Amplify Desmos Math thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each math 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.
What is Amplify Desmos Math?
Amplify Desmos Math supports teachers in building students’ lifelong math proficiency. The program:
Supports social classrooms, invites mathematical creativity, and evokes wonder, creating a welcoming learning space where students are empowered to see themselves and their classmates as having brilliant mathematical ideas.
Provides teachers with clear, step-by-step moves to build systematically from students’ prior knowledge to grade-level learning.
Connects students to each other’s thinking and to an understanding that they can use math to make sense of the world.
Enables access to grade-level understanding for every student, every day.
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.
Data informs instruction. Comprehensive student profiles provide full data on students’ assets and skills, empowering teachers to provide just-in-time scaffolds throughout core instruction and targeted intervention when needed.
Ready to Explore?
Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:
Click the links below to explore our interactive digital lessons, where you’ll also find print Teacher Edition and Student Edition pages for each lesson.
For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download our Grades K–5 and Grades 6–Algebra 1 program guides.
You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components with a lesson walkthrough video.
Amplify Desmos Math includes digital, adaptive practice that provides the personalized support a student needs to access grade-level math every day. Personalized Learning activities target a skill or concept aligned to the day’s core lesson, with each student receiving personalized scaffolds based on what they already know. This technology complements daily learning and provides another layer of support to the in-lesson differentiation and instructional guidance provided to teachers. Click here to try a Boost Personalized Learning activity. More activities coming soon!
The Fluency Practice of Amplify Desmos Math uses an evidence-based approach to memory retention—spaced repetition—for the basic operations. Students around the world have answered more than 120 million multiplication questions within our application. Try it now!
Contact us
Support is always available. Our team is dedicated to helping you every step of the way. Contact your dedicated Florida representative here for program access, samples, and additional information.
Jeff Rutter
Field Manager Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties jrutter@amplify.com (727) 407-5801
Amanda Shelley
Account Executive Broward County Schools ashelley@amplify.com (321)-693-3518
Tom Gantt
District Manager Miami Resident tgantt@amplify.com (305)-546-2979
Survey
We’re interested in learning more about you. Please fill out this survey!
Program overview
Boost Lectura is a high-quality, personalized Spanish literacy foundational skills program that complements Amplify Reading to build reading proficiency in both English and Spanish for grades K–2.
Student field study experience
Note: This is an early subset of the program experience. Some content may be appropriate for some students, but difficult for others. This is feedback we want to hear. The designs are also still in progress, with many aspects yet to be featured. Please email Aya Bukres with all suggestions!
Field study books and games
Below is a list of books and games (with associated skills) by grade level. Students will access these games and books through Quests.
Note: Books do not include voice-over at this time.
Kindergarten Books
¿Qué pasa con la gallina Tina?
¿Qué puedes hacer con los 5 sentidos?
¿Por qué croan las ranas?
Un festín de sabores
Un ¡pop! en tiempo
Los aluxes
El efecto mariposa
Las estaciones del año
Kindergarten Games
Game Name
Big Idea
Skill that will be practiced
Son sabrosón
Phonological Awareness
Rhyming
Alfa y beto
Phonological Awareness
Blending
Jugando ando
Phonological Awareness
Segmentation
Tragaletras exigentes
Phonics
Letter-sound correspondences
Tragaletras gruñones
Phonics
Letter combinations
Tragaletras comelones
Phonics
Review of letter-sound correspondences and letter combinations
Investiga la escena
Comprehension Processes
Gap-filling Inferences
Grade 1 Books
La leyenda de la colibrí
La capibara: Un animal amigable
Mi ruidoso cuerpo
El zorro y el huaychao
Deseos al sol
Grade 1 Games
Game Name
Big Idea
Skill that will be practiced
Alfa y beto
Phonological Awareness
Blending
Jugando ando
Phonological Awareness
Segmentation
Tragaletras exigentes
Phonics
Letter-sound correspondences
Tragaletras gruñones
Phonics
Letter combinations
Tragaletras comelones
Phonics
Review of letter-sound correspondences and letter combinations
Silabalón: la copa
Phonics
Syllable decoding
¿Aquí o alla?
Phonics & Word Recognition
Decoding words with y, g, and c
¿Esta o aquella?
Phonics & Word Recognition
Decoding words with different graphemes to represent the same phoneme
¡Abra palabra!
Phonics & Word Recognition
Decoding – syllable manipulation
Quita y pon
Phonics & Word Recognition
Decoding – syllable manipulation
¡Conéctalo!
Comprehension Processes
Using connectives
Investiga la escena
Comprehension Processes
Gap-filling inferences
Grade 2 Books
La despedida
La verdadera fortuna
La fascinante Ruta de la Seda
Bernardo de Gálvez
Hormigas amigas
Grade 2 Games
Game Name
Big Idea
Skill that will be practiced
¿Aquí o alla?
Phonics & Word Recognition
Decoding words with y, g, and c
¿Esta o aquella?
Phonics & Word Recognition
Decoding words with different graphemes to represent the same phoneme
¡Abra palabra!
Phonics & Word Recognition
Decoding – syllable manipulation
Quita y pon
Phonics & Word Recognition
Decoding – syllable manipulation
¡Conéctalo!
Comprehension Processes
Using connectives
Investiga la escena
Comprehension Processes
Gap-filling inferences
Consider using Boost Lectura during the following times:
Small group or center time
Choice time
During intervention blocks
After school
At home
Remote learning
Getting your students online
Instruct students to navigate to learning.amplify.com, and log in using the method you typically use when logging into Boost Reading.
Find and click on the icon for Boost Lectura, as shown above.
At this time, students can begin playing games or reading