of technology in the math classroom

You might say math and tech go hand in hand. And these days, of course, kids and tech go literally hand in hand. So it makes sense that using digital tools in the math classroom can help teachers reach students, and teach the math content they need to learn. But truly integrating technology into math instruction is not just a matter of adding random gadgets and gizmos. We need to do more—especially if we want to leverage the power of math technology to engage all students.

Why integrate technology into the math classroom

Integrating technology into instruction delivers numerous benefits in the classroom–perhaps especially in the math classroom.

Numerous studies suggest that technology can support student learning in the math classroom. This tech might take the form of graphic calculators, digital manipulatives, or learning software. In general, such tools have been shown to help students improve both their understanding of math concepts and their performance on tests.

Thoughtful tech has these effects in part because it can make math more engaging. Students are generally more excited to dive into a visually appealing and interactive program than a black-and-white math textbook.

Integrating technology into a math classroom also means:

  • Personalized learning: Students can work at their own pace and get tailored guidance and feedback.
  • Collaboration: Students can work together regardless of their physical location.
  • Real-world applications: Technology can simulate real-world scenarios that require mathematical reasoning and critical thinking skills.
  • Saving teachers time: Technology helps teachers assess learning more effectively, providing real-time feedback and helping them identify where students need support.
  • Preparing students for the future: After all, most jobs require the use of technology!

How to integrate technology into the math classroom

The most effective technology approaches in the math classroom are active, not passive. They also invite deep thinking and productive struggle rather than speed and rote memorization.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) includes this guidance in its Principles to Action:

“An excellent mathematics program integrates the use of mathematical tools and technology as essential resources to help students learn and make sense of mathematical ideas, reason mathematically, and communicate their mathematical thinking.”

The NCTM recommends that teachers: “incorporate mathematical tools and technology as an everyday part of the mathematics classroom, recognizing that students should experience ‘mathematical action technologies’ and physical or virtual manipulatives to explore important mathematics.”

Here are just a few approaches that enhance engagement:

  1. Use interactive whiteboards or projectors: You can display math problems and solutions, diagrams, graphs, and simulations, allowing students to interact with and manipulate visual representations of math concepts.
  2. Use graphing calculators and virtual manipulatives: They can help students visualize and solve complex math problems, and prepare them for more advanced mathematical concepts.
  3. Use gamification techniques: Can make math more engaging and fun for students.
  4. Use online collaboration tools: These tools can help students work together on math problems and projects, even when they are not in the same physical location.
  5. Use select social media and other online platforms: To create math communities where students can collaborate, share resources, and ask questions.
  6. Use math software and apps: These programs can help students practice math, solve problems, and visualize math concepts in 3D or interactive models.

How Desmos Math 6–A1 delivers

Desmos Math 6–A1 is just that kind of program. It provides dynamic and interactive digital math learning experiences, alongside flexible and creative print activities. Its teacher dashboard is designed to encourage classroom discussion and collaboration. It invites students to explore a variety of approaches—and invites teachers to celebrate and develop interesting thinking in their classrooms.

The dashboard also shows teachers actionable formative assessment data for each student and the entire class, and allows them to leave written feedback for students in their lessons.

And we know it works. Teachers and students in our pilot program said that students learned more with Desmos Math 6–A1 than with their prior program. (See case studies in a large midwestern school district and in Naugatuck Public Schools.)

What’s more, Desmos Math 6–8 has earned perfect scores and an all-green rating from EdReports. This is a powerful affirmation not only of our program, but also of high-quality instructional materials, student-centered instruction, and thoughtful technology in the math classroom.

Learn more

Start your 30-day free trial of Desmos Math 6–A1.

Boost Reading Review for Indiana

On its surface, Boost Reading (formerly Amplify Reading) is a K–5 digital literacy program designed to help students rebuild, develop, and strengthen foundational skills as they play their way through an imaginative and personalized game world. But don’t let its simple and playful nature fool you. Look under the hood and you’ll find an unparalleled adaptive algorithm, powerful analytics, and robust instruction that links back to our assessment system and core instruction.

What is Boost Reading?

Boost Reading is a K–5 student-driven literacy program that provides both enrichment and remediation for all students, leveraging the power of compelling storytelling to engage students in personalized reading instruction and practice. It features:

  • High quality, research-based instruction based on the Science of Reading.
  • Unparalleled personalized learning pathways.
  • Compelling and imaginative storylines.
  • Growth mindset.
  • Insightful reports tied to actionable next steps.
A young girl uses a tablet, surrounded by illustrated animals and books, with a badge reading "Built on the Science of Reading" in the top right corner.

How does Boost Reading work?

Boost Reading uses students’ latest reading assessment data to ensure they practice the right skills at the right time. In cases where no student assessment data is available, our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level.

From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.

Summary of games

Four educational game screens featuring word and phonics activities for children, including character selection, word building, and answering questions.

With over 40 adaptive games, Boost Reading helps students of all levels grow across 13 critical skills areas, including explicit instruction in comprehension processes.

  • Phonological awareness
  • Letter sound correspondence
  • Letter combinations
  • Early decoding
  • Advanced decoding
  • Comprehension processes
  • Key ideas and details
  • Craft and structure
  • Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • Vocabulary
  • Connected texts
  • Fluency
  • Close reading

See pages 16-78 of this guide for a detailed explanation of every game in the program.

What makes Boost Reading different?

Multiple dimensions

Boost Reading features full adaptivity. That means students progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.

Always-positive feedback

Boost Reading supports positive participation by giving students immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Ready-to-teach mini-lessons

Boost Reading turns data into action with reports that help educators know exactly who needs support and ready-to-teach mini-lessons that deliver targeted reinforcement and remediation.

Accelerated growth

Boost Reading accelerates student growth at all reading levels and reduces the number of students at risk of reading difficulty. In one study of 3rd graders in a large urban district who used Boost Reading for only one semester:

    • 54% of students who used Boost Reading made above average progress, whereas only 44% of students in the comparison group made above average progress.
    • 54% of English learners in that same study made above average growth, whereas only 45% of English learners in the comparison group made above average growth.

Check out the above results and more in this efficacy paper.

How does Boost Reading integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?

Boost Reading + mCLASS® with DIBELS® 8th Edition

mCLASS automatically places students on an adaptive path within Boost Reading, which provides them the exact practice–both remediation and acceleration–that they need.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and the mCLASS Assessment System work together.

Boost Reading + Amplify CKLA

Boost Reading extends core instruction with Amplify CKLA with personalized practice that follows the same scope and sequence.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and Amplify CKLA work together.

Sample materials and demo access

Explore as a teacher

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Boost Reading Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username: t1.scottsdaleunified@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-scottsdaleunified
  • Click the CKLA icon.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Boost Reading Teacher Platform

Explore as a student

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Boost Reading Student Hub button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username: s1.scottsdaleunified@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-scottsdaleunified
  • Click the Hub icon
  • Select a grade level.
Boost Reading Student Hub

Check out these additional resources

Boost Reading review resources:

We are the program for Florida’s middle school students and teachers.

We built Amplify ELA to help you make sure the standards are covered, the skills are taught, the test is prepped for, and your students are scaffolded and encouraged. What’s more, everything is done in the background. That way, you can spend your time bringing the text to life, making the classroom hum, and letting each student know you are paying attention to their growth.

Astronaut in a space suit salutes while holding an American flag, standing amidst what appears to be splashes of liquid.

Program overview

Amplify ELA is a hybrid curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. The heart of every lesson is the text. Each grade includes six units centered on literary or informational texts, delivered in several forms of media. Your classroom will also benefit from two or three immersive learning experiences called Quests and a dedicated Story Writing unit.

A woman assists another woman wearing a red headscarf as they look at a laptop.
  • Full standards coverage: Standards are clearly labeled in each lesson overview, so teachers can save time planning and get back to what they love: teaching.
  • Five levels of differentiation: Based on each student’s needs and the performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, a teacher can choose the differentiation level that’s the right fit for everyone.
  • Embedded assessments: Teachers benefit from uninterrupted instructional time and a continuously updated picture of each student’s progress with key skills and standards.
  • Powerful feedback tools: Comprehensive tools help teachers maximize both the quantity and quality of feedback.
  • Robust reporting: Our reporting app offers information on student progress to help inform instructional decisions.
  • All in one place: Embedded teacher support, differentiation tools, student data, text and other curriculum features—they’re all right there.

Materials

Discover print and digital materials included in the program.

Una computadora portátil que muestra una página web con texto y una imagen de la portada de una publicación con varias ilustraciones artísticas. Un libro de texto estudiantil impreso titulado "Amplify ELA" está al lado de la computadora portátil.

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

  • engaging students with high-quality narrative and informational texts, providing videos, audio supports, and digital experiences that capture their attention, and
  • keeping all of their writing in one place with the personal writing journal.

Una colorida portada de libro con la etiqueta "Amplify ELA" está al lado de una computadora portátil abierta que muestra una página web titulada "Brain Science" que muestra diferentes artículos científicos.

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

  • detailed lesson plans
  • video teacher tips embedded in the lesson
  • LAF standards alignment and exit tickets
  • real-time differentiation strategies
  • robust reporting
Imagen de una pantalla de computadora que muestra un curso educativo en línea titulado "¿Quién mató a Edgar Allan Poe?" con pantallas de lecciones diseñadas con un tema de detectives en blanco y negro.

Interactive Quests
Fun, week-long explorations where students practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, all while building a strong classroom community.

La pantalla de una computadora portátil muestra la Biblioteca Amplify con pestañas para géneros como Aventura y Fantasía, que muestran libros como "El Mago de Oz" y "Frankenstein" en un diseño de cuadrícula.

Digital library for independent reading
Amplify Library: Our expansive digital library includes more than 650 fiction and nonfiction, classic, and contemporary titles.

Resources

Learn more about Amplify ELA and how we address the unique needs of middle school students.

Program sample guide

Table of Contents

Four Principles of True Engagement in Middle School ELA

Empower students to become critical thinkers webinar recording

Provide opportunities and supports for all students to work “up” webinar recording

Support feedback systems that develop strengths webinar recording

Experts & presenters

Una mujer de mediana edad con cabello rubio sonriendo a la cámara, vestida con una camisa negra y aretes de aro sobre un fondo blanco liso.

Deb Sabin

Chief Academic Officer, Amplify ELA

Deb Sabin leads Amplify’s curriculum development teams for ELA. Previously she was Director of Instruction and Training for The Writer’s Express. She’s been an ELA teacher in a variety of classrooms from alternative high schools to elite prep schools and international dual language programs.

Un hombre con cabello castaño corto sonríe a la cámara. Lleva una camisa azul con botones y una chaqueta oscura. El fondo es completamente blanco.

Jeff Dannemiller

Product Specialists, Amplify

Jeff works with educators across the country, helping them get the most out of their middle school students with reading, writing, and developing all the other skills necessary for high school and beyond.

Person smiling in front of a colorful mural with yellow and red geometric shapes.

Dr. William McBride

National Education Consultant

Dr. Bill McBride is a well-known international speaker and educator. He has trained middle, high, and adult education teachers for over 30 years in literacy and student engagement. Some of his books include Building Literacy in Social Studies, If They Can Argue Well, They Can Write Well, Entertaining an Elephant, and two successful reading programs for secondary struggling readers. He has also been a contributing author on a number of state-adopted literature series for grades 6 through 12.

Contacts

A woman with blonde hair wearing a white blouse with floral embroidery, posing against a plain white background.

Ronda Baggett
rbaggett@amplify.com
(347) 452-6988

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Melinda Lyon
mlyon@amplify.com
(704) 813-7757

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Jeff Rutter
jrutter@amplify.com
(727) 512-8440

S5.E6. Why skepticism is essential to the Science of Reading, with Dr. Claude Goldenberg

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What is Boost Reading?

Boost Reading is a K–5 student-driven literacy program that provides both enrichment and remediation for all students, leveraging the power of compelling storytelling to engage students in personalized reading instruction and practice.

It features:

  • High quality, research-based instruction based on the Science of Reading.
  • Unparalleled personalized learning pathways.
  • Compelling and imaginative storylines.
  • Growth mindset.
  • Insightful reports tied to actionable next steps.
A young girl uses a tablet, surrounded by illustrated animals and books, with a badge reading "Built on the Science of Reading" in the top right corner.

How does Boost Reading work?

Boost Reading uses students’ latest reading assessment data to ensure they practice the right skills at the right time. In cases where no student assessment data is available, our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level.

From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.

Summary of games

Four educational game screens featuring word and phonics activities for children, including character selection, word building, and answering questions.

With over 40 adaptive games, Boost Reading helps students of all levels grow across 13 critical skills areas, including explicit instruction in comprehension processes.

  • Phonological awareness
  • Letter sound correspondence
  • Letter combinations
  • Early decoding
  • Advanced decoding
  • Comprehension processes
  • Key ideas and details
  • Craft and structure
  • Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • Vocabulary
  • Connected texts
  • Fluency
  • Close reading

See pages 16-78 of this guide for a detailed explanation of every game in the program.

What makes Boost Reading different?

Multiple dimensions

Boost Reading features full adaptivity. That means students progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.

Always-positive feedback

Boost Reading supports positive participation by giving students immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Ready-to-teach mini-lessons

Boost Reading turns data into action with reports that help educators know exactly who needs support and ready-to-teach mini-lessons that deliver targeted reinforcement and remediation.

Accelerated growth

Boost Reading accelerates student growth at all reading levels and reduces the number of students at risk of reading difficulty. In one study of 3rd graders in a large urban district who used Boost Reading for only one semester:

  • 54% of students who used Boost Reading made above average progress, whereas only 44% of students in the comparison group made above average progress.
  •  54% of English learners in that same study made above average growth, whereas only 45% of English learners in the comparison group made above average growth.

Check out the above results and more in this efficacy paper.

How does Boost Reading integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?

Boost Reading + mCLASS® with DIBELS® 8th Edition

mCLASS automatically places students on an adaptive path within Boost Reading, which provides them the exact practice–both remediation and acceleration–that they need.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and the mCLASS Assessment System work together.

Boost Reading + Amplify CKLA

Boost Reading extends core instruction with Amplify CKLA with personalized practice that follows the same scope and sequence.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and Amplify CKLA work together.

Sample materials and demo access

Explore as a teacher

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Boost Reading Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username: t1.scottsdaleunified@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-scottsdaleunified
  • Click the CKLA icon.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Boost Reading Teacher Platform

Explore as a student

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Boost Reading Student Hub button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username: s1.scottsdaleunified@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-scottsdaleunified
  • Click the Hub icon
  • Select a grade level.
Boost Reading Student Hub

Check out these additional resources

Boost Reading review resources:

What is Boost Reading?

Boost Reading is a K–5 student-driven literacy program that provides both enrichment and remediation for all students, leveraging the power of compelling storytelling to engage students in personalized reading instruction and practice. It features:

  • High quality, research-based instruction based on the Science of Reading.
  • Unparalleled personalized learning pathways.
  • Compelling and imaginative storylines.
  • Growth mindset.
  • Insightful reports tied to actionable next steps.
A young girl uses a tablet, surrounded by illustrated animals and books, with a badge reading "Built on the Science of Reading" in the top right corner.

How does Boost Reading work?

Boost Reading uses students’ latest reading assessment data to ensure they practice the right skills at the right time. In cases where no student assessment data is available, our embedded placement tool ensures students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level.

From there, students move through our curriculum along their own learning pathway where they encounter personalized content tailored to their evolving skill and grade levels.

Summary of games

Four educational game screens featuring word and phonics activities for children, including character selection, word building, and answering questions.

With over 40 adaptive games, Boost Reading helps students of all levels grow across 13 critical skills areas, including explicit instruction in comprehension processes.

  • Phonological awareness
  • Letter sound correspondence
  • Letter combinations
  • Early decoding
  • Advanced decoding
  • Comprehension processes
  • Key ideas and details
  • Craft and structure
  • Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • Vocabulary
  • Connected texts
  • Fluency
  • Close reading

See pages 16-78 of this guide for a detailed explanation of every game in the program.

What makes Boost Reading different?

Multiple dimensions

Boost Reading features full adaptivity. That means students progress along a pathway that adapts on multiple dimensions, not just one. For example, a student can work on early first-grade decoding in one game while building more advanced vocabulary knowledge in another.

Always-positive feedback

Boost Reading supports positive participation by giving students immediate and clear feedback. These results are never punitive. Instead our always-positive feedback is delivered in the context of the game world and is designed to motivate students to keep trying.

Ready-to-teach mini-lessons

Boost Reading turns data into action with reports that help educators know exactly who needs support and ready-to-teach mini-lessons that deliver targeted reinforcement and remediation.

Accelerated growth

Boost Reading accelerates student growth at all reading levels and reduces the number of students at risk of reading difficulty. In one study of 3rd graders in a large urban district who used Boost Reading for only one semester:

  • 54% of students who used Boost Reading made above average progress, whereas only 44% of students in the comparison group made above average progress.
  •  54% of English learners in that same study made above average growth, whereas only 45% of English learners in the comparison group made above average growth.

Check out the above results and more in this efficacy paper.

How does Boost Reading integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?

Boost Reading + mCLASS® with DIBELS® 8th Edition

mCLASS automatically places students on an adaptive path within Boost Reading, which provides them the exact practice–both remediation and acceleration–that they need.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and the mCLASS Assessment System work together.

Boost Reading + Amplify CKLA

Boost Reading extends core instruction with Amplify CKLA with personalized practice that follows the same scope and sequence.

Click here to learn more about how Boost Reading and Amplify CKLA work together.

Sample materials and demo access

Explore as a teacher

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Boost Reading Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username: t1.scottsdaleunified@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-scottsdaleunified
  • Click the CKLA icon.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Boost Reading Teacher Platform

Explore as a student

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Boost Reading Student Hub button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username: s1.scottsdaleunified@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-scottsdaleunified
  • Click the Hub icon
  • Select a grade level.
Boost Reading Student Hub

Check out these additional resources

Boost Reading review resources:

Overview

With the Science of Reading at its core, Boost Reading blends compelling storytelling with research-based instructional practices to offer:

Personalized instruction across 13 different critical skill areas that adapts to each student’s needs while building on their strengths. Explicit practice in comprehension processes, phonics, and vocabulary. Extra support and scaffolds for struggling readers and English learners with demonstrated impact. An immersive game-play design that motivates students to discover that learning to read is fun.

Engagement is in the DNA: Every lesson and activity engages students through compelling storytelling and powerful narrative. Students persist longer and learn more deeply than when they are working on repetitive worksheet-like programs.

Instruction and practice: Boost Reading gives students practice as well as instruction in the key concepts they need to master. Our reading instruction and curriculum is interactive, not passive.

Emphasizes deep conceptual understanding: Backed by the latest research and designed with experts, Boost Reading focuses on ensuring that students have a deep understanding of the concepts. And those skills transfer from the program to the real world.

Boost Reading is a supplemental digital literacy instruction program that provides students with practice and explicit instruction in the underlying phonics, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension skills that are essential for fluent reading with good comprehension (e.g., Cartwright, 2010; NICHD, 2000; Oakhill, Cain, & Elbro, 2015).

The overarching goal of the program is to provide engaging individualized instruction and practice in the skills and strategies that have the most impact on literacy, while making it explicit to students that the skills they are practicing are things that good readers do while they are reading. As repetition with variety is an essential part of effective literacy instruction (e.g., Schuele & Boudreau, 2008), after a brief introduction to each activity, students are given repeated opportunities to practice these skills with varied stimuli. They receive immediate feedback for their responses and are given more explicit instruction in areas that are challenging. The instruction provided incorporates documented principles of effective instructional delivery; the activities engage students in multiple opportunities to practice critical skills at an appropriate pace with consistent feedback and prioritize student engagement and motivation, helping students to see their own growth toward reading goals (Carnine, Silbert, Kame’enui, & Tarver, 2016; Gersten, et. al., 2009; Deci, & Ryan, 2012.).

Activities build on an existing computer-based intervention that has been documented to improve the decoding skills of students in multiple experimental studies (Richardson & Lyytinen, 2014). Since learning is promoted when students use their knowledge across tasks (e.g., Merrill, 2002), generalization is encouraged through ebooks with embedded activities that reinforce skills recently practiced in related games.

Instruction is closely aligned with the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CSSS) for literary and informational texts and the North Carolina English Language Arts standards. The program was designed to include content that is most effective at building the word reading and comprehension skills of elementary students (e.g., NICHD, 2000; NIFL, 2008), including at-risk and struggling readers (e.g., NICHD, 2000) and English language learners (e.g., August & Shanahan, 2006). The content focuses on foundational reading skills (i.e., phonological awareness and phonics) as well as vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Research also shows that by providing students with contextualized learning experiences and rich engaging stories, narrative-centered interactive learning environments increase student interest, self-efficacy, and feelings of involvement and control in their learning  (McQuiggan, Rowe, Lee, & Lester, 2008).

Over the course of our early efficacy study, kindergarteners using Boost Reading grew an average of 16% more than kindergarteners who didn’t use Boost Reading. First graders using Boost Reading grew 23% more than first graders who didn’t.

We compared students in kindergarten through fifth grade who used Boost Reading during the 2019 fall semester to students from the same district who did not use Boost Reading, using Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, 8th Edition (DIBELS® 8th Edition) Composite Scores and Zones of Growth. We found K–5 students who used Boost Reading showed better growth on DIBELS 8th Edition Zones of Growth than those who did not use the product. Additionally, we found that the program was particularly effective for English Language Learners (ELLs). (DIBELS 8th Edition; University of Oregon, 2018)

You can view the study here.

Boost Reading allows younger students to progress through the curriculum along a pathway that best fits their developing abilities. Students are placed into the program based on prior data and the system maintains a rich profile for them as they master each skill level. Boost Reading also provides adaptive support, meaning that the degree of scaffolding, instruction, and practice adapts within each game based on student performance.

Students are served up content that’s appropriate for them within each quest. If a student struggles with a particular content set (3 failed attempts), the set is removed from the quest and presented to the student in a later quest after they’ve had more practice with the prerequisite skills.

When this happens, the teacher dashboard will indicate that the student is “stuck” through the class view and the student view.

If the teacher taps on the student’s name, they can see the specific content that the student struggled with. This allows teachers to provide additional support for the student. The progress bar will go back to green when the student has mastered the content set at a later date.

Classroom use

For younger students

Boost Reading is a supplemental reading curriculum designed to support a student’s development in key early literacy skills through play. The games in Boost Reading are meant to engage students individually on their own unique path. As a result, there are numerous ways you can use Boost Reading with your students.

We recommend you allow students to play for 10–15 minutes per session, 2–3 times a week in some of the following ways:

  • As part of a work station or literacy center
  • During reading blocks or choice time
  • With students not in intervention groups during intervention time
  • During transitions between periods (or at the start or end of school)
  • In a computer lab
  • In after-school programs
  • At home (students may use logins to practice on Boost Reading at home)

For younger students

Students propel the storyline in Boost Reading forward as they take on quests in Bookerton. This narrative is available in both English and Spanish. Students can toggle between the two languages through their settings menu.

In-Game Supports

In addition to the overall narrative, many of the games have features that support ELL students and struggling readers:

  • Many of the games have read-aloud text or are picture-based so that students can work independently, whatever their level of language proficiency.
  • Supports such as cognates are provided for vocabulary words in Boost Reading interactive Reader.
  • Boost Reading has games that cover phonics and phonological awareness, including at the syllable level, to support pre-readers who need robust instruction in these areas.
  • Boost Reading has games that provide explicit language instruction, for example connectives and anaphora, as well as strategy instruction in comprehension monitoring and morphology.
  • Boost Reading’s instructional methods (e.g., providing clear models, multiple opportunities to practice skills, feedback, cumulative review) and the skills and strategies taught in phonics, morphology, and language leverage techniques proven to help ELs learn how to read in English. Coupled with progressing Spanish-language support, Boost Reading ensures that all students can succeed, no matter what their first language is. Read more here.

Technology

Supported Devices and Network Requirements

To ensure that your hardware and network meet the minimum technical requirements for optimal performance and support of Boost Reading please see Amplify’s customer requirements page

List of IP Addresses to Allow

To make sure Boost Reading is accessible at your district, you can add the appropriate URLs to your district’s firewall allowlist. Visit the Amplify Network Access Validator to see the list of URLs and IP addresses.

Amplify Science releases substantial, free enhancements based on teacher feedback

Brooklyn, NY (September 26, 2019) Amplify, a publisher of next-generation curriculum and assessment programs, announced substantial new enhancements to Amplify Science, its core science program authored by the University of California, Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Teachers can now prepare and present lessons with Classroom Slides for grades K–5; review and grade student work with an intuitive Classwork tool in grades 6–8; and use new digital Spanish-language resources, accessibility supports, and additional hands-on activities. In addition, Amplify rolled out Amplify Science Transitional Kindergarten, a new program designed to introduce young students to real-world phenomena and jumpstart a lifelong love of science. 

Based on feedback from teachers, which the Amplify team gathers on a regular basis through a variety of channels, the new elements available as part of Amplify Science this 2019-2020 school year include:

  • Classroom Slides, fully editable time-saving supports for teachers, with lesson visuals, activity instructions, animations, investigation setup videos, technology support and more.
  • Classwork, a feedback and grading tool that gives teachers easy access to unreviewed work, student portfolios and groups based on student performance.
  • New digital Spanish-language supports (available as purchased add-on licenses) that enable educators to toggle between English versions online. Educators can also select which resources students can see. 
  • New accessibility supports, including screen-readable content, keyboard navigation improvements and read-aloud support for assessments.
  • Hands-on Flextensions, new additional investigations that give teachers the flexibility to incorporate more hands-on focused activities into select units, if time permits.

The company also debuted Amplify Science Transitional Kindergarten, a new program from UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science that is developmentally and pedagogically appropriate and designed to foster a lifelong love of science in young students.

Looking ahead to Back to School 2020, Amplify is already hard at work on Classroom Slides for grades 6–8 and more enhancements to the digital platform that make planning and delivering instruction even easier.

“One of the best parts about working with K–8 educators is listening to how they actually use our program, taking their feedback seriously, and doing something with it,” said Steven Zavari, senior vice president and general manager of science curriculum at Amplify. “We are already hearing great things about the Classroom Slides and other new features available this school year, and we can’t wait to share more details with educators soon about what’s coming next year.”

Amplify Science is a breakthrough K–8 curriculum designed from the ground up for the Next Generation Science Standards by the curriculum experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. In each Amplify Science unit, students inhabit the role of a scientist or engineer to investigate a real-world problem, using relevant, 21st-century contexts to investigate scientific phenomena. Educators who adopt Amplify Science receive a comprehensive curriculum that includes literacy-rich activities, hands-on investigations, digital simulations, embedded assessments and robust teacher supports. Amplify Science for grades 6–8 was the only program to receive all-green ratings on EdReports.org in 2019. The K-5 program is currently in review by EdReports.

Currently in use by more than two million students, Amplify Science has been adopted by the New York City Department of Education, Chicago Public Schools, Denver Public Schools, San Francisco Unified School District, Seattle Public Schools, the KIPP charter network, and hundreds of other districts across the country.

About Amplify

A pioneer in K–12 education since 2000, Amplify is leading the way in next-generation curriculum and assessment. Our captivating core and supplemental programs in ELA, math, and science engage all students in rigorous learning and inspire them to think deeply, creatively, and for themselves. Our formative assessment products turn data into practical instructional support to help students at every skill level build a strong foundation in early reading and math. Our programs provide teachers with powerful tools that help them understand and respond to the needs of all their students. Today, Amplify serves five million students in all 50 states. 

For more information, visit Amplify.com.

Contact: media@amplify.com

More News

Amplify Desmos Math receives an all-green rating from EdReports

Amplify’s research-backed, curiosity-driven math program receives all-green scores across all three EdReport gateways

READ MORE

Slow but steady progress: new Amplify data show why middle-of-year literacy screening matters 

READ MORE

See All News

Camp Curioso FAQs

We build better products by speaking to our users! Camp Curioso is an opportunity for students to act as Junior Designers, providing valuable feedback on our products in development. During the three weeks of Camp Curioso, students will participate in both one-on-one sessions and focus groups with other students their age. We use student feedback to inform how we build our products. Thank you in advance for your support of this program!

For this summer’s Camp Curioso, we’re looking for students who will be in grades 1 through 6 during the upcoming 2024–25 school year. We have room for around five students per grade—so space is limited!

Camp Curioso 2024 is three weeks long, beginning on July 15 and wrapping up on August 2. Junior Designers will have two weekly commitments:

  1. A weekly 30-minute one-on-one session with an Amplify playtester. These sessions will be on the same day and at the same time each week (to be decided with caregivers).
  2. A one-hour focus group on Fridays, where students will meet other Junior Designers their age from around the country!
    a.  Grades 1–3 focus group: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. ET
    b.  Grades 4–6 focus group: 3:00 p.m.– 4:00 p.m. ET

*There will be a Camp Curioso Kickoff for caregivers and students on Thursday, July 11 from 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET. We’ll provide an overview of the program and get everyone excited for Camp Curioso! If you can’t make it, don’t worry; the kickoff will be recorded and emailed to you.

All Camp Curioso sessions will be virtual, held on Google Meet.

All data will be reviewed and shared internally to inform ongoing product development. Video recordings, transcripts, and students’ personally identifiable information are stored in a secure database that only our Amplify researchers can access.

Each Junior Designer will receive a $100 Amazon gift card upon completion of the Camp Curioso program.

We ask caregivers to be present at the start of the session to help Junior Designers with technical set-up.

Puyallup 6–8 Science Review | Amplify

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Five fundamentals of high-quality materials in action

So what do we mean by high quality instructional materials, or HQIM?  We can start with how EdReports.org, the leading third-party reviewer of curriculum, defines it:

  • Materials that help educators teach to rigorous standards. 
  • Materials that are relatively easy to use.

Beyond these important starting points, what does high quality curriculum look like in action—in real classrooms?  Here are five fundamentals of how we think about it at Amplify.

Dos estudiantes en un salón de clases realizando un experimento científico. Uno sostiene una pequeña taza transparente con líquido y una pipeta, mientras el otro observa atentamente. Los útiles escolares y los papeles están sobre el escritorio.

1. It looks like ALL students engaged and thinking.

Students at all levels are able to engage deeply with important questions, to think deeply, creatively, and for themselves. 

There’s a commitment to fairness and a “low floors/high ceilings” approach: all students get the scaffolding they need to grapple with the things great minds in the subject area find important, beautiful, and true.

Two girls sit at a classroom table, looking at a laptop screen together. One is typing while the other watches, surrounded by colorful decorations and High Quality Instructional Materials in the background.

2. It looks like teachers using materials that work harder for them.

Teachers find the program easy and enjoyable to teach. The rich content inspires them to do some of their best teaching. 

Teachers also have powerful tools and data that enable them to understand their students more deeply and give more precise feedback.

A teacher helps two young students with their reading and writing at a classroom desk.

3. It looks like a vibrant classroom community.

The pedagogy of the program supports the formation of a classroom community where teachers and students wonder, share, debate, and learn together. 

It looks like a model of civil society.

high quality informational materials five fundamentals

4. It looks like a culture of continuous learning for educators, districts, and publishers.

Professional development is not one and done. The district not only provides teachers with high-quality training upfront, but also ongoing ways for teachers to compare notes and share best practices in implementing a new program.

The publisher also collaborates with districts on the initial training as well as provides ongoing support to teachers with on-demand resources, customer support, and online communities. Both the publisher and district continuously respond to teacher feedback and data to keep improving the program and classroom-level implementation.

Two women sit at a table working together. One types on a laptop while the other writes on a spiral-bound notebook. Posters and office supplies are in the background.

5. Finally and most importantly, it looks like improved learning outcomes for students.

The program has demonstrated the ability to raise student achievement.  It may start with growth on benchmark assessments and then, over time, you can see it on state tests. 

The district continues to track how well the program is helping to drive strong learning outcomes, and the publisher also continues to seek ever higher levels of efficacy through ongoing product improvement and measurement.

high quality informational materials five fundamentals

Corona-Norco Unified School District

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Amplify ELA – Atlanta Review3

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What my wedding taught me about choosing curriculum

A teacher leans over a group of elementary students who are working together at a classroom table under a "CKLA Skills" sign, guiding them through successful CKLA implementation.

Before my wedding over 20 years ago, my mom offered me a bit of advice: Choose a wedding photographer that you like. She didn’t mean one who’d win a Pulitzer for her work covering our special day. What she did mean was this: Make sure you like their personality, because you will spend a lot of time with them on your wedding day—maybe even more time than you’ll spend with your future spouse.

Why am I talking about my wedding in a blog about education?

Because choosing a curriculum company is like choosing a wedding photographer. You are not just purchasing a stack of books—you are starting a relationship with a company that will extend far beyond the initial purchase.

Here’s why I think the Amplify team are the education equivalent of ideal wedding photographers.

When our team decided to pilot Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) 3rd Edition as our reading and writing curriculum, I soon began working with the Amplify CKLA pilot team because I knew our classroom teachers needed to be trained quickly. I created a timeline, outlined action steps, and noted questions about the process. I was confident in the product and had a sense of what needed to happen, but it felt like a lot.

At our first meeting, the pilot team presented a detailed brochure. What a comfort it was to read, “Your district’s Amplify CKLA pilot specialist will guide you through every step of the pilot support process.”

Sure enough, Amplify’s live in-person CKLA training was invaluable. The teachers got so excited about the new product that they literally cheered.

Because of our complex pilot schedule, I wanted to make sure our primary students weren’t leaving the year with gaps in their learning. The CKLA pilot team worked closely with me to create a unique unit that would leave no holes in student learning.

After six weeks of piloting the product, a team of experienced CKLA pilot team coaches visited all our pilot classrooms. They affirmed the teachers in their work toward CKLA implementation. They highlighted strengths in classrooms and celebrated the use of the product in our district. The meeting after school was joyful.

The CKLA pilot team also gave our teachers a crucial tip: Because you can’t memorize the lesson, it’s ok to teach with the manual in your hand. Teachers still do this, and we continue to compliment them if we see it during walk-throughs.

The online pilot tool kit provided all of the other resources we might need. This included a Q&A section in which teachers could enter questions as they came up, and receive a response from the support team quickly. I breathed easier during our pilot knowing that CKLA was caring for us.

After our school board officially adopted CKLA 3rd Edition, we transitioned from the CKLA pilot team to the Onboarding Support and Customer Success team. Leaving the pilot team felt like losing a friend, but I trusted Amplify and knew the new team would be just as strong.

The brochure for the development plan confirmed that we would remain in good hands. It read: “This custom professional development package is designed to support teachers, schools, and district leaders in helping teachers feel confident using CKLA in their classrooms. Our professional development opportunities go far beyond initial product training and take participants through different stages of learning.”

At our Launch training in August, teachers learned the core features, rationale, and Science of Reading research, and had time to dive into the CKLA materials. At the Strengthen trainings in October and March, teachers learned about additional tools to deepen their knowledge, planning, and use of the materials. At the Coach sessions, an Amplify coach visited every school, which included meeting with teachers during planning time, visiting classrooms and offering supportive feedback, and modeling lessons.

After each training session, a CKLA team met with me to discuss the success of the training and talk about the feedback from teachers and my next steps to support them in their implementation. Throughout the process, my goal was to help teachers feel successful and confident using this new tool, and Amplify supported me every step of the way.

In addition to the responsive customer service, Amplify also offers plenty of online tools. The PD Library is continually adding resources, while Amplify podcasts highlight the latest research and insights on language comprehension, reading comprehension, and so much more. Amplify also just added a series of instructional routine modeling videos that quickly demonstrate the best practices found in CKLA. The support systems are varied and always developing, yet never overwhelming.

If you’re in the market for a new reading curriculum, take my mom’s advice: Pick the one you love spending time with. Trust me—Amplify is the curriculum you’ll want by your side all day, every day.

Setting up your session for success

We know your time is valuable. This site is designed to help you quickly select the right professional development topics for your team and gather the step-by-step guidance you need for a successful session.

Quick Navigation Tips:

  • Find your program: Click any program in the sidebar to expand and explore its specific session topics and online courses.
  • Reset your view: To see the full list of programs again, simply click the “Return to Top” arrow in the bottom right corner or scroll past your current selection.

Preparation checklist

A circular arrow surrounds a checkmark inside a square, with a blue shadow on the right side, representing a completed or approved process.

To make the most of your learning plan, follow the directions below. They’ll guide you through preparing your participants, location, and support for your Launch and Strengthen sessions. (Your PLS will support you in building your Coaching session.)

Onsite sessions

Prepare your participants

Communicate session details with participants:

  • Session time & location
  • Session objectives and topics using the agendas on this page
  • Materials required:
    • A charged device that meets Amplify’s tech requirements
    • Personal Amplify login (if available)
    • Participant notebook (This will be shipped to you or you will receive a PDF attachment in your confirmation email.)

Prepare your space

  • Select a location with a strong internet connection.
  • Mark this location clearly for participants and your PLS.
  • Provide Wi-Fi details for participants and your PLS.
  • Set up a projector and screen with audio.

Plan your support

  • Designate a tech lead to address connectivity issues and provide login and navigation support during the session.
  • For your PLS, share your contact information in case of emergencies and any special directions for accessing the location.
  • Inform your PLS if you did not receive enough participant notebooks.
Remote sessions

Prepare your participants

Communicate session details with participants:

  • Session time & remote meeting link
  • Session objectives and topics using the agendas on this page
  • Materials required:
    • A charged device that meets Amplify’s tech requirements
    • Personal Amplify login (if available)
    • Participant notebook (This will be shipped to you or you will receive a PDF attachment in your confirmation email.)

Prepare your remote space

  • Plan for participants to join from individual devices from separate locations (highly recommended).
  • If participants share a room, they must still use individual devices to fully engage.
    • To prevent audio feedback join using Google Meet’s Companion mode.
    • If using another platform, use headphones or ensure all but one device in the room has its microphone and speakers fully muted.

Plan your support

  • For your PLS, share your remote setup plan.
  • Designate a tech lead to address connectivity issues and provide login and navigation support during the session.

Select your program

Use the sidebar to select your program and explore the objectives and topics covered in your session or online course.

Amplify Caminos

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationAmplify Caminos 1st Edition agendasAmplify Caminos 3rd Edition agendasAmplify Caminos California Edition agendas
Initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Grade 6
ELA + Caminos
Skills Strand initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2
K–2K–2
Knowledge Strand initial training for teachers6 hoursK–23–5K–2
Program overview for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Grade 6
Knowledge strand program overview for teachers3 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Skills Strand program overview for teachers3 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Program overview for leaders3 hoursK–5PreK–5TK–5
Skills supplement training for teachers1 hour3–53–6
Transition training for teachers to 3rd Edition1 hourK–2
3–5
Skills Strand
Knowledge Strand

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationAmplify Caminos 1st Edition agendasAmplify Caminos 3rd Edition agendas
Coming soon!		Amplify Caminos California Edition agendas
Coming soon!
Enhancing planning for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Grade 6
Enhancing practice for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Grade 6
Writing for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5
Student engagement for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5
Grade 6
ELA + Caminos Grade 6
Supporting all learners for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5
Pacing for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5
Grade 6
ELA + Caminos Grade 6
Enhancing observations for leaders3 hoursGrade 6
Grading and assessment for teachers1 hourGrade 6
ELA + Caminos Grade 6

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.PLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Amplify CKLA

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationAmplify CKLA 2nd Edition agendasAmplify CKLA 3rd Edition agendasAmplify CKLA Florida Edition agendasAmplify CKLA California Edition agendas
Initial training for teachers6 hoursPreK
K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		Transitional Kindergarten (TK)
K–2
3–5
Skills Strand initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Knowledge Strand initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Program overview for teachers3 hoursPreK
K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		TK
K–2
3–5
Skills Strand program overview for teachers3 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Knowledge Strand program overview for teachers3 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Program overview for leaders3 hoursPreK–5PreK–5K–5PreK–5
Transition training for teachers1 hourK–2
3–5
Skills Strand transition training for teachers1 hourK–2
Knowledge Strand transition training for teachers1 hourK–2
Skills supplement training for teachers1 hourGrade 3Grade 33–8

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationAmplify CKLA 2nd Edition agendasAmplify CKLA 3rd Edition agendasAmplify CKLA Florida Edition agendasAmplify CKLA California Edition agendas
Coming soon!
Enhancing planning for teachers3 hoursPreK
K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		TK
K–2
3–5
Enhancing practice for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
Maximizing impact: Data-informed remediation with the ARG for teachers3 hoursK–2K–2K–2
3–5
Maximizing impact: Data-informed remediation with the ARG/DERG for teachers3 hours3–53–5
Writing for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5		Coming soon!
K–2
3–5
Enhancing observations for leaders3 hoursK–5K–5K–5K–5
Student engagement for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5
Supporting all learners for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5
Pacing for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5
Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition + mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition: Data driven instruction for teachers3 hoursComing soon!

Amplify CKLA companion programs

Session topicDurationAmplify CKLA 3rd Edition agendas
Writing Studio companion training for teachers3 hoursK–5
Language Studio companion training for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5
Language Studio California Edition companion training for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.PLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Amplify CKLA + Caminos

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationAmplify CKLA 2nd Edition + Amplify Caminos 1st Edition agendasAmplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd edition agendasAmplify CKLA/Caminos California Edition agendas
Initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Skills Strand initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Knowledge Strand initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Program overview for leaders3 hoursPreK–5PreK–5TK–5
Transition training for teachers to 3rd Edition1 hourK–2
3–5
Skills Strand
Knowledge Strand

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationAmplify CKLA 2nd Edition + Amplify Caminos 1st Edition agendasAmplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition agendas
Coming soon!		Amplify CKLA/Caminos California Edition agendas
Coming soon!
Enhancing planning for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Enhancing practice for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Writing for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5
Student engagement for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5
Supporting all learners for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5
Pacing for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.PLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Amplify Desmos Math

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationAmplify Desmos Math agendasAmplify Desmos Math California Edition agendas
Initial training for teachers6 hoursK–5
6–A1
High school
Program overview for teachers3 hoursPreK/TK
K–5
6–A1
High school		PreK/TK
High school
Program overview for leaders3 hoursK–5
6–A1
High school		High school

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationAmplify Desmos Math agendasAmplify Desmos Math California Edition agendas
Coming soon!
Supporting all learners for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–A1
Enhancing observations for leaders3 hoursK–A1High school
Enhancing planning for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–A1
High school
Enhancing practice for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–A1
High school
Snapshots in the Teacher Dashboard for teachers1 hour6–A1
Teaching a lesson with digital student screens for teachers1 hourK–5
Unit-level planning for teachers1 hourK–5
6–A1
High school
Supporting and facilitating meaningful discourse for teachers3 hoursComing soon!K–5
6–A1/M1
High school
Assessment in action: Analyzing data, reports, and planning next steps for teachers3 hoursComing soon!K–5
6–A1/M1
Increasing engagement with instructional routines for teachers3 hoursComing soon!

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.PLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Amplify ELA

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationAmplify ELA 2nd Edition agendasAmplify ELA Florida Edition agendasAmplify ELA California Edition agendas
Initial training for teachers6 hours6–86–8Grade 6
ELA + Caminos
Program overview for teachers3 hours6–86–8Grade 6
Program overview for leaders3 hours6–86–8ELA + Caminos

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationAmplify ELA 2nd Edition agendasAmplify ELA California Edition agendas
Coming soon!
Enhancing planning for teachers3 hours6–86–8
ELA + Caminos Grade 6
Enhancing practice for teachers3 hours6–86–8
ELA + Caminos Grade 6
Writing: Improving through feedback for teachers3 hours6–8
Supporting all learners for teachers3 hours6–8
Data-informed instruction for teachers3 hours6–8
Enhancing observations for leaders3 hours6–86–8
ELA + Caminos Grade 6
Teaching with print and digital for teachers1 hour6–8
Lesson planning for teachers1 hour6–8
Pacing for teachers1 hour6–86–8
Increasing student engagement for teachers1 hour6–86–8
Grading and assessment for teachers1 hour6–86–8

Amplify ELA companion programs

Session topicDurationAmplify ELA Language Studio California Edition agenda
Amplify ELA California 6–8 Language Studio companion for teachers3 hoursAgenda

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.PLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Amplify Math

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationAmplify Math agendas
Initial training for teachers6 hoursGrade 6–Algebra 1
Geometry–Algebra 2
Program overview for teachers3 hoursGrade 6–Algebra 1
Geometry–Algebra 2
Program overview for leaders3 hoursGrade 6–Algebra 1
Geometry–Algebra 2

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationAmplify Math agendas
Enhancing planning for teachers3 hoursAgenda
Enhancing practice for teachers3 hoursAgenda
Addressing prerequisite skills for teachers3 hoursAgenda
Using differentiation supports for teachers3 hoursAgenda
Using data to drive instruction for teachers3 hoursAgenda
Orchestrating math discussions for teachers3 hoursAgenda
Enhancing observations for leaders3 hoursAgenda
Lesson-level planning for teachers1 hourAgenda
Unit-level planning for teachers1 hourAgenda
Increasing engagement with instructional routines for teachers1 hourAgenda
Building language with math routines for teachers1 hourAgenda

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.PLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Amplify Science

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationAmplify Science agendas
Initial training for teachers6 hoursK–5
6–8
Program overview for teachers3 hoursTK
K–5
6–8
Program overview for leaders3 hoursK–5
6–8

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationAmplify Science agendas
Enhancing planning for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–8
Enhancing practice for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–8
Supporting all learners with complex texts for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–8
Supporting multilingual/English learners for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–8
Writing in science for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–8
Engineering Internship for teachers3 hoursGrade 6–Metabolism
Grade 7–Plate Motion
Grade 8–Force and Motion
Science Seminar for teachers3 hours6–8
Enhancing observations for leaders3 hoursK–5
6–8
Assessment system for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–8
Enhancing the digital experience for teachers1 hourK–5
Planning with the Coherence Flowchart for teachers1 hourK–8
Planning an Amplify Science lesson for teachers1 hourK–8
Supporting all learners: Exploring the resources for teachers1 hourK–8
Supporting all learners: Teacher modeling and student discourse for teachers1 hourK–8
Supporting all learners: Multimodal instruction for teachers1 hourK–8
Analyzing student work for teachers1 hourK–8
Unit Materials Kits and prep for teachers1 hourK–8
Grading with Amplify Science for teachers1 hourK–8

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.PLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Boost Literacy

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationBoost ReadingBoost Close ReadingBoost LecturaBoost Reading/ Lectura
Getting started for teachers2 hoursK–56–8K–2K–2
Getting started for leaders2 hoursK–5

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationBoost ReadingBoost Close Reading
Maximizing data for teachers1 hourK–56–8

Online courses

Online courses prepare teachers to implement Boost Literacy programs.

Course topicBoost ReadingBoost Close ReadingBoost Lectura
Getting started for teachersK–56–8K–2
Getting started for leadersK–5

mCLASS® Intervention

mCLASS Intervention sessions

Session topicDurationmCLASS Intervention agendas
Initial training for interventionists and coordinators6 hoursK–6

mCLASS Intervention Universal sessions

Session topicDurationAgendas
Initial training + DIBELS 8th Edition:
Administration and scoring training for interventionists and coordinators		9 hoursK–6

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.PLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Online courses

Online courses prepare teachers to administer and score mCLASS Literacy programs.

Course topicCourse overviews
Program overview for interventionistsK–6

mCLASS Literacy

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationmCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition agendasmCLASS Lectura agendasmCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/mCLASS Lectura agendasLouisiana K–3 Literacy Screener agendas
Administration and instruction essentials for teachers6 hoursK–8K–6 English
K–6 Spanish		K–8K–3
Administration and scoring training for teachers3 hoursK–8K–6 English
K–6 Spanish		K–3
Administration and reporting training for leaders3 hoursK–8K–6K–8

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationmCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition agendasmCLASS Lectura agendasmCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/ mCLASS Lectura agendasLouisiana K–3 Literacy Screener agendas
Creating a data-driven classroom for teachers3 hoursK–8K–6K–8K–3
Building a data-driven culture for leaders3 hoursK–8K–6K–8K–3
Assessing with fidelity for teachers1 hourK–8K–6K–8K–3
Reporting and instruction basics for teachers1 hourK–8K–6K–8
Progress monitoring for teachers1 hourK–8K–6K–8K–3
Goal setting and growth outcomes for teachers1 hourK–8K–6K–8K–3
Reporting basics for leaders1 hourK–8K–6K–8K–3

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.PLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Online courses

Online courses prepare teachers to administer and score mCLASS Literacy programs.

Course topicmCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition overviewsmCLASS Lectura overviewsLouisiana K–3 Literacy Screener overviewsmCLASS Literacy North Carolina overviewsmCLASS Lectura North Carolina overviewsPaper DIBELS 8th Edition overviews
Administration and instruction essentials for teachersK–8K–6K–3K–6
K–6
Calibration training for teachersK–8
Coming soon!		K–8
Coming soon!
Transition training for DDS teachersK–8
Administration and scoring training for DDS teachersK–8
Administration and reporting training for leadersK–3

mCLASS Math & Boost Math

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationmCLASS Math 2nd Edition agendasCalifornia Edition agendas
Program overview for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–8		K–5
6–8
Program overview for leaders3 hoursK–8K–8

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationmCLASS Math 2nd Edition agendasCalifornia Edition agendas
Student thinking and instructional next steps for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–8		K–5
6–8
mCLASS Math + Boost Math: Understanding and using data to plan intervention3 hoursK–5
6–8		K–5
6–8
Leveraging assessment data to strengthen mathematical thinking for teachers1 hourK–5
6–8

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsResource
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching session.Coming soon!
2. If you select any PLC or grade-level meetings, select topics for those meetings.Coming soon!

Online courses

Online courses prepare teachers to administer and score mCLASS Literacy programs.

Course topicCourse overviews
Program overview and instructional next steps for teachersComing soon!

General sessions

Amplify Classroom

Amplify Classroom sessions build expertise in Activity Builder to design, organize, and facilitate engaging digital activities.

Session topicDurationAmplify Classroom agendas
Facilitating and building activities in Amplify Classroom for teachers6 hoursAgenda
Introduction to Amplify Classroom activities for teachers3 hoursAgenda
Building activities in Amplify Classroom for teachers3 hoursAgenda

Multilingual/English learners

Multilingual/English learners sessions align instruction with best practices for multilingual reading and writing development.

Session topicDurationMultilingual/English learners agendas
Build your knowledge of multilingual/English learners 90 minutesAgenda
Deepen your knowledge of multilingual/English learners3 hoursAgenda

Problem-based math

Problem-based math sessions identify actionable strategies that build students’ conceptual understanding while developing a sense of joy in learning math

Session topicDurationProblem-based math agendas
Build knowledge of problem-based math for teachers
90 minutesK–5
6–8
High school–Coming soon!
Deepen knowledge of problem-based math for teachers3 hoursK–5
6–8
High school–Coming soon!

Science of Reading

Science of Reading sessions examine the connections between literacy and the brain to align instructional practices with models that develop skilled reading and writing.

Session topicDurationScience of Reading agendas
Build your knowledge of the Science of Reading90 minutesK–5
Deepen your knowledge of the Science of Reading3 hoursK–5

Texas programs

Select your program from the sidebar to explore its sessions.

Amplify Desmos Math Texas sessions

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationmCLASS Math 2nd Edition agendas
Supporting and facilitating meaningful discourse for teachers3 hoursComing soon!
Assessment in action: Analyzing data, reports, and planning next steps for teachers3 hoursComing soon!

Amplify Texas ELAR & SLAR

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationAmplify Texas ELAR agendasAmplify Texas ELAR + SLAR agendasAmplify Texas SLAR agendas
Initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2
3–5
6–8		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Skills Strand initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Knowledge Strand initial training for teachers6 hoursK–2K–2K–2
Program overview for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5
6–8		K–2
3–5
Program overview for leaders3 hoursK–5
6–8		K–5
Skills Strand program overview for teachers3 hoursK–2K–2
Knowledge Strand program overview for teachers3 hoursK–2K–2

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationAmplify Texas ELAR agendasAmplify Texas ELAR + SLAR agendasAmplify Texas SLAR agendas
Enhancing planning for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5
6–8		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Enhancing practice for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5
6–8		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Writing for teachers3 hoursK–2
3–5		K–2
3–5		K–2
3–5
Enhancing observations for leaders3 hoursK–5
6–8
Supporting all learners for 6–8 teachers3 hours6–8
Data-informed instruction for teachers3 hours6–8
Student engagement for teachers1 hourK–5
6–8		K–5K–5
Supporting all learners for teachers1 hourK–5K–5K–5
Teaching with print and digital for teachers1 hour6–8
Lesson planning for teachers1 hour6–8
Pacing for teachers1 hourK–5
6–8		K–5K–5
Grading and assessment for teachers1 hour6–8

Coach sessions

Coach sessions can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning. Use the resources to build your coaching session.

DirectionsELAR resourcesELAR + SLAR resources
1. Select agenda items to build your coaching sessionCoaching agenda optionsCoaching agenda options
2. If you select any PLC or grade level meetings, select topics for those meetingsPLCs or grade-level planning meeting options

Boost Reading Texas sessions

Launch & Strengthen sessions

Session topicDurationTexas Boost Reading agendas
Getting started for teachers2 hoursK–5
6–8
Getting started for leaders2 hoursK–5
Maximizing data for teachers1 hourK–5
6–8

mCLASS Literacy Texas sessions

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Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationmCLASS Texas agendasmCLASS Lectura Texas agendasmCLASS Texas DIBELS 8/ Lectura agendas
Administration and instruction essentials for teachers6 hoursK–8K–2K–2
Administration and scoring training for teachers3 hoursK–8K–2
Administration and reporting training for leaders3 hoursK–8K–2K–2

Strengthen sessions

Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationmCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition Texas agendasmCLASS Lectura Texas agendasmCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura Texas
Creating a data-driven classroom for teachers3 hoursK–8K–6K–8
Building a data-driven culture for leaders3 hoursK–8K–6K–8
Assessing with fidelity for teachers1 hourK–8K–6
Reporting and instruction basics for teachers1 hourK–8K–6
Progress monitoring for teachers1 hourK–8K–6
Goal setting and growth outcomes for teachers1 hourK–8K–6K–8
Reporting basics for leaders1 hourK–8K–6

Online courses

Course topicmCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition Texas course overviewmCLASS Lectura Texas course overview
Administration and instruction essentials for teachersK–8K–6

mCLASS Math Texas sessions

Launch sessions

Launch sessions introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.

Session topicDurationmCLASS Math 2nd Edition agendas
Program overview for teachers3 hoursK–5
Program overview for leaders3 hoursK–5

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Strengthen sessions deepen understanding of Amplify programs through targeted support.

Session topicDurationmCLASS Math 2nd Edition agenda
Student thinking and instructional next steps for teachers3 hoursK–5

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Course topicmCLASS Math 2nd Edition online agenda
Administration and instruction essentials for teachersComing soon!

Building math lessons: The playful side you never knew existed

Two people smiling in separate circles; one has a cartoon corgi icon, the other shows math blocks—perfect for celebrating early literacy skills—all set on a cheerful yellow background.

When you think of what goes on behind the scenes of building Amplify Classroom lessons, you probably envision carefully calculated math formulas and complicated equations, right?

Not exactly. Meet Sara Barring and Sean Sweeney from our interaction development team! They create animations and interactions for many of our most popular math lessons, and one day they decided to record some of their work sessions. What began as a simple “Wouldn’t it be fun…” conversation turned into something pretty remarkable: a front row seat to their joyous exploration of math.

Sean and Sara spend their days bringing math problems to life using Activity Builder, Amplify Classroom’s lesson-building tool. Their goal is to encourage students to explore their own thinking, moving beyond traditional right-and-wrong feedback. Instead of being told “no” when a guess is off, students get visual Responsive Feedback that demonstrates the meaning behind their thinking. In the grade 6 lesson Weight for It, for example, the animation shows them what would happen if the dog actually weighed what they guessed!

Sean and Sara help create a safe, playful space where making a mistake isn’t a failure, but a visual stepping stone that encourages students to try again. This creative process is exactly what they decided to capture on camera. Their video series, “Graph Time With Sara and Sean,” reveals what happens when pure curiosity guides work in graphing mathematics. Each episode opens the window into a genuine, surprising discovery, showing the magic happens when you stop worrying about perfection. Watching these videos, even those who feel intimidated by math or think math isn’t for them may feel inspired to try it themselves.

Redefining mistakes as happy accidents

In any field, the word “mistake” can feel loaded. But for Sara and Sean, the process of creating math animations is less about avoiding mistakes and more about seeing what happens.

A great thing about working in Activity Builder’s graphing calculator, Sara notes, is that you can immediately see how every adjustment affects the animation. This instant visibility helps shift your perspective—an unexpected result isn’t a failure, but a happy accident. According to Sara, these moments provide a pivot point into a new, unplanned direction.

Take one episode of “Graph Time” that wouldn’t exist without a happy accident Sean had while trying to create a firework animation for one of our lessons. That “mistake” led to the discovery of unexpected mathematical patterns that the team may not have found otherwise. These patterns seem to magically emerge from simple sine and cosine functions, revealing flower-like designs, perfect circles, and intricate geometric shapes that feel limitless in their variety, proving that mathematical beauty often reveals itself through curious experimentation rather than careful planning.

Sara and Sean hope to show viewers the reality of their work–with all the struggles, detours, and joy. You might expect someone who creates math animations all day to have their steps carefully mapped out. “We don’t,” Sean says, “and that’s part of what we like about it.”

The ripple effect: Transforming math culture

Sara and Sean’s playful approach to building curriculum content creates waves they hope will extend beyond their own creative joy, inspiring a new generation of math explorers.

For teachers, these videos offer more than just creative techniques—they provide a blueprint for shifting classroom culture. Sean emphasizes that viewers are seeing “the real work they do every day,” providing educators with an authentic model for bringing genuine excitement to mathematical learning. Sara, drawing from her teaching background, recognizes the transformative power of just changing the narrative: “Math gets such a bad rep a lot of the time, so even if Graph Time with Sara and Sean just offers a positive rebrand on some things, I think that’s powerful, too.”

When students see people having fun with math, through teachers or videos like “Graph Time With Sara and Sean,” they begin to see math as an invitation to explore. Sean and Sara are hoping they can help students find their own magic, making math less about intimidation and more about fun.

Check out Sara and Sean’s videos to see their graphing creations in action!

Ready to create your own amazing math adventures? Check out our Lesson Building Toolkit for bite-size tutorials on making your own lesson creations with Amplify Classroom.

S5-05. Math technology & hacks for math anxiety: research-based tips for caregivers

A blue graphic with text reading "Math Teacher Lounge" in multicolored letters and "Amplify." at the bottom, with abstract geometric shapes and lines as decoration.

We’ve been very lucky to have so many prolific and brilliant researchers on this season of Math Teacher Lounge, and our next guest is no exception.

Listen as we sit down with Dr. Marjorie Schaeffer to discuss what causes math anxiety, math hacks, and how the right math technology can make an incredible impact in children and caregivers coping with math anxiety.

Listen today and don’t forget to grab your MTL study guide to track your learning and make the most of this episode!

Download Transcript

Marjorie Schaeffer (00:00):

I think the most important thing we know from literature right now is that high math-anxious parents, when they interact with their children, their children learn less math over the course of the school year.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:12):

Welcome back to Math Teacher Lounge. I’m Bethany Lockhart Johnson.

Dan Meyer (00:15):

And I’m Dan Meyer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:16):

We’re onto Episode 5, Dan, of our series on math anxiety. And I wanna say it feels so lovely to imagine all of these people out there doing work to help combat math anxiety. I dunno, it just makes me feel excited about the possibilities. This work is out there; it’s happening! Kids and teachers and caregivers are being impacted by these conversations. Not just — I mean, I don’t just mean the conversations we’re having on Math Teacher Lounge, but I mean, that these researchers are doing. Like, yes, we can change this!

Dan Meyer (00:53):

This is great. Yeah. We have people who are extremely smart, who have dedicated their professional lives to studying math anxiety and resolving it. And each of them that we’ve chatted with — they share lots of ideas in common, but I’ve loved how they each have their own different flavor or take or area of emphasis on a problem that hits everybody everywhere. It’s in your home, with kids and caregivers. It’s in schools. It’s in our places of teacher preparation and professional learning. Every place is a place where we can focus on resolving issues of math anxiety. It’s exciting.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:26):

Yeah, I feel like … if there could be a course in — we all know that our teacher prep programs, in MOST teacher prep programs, there’s not nearly enough math methods or time to cover <laugh> — it’s like ready, set, go! And depending on who your mentor teacher is or what your math methods course … I mean, it can totally shape the way that you are prepared or really not prepared for going out there to teach math! And so I love that we’re having these conversations.

Dan Meyer (01:55):

What I love about today’s conversation is, one, it’s got a little bit of a technology flavor, so there’s that. But I also love, it’s got one of my favorite features about change, which is that it focuses on change to action, change to routine, rather than change to belief. Rather than saying like, “OK, everybody! Everybody stop thinking bad beliefs about math and transmitting them to your kids!” Instead, it says, “What we’ll do is just, hey, we’ll set that aside for a second and we’re gonna do a certain thing every day and watch as those actions make your beliefs change.” That to me is extremely cool. And I think it has a higher likelihood of success than just, like, me telling parents, “Hey, stop thinking these thoughts!”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:37):

“Ready, set, stop being anxious!”

Dan Meyer (02:39):

Exactly. Exactly. So it’s an exciting conversation we’re gonna have here.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:43):

Right. So it’s not a, you know, “wave the wand and all of a sudden, you’re not anxious about math anymore.” But these incremental changes, these incremental conversations, this validation, can really, really impact change. I’m with you on it, Dan. I hear what you’re saying.

Dan Meyer (03:01):

To help us talk through all of these ideas and more, we’re joined by Dr. Marjorie Schaeffer, Assistant Professor of Psychology at St. Mary’s College in Indiana.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:10):

Enjoy. <Jaunty music> So, yes, Dan, we are so excited to welcome Marjorie Schaeffer. She’s Assistant Professor of Psychology at St. Mary’s College. Dr. Schaeffer, we’re so excited you’re here. Hello!

Marjorie Schaeffer (03:28):

Thank you so much for inviting me.

Dan Meyer (03:29):

Yeah. We are super-lucky to have had so many prolific and brilliant researchers about math anxiety on our show. You’ll be no exception. And every time, we love to find out about how you came to study math anxiety, which winds up being a really interesting glimpse into your backstory bio. So tell us, what is the route by which you came toward studying math anxiety?

Marjorie Schaeffer (03:51):

Oh, I love that question. I’m really interested in how the attitudes and beliefs of parents and teachers influence children, especially around math. And I actually became interested in this idea in college, when no Child Left Behind was actually first starting to be implemented in schools with high-stakes standardized testing. So much so that I actually did my thesis on this thinking about, “Do children understand the importance of high-stakes testing? Do they have anxiety around that idea?” And so that was really my first foray into the anxiety literature. And that was kind of the entry point into math anxiety for me.

Dan Meyer (04:28):

So you started by studying a very high-stakes assessment, like our students connecting with this. And the assessment is once per year. And classroom instruction is every day. So how did you move from the assessments to the everyday instruction?

Marjorie Schaeffer (04:44):

That’s a great question. So, after college, I actually taught kindergarten. And so from that, I saw the day-to-day impact of instruction and the day-to-day impact of children’s individual attitudes and beliefs. And so I really became interested in thinking about, “How do we understand why some children are really successful from the instruction happening in classrooms and why other children need a little bit more support?” And so math anxiety was one way for me to really think about the individual differences I saw in my kindergarten classroom.

Dan Meyer (05:18):

It feels like you headed … you went farther upstream, is what it feels like. Where assessment … there’s like some kind of anxiety around assessment, let’s say. And then you ventured farther up the stream to classroom instruction and then still farther into kids’ homes. It seems like your research invokes a lot of curiosity about the sources of a kind of amorphous, flowing phenomenon called math anxiety. And I’d love to hear a bit about what you know about how caregivers transfer, transmit — whatever the word is — math anxiety to their kids.

Marjorie Schaeffer (05:55):

For parents … we think that the attitudes and beliefs of parents matter. And we see that for lots of areas, not just math anxiety. But I think math anxiety, we see that really clearly. And so, we can think about it both in terms of what kind of input parents provide. So, how do families talk about math with their children? What kind of support do they provide around homework? And those are ones that I think are a little obvious. But we can also think about the offhanded comments that parents say to children when they’re talking about math generally. Right? So, we see lots of memes going around, talking about how hard math homework is. And so, I think when parents say offhanded comments like, “I’m not a math person,” or “We’re just bad at math,” that communicates values to children. I think the most important thing we know from literature right now is that high math-anxious parents, when they interact with their children, their children learn less math over the course of the school year. And this specific mechanism by which that happens is still an area for a lot of research. And so some people think it’s about input. So maybe if I’m math anxious, I’m avoiding math. And so, when I have an option to read a picture book that has math content, I focus on the colors instead. And so, my child is actually getting less math than other children. We can also think it’s about these messages that are provided. So, when I talk about math, I send the message to my child, it’s not for them, and therefore the child wants to engage in it less. And some of my work looks at things like expectations and values. So, thinking about, “Do math-anxious families actually value math less than other families unintentionally?” And so, we have some support for this idea that they expect less of their children. And so maybe when they struggle, they respond in different ways than a family who’s lower in math anxiety.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:53):

This is so fascinating to me. I also was a kindergarten teacher. And I remember a mom who just … she had such like palpable math anxiety. And during one of our conversations, she was talking about these homework sessions with her daughter. And I may have mentioned this on the podcast before. But she was talking about how every night they would sit together and they would do all this math. They’d do, like, extra math together. And it always ended in tears. And despite her math anxiety, she didn’t want her daughter to experience the math anxiety that she did. So she was trying to pile it on, so her daughter was more proficient and comfortable. And instead, it was perpetuating this anxiety about it. And so, it’s a phenomenon then, right? Even if a parent is saying, like you said, maybe completely unwilling, this mother was actually trying to do the opposite. She was trying to help, you know, imbue the love and comfort with math. Right?

Marjorie Schaeffer (09:01):

Absolutely. This is why I think in my research, it’s really important that we find low-stakes, low-stress ways for high math-anxious families to do math. They absolutely can support their children in doing math. But they need a little support. We want it to be a fun, low-stakes environment, right? So maybe that’s the connection back to high-stakes testing, that I want children to have fun math experiences.

Dan Meyer (09:28):

Yeah. This is challenging, because it feels like the more caregivers know about math anxiety, and its pernicious effects on students, and how easily transmitted it is, one could become quite anxious about math anxiety. And, you know, no one makes great decisions when they’re anxious. So if I’m recalling our various episodes we’ve done, we’ve heard from people say, “Well, you need to validate students’ math anxiety. This is not something to just ignore or brush past. But also, not validate it in a way that says, you know, ‘This is OK and generational and inevitable.’” Which presents parents with a very thin path to follow, it seems like. So I love what you’re saying about how we gotta just de-stress the whole process.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:11):

You’re avoiding the whole, “I wasn’t a math person either” kind of thing. <laugh>

Dan Meyer (10:15):

Right, right, right. Yeah. So I’d love to know more. We’re excited about the technology that you have studied and helped develop, presumably, called Bedtime Math, anapp for caregivers. And I’d love to know more about what that is and what it offers parents who know enough about math to know that they don’t want to transmit math anxiety to their children, but also want to support. So what does that offer them?

Marjorie Schaeffer (10:39):

So Bedtime Math is an app. It’s freely available on iTunes or the Apple Store or Google Play. And what it’s designed to do is to provide a nightly topical passage. So one of my favorites is the one about Groundhogs Day. And so it talks a little bit about the history of Groundhogs Day, and then it asks math-related follow-up questions. So starting at a preschool level, going through late fifth grade. And it’s really meant for parents to pick the one that meets their children where they are. And so the preschool-level question asks children to pretend to be a groundhog and walk to the left and walk to the right. So a skill that families might not think about as being math, but we actually think that IS part of understanding math. Understanding left and right directionality. And then the next question can ask questions like, “If it took the groundhog three seconds to climb out of the hole, and then two more seconds to see its shadow, how much time did it take all together?” So a simple addition problem, but it’s phrased in a fun way. And so the hope is that for high math-anxious families, these interactions are fun and playful. They don’t look like fights over homework. They’re just conversations that families can have around topics that are naturally interesting to children. And our hope is that when families have lots of these positive low-stakes interactions, they actually can see that we can talk about math in unstressful ways. In lots of ways, right? We can also do this at the grocery store. We can also do this while we’re cooking in the kitchen. It doesn’t just have to be fights over homework.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:14):

And I actually have the Bedtime Math — one of the Bedtime Math books. And I was so excited to find out that there’s an app. And I think one of the things that I loved about the book is that these are invitations, right? They’re exactly that. Low pressure <laugh>, and they’re invitations to have a conversation. And if we were just to tell parents, “Oh, just count!” or, “Hey, just count wherever you go!” You know? No. It’s, in a way, I think, like you said, it’s retraining the parents on what math could look like. Like, “Oh, I didn’t even think we could just kind of have this conversation and we’re actually doing math together.”

Marjorie Schaeffer (12:55):

Yes, absolutely. I absolutely agree. We want it to be fun and playful and not stressful. And we want it to also be things that are meaningful to children’s lives. So these are topics children are interested in. It’s not that we are using flashcards or making children practice math facts over and over again. These are things children should wanna do that can naturally fit into a child’s routine. So almost all families read books before bed, and what we hope is that math can also be a part of the nighttime routine.

Dan Meyer (13:27):

There’s something really subtle here going on that I just wanna name and ask a question about. First of all, it’s cool that you started with studying high-stakes stuff and now you are developing low-stakes stuff. And I’m really curious what makes a thing low-stakes? Like, a few things I’m hearing from you is that there’s, like … I have a small child that I read literature to on a nightly basis. And I feel very anxiety-free doing that. And it’s almost as though, because each of the — tasks is the wrong word for this, but experiences — involve some reading, it puts me, the parent, in a mode that is comfortable and familiar to me. I’m curious: Are there other, as you design, what, one per day for a year? All these different experiences. What are some of the principles that you lean on that help make a thing low-stakes for kids and for parents?

Marjorie Schaeffer (14:17):

Yeah, that’s a great question. So one thing we wanted to be really intentional about is that our app doesn’t look like a lot of traditional apps. There isn’t noises that go off. You don’t enter an answer. And so one of the things that we thought made it low-stakes is that while there is a right or wrong answer — there is a correct answer — we aren’t giving children upsetting feedback. Instead, what we wanna encourage families to do is, if you struggle to remember how many seconds it took the groundhog to come out of the hole, you can work through that with a parent. So it doesn’t feel like you’re getting negative feedback; you’re being told you’re bad at math; you did it wrong. Instead, you’re just getting natural support moving forward. And so that’s one thing we wanted to be really intentional about, was that it wasn’t going to be a negative experience for children. And we are trying to build on all of the positive interactions families are having around nightly book reading. So many ways this can look very similar. You get to read another story that’s topical and hopefully interesting. And then do these little questions together. And so for a lot of families, their children don’t actually really look at the question. It almost feels like the parent is just asking them on their own. Like, they just came up with it. They just wanted to know what would happen to the groundhog. If there were three more groundhogs? How many groundhogs would we have all together? Not like it’s gonna be like homework or other parts.

Dan Meyer (15:38):

So my understanding is that there isn’t a blank into which people type a number in, press “submit” for evaluation, receive the red X, the green check. That’s a key part of the design here.

Marjorie Schaeffer (15:50):

Yes, absolutely. And for research purposes, we would’ve loved to know what families were saying. But we think it’s really important that it’s fun, interactive, that families are working together to get to the right answer, that it’s not a test for children.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (16:03):

In your research, when you were — maybe you could walk us through the study a little bit. But I’m also curious if you heard from parents that it was carrying over beyond the bedtime routine. Because I would imagine, if I am building these skills and reading these questions and learning that I could talk to my kid like this about math in a fun way, that’s gonna happen then, like you said, when I’m in the grocery store. Or when I’m waiting in line for at the bank. Or whatever, you know? People go into banks now still, right?

Marjorie Schaeffer (16:35):

Yeah, absolutely. So in our study, we recruited almost 600 families and we randomly assigned them. So they had an equal chance of getting both our math app and what we call our control app. And that’s really just a math app without the math. We think of it as a reading control app. And that’s because we wanna make sure that families are having a similar experience, that it’s not just that having high-quality, fun interactions with your child is actually impacting children’s math achievement. And so what we then did is followed those children over the course of early elementary school. And so we worked with them in schools in the fall and spring of first, second, and third grade, really to look at their math learning. And so what we find is that children of high math-anxious adults, when they have the reading app, so what we think of as what’s happening in the real world, we see that really classic gap between children of high math-anxious adults and children of low math-anxious adults. So if you have a high math-anxious parent, you’re learning about three months less math over the course of first grade. But for children who receive this math app, we see this gap as closed. Those children look no different than a low math-anxious parent. And so that’s leading us to think that we’ve helped families talk about math in fundamentally different ways. We did a little bit of just talking to families to see a little bit about what might be going on. And a lot of families do report exactly what you’re describing, where they say this did help them talk about math in different ways they were doing it other times.

Dan Meyer (18:10):

That’s a really extraordinary study design. I don’t know … I love that you folks gave the control group not nothing. Like it’s possible that just parents and kids bonding over a thing regularly would be enough to provoke some kind of academic gain. But you gave the control group a thing that had them interacting socially, bonding, and still this large common gap between high-anxious and low-anxious parents, their kids shrunk together. Is that what I’m gathering here?

Marjorie Schaeffer (18:41):

Yeah, absolutely. So we’re basically seeing we can no longer, when we look at children’s data, say that parents’ math anxiety explains individual differences. So these children look really similar. They’re learning more than children who has a high math-anxious parent and just got our reading control app.

Dan Meyer (19:01):

just diving into the study a little bit more here, what is the time commitment? Or, did you guide parents to say, “All right, we’re gonna do this do this delightful story about a badger for an hour”? Or did people do it for five minutes? And what was the time commitment, roughly, for people?

Marjorie Schaeffer (19:17):

So we tell families to do it however they see fit. Because it is an app, we are able to get some sense of how long, and we are talking about three to six minutes for many families. For a lot of families, they’re reading a paragraph, the paragraph and a half, and then answering one or two questions. They’re not going through every possible question. They’re just doing a little bit, really meeting their kids where they are.

Dan Meyer (19:39):

Roughly how many times per week was that?

Marjorie Schaeffer (19:41):

So we asked families to do it as much as it fit. But we’re seeing about two and a half on average in the first year. And so families are fitting it in a couple of nights a week. It’s not every night.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:52):

So what it sounds like you’re saying is what really was powerful about this app is that it was the space and time and prompts between the caregiver and the child, that chance to really sit down and have some of these meaningful and positive math interactions. How did it shift those relationships?

Marjorie Schaeffer (20:12):

So one of the things I think that makes the app effective is the changing of expectations. After a year, families are really using the app a lot less. And I think that’s OK, that they have found other ways to incorporate math into their lives. And we find that we don’t see an impact on their math anxiety, that they aren’t becoming less math anxious from this experience. Which I think makes sense, because they have had a lifetime of math anxiety. But we do see a change in parents’ expectations and value of math. So they expect their children will be better at math, and they also report that math is more important in their children’s lives. And so I think that’s an important part of it, which is, we can change these values for families, even if we aren’t able to change the math anxiety of the adults in children’s lives.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:01):

I want to for a second before — because I’m loving this idea of the app, and I’m excited to find out more ways to cultivate these conversations in my home and also share this with other folks. Because even folks who don’t even maybe realize they have math anxiety … like you said, so often it’s unconscious. So often we’re putting these little snippets into our everyday conversation, like, “Oh yeah, I’m not a math person.” And we don’t even realize how much is impacting our kiddos and ourselves, right? So I am really curious: What do you think … in your research, what were some other takeaways that you feel like are really strategies that we can think about for combating math anxiety in general?

Marjorie Schaeffer (21:47):

So I’m particularly interested in thinking about how math-anxious adults can help tone down their anxiety so that they can have high-quality interactions with their children, that they interact with. And so one of the big takeaways for my research, I think, is that math-anxious families can help their children with math. They just need support. And so I think there are lots of ways for that support to look like. One, I think it can be an app, but I also think reading a little bit about math can be really helpful. So it’s not new. So the first time you aren’t thinking about some of these ideas is as your child has their homework open in front of you. And so you can process your own feelings separately before you have to do it with a child. I also think reminding parents that math is everywhere and that math is actually lots of things that we all love to do. Math isn’t just calculus. Not that calculus isn’t wonderful. But that math is measuring, math is counting ducks at the park. Math is talking about how many times did I go down this slide. And talking about math in this way, I think reminds families that they are great at that. That even if maybe they’ve had bad math experiences before, they can do math. Especially the way their preschool or early childhood, early elementary school student needs them to. And I think that can then set the foundation for being really successful later.

Dan Meyer (23:13):

So is your research then, your subsequent studies, your line of inquiry, is moving more towards how to support parents, then? Is that what I’m hearing?

Marjorie Schaeffer (23:22):

Yeah. So I’m really interested in both understanding how the math anxiety of parents and teachers influences children. And so math anxiety is really common and we know that it’s particularly common in early elementary school teachers. And so it’s very likely that children are interacting with a highly math-anxious adult. And so I’m really interested in thinking about how we can support those individuals in doing it. And so both, I think, things like Bedtime Math, which provide fun, unscripted ways to do that, but I’m also interested in the teacher equivalent. So, thinking about whether having things like a math coach can help teachers have more positive experiences with math. So if you see someone else play math games with your students, can that help you do it as well?

Dan Meyer (24:09):

It makes me wonder a lot about an app for teachers or an app for parents, one that’s not designed to be co-consumed with kids and their parents. But what that would look like … yeah, that’s really interesting.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (24:21):

If we have a parent who, let’s say they have a third grader, fourth grader, fifth grader, or a middle schooler, right? Outside of early education. And they say, “OK, but what do I do? I’m with my kiddo; I don’t remember this math.” And they’re realizing that their anxiety may be influencing their kiddos’ disposition of mathematics, Or maybe they’re just in the midst of the battle <laugh>. What would you say to those folks, especially if it’s math that maybe they’re not comfortable with?

Marjorie Schaeffer (24:56):

One, I think we should like tone down the stress, right? Remind ourselves that it’s homework and homework feels really high-stakes, but these other outcomes are really high-stakes too, right? And so I’m really interested in the idea that can we help parents feel more comfortable about math by watching their own children teach it to them. So what’s a concept that the fourth grader actually feels really good about? And can they remind their parent how to do it? Can, together, they problem-solve the math homework? And so it’s not just on the parent to give the child the right answer. We know that’s a recipe for communicating some negative things about math. But instead, help the parent-child pair figure it out together. So what are some resources we can do? Can we look it up on the internet together? Can we write an email to the teacher together? Can we think about what are other problems that maybe we know how to do, and therefore we can use that same model here? So I want parents to feel like they are not solely responsible for it. That they can help figure it out with their child together. And so it’s a fun interaction.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:02):

I love that. I love that.

Dan Meyer (26:03):

Yeah. Yeah. That’s wonderful. Yeah. A conviction that I have, and I think it’s true, is that any math that we’re learning at middle school, the attraction can be dialed down to a degree that a very small child, or a parent who has a very small child’s understanding of math, can appreciate. So instead of calculation, estimation. Instead of proof, just make a claim about something. And it makes me wonder about a companion to the work that’s happening in schools that parents feel inadequate to support, that students might not want to teach their parents. But which they could both, on a daily basis, say, “Here’s a way we can engage in this at a level that is comfortable to both of us.” Just dreaming out loud here. No question asked. No response needed. I just love your work. And made me wonder about that. Can you let me know your thoughts about technology? It is very rare that we have someone on the call who is an academic and very well-versed in research, but who also is published not just in in papers and textbooks, but also in digital media. It’s consumed by lots of people. So I am trusting that you have opinions about how math looks in technology. And I wonder if you’d offer some thoughts about how it goes, right? How it goes wrong from your own eyes.

Marjorie Schaeffer (27:14):

OK. That’s a great question. I think that we need more research. I first wanna say that I think that technology has really exploded in the last few years. How children have access to technology and screen times has really changed. And what we need is high-quality research happening. That said, I think that all of the things we know from child-development research still apply to technology. And so we know that children learn best when they are engaging in interactions with their parents. And so when families can use technology together, or at least can talk about what’s happening, it can be really effective. I also think technology, especially math apps, are best at teaching concrete skills with very clear answers. So I think practicing math facts is a great use of technology. So I love that Sushi math app where you solve multiplication problems and then get to quickly pull the sushi off the cart, right? But for higher-level questions, where we’re thinking about word problems or where what we’re helping to teach students is complex thinking, apps have a harder time doing that. Because students can often figure out the answer without engaging in the thinking that we are hoping that they’ll learn. And so I think technology absolutely has a piece. I think technology is helpful for parents. I think the logistics of helping parents live their lives is a good reason to use technology. But I think we need to be conscious of what it’s replacing. And so I think a world in which we think fourth graders can learn math only from apps is not realistic. But absolutely apps can be a great supplement to what’s already happening in the classroom.

Dan Meyer (28:56):

Yeah, that’s super-helpful. We have done a lot of work in digital curriculum here at Amplify, and often face the question on a daily basis, “Should this math be digital or on paper? Should we have the students stand up and talk or type something?” And those decisions are way too crucial and way more sensitive than a lot of the app-based education gives credit to. So appreciate your perspective there.

Marjorie Schaeffer (29:22):

OK. And I don’t think there’s one answer, or one answer for all classrooms. I think it’s like always a balancing act. I do think that one of the reasons our work is successful is because the parent-child interaction. And we want parents to learn from these experiences. And I think the same thing is true for for teachers.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:41):

Dr. Schaeffer, thank you so much for being with us today and for sharing about your research, and again, for inviting us to reconsider ways that we can develop a more positive relationship with math. And that parent or caregiver or teacher relationship with a child, we’re seeing just how incredibly impactful that is. And I really appreciate your work and your voice on this. Thank you so much for your time.

Dan Meyer (30:07):

Thank you.

Marjorie Schaeffer (30:08):

Thank you for having me.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (30:12):

Thank you again, Dr. Schaeffer, and thank you all for listening to our conversation. You can check out the show notes for more on Dr. Schaeffer’s work and to see a link to the app that we shared about Bedtime Math.

Dan Meyer (30:25):

Please keep in touch with us on Facebook at Math Teacher Lounge Community, and on Twitter at MTLShow.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (30:32):

We would love to hear … you’ve been listening to this series; we’re dipping our toe into all these aspects of math anxiety. Is there something that you’re still wondering about? Something you wanna share about your own story with math anxiety?

Dan Meyer (30:43):

And if you haven’t already, if this is your first exposure to the Math Teacher Lounge podcast, please subscribe to Math Teacher Lounge, wherever you get your fine podcast products. And if you like what you’re hearing, please rate us! Leave us a review. You’ll help more listeners find the show.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (31:01):

And let a friend know. But you know, it’s, it’s nice and cozy here in the Lounge, right? There’s no pressure. We’re hanging out. It’s all about learning. We’re learning together. We’re glad you’re here and we want others in your community to join us in the Lounge as well. You can find more information on all of Amplify’s shows at our podcast hub. Go to amplifycom.wpengine.com/hub. Next time on Math Teacher Lounge, we’re gonna be chatting about where we are today that we weren’t a few months ago in this topic.

Dan Meyer (31:31):

We’ll be chatting about this last series about math anxiety, and trading our favorite insights and observations from the run of the season.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (31:41):

I just love this series, Dan. And thanks, all, for listening. We really appreciate having you in the Lounge.

Stay connected!

Join our community and get new episodes every other Tuesday!

We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month.

What Marjorie Schaeffer says about math

“We want it to be a fun, low-stakes environment, especially in high-stakes scenarios like testing. We want children to have fun math experiences.”

– Marjorie Schaeffer

Assistant Professor of Psychology at Saint Mary’s College

Meet the guest

Marjorie Schaeffer is an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Saint Mary’s College. She received her Ph.D in developmental psychology from the University of Chicago. Marjorie is interested in the role parents and teachers play in the development of children’s math attitudes and performance. She is specifically interested in the impact of expectations and anxiety and on children’s academic performance. Her work has been published in outlets including Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Developmental Science.

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About Math Teacher Lounge

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

You might also like:

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Math Teacher Lounge study guides

Track the tips and strategies you’re hearing with the MTL study guide!

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Free professional learning for math…

Join these live webinars to find tips and practices for enriching math instructi…

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Desmos Math 6–8 receives perfect sc…

Learn more about Desmos Math 6–8 green rating from EdReports!

Amplify ELA: Florida Edition professional development

Amplify ELA is an engaging and rigorous curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. With Amplify ELA, students learn to tackle any complex text and make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves.

We’ve created a wide suite of professional development offerings that will help you meet your unique needs this school year. Find out more below!

Professional Learning Partner Guide Certified Provider

Amplify CKLA, ELA, and Science professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

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Plan your professional development

We’re excited to partner with you on your Amplify journey. Flexible professional development pathways have been designed to meet your needs.

Infographic showing three stages: Launch (rocket icon), Strengthen (person with cube), and Coach (people rowing), each representing phases of a teaching support program throughout the school year.

Recommended professional development plan

Our team has curated a recommended professional learning path from initial launch to continuous support. Use the Professional Development Planning Guide below to discuss the plan that best meets your school or district needs with your Account Executive.

View the Professional Development Planning Guide

Sessions overview

Recommended sessions are highlighted below

Title Duration Modality Available
Launch
Comprehensive initial training for teachers 2 days consecutive Onsite Yes
Initial training for teachers 1 day Onsite Yes
Initial training for teachers 2 half days Remote Yes
Program overview Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Initial training for instructional leaders Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Strengthen
Enhancing observations for leaders Half day Onsite/Remote 09/01/22
Enhancing planning and practice Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Analytic reading Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Supporting all learners Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Data-informed instruction Half day Onsite/Remote Yes
Strengthen consultation session 1 hour Remote Yes
Strengthen consultation package 3 1-hour sessions Remote Yes
Coach
Coaching sessions 2 days consecutive Onsite Yes
Coaching sessions 1 day Onsite/Remote Yes
Half day Onsite/Remote Yes

Launch

Comprehensive initial training for teachers

2 days consecutive (6 hours per day, 12 hours total)

Prepare to implement and support Amplify ELA instruction in your schools! Learn how Amplify ELA supports students through rigorous and engaging ELA instruction. Participants will navigate the Amplify ELA platform, learn to give feedback on student work, and explore how to use Amplify ELA’s embedded supports and Reporting app to monitor student progress. Participants will engage in multiple opportunities to practice components of Amplify ELA and leave confident to begin teaching.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training for teachers

1 day (6 hours)

Prepare to implement and support Amplify ELA instruction in your schools! Learn how Amplify ELA supports students through rigorous and engaging ELA instruction. Participants will navigate the Amplify ELA platform, learn to give feedback on student work, and explore how to use Amplify ELA’s embedded supports and Reporting app to monitor student progress. Participants will leave with an action plan to begin teaching Amplify ELA.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Initial training for teachers

Two half days (3 hours per day, 6 hours total)

This full-day initial training session (6 hours) is split into two half-day sessions (3 hours each). Part 1 and Part 2 may be scheduled consecutively on the same day or on different days, ideally within ~2 weeks. The same participants should attend both sessions in order to receive all content about key components of Amplify ELA, which includes learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Program essentials

Half day (3 hours)

Learn the program essentials including how to navigate the digital curriculum, print materials components and how to locate assessments, data reports and other features associated with the curriculum.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants.
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training for instructional leaders

Half day (3 hours)

This training will provide district- and school-level instructional leaders with an overview of Amplify ELA so that they can support their staff in implementing Amplify. Learn basic navigation and gain an understanding of Amplify ELA’s approach to reading, writing, and language instruction. Participants will then have the opportunity to choose how to best support teachers by either developing a school-wide implementation plan or learning strategies for effective classroom observations.

Audience: Ideal for instructional leaders, principals, and district staff who oversee the implementation of the new curriculum, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Strengthen

Enhancing observations for leaders

Half day (3 hours)

Elevate your program knowledge to support colleagues with effective ELA implementation! Practice analyzing ELA lessons and identify key instructional elements and next steps. Participants will be prepared to analyze data and enhance classroom observations.

Prerequisite training: Initial training for leaders

Audience: Ideal for instructional leaders, principals, and district staff who oversee the implementation of the new curriculum, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Enhancing planning and practice

Half day (3 hours)

Dig into one unit to unpack standards, assessments, and student engagement. Through backward planning, this session guides teachers to think deeply about learning outcomes and key moments of formative assessments. Teachers will leave this session with a detailed plan of a unit of their choice that includes learning outcomes, key assessment moments, and aligned instructional strategies.

Audience: Ideal for new or experienced Amplify ELA teachers or coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Analytic reading

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will learn how close reading functions in Amplify ELA and which teacher moves support students as they tackle complex texts. Participants will learn how to facilitate a close reading session to support key reading routines, as well as promote academic discourse and the type of collaboration that drives analysis and deepens understanding.

Audience: Ideal for new or experienced Amplify ELA teachers, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Supporting all learners

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will learn how to effectively use embedded and differentiated supports and the Classwork app to support all students, including English language learners (ELLs), students with learning disabilities, struggling readers and writers, and advanced students.

Audience: Ideal for new teachers or instructional leaders who want to learn more about included supports in Amplify ELA, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-informed instruction

Half day (3 hours)

Participants will review their own student data using the Reporting and Classwork apps and align embedded supports to specific student needs. The goal of this session is to become proficient in turning Amplify ELA data into differentiated and targeted instruction.

Note: This course can be combined with the supporting all learners session to make a full day of training.

Prerequisite: 4–6 weeks of student data in Amplify’s Reporting app. It is recommended that teachers are in at least Unit B.

Audience: Ideal for teachers or support staff who want to learn how to use student data to inform instruction and provide differentiation, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Strengthening consultation session

1 hour

This 60-minute session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding of ELA and equip them with the tools needed to drive stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district leadership team in advance of the session on the topic (chosen from a menu of options) that will best meet educators’ unique needs. The menu includes sessions on engagement, pacing, and grading/assessment.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Strengthening consultation package

3 1-hour sessions

This package consists of three 60-minute sessions that can be delivered on the same day or on different days. Each session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding in ELA and equip them with the tools needed to drive stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district leadership team in advance of the session on the topic (chosen from a menu of options) that will best meet educators’ unique needs. The menu includes sessions on: engagement, pacing and grading/assessment.

Audience: Teachers and coaches, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Coach

Coaching session

2 days consecutive (6 hours per day, 12 total)

Strengthen your implementation of Amplify ELA with an onsite Coaching visit for your teachers and/or leaders. Participants can choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: lesson modeling and debrief (conducted by an Amplify ELA coach), grade-level planning, classroom observations, and leadership consultation. The flexible onsite coaching design allows for a collaborative approach to support effective program implementation.

Audience: Teachers, coaches, and/or instructional leaders, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Coaching session

1 day (6 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of Amplify ELA with an onsite Coaching visit for your teachers and/or leaders. Participants can choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: lesson modeling and debrief (conducted by an Amplify ELA coach), grade-level planning, classroom observations, and leadership consultation. The flexible onsite coaching design allows for a collaborative approach to support effective program implementation.

Audience: Teachers, coaches, and/or instructional leaders, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Coaching session

Half day (3 hours)

Strengthen your implementation of Amplify ELA with a Coaching session for your teachers and/or leaders. Participants can choose from a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to: lesson modeling and debrief (conducted by an Amplify ELA coach), grade-level planning, classroom observations, and leadership consultation. The flexible coaching design allows for a collaborative approach to support effective program implementation.

Audience: Teachers, coaches, and/or instructional leaders, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Pricing

We offer the following pricing for training sessions and packages:

Session type Pricing
2-day onsite session $4,800
1-day onsite session $3,200
1-day remote session (2 half days remote) $1,500
Half-day onsite session $2,500
Half-day remote session $750
1-hour remote session $350
3 1-hour remote sessions $1,000

Please note that the prices are general ranges and may be subject to change.

Contact

Amplify welcomes the opportunity to partner with schools and districts to design professional development plans and answer your questions.

If you would like to order any of our professional development services, please contact your local Amplify sales representative or call (800) 823-1969.

Amplify is proud to be an approved provider for LASO Cycle 4!

Amplify is the original HQIM leader in change management as the original program that initiated this transformation movement. Now it continues with YOU – our district partners.

Learn more and request a meeting HERE!

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Why choose Amplify?

For many years, districts across Texas have relied on Amplify as a trusted partner for their curriculum, instruction, and professional development needs. Backed by a strong regional team with deep Texas experience, our services have been thoroughly vetted for quality and expertise across the state supporting urban, suburban, and rural districts. Our partners can continue to count on the Amplify team for comprehensive support that is tailored to their unique district and campus needs. Amplify looks forward to walking alongside your district and school leaders as well as your teachers with coaching that ultimately drives the work forward to positively impact teaching and learning.

LIFT logo with three upward arrows and text reading “Leadership and Instructional Foundations for Texas.”.

What LIFT supports:

Curriculum adoption support
Conduct needs assessments and prepare for SBOE-approved HQIM or Bluebonnet adoption.

Professional learning and skill-building
Build instructional capacity through research-based training and coaching for leaders and teachers.

Observation and feedback systems
Design and refine feedback cycles that elevate classroom practice and instructional leadership.

Implementation training and PLCs
Establish sustainable systems for lesson internalization, data-driven collaboration, and student-focused improvement.

Learn more on TEA’s LIFT website.

Additional LASO Cycle 4 Support

In addition to LIFT, Amplify is an approved provider for the following LASO Cycle 4 Grants:

  • LIFT Add-On: School Improvement PLC Support (LIFT SI PLC)
  • School Improvement Curriculum and Instruction Support Grant (SI CISG)
  • Blended Learning Grant (BLG) (LIFT-BLG Supplemental Application submitted with updates to SAPL by 11/10)
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What district leaders and teachers are saying

“Our support with Amplify was outstanding! The coach was knowledgeable, engaging, and provided us with answers to all of our questions. We left ready to go back to our buildings even more prepared and with a clear plan!”

Welcome to the Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition program review site!

We’re excited to share everything you need to review Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, our K–5 core literacy program. On this site, you’ll find a range of materials, including Teacher Guides, Activity Books, and Student Readers, organized by grade and unit.

Please note that the files on this site are static representations of the high-quality materials you’ll receive with your purchase.

We hope you find the site helpful! If you have any questions, please reach out to your Amplify representative.

Reviewer resources

Access key materials designed to support your review of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Kindergarten

Explore all available resources for Kindergarten, organized by strand and unit.

Knowledge Strand

Unit 1: Star Light, Star Bright: Nursery Rhymes and Fables

Unit 2: See, Hear, Smell, Taste, Touch: The Five Senses

Unit 3: Underdogs and Heroes: Stories

Unit 4: See How They Grow: Plants

Unit 5: Moo, Cluck, Oink: Farms

Unit 6: Deep Roots: Introduction to Native American Cultures

Unit 7: All Around the World: Geography

Unit 8 (Choice): Royal Tales: Monarchs

Unit 8 (Choice): National Icons: Presidents and American Symbols

Unit 9 (Choice): Our Planet: Taking Care of the Earth

Unit 9 (Choice): Rain and Rainbows: Seasons and Weather

Unit 10: Shaped by Nature: Art and the World Around Us

Skills Strand

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

Unit 5

Unit 6

Unit 7

Unit 8

Unit 9

Unit 10

Ancillary Components

  

Grade 1

Explore all available resources for Grade 1, organized by strand and unit.

Knowledge Strand

Unit 1: The Moral of the Story: Fables and Tales

Unit 2: From Nose to Toes: How Your Body Works

Unit 3: Common Threads: Different Lands, Similar Stories

Unit 4: Reach for the Stars: Astronomy

Unit 5: Charting the World: Geography

Unit 6: A World of Homes: Animals and Habitats

Unit 7: A New Nation: American Independence

Unit 8 (Choice): Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tales

Unit 8 (Choice): Our Planet: The History of the Earth

Unit 9 (Choice): From Babylon to the Nile: Early World Civilizations

Unit 9 (Choice): Early Americas: Maya, Aztec, and Inca

Unit 10: Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge

Skills Strand

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

Unit 5

Unit 6

Unit 7

Ancillary Components

  

Grade 2

Explore all available resources for Grade 2, organized by strand and unit.

Knowledge Strand

Unit 1: Fortunes and Feats: Fairy Tales and Tall Tales

Unit 2: The Birthplace of Democracy: Ancient Greece

Unit 3: Legends and Heroes: Greek Myths

Unit 4: Our Planet: Cycles in Nature

Unit 5: Butterflies, Bees, and Beetles: Insects

Unit 6: A House Divided: The American Civil War

Unit 7: Sounds and Stanzas: Poetry

Unit 8 (Choice): Journeys to America: Immigration

Unit 8 (Choice): Making a Difference: Creating Change

Unit 9 (Choice): Building Blocks: All About Nutrition

Unit 9 (Choice): Early Asian Civilizations: India and China

Unit 10: Taking Flight: The Age of Aviation

Skills Strand

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

Unit 5

Unit 6

Ancillary Components

    

Grade 3

Explore all available resources for Grade 3, organized by unit.

Core Units

Unit 1: Timeless Tales: Classic Stories

Unit 2: Fur, Fins, and Feathers: Animal Classification

Unit 3: Rhythm and Rhyme: Poetry

Unit 4: Rise and Fall: Ancient Rome

Unit 5: Our Solar System and Beyond: Astronomy

Unit 6: Regions and Cultures: Native Americans

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: Charlotte’s Web

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: Stella Díaz Has Something to Say

Unit 8 (Choice): Systems and Senses: The Human Body

Unit 8 (Choice): From Glow to Echo: Light and Sound

Unit 9: From Blues to Bebop: All That Jazz

  

Supplemental Skills

Grade 3 Skills resources are included in core classroom kits, although the instruction isn’t required for Grade 3 standards coverage.

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

    

Grade 4

Explore all available resources for Grade 4, organized by unit.

Unit 1: My Story, My Voice: Personal Narratives

Unit 2: Knights and Castles: Europe’s Middle Ages

Unit 3: Meaning and Metaphor: Poetry

Unit 4: Eureka! Student Inventor

Unit 5: Our Planet: Geology

Unit 6: Road to Independence: The American Revolution

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: The Season of Styx Malone

Unit 8 (Choice): Crafting Stories: A World of Tales

Unit 8 (Choice): Adventure on the High Seas: Treasure Island

Unit 9: Inspiration and Ingenuity: American Innovation

Grade 5

Explore all available resources for Grade 5, organized by unit.

Unit 1: In My Own Words: Personal Narratives

Unit 2: Early Americas: Maya, Aztec, and Inca

Unit 3: Visions in Verse: Poetry

Unit 4: A Knight’s Tale: Don Quixote

Unit 5: The Deep Blue World: Oceans

Unit 6: Cultures and Histories: Native Americans

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: The Phantom Tollbooth

Unit 7 (Choice): Novel Study: The Science of Breakable Things

Unit 8 (Choice): Arts and Culture: The Renaissance

Unit 8 (Choice): Through the Forest: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Unit 9: Building Up the World: Global Architecture

  

Digital platform

Amplify CKLA’s all-in-one platform offers essential tools that streamline instruction for teachers and engage students with meaningful content. Teachers can plan and deliver lessons efficiently, while students can access assignments, assessments, and fun practice games.

A digital interface showing an assessment report on a monitor and a multiple-choice question on a tablet screen. Both screens display educational content from Amplify's assessment tools, providing personalized learning for multilingual learners.

Presentation Screens
Deliver interactive lessons with ready-made, customizable slides for every lesson.

Auto-scored digital assessments
Assess vocabulary, comprehension, and knowledge development at the end of each K–2 Knowledge and 3–5 Integrated Unit.

Standards-based reports
Identify strengths and growth areas for individuals, small groups, or your entire class. Interactive dashboards offer detailed results from assessments and activities.

Skill-building practice games
Engage students with interactive games that reinforce concepts and make learning fun. Powered by Boost Reading™, these games align with lessons and provide real-time feedback.

eReader
Students access texts, take notes, and use audio-enabled eReaders to enhance their reading experience.

Sound Library
Students watch articulation videos and listen to songs for each sound to support phonological awareness.

Vocab App
Helps students in Grades 3–5 practice Amplify CKLA Tier 2 vocabulary words with fun, interactive games.

Intervention Toolkit
Offers user-friendly resources designed to aid educators in identifying and addressing deficiencies in students’ foundation skills.

Welcome to your Amplify Science pilot!

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Welcome, Central Kitsap, to Amplify Desmos Math!

Amplify Desmos Math K-5 thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals.

Scroll to learn more about the program and explore sample materials.

About the program

We believe in math that motivates. Our structured approach to problem-based learning builds on students’ curiosity to develop lasting grade-level understandings for all students. 

The program motivates students with interesting problems they are eager to solve. Teachers can spend more time where it’s most impactful: creating a collaborative classroom of learners.

A powerful suite of math resources

Amplify Desmos Math combines the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.  Feel free to explore our grade-level ancillary samplers to learn more about assessment and reporting, intervention, and differentiation:

Grade K Ancillary Sampler

Grade 1 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 2 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 3 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 4 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 5 Ancillary Sampler

A digital interface displays a math screener report on the left and a math problem involving division, alongside a visual representation of students lined up on the right, integrating rich math resources from Amplify Desmos Math.

Assessment

mCLASS® Assessments, along with daily formative checks, measure not only what students know, but how they think. The asset-based assessment system provides teachers with targeted, actionable insights, linked to core and intervention resources. Visit our mClass Math site to learn more.

Two side-by-side math activities for children: on the left, a caterpillar-themed block challenge, and on the right, a worksheet for finding pairs that sum to 10. These exercises are fantastic ways to amplify children's engagement with math concepts.

Core instruction

Amplify Desmos Math lessons pair problems students are eager to solve with clear instructional moves for teachers. With low-floor, high-ceiling tasks every student can actively participate and be a part of the math community. Unit- and lesson-level core assessments give teachers data at their fingertips to guide and differentiate instruction.

A math lesson screen shows a toy sinking 5 meters into a pool. A textbox asks how many centimeters that is, with space for an answer and a "Try again" button. An avatar explains the question, using Desmos math tools to amplify understanding.

Differentiation

Boost Personalized Learning activities help students access grade-level math through engaging, independent digital practice. Responsive Feedback adjusts to students’ work, providing item-level adaptivity to further support their learning and offer personalized differentiation. Visit our Boost Math site to learn more. 

Two pages from a New York math textbook on determining coordinates after a rotation. Includes sections on modeled review, guided practice, and teacher's notes, with diagrams and examples that amplify the learning experience.

Embedded intervention

Integrated resources like Mini-Lessons, Fluency Practice, and Math Adventures provide targeted intervention on a specific concept or skill connected to the daily lesson. Extensions are also available to stretch students’ understanding.

Multilingual Learners

To support multilingual/English learners, Amplify Desmos Math incorporates research-based Math Language Routines (MLRs) by providing language modality strategies like sentence frames where appropriate, both in the teacher language provided for each task and in the differentiation support section found throughout the program. For further information on math language development, please see pg. 82 of the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

A male teacher in a red shirt explaining a lesson to a focused young female student in a classroom. other students are in the background.

Review Resources

To support your review of Amplify Desmos Math here are links to important K-5 review resources:

Two women in an office setting are smiling while looking at a tablet. Various educational icons surround the image.

K-5 sample materials

Click the links in the drop-down sections below to explore sample materials from each grade.  To see sample student responses, please click on the Teacher Edition pages and scroll to “Sample Student Work” (first one is about 30 pages in) or click on Intervention and Extension resources.   

For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components.

Digital educational material showing an activity named "Hamster Homes" involving tube length and platform heights for a hamster cage. Includes a diagram with platforms measuring 9 inches.
Screenshot of a kindergarten curriculum outline featuring units like Math in Our World, Numbers 1-10, Positions and Shapes, Understanding Addition, Making 10, and Shapes All Around Us. This comprehensive program utilizes New York Math standards to build foundational skills.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Kindergarten Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Teacher Edition featuring three children playing with math-related objects and a group of rabbits sitting nearby, aligning with the engaging curriculum seen in New York math classrooms.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Counting and Comparing Objects.

Educational activity screen displaying a blue backpack with icons, dot groups on the left, and a grid background. Prompt reads, "Look inside the backpack. Then choose the group with the same number of dots." A great tool to amplify Desmos math learning in line with New York math standards.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition Kindergarten," featuring an illustration of three children playing with math-related toys. A group of small white animals, possibly hamsters, play nearby. The scene brilliantly captures the joy of New York math exploration for young learners.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Centers Resources" featuring a large, stylized red and pink "C" on a light pink background with simple geometric designs. This distinctive cover complements New York math curriculums with its engaging visual elements.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Grade K." The title is displayed with a geometric "I" illustration in the center. Subtitle reads "Intervention and Extension Resources" on a pink and white background, ideal for New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

A digital activity screen, crafted in the style of Amplify Desmos Math, shows two paths with different quantities of mushrooms. The user is prompted to choose the path with more mushrooms. A bear is on the left side of the screen.

In this lesson, students apply their understanding of how to compare groups of images as they determine which group has more or fewer and then compare their strategies by guiding a bear through a path that has more mushrooms than the other.

Grade 1 math curriculum overview displaying six units with instructional and assessment days: counting, addition, subtraction, numbers to 10, comparing numbers, measuring length, and geometry—aligned with the New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 1 Amplify Desmos Math.

Children interact with math activities on a large tablet while observing fish illustrations. The text reads "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 1 Teacher Edition, aligned with New York Math standards.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Story Problems in Maui.

A digital math exercise, amplified by Desmos Math, showcases a story problem about adding kalo plants with three illustrations and a filled-out number sentence 3 + 4 = 7. A "Check" button is present. This tool aligns perfectly with New York math standards.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Illustration of three children engaged in math activities from the "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition 1" textbook. One child holds a number card, while the others manipulate counters and images, experiencing an exciting approach inspired by New York math techniques.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Centers Resources" for Grade 1, featuring a yellow and white 3D letter "C" on a light background.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 1: Intervention and Extension Resources" depicting a large, blocky number one and a yellow-themed design. Ideal for enhancing New York math curriculum.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An educational game screen, inspired by New York math standards, shows a subtraction problem, "4 - 1," with a frog moving along numbered lily pads to reveal the answer "3.

In this lesson, students find differences when subtracting 1 and 2 from the same number by helping a frog reach a lily pad where it can eat a bug.

A curriculum overview for Grade 2 in New York Math displaying 8 units, including topics like comparisons, addition, subtraction, and geometric shapes, with details on the number of instructional and assessment days. This plan integrates resources from Amplify Desmos Math to enrich learning experiences.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 2 Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 2 Teacher Edition, showcasing children measuring with rulers and a poster displaying a mathematical equation, set against whimsical scenery with a colorful dragon. Perfect for New York math classrooms.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting.

Activity screen displaying a task to estimate the number of animals in an aquarium, featuring a bar chart for goldfish, frogs, and shrimp. Utilizing Desmos math tools, an illustration of an aquarium with various animals is also included to amplify learning.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 2" showing three children performing a New York math activity with blocks and measurements.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of an educational book titled "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2 Centers Resources" featuring a green "C" on a light green background, perfect for enhancing New York math education.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2: Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a green numeral 1 on a light green background, aligning with the New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An educational activity where users must select the block with the correct number to make a total of 10 using the given block numbers. The UI, inspired by New York math standards, features a caterpillar and two tree stumps to amplify engagement with Desmos Math tools.

Students continue to develop fluency by finding the number that makes 10 by helping a millipede reach its favorite food – a clump of leaves!

An educational curriculum outline for Grade 3 with seven units covering various mathematics topics, including multiplication, shapes, fractions, and measurement. Suggested instructional days are provided. The New York Math approach ensures a thorough understanding of each concept.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of a "Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition" book, featuring a cutaway building with diverse students and a teacher working on New York math problems and organizing materials.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Concepts of Area Measurement.

Educational software displays a challenge to determine the area of an unpainted wall. The wall features a door and window with given dimensions, and a mouse pointer hovers near the question, amplifying the student's engagement.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 3" showcasing illustrated children engaged in various mathematical activities inside a glass house structure, reflecting the dynamic energy of New York math.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of the Amplify Desmos Math Grade 3 Centers Resources book, featuring a 3D letter "C" in blue and white on a minimalistic background, perfect for aligning with New York math standards.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of an "Amplify Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 3 book featuring intervention and extension resources, with a blue geometric "I" on a light blue background, aligning with New York Math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

A page titled "Activity 2" features a table showing counts of rabbits, raccoons, and foxes, an image of animal stickers, and a bar graph representing the number of each animal, designed to amplify your New York math lesson with engaging visual data.

Students compare data represented on bar graphs with different scales by using animal stickers to create scaled bar graphs.

A course outline for Algebra 1 with 8 units, each detailing the number of instructional and optional days. The total suggested instructional days are 144 and 28 optional days, aligning with New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 4 Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Teacher Edition Grade 4" showing children learning New York Math outdoors, using large mathematical tools and numbers, with one child in a wheelchair.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Size and Location of Fractions.

Educational screen showing an interactive activity from Amplify Desmos Math where a user drags a point to cut a log into quarters. The progress is 2 out of 10.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 4," showcasing students collaborating on math problems involving shapes and numbers against a vibrant backdrop that blends cityscapes and natural scenery, capturing the essence of New York math learning.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 4 Centers Resources book, featuring a large, stylized blue letter "C" on a light blue background. This essential resource for New York math educators ensures engaging and effective instruction.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 4: Intervention and Extension Resources," featuring a geometric illustration and a blue and orange color scheme inspired by New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

Interactive educational activity asking users to determine platform heights using a 3-inch tube. The interface, inspired by Desmos math tools, features a dragging function and feedback system with a checkbox and "Try another" option, amplifying the learning experience.

Students choose tube lengths to connect to platform heights for hamster homes, identifying possible heights using what they know about multiples.

A Grade 5 curriculum scope and sequence chart with units covering volume, fractions, multiplication, shapes, place value, and measurement. Each unit lists instructional and assessment days to amplify Desmos Math activities.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 5 Amplify Desmos Math.

Illustration of three students engaging with various math activities outdoors and around large blocks. Text at the top reads "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 5, Teacher Edition" - a perfect resource for New York math educators.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Fractions as Quotients.

A digital activity prompt showing a scenic landscape with bamboo shoots and a panda. Using Desmos math tools, the task is to estimate the length where the third bamboo shoot should be placed for the panda to reach a leaf. This exercise is designed to amplify your understanding of spatial reasoning.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition, Grade 5" featuring students engaged in various mathematical activities outside, such as block building, measuring, and gardening—a perfect resource aligning with New York math standards.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 5 Centers Resources" featuring a large purple letter C on a light purple background, showcasing the innovative approach of Amplify Desmos Math that's making waves in New York math education.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 5: Intervention and Extension Resources," featuring a large, stylized number five in purple against a light purple background with minimal geometric patterns, ideal for New York math curriculum support.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An interactive screen showing an activity about decomposing a figure into prisms, with a touch of Desmos Math integration. The user is asked to drag points to demonstrate the decomposition. Two prism illustrations are displayed, offering a glimpse of New York Math's approach.

Students decompose a figure into rectangular prisms and determine the volume of the figure by adding the volumes of the individual prisms.

Contact Us

If you have any questions throughout your review process or need additional samples, please don’t hesitate to contact:

Alicia O’Neil

Account Executive

425-890-6103

aoneil@amplify.com

Request additional samples

Ready to learn more? Connect with an Amplify Desmos Math expert to request additional program samples.

The 6–8 ELAR solution for Texas Home Learning

Your TEKS-aligned Texas language arts and reading core and supplemental resources have been built specifically for middle school learners—wherever their learning takes place.

What is Amplify ELAR?

Amplify ELAR Texas is a high-interest TEKS-aligned blended language arts and reading curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. With Amplify ELAR, students learn to tackle any complex text by making observations, grappling with interesting ideas, and finding relevance for themselves. Students are engaged through dynamic texts, lively classroom discussions, and meaningful digital experiences.

  • Full TEKS coverage: Standards are clearly labeled in each lesson, so teachers can save time planning and get back to what they love: teaching.
  • Five levels of differentiation: Based on each student’s needs and the performance measures within Amplify ELAR reports, a teacher can choose the differentiation level that’s right for everyone.
  • Embedded assessments: Teachers benefit from uninterrupted instructional time and a continuously updated picture of each student’s progress with key skills and standards.
  • Powerful feedback tools: Comprehensive tools help teachers maximize both the quantity and quality of feedback.
  • Robust reporting: Our Reporting app offers information on student progress to inform instructional decisions.
  • All in one place: Embedded teacher support, differentiation tools, student data, text, and other curriculum features—all right at your fingertips.

Built to engage your students

Amplify ELAR Texas includes rich multimedia resources designed to engage all your students, wherever they’re learning. Linked directly within the digital program, these resources will allow your students to access text in new ways. This innovative way for students to interact with the text they are presented will expand their personal comprehension toolkit while opening up a new world of literature.

Amplify Reading Texas 6–8

Amplify Reading Texas: 6–8 Edition is a digital reading program for grades 6–8, designed to teach analytic reading through instruction and practice using both literary and informational texts. The program takes the form of an interactive graphic novel called The Last Readers, in three “books” of 6–8 chapters.

Professional learning

Amplify employs a national cohort of 50+ ELA facilitators, all of whom have experience as former classroom teachers and many of whom are former school and/or district leaders. Our professional learning team has decades of experience working with large districts across the nation. Amplify has experience supporting district launches over multiple years and has partnered with districts of all sizes nationwide. We develop deep partnerships with districts, tailoring professional learning to their unique needs.

Sign-up

If you are interested in using Amplify’s Texas Home Learning resources for grades 6—8, select the appropriate button below.
Individual teachers not part of a school or district enrollment, caregivers and parents watch this video or use this document to guide you through the steps in the self-enrollment process.

Parents/Caregivers Teachers School/district Leaders

District, school or ESC leader sign up

you are a leader of a district, school or ESC and want to use these resources school- or district-wide, please fill out the form to the right. If you are a teacher choosing to use Amplify resources for one class (not the whole school or grade) or if you are a parent/caregiver, please click here.

Pasco County’s review of the B.E.S.T. program for middle schools, Amplify ELA Florida Edition

To view this protected page, enter the password below:



Welcome to Amplify ELA!

Amplify ELA is a cutting-edge and effective program that engages middle school students through a unique blend of digital and print lessons, dynamic texts, lively discussions, and interactive Quests. Not only is it the only ELA curriculum truly built for the needs of middle school teachers and students, its instructional approach is designed to extend the Science of Reading into the middle grades.

Note: We’re continually adding information to this site, including specific details regarding our alignment with your non-negotiables. Keep checking back with us between now and April 20, 2023.

Getting started

On this site, you’ll find a variety of resources designed to support your review and evaluation of the program. Before you start scrolling, watch the video below to learn about Amplify ELA’s alignment to Nevada’s literacy initiatives as well as where to find key program resources.

Curriculum overivew

Amplify ELA helps students develop the essential skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and features:

  • Comprehensive print materials, including Teacher Editions, Student Editions, and Writing Journals for grades 6–8.
  • A year’s worth of instruction for each grade.
  • Complex, content-rich literary and informational texts.
  • Differentiation that supports all students with reading complex texts, and an interactive eReader with an array of multimedia tools.
  • Embedded assessments that allow for uninterrupted instructional time.
  • The Amplify Library—a digital collection of more than 700 full-length texts.

In the videos below, hear about current educators’ experience with Amplify ELA and the positive impact it has made in their classrooms.

Engaging and effective content

Powerful digital tools and assessments

Program features

Amplify ELA’s hybrid curriculum empowers teachers to decide when and how their students use technology without the worry of compromising learning. Whether implemented in high tech or low tech classrooms, teachers can easily and confidently provide 100% standards coverage.

Amplify ELA’s structured yet flexible lessons are grounded in regular routines while still allowing for a variety of learning experiences and continuous student engagement.

Take a closer look at the program’s structure and the sequence of activity types that appear in a typical lesson.

There is never a dull moment on a middle school campus. For that reason, some schools appreciate having a flexible pacing option. Our abridged lesson pathways ensure full coverage of the standards in just 100 lessons.

Amplify ELA features high-quality lessons grounded in great books, with powerful multimedia tools to immerse young adolescents in reading, writing, and speaking.

Our rich and relevant texts are more than just excerpts. With more than 700 full titles in our digital library plus a variety of Novel Guides, Amplify ELA engages and inspires middle schoolers with great works, including poetry, rhetoric, and Spanish selections.

Based on individual student needs and performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, teachers are able to select the differentiation level that’s best for each student. When students reach an activity, the platform delivers the assigned differentiation, allowing all students to experience the same lesson with supports tailored to their unique needs.

  • Our close reading apps bring texts to life for students. Students zoom in on specific moments of the text and trace characters’ emotions throughout a text, gather evidence to build a case, and create storyboards that render their understanding of a text.
  • The Vocab App strengthens vocabulary skills with fun and fully differentiated adaptive games, repeated encounters with new words across multiple contexts, and an interactive stats page that helps students track their own progress.
  • Quests are fun, week-long explorations that help students practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills while building a strong classroom community. In each Quest, students step into the world of the text they have been reading. They interact with different complex texts in multiple formats and media, gather evidence from these texts and interactions with classmates, and work together to achieve the Quest goal.

With Amplify ELA, your students will benefit from embedded assessments that maximize instructional time and allow them to keep learning without the disruption of step-away performance tests.

In addition, as students complete activities within lessons and units, Amplify ELA teacher and admin reports provide a continuously updated picture of how each student is progressing with key skills and standards. Data is gathered from daily learning moments, allowing you to keep teaching while building a clear understanding of student performance.

Providing feedback has never been easier. With Classwork, teachers can review student writing and multiple choice answers and easily add scores and comments (and even emojis) all in one place, giving students the immediate feedback they need to further develop their confidence and literacy skills.

Curriculum review

Digital navigation walkthrough

Physical materials walkthrough

Curriculum implementation

See our Science of Reading solutions in action! Click here to see a real example of how one Ohio district is implementing and educating their K–8 community on the Science of Reading as a response to Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement Initiative.

Access the program

Before logging in, download and review this digital navigation guide.

Explore as a teacher

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the ELA Digital Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: t1.ccsd-68-ela@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-ccsd-68-ela
  • Click the ELA icon
  • Select a grade level
ELA Digital Platform

Explore as a student

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the ELA Digital Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: s1.ccsd-68-ela@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-ccsd-68-ela
  • Click the ELA icon
  • Select a grade level
ELA Digital Platform

Check out these additional resources

Nevada submission resources:

Amplify ELA review resources:

Welcome to Amplify CKLA!

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) is a cutting-edge and effective core ELA program for students in grades K–5. It was developed in partnership with the Core Knowledge Foundation, features proven evidence-based instructional practices, and was specifically designed to help teachers implement Science of Reading principles.

Note: We’re continually adding information to this site, including specific details regarding our alignment with your non-negotiables. Keep checking back with us between now and April 20, 2023.

Getting Started

On this site, you’ll find a variety of resources designed to support your review and evaluation of the program. Before you dive in, watch the Orientation Overview and Program Overview videos below to learn about CKLA’s alignment to CCSD’s ELA adoption requirements, as well as where to find key program resources.

[Video] Orientation Overview

[Video] Program Overview

In the video below, learn about CKLA’s structure and materials, as well the research behind the curriculum.

Evidence-Based

[Video] Pedagogical Overview with Simple View of Reading

In the video below, Amplify’s Chief Academic Officer Susan Lambert shares the big picture of CKLA, and explains why it was created and the impact it’s making across the country. Below are a few portions of the video that you may find particularly helpful as you conduct your review.

  • 0-1:00 Why CKLA?
  • 1:00-4:40 How CKLA was built on the Simple View of Reading
  • 4:40-8:00 How to review the CKLA Components
  • 8:00-end Teacher Testimonial

[Features] Supporting the Simple View of Reading

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

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

See our Science of Reading solutions in action! Click here to see a real example of how one Ohio district is implementing and educating their K–8 community on the Science of Reading as a response to Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement Initiative.

Great reading instruction starts with helping kids develop great decoding skills. By building a solid foundation of phonological awareness and phonics, reading the words on the page becomes automatic so that comprehension and critical thinking can happen. Our instruction is supported by:

  • Step-by-step lessons with multisensory approaches, clear lesson objectives, and embedded formative assessments.
  • Decodable books and student readers with ebook and audiobook versions that feature engaging plots and relatable characters.
  • An engaging sound library with fun songs and videos that develop phonological awareness.
  • An interactive Vocab App featuring engaging activities with immediate feedback and automated, customized instruction based on student performance.

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

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

Easy-to-Use Materials

Amplify CKLA offers a number of digital and multimedia resources to support instruction and enhance the teacher and student experience.

  • Amplify CKLA Digital Experience Site: All teacher and student materials are posted on this site for planning and information purposes, including Teacher Guides, Readers, Activity Books, Ancillary Materials, videos, additional resources, and links to other useful sites, such as the Professional Learning site.
  • The Professional Learning Site: This site includes training materials, best practices, and other resources to develop program expertise. Access professional development anywhere, anytime.
  • Intervention Toolkit: The Intervention Toolkit provides easy-to use resources to assist teachers in filling gaps in students’ foundational skills. Teachers will find hundreds of activities to support phonics, fluency, comprehension, handwriting, and other key skills.
  • The Science of Reading: The Podcast: Hosted by Susan Lambert, The Podcast delivers the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Each episode takes a conversational approach and explores a timely topic related to the Science of Reading.

In addition to the videos below, our CKLA Components Guide can be a helpful tool as you explore the materials provided within your sample tubs.

[Video] Physical Materials Walkthrough

As you explore your physical samples, the material walkthrough video below can be a helpful resource. In particular, we suggest watching the following portions of the video.

  • 0-4:38 CKLA components for K–2
  • 4:38-7:00 CKLA components for 3–5
  • 7-7:30 CKLA Program Guide
  • 10:12-13:20 CKLA’s Teacher Resource Site

Note: The below video covers both our K-5 program (Amplify CKLA) as well as our 6-8 program (Amplify ELA).

[Video] Digital Materials Walkthrough

In the video below, learn about CKLA’s digital tools for teachers and students across both classroom and asynchronous environments.

As you prepare to explore our digital platform, be sure to watch and refer to the video below.

Diverse Texts

In Amplify CKLA, texts serve a variety of purposes, from building background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension to building decoding and fluency skills.

In grades K–2, instruction is segmented between two strands: Knowledge and Skills.

  • Reading within the Knowledge Strand is centered around authentic read-alouds and trade books that are intentionally sequenced to build content knowledge and vocabulary in specific domain topics around literature, history, science, and the arts. Because research shows that students’ listening comprehension outpaces their reading comprehension until their early teens, Amplify CKLA strategically uses read-aloud text in this strand, allowing students to focus their cognitive energy on gaining meaning from the words and better understanding from the images.
  • Reading within the Skills Strand centers around carefully crafted Student Readers that teach students how to read. Structured as chapter books, these readers are 100% decodable and were developed to align with Amplify CKLA’s scope and sequence for phonics, directly connecting instruction to student practice in connected texts. Students use the Readers to practice decoding, fluency, and comprehension during shared reading lessons, targeted close reading sessions, in small groups, and independently.

In grades 3–5, integrated units bring the Skills and Knowledge strands together as students become increasingly automatic and strategic in their word recognition and language comprehension skills. Student reading and comprehension activities involve a variety of reading materials:

  • Authentic Read-Alouds and trade books ensure students encounter a variety of perspectives as they use these complex text to increase their knowledge while practicing vocabulary and listening comprehension skills.
  • Student Readers connect to each theme and are designed to increase in complexity over time, providing a continual challenge as students’ reading and listening comprehension skills develop and strengthen throughout the year.
  • Novel Guides provide teachers a flexible option for extending authentic reading and text-based activities in the classroom using award-winning and acclaimed novels.
  • ReadWorks articles give students access to additional high-quality texts aligned to both Amplify CKLA knowledge topics and the topics outlined in the Common Core State Standards.

Decodable Readers at Grades K–2

Our Decodable Readers are designed to progress in skills, mirroring the scope and sequence of instruction, which allows students to immediately apply what they are learning to 100% decodable text. More specifically, our decodables:

  • Are uniquely designed to provide intensive practice with the CKLA code while students read compelling and engaging stories and informational texts for the first time.
  • Gradually introduce students to “tricky” spelling concepts, such as different sounds that use the same letter code.
  • Increase in text complexity (i.e., content, length, and vocabulary) as students progress through the grades.
  • Include fiction and nonfiction text.
  • Are available as ebooks and audiobooks.

Below, you can see how students grow from year-to-year across grades K–2.

Student Readers at Grades 3–5

By grades 3–5, students have mastered the basics of decoding and are hungry to use what they’ve learned to reach out to the world. Although Read-Alouds remain an important part of lessons, students are also encouraged to practice independent reading starting in grade 3 with the support of carefully crafted Student Readers. These readers are chock-full of various text types, cultural stories, and a blend of fiction and nonfiction texts that are tied to and support the overarching theme of the unit.

Read-alouds

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.

Trade books

Our optional Trade Book Collection (and suggested list of additional trade books) align with our grade-level topics, and extend the knowledge students are learning through an authentic text.

Novel Guides

Novel Guides bring students beyond the CKLA curriculum. We provide fifteen full days of instruction on contemporary trade books, as well as writing prompts that help students navigate the authentic literature they love.

ReadWorks

Amplify CKLA and ReadWorks® have partnered to deliver high-quality texts curated to support the Amplify CKLA 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.

Reading resources

The following resources may be helpful as you explore our approach to reading and the role that diverse texts play in the program.

Writing

CKLA is rich with opportunities for students to develop, practice, and hone their writing skills. While the shape of writing instruction looks slightly different at each grade level, a commonality across all grades K–5 is that writing isn’t taught in isolation. Rather, it’s embedded within the context of each unit, and is connected to what students read.

At Grades K–2, writing takes place in both the Skills and Knowledge strands.

  • Explicit instruction in writing skills (such as sentence structure) and handwriting takes place in the Skills Strand, and is tied to the decodable readers used within each unit.
  • Extended writing and writing process activities take place in the Knowledge Strand.

At Grades 3–5, writing is embedded through the integrated units.

  • Across each unit, students work on smaller, more discrete writing skills alongside their Student Reader. These skills eventually culminate at the end of each unit in the form of a writing project.
  • In 4th and 5th grades, we expand writing even further with the addition of Poetry units.

Writing and text-dependent questions

The overwhelming majority of questions, tasks, and assignments in CKLA materials are text-dependent. Every CKLA unit and domain is based around key texts that are either read aloud, with a peer, or independently. These readings are followed by class discussions where students are expected to refer to these texts when answering literal, inferential, and evaluative questions, both orally during class discussions and through written responses.

  • Literal questions assess students’ recall of key details from the text. These are text-dependent questions that require students to paraphrase and/or refer back to the portion of the text where the specific answer is provided.
  • Inferential questions ask students to infer information from the text and to think critically. These text-dependent questions require students to summarize and/or reference the portions of the text that lead to and support the inference they are making.
  • Evaluative questions ask students to build on what they have learned from the text using analytical and application skills, often to form an opinion or make a judgment. These questions require students to paraphrase and/or cite the textual evidence that substantiates their argument or opinion.

In addition, students are often asked to generate additional questions based on the texts. Students further demonstrate understanding in writing by applying what they have learned and providing evidence from the text to back up their answers and opinions. For example, Grade 3 students learning about sea exploration write a paragraph from the perspective of a sailor on John Cabot’s ship, stating their opinion of whether the hardships they experienced are worth the adventure or glory and citing examples from the text to support their response. Grade 5 students studying the Adventures of Don Quixote write a four-paragraph persuasive essay arguing whether they believe Don Quixote’s good intentions justify his often calamitous actions, using reasons and evidence from the text to support their claims.

Writing with authentic literature

Novel Guides are designed around authentic texts students love. They not only help students foster a love for reading, they also present authentic opportunities for students to express themselves through writing. Novel Guides provide daily text-based writing and discussion through five activity types:

  • Ask contains questions for discussion, reflection, or brief written responses. These questions cover information all students should understand as they read the text.
  • Explore prompts offer brief research opportunities centered around items mentioned in the text.
  • Imagine activities promote creativity and further reflection.
  • Observe items ask students to take notes or make other kinds of observations about what they have read.
  • Understand questions push students to explore connections to the text.

Writing and enrichment

Writing tasks throughout the program provide almost limitless opportunities for extension. Feedback from the teacher, peers, and self-reflection provide students opportunities to strengthen their writing. For example, advanced students can be encouraged to:

  • Use more complex and unusual descriptive vocabulary.
  • Incorporate figurative language into their writing.
  • Write multi-clause sentences with more complex joining words.
  • Create longer or richer opinion, explanatory, and narrative pieces.
  • Evaluate the use of informational textual characteristics and use in their own writing (e.g., headers, bullets).

Writing resources

The following resources may be helpful as you explore our approach to writing and how writing develops across the program.

Access the program

Explore as a teacher

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

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the CKLA Teacher Resource Site button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: t1.ccsd-k5-ckla@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-ccsd-k5-ckla
  • Click the CKLA Teacher Resource icon
  • Select a grade level
CKLA Teacher Resource Site

Explore as a student

Before logging in, watch this brief video on navigating the CKLA Student Hub.

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the CKLA Teacher Resource Site button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: s1.ccsd-k5-ckla@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-ccsd-k5-ckla
  • Click the CKLA Teacher Resource icon
  • Select a grade level
CKLA Student Hub

Check out these additional resources

Nevada submission resources:

CKLA review resources:

Nevada ELA Review for grades 6–8

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for 6–8.

Amplify ELA is a cutting-edge and effective program that engages middle schools students through a unique blend of digital and print lessons, dynamic texts, lively discussions, and interactive Quests.

Getting started

On this site, you’ll find a variety of resources designed to support your review and evaluation of the program. Before you start scrolling, watch the video below to learn about Amplify ELA’s alignment to Nevada’s literacy initiatives as well as where to find key program resources.

Curriculum overivew

Amplify ELA helps students develop the essential skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and features:

  • Comprehensive print materials, including Teacher Editions, Student Editions, and Writing Journals for grades 6–8.
  • A year’s worth of instruction for each grade.
  • Complex, content-rich literary and informational texts.
  • Differentiation that supports all students with reading complex texts, and an interactive eReader with an array of multimedia tools.
  • Embedded assessments that allow for uninterrupted instructional time.
  • The Amplify Library—a digital collection of more than 700 full-length texts.

In the videos below, hear about current educators’ experience with Amplify ELA and the positive impact it has made in their classrooms.

Engaging and effective content

Powerful digital tools and assessments

Program features

Amplify ELA’s hybrid curriculum empowers teachers to decide when and how their students use technology without the worry of compromising learning. Whether implemented in high tech or low tech classrooms, teachers can easily and confidently provide 100% standards coverage.

Amplify ELA’s structured yet flexible lessons are grounded in regular routines while still allowing for a variety of learning experiences and continuous student engagement.

Take a closer look at the program’s structure and the sequence of activity types that appear in a typical lesson.

There is never a dull moment on a middle school campus. For that reason, some schools appreciate having a flexible pacing option. Our abridged lesson pathways ensure full coverage of the standards in just 100 lessons.

Amplify ELA features high-quality lessons grounded in great books, with powerful multimedia tools to immerse young adolescents in reading, writing, and speaking.

Our rich and relevant texts are more than just excerpts. With more than 700 full titles in our digital library plus a variety of Novel Guides, Amplify ELA engages and inspires middle schoolers with great works, including poetry, rhetoric, and Spanish selections.

Based on individual student needs and performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, teachers are able to select the differentiation level that’s best for each student. When students reach an activity, the platform delivers the assigned differentiation, allowing all students to experience the same lesson with supports tailored to their unique needs.

  • Our close reading apps bring texts to life for students. Students zoom in on specific moments of the text and trace characters’ emotions throughout a text, gather evidence to build a case, and create storyboards that render their understanding of a text.
  • The Vocab App strengthens vocabulary skills with fun and fully differentiated adaptive games, repeated encounters with new words across multiple contexts, and an interactive stats page that helps students track their own progress.
  • Quests are fun, week-long explorations that help students practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills while building a strong classroom community. In each Quest, students step into the world of the text they have been reading. They interact with different complex texts in multiple formats and media, gather evidence from these texts and interactions with classmates, and work together to achieve the Quest goal.

With Amplify ELA, your students will benefit from embedded assessments that maximize instructional time and allow them to keep learning without the disruption of step-away performance tests.

In addition, as students complete activities within lessons and units, Amplify ELA teacher and admin reports provide a continuously updated picture of how each student is progressing with key skills and standards. Data is gathered from daily learning moments, allowing you to keep teaching while building a clear understanding of student performance.

Providing feedback has never been easier. With Classwork, teachers can review student writing and multiple choice answers and easily add scores and comments (and even emojis) all in one place, giving students the immediate feedback they need to further develop their confidence and literacy skills.

Curriculum review

Digital experience overview

Physical materials walkthrough

Curriculum implementation

See our Science of Reading solutions in action! Click here to see a real example of how one Ohio district is implementing and educating their K–8 community on the Science of Reading as a response to Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement Initiative.

Access the program

Before logging in, download and review this digital navigation guide.

Explore as a teacher

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Access digital curriculum button below.
  • Click to review as a teacher.
  • Pick your grade level from the drop-down menu.
  • Scroll down to find additional grade-level resources.
Access digital curriculum

Explore as a student

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Access digital curriculum button below.
  • Click to review as a student.
  • Pick your grade level from the drop-down menu.
  • Scroll down to find additional grade-level resources.
Access digital curriculum

Check out these additional resources

Nevada submission resources:

Amplify ELA review resources:

Oregon ELA State Review for 6–8

To view this protected page, enter the password below:



Utah ELA Review for Grades 6–8

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for middle school.

Amplify ELA is a blended English language arts curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. With Amplify ELA, students learn to tackle complex text, make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find reading relevance for themselves.

Illustration of a diverse group of people and nature elements, featuring a prominent figure with floral hair decorations and a scene of communal interaction in the background.

Step 1: Program Introduction

Welcome to Amplify ELA! Before you dive into our materials, watch the video below to learn about Amplify ELA’s unique instructional design, built specifically for middle schoolers.

Step 2: Program Overview

Amplify ELA is a core curriculum designed to deliver a unique research-based approach designed to get all students reading grade-level text together.

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

The Amplify ELA Program Guide also provides an in-depth view of how Amplify ELA works, how it’s structured, and why it’s uniquely capable of helping you bring evidence-based instructional practices to life in the middle school classroom.

Evidence-based design

Amplify ELA is rooted in extensive research in learning, cognition, and how middle school students develop literacy skills.

As such, Amplify ELA features four research-based principles of engagement that support teachers in meeting key developmental needs, and help students become confident, active learners. In addition, Amplify ELA has been proven to drive outcomes for middle school students. Read the ESSA studies below to learn more.

Key features

Amplify ELA’s new, hybrid curriculum empowers teachers to decide when and how their students use technology without the worry of compromising learning. Whether implemented in high tech, low tech, or no tech classrooms, teachers can easily and confidently provide 100% standards coverage.

Download the Remote and hybrid learning guide to learn how we support in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction.

Amplify ELA’s structured yet flexible lessons are grounded in regular routines while still allowing for a variety of learning experiences and continuous student engagement.

Take a closer look at the program’s structure and the sequence of activity types that appear in a typical lesson.

Amplify ELA features high-quality lessons grounded in great books, with powerful multimedia tools to immerse young adolescents in reading, writing, and speaking.

Our rich and relevant texts are more than just excerpts. With more than 700 full titles in our digital library plus a variety of Novel Guides, Amplify ELA engages and inspires middle schoolers with great works, including poetry, rhetoric, and Spanish selections.

Based on individual student needs and performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, teachers are able to select the differentiation level that’s best for each student. When students reach an activity, the platform delivers the assigned differentiation, allowing all students to experience the same lesson with supports tailored to their unique needs.

What’s more, when logging in each morning, teachers will be greeted by their Amplify ELA Homescreen where they can view a snapshot of student performance, access reports, see which students are struggling, and easily return to where they left off the day before.

  • Our close reading apps bring texts to life for students. Students zoom in on specific moments of the text and map out character traits, trace emotions throughout a text, and gather evidence to build a case. These apps are also flexible so teachers can create their own activities for Amplify ELA core texts, texts in the library, and texts they bring in from other sources.
  • The Vocab App strengthens vocabulary skills with fun and fully differentiated adaptive games, repeated encounters with new words across multiple contexts, and an interactive stats page that helps students track their own progress.
  • Quests are fun, week-long explorations that help students practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills while building a strong classroom community. In each Quest, students step into the world of the text they have been reading. They interact with different complex texts in multiple formats and media, gather evidence from these texts and interactions with classmates, and work together to achieve the Quest goal.

With Amplify ELA, your students will benefit from embedded assessments that maximize instructional time and allow them to keep learning without the disruption of step-away performance tests.

In addition, as students complete activities within lessons and units, Amplify ELA teacher and admin reports provide a continuously updated picture of how each student is progressing with key skills and standards. Data is gathered from daily learning moments, allowing you to keep teaching while building a clear understanding of student performance.

Providing feedback has never been easier. With Classwork, teachers can review student writing and multiple choice answers and easily add scores and comments (and even emojis) all in one place, giving students the immediate feedback they need to further develop their confidence and literacy skills.

Step 3: Program Resources

Digital navigation walkthrough

Physical materials walkthrough

Step 4: State Review Resources

Utah submission resources:

ELA review resources:

Step 5: Program Access

Explore as a teacher

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

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Amplify ELA Teacher Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the teacher username and password found on the login flyer PDF.
  • Click the ELA icon.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Amplify ELA Teacher Platform

Explore as a student

Before logging in, watch this brief video on navigating the Amplify ELA Student Platform.

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

  • Click the Amplify ELA Student Platform button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the student username and password found on the login flyer PDF.
  • Click the ELA icon.
  • Select a grade level from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Amplify ELA Student Platform

What’s included in our literacy curriculum for 6–8

Amplify ELA is a blended literacy curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. The heart of every lesson is the text. Our core English Language Arts curriculum enables teachers to teach skills through texts and develop their students’ muscles for building meaning through reading. With Amplify ELA, students learn to attack any complex text and make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves.

Year at a glance

Each grade includes six core units centered on literary or informational texts, delivered in several forms of media. In addition to these main units, students will engage with targeted Grammar lessons and a dedicated Story Writing unit, plus two to three immersive learning experiences called Quests.

Grade 6 core units

Dahl & Narrative

1 assessment lesson
4 sub-units | 28 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Mysteries & Investigations

1 assessment lesson
5 sub-units | 32 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

The Chocolate Collection

1 assessment lesson
5 sub-units | 25 lessons | 4-6 weeks

The Greeks

Myth World Quest

1 assessment lesson
4 sub-units | 25 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Summer of the Mariposas

1 assessment lesson
2 sub-units | 27 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

The Titanic Collection

1 assessment lesson
5 sub-units | 25 lessons | 4-6 weeks

Grade 7 core units

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Red Scarf Girl

1 assessment lesson
4 sub-units | 31 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Character & Conflict

1 assessment lesson
4 sub-units | 29 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Brain Science

Perception Academy Quest

1 assessment lesson
4 sub-units | 25 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Poetry & Poe

The “Who Killed Edgar Allen Poe” Quest

1 assessment lesson
5 sub-units | 29 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

The Frida & Diego Collection

1 assessment lesson
5 sub-units | 25 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

The Gold Rush Collection

1 assessment lesson
5 sub-units | 25 lessons | 4-6 weeks

Grade 8 core units

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Perspectives & Narrative

1 assessment lesson
4 sub-units | 27 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Liberty & Equality

1 assessment lesson
6 sub-units | 38 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Science & Science Fiction

1 assessment lesson
3 sub-units | 29 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet

1 assessment lesson
2 sub-units | 22 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

The Holocaust: Memory & Meeting

1 assessment lesson
6 sub-units | 21 lessons | 4-6 weeks

A man with a mustache looks through a microscope at a slide, with abstract yellow lines in the background.

The Space Race Collection

1 assessment lesson
5 sub-units | 25 lessons | 4-6 weeks

Units at a glance

Amplify ELA lessons follow a structure both grounded in regular routines and flexible enough to allow for a variety of learning experiences. Lesson structures vary from day to day, ensuring that students are always engaged.

Learn more in the Amplify ELA Grade Overview.

Unit 6A

Dahl & Narrative

Students begin with narrative writing to develop foundational Focus skills and establish key classroom routines. Teachers use this work to create targeted feedback cycles and build a vibrant community centered on diverse experiences. Students then apply observational skills to Roald Dahl’s Boy: Tales of Childhood, learning to work closely with textual evidence.

Unit 6B

Mysteries & Investigations

Students read like an investigator to embark on a multi-genre study into the mesmerizing world of scientific and investigative sleuthing. The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing by Suzanne Jurmain, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories take place in the late 19th century, when medical diagnostics and criminal investigations were still evolving into scientific fields.

Unit 6C

The Chocolate Collection

Students explore primary documents and research the diverse cultural roles chocolate has played over 3,700 years, from its various uses in ancient Mexico to issues with modern production. Along the way, they build information literacy skills, craft research questions, and collaborate in Socratic seminars. Students also learn how to construct an evidence-based argument and use those skills to write pieces aimed at convincing readers about chocolate preferences, school lunch policies, and recommendations for local candy stores.

Unit 6D

The Greeks

Students closely explore and analyze three stories from Greek mythology: “Prometheus,” “Odysseus,” and “Arachne.” Drawing on the routines and skills established in previous units, these lessons ask students to move from considering the state of a single person to contemplating broader questions concerning the role people play in the world and the various communities they inhabit.

Unit 6E

Summer of the Mariposas

Students read Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe García McCall, a contemporary Latino retelling of The Odyssey. Following five sisters on their journey into Mexico and back, students explore this reimagining of the hero’s journey as they encounter Mexican folklore and Aztec legends along the way. Students analyze character development, compare the novel to Homer’s original, research Aztec mythology, explore symbolism, and engage in collaborative discussions before writing an essay about what makes the heroes successful.

Unit 6F

The Titanic Collection

Students explore primary documents and conduct research to understand the 1912 Titanic disaster, building information literacy skills by examining artifacts such as dining menus, ship photos, telegraph transcripts, and newspaper accounts. Each student is assigned a passenger from the manifest and writes a narrative account from that person’s perspective, considering different views. Students also participate in Socratic seminars to examine the complicated issues within the Titanic story.

Unit 7A

Red Scarf Girl & Narrative

Students begin with narrative writing to develop foundational Focus skills while teachers establish targeted feedback cycles and build a classroom community centered on diverse experiences. After exploring how they describe their own experiences and emotions, students apply the same close attention to analyzing details in Ji-li Jiang’s Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution.

Unit 7B

Character & Conflict

Students analyze characters’ responses to conflict and examine how authors use character interactions to develop theme and perspective. They read Carson McCullers’ “Sucker” and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, both texts that explore how families facing hardships can support and harm one another. Students observe complex character growth and discuss issues of identity, family obligations, and differing notions of success.

Unit 7C

Brain Science

Students explore narrative nonfiction and informational texts about brain science to understand what it means to be human and how their developing brains impact daily experiences. They also build awareness of their cognitive strengths and analyze the structures of informational texts and scientific arguments. Key texts include Phineas Gage, Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain, and Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

Unit 7D

Poetry & Poe

Students learn visualization techniques to read like a movie director, beginning with poems by D.H. Lawrence, Federico García Lorca, and Emily Dickinson to form mental images. They then read three Edgar Allan Poe texts, creating storyboards and analyzing narrative elements to learn about unreliable narrators. Students also participate in the murder-mystery Quest “Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe?” and write an essay arguing whether they can trust a narrator in the unit’s texts.

Unit 7E

The Frida & Diego Collection

Students explore primary source documents and research on Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, learning how they drew inspiration from Latin American folklore, politics, and customs. Along the way, students build information literacy by generating research questions and visual analysis skills through close reading of key paintings. They also compare the artists’ descriptive writing to Shakespeare’s and analyze figurative language. The unit culminates in a research project showcasing their interpretation of Frida and Diego’s work and legacy.

Unit 7F

The Gold Rush Collection

Students explore primary documents and conduct research on the California Gold Rush, building information literacy skills and constructing research questions. They also learn about the diverse people who participated, compare fictional and historical accounts, and participate in Socratic seminars. Students write narrative accounts from specific perspectives and complete a culminating research assignment combining essay and media project elements.

Unit 8A

Perspectives & Narrative

Students learn to read like writers, paying attention to craft and writing moves that shape reader experience and developing Focus and Showing skills as they build collaborative classroom routines. Students study three narrative texts, exploring themes of belonging and identity through close reading. They also practice alternating between analytic and narrative writing, and conclude with an essay arguing whether the mothers in Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks” are role models. 

Unit 8B

Liberty & Equality

Students study Civil War-era writings that debate the meaning of “all men are created equal,” exploring various perspectives on American ideals. Key texts include Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Frederick Douglass’ Narrative, and Harriet Ann Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The unit culminates with an essay examining Douglass’s arguments and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address to consider what America means by “all men are created equal.”

Unit 8C

Science & Science Fiction

Students read Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, a graphic novel adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel, exploring themes of creator responsibility, societal influence, and the risks of scientific inquiry. They trace Victor’s sympathy for his creation, rewrite scenes from the creature’s perspective, and debate whether Victor owes the creature a companion. The unit concludes with an essay determining whether the creature should be considered human.

Unit 8D

Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet

Students read five excerpts from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to learn key elements of Shakespearean English through close reading. They practice memorizing and reciting the famous “Prologue,” put on stage performances, translate Shakespeare’s language into contemporary terms, and study the Shakespearean sonnet form. The unit concludes with an essay arguing whether love or hate is responsible for Romeo’s death.

Unit 8E

Holocaust: Memory & Meaning

Students use close reading to explore memoirs and primary sources that address two key Holocaust questions: How do societies become participants in atrocity, and what are our responsibilities as witnesses? Students analyze multiple perspectives through texts, including Alexander Kimel’s “I Cannot Forget,” Irene Butter’s Shores Beyond Shores, 1936 Olympics propaganda, and excerpts from Maus and Night.

Unit 8F

The Space Race Collection

Students explore primary documents and conduct research on the Space Race. They build information literacy skills, construct research questions, and learn about diverse participants from Soviet cosmonauts to American heroes like Buzz Aldrin and Katherine Johnson. Each student researches an assigned cosmonaut or astronaut and writes space blog entries from their perspective. Students also complete a capstone research essay and media project.

Print & digital components

The program includes instructional guidance and student materials for a year of instruction, with lessons and activities that keep students engaged every day.

A diagram shows the Amplify ELA curriculum with examples of the digital teacher edition on a tablet, print teacher edition pages, and a teacher projection of an artwork on a screen.

Teacher materials

Teacher Edition

Available digitally and in print, the Teacher’s Edition contains all the information teachers need to facilitate classroom instruction, including detailed lesson plans, video teacher tips, presentation slides, standards alignment, Exit Tickets, real-time differentiation strategies, and robust reporting.

Student materials

Student Edition

Available digitally and in print, student materials guide middle schoolers through complex texts and writing by engaging them with high-quality narrative and informational texts—providing videos, audio supports, and a digital experience that captures their attention. They also keep all of their writing in one place with a personal Writing Journal.

A collection of Amplify ELA materials including a print student edition, a digital student edition on a laptop, a writing journal, and an Arachne literature module.

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West Virginia’s review of the program built for middle schools, Amplify ELA

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Review of the B.E.S.T. program for Palm Beach middle schools, Amplify ELA Florida

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South Carolina ELA Review for grades 6–8

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s core ELA program for 6–8.

Amplify ELA is a cutting-edge and effective program that engages middle schools students through a unique blend of digital and print lessons, dynamic texts, lively discussions, and interactive Quests.

Illustration of a diverse group of people and nature elements, featuring a prominent figure with floral hair decorations and a scene of communal interaction in the background.

Getting started

On this site, you’ll find a variety of resources designed to support your review and evaluation of the program. Before you start scrolling, watch the video below to learn about Amplify ELA’s alignment to South Carolina’s literacy initiatives as well as where to find key program resources.

South Carolina review documents

Please use the provided Amplify credentials to access the ELA content cited below.

What is Amplify ELA 6-8?

Amplify ELA helps students develop the essential skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and features:

  • Complex, content-rich literary and informational texts.
  • Differentiated supports throughout the program that allow every student to engage deeply with the same complex texts, and an interactive eReader with an array of multimedia tools.
  • Embedded assessments that allow for uninterrupted instructional time.
  • Comprehensive print materials, including Teacher Editions, Student Editions, and Writing Journals for grades 6–8.
  • The Amplify Library—a digital collection of more than 700 full-length texts.

In the videos below, hear about current educators’ experiences with Amplify ELA and the positive impact it has made in their classrooms.

Why Review ELA 6-8?

Amplify ELA’s hybrid curriculum empowers teachers to decide when and how their students use technology without the worry of compromising learning. Whether implemented in high tech or low tech classrooms, teachers can easily and confidently provide 100% standards coverage.

Amplify ELA’s structured yet flexible lessons are grounded in regular routines while still allowing for a variety of learning experiences and continuous student engagement.

There is never a dull moment on a middle school campus. For that reason, some schools appreciate having a flexible pacing option. Our abridged lesson pathways ensure full coverage of the standards in just 100 lessons.

Amplify ELA features high-quality lessons grounded in great books, with powerful multimedia tools to immerse young adolescents in reading, writing, and speaking.

Our rich and relevant texts are more than just excerpts. With more than 700 full titles in our digital library plus a variety of Novel Guides, Amplify ELA engages and inspires middle schoolers with great works, including poetry, rhetoric, and Spanish selections. This extensive booklist can be customized to meet individual district needs and preferences.

Amplify ELA Novel Guides provide middle school teachers with flexible study guides for the books they most want to teach and provide students with lean, targeted instruction that follows the pedagogy in core units. The diverse selection of books in this series presents a range of genres and themes, from mystery to non-fiction and from social justice to identity and courage.

All Novel Guides are housed in the Amplify Library as downloadable and printable PDFs. They’re designed to be used flexibly and include suggestions for implementation.

A selection of these guides are also available as digital units, accessible by teacher and student and fully aligned to the corresponding print novel guide. The digital versions of these Novel Guides allow all students to read the text, complete activities, and submit work through Amplify’s curriculum application.

Based on individual student needs and performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, teachers are able to select the differentiation level that’s best for each student. When students reach an activity, the platform delivers the assigned differentiation, allowing all students to experience the same lesson with supports tailored to their unique needs.

  • Our close reading apps bring texts to life for students. Students zoom in on specific moments of the text and trace characters’ emotions throughout a text, gather evidence to build a case, and create storyboards that render their understanding of a text.
  • The Vocab App strengthens vocabulary skills with fun and fully differentiated adaptive games, repeated encounters with new words across multiple contexts, and an interactive stats page that helps students track their own progress.
  • Quests are fun, week-long explorations that help students practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills while building a strong classroom community. In each Quest, students step into the world of the text they have been reading. They interact with different complex texts in multiple formats and media, gather evidence from these texts and interactions with classmates, and work together to achieve the Quest goal.

With Amplify ELA, your students will benefit from embedded assessments that maximize instructional time and allow them to keep learning without the disruption of step-away performance tests.

In addition, as students complete activities within lessons and units, Amplify ELA teacher and admin reports provide a continuously updated picture of how each student is progressing with key skills and standards. Data is gathered from daily learning moments, allowing you to keep teaching while building a clear understanding of student performance.

Providing feedback has never been easier. With Classwork, teachers can review student writing and multiple choice answers and easily add scores and comments (and even emojis) all in one place, giving students the immediate feedback they need to further develop their confidence and literacy skills.

Digital navigation walkthrough

SC ELA Navigation Guide

Access the resources

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

Amplify literacy success K-8

See our Science of Reading solutions in action! Click here to see a real example of how one Ohio district is implementing and educating their K–8 community on the Science of Reading as a response to Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement Initiative.

Additional resources

Amplify ELA review resources:

Georgia ELA State Review for 6–8

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Public review of the B.E.S.T. program for Florida middle schools, Amplify ELA Florida Edition

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Welcome, Granite SD, to Amplify CKLA!

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

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

Step 1: Program Introduction

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

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

Step 2: Program Overview

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

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

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

Evidence-based design

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

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

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

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

Key features

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

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

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

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

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

Watch this video to learn more!

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

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

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

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

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

Read our EdReports review
Read our Knowledge Matters review

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

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

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

Click the buttons below to learn more:

What is Boost Reading?
How does Boost Reading work with CKLA?

Step 3: Program Resources

Easy-to-use print materials

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

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

Engaging CKLA digital experience

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

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

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

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

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

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

CKLA review resources

Step 4: State Review Resources

Step 5: Program Access

Explore as a teacher

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

Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

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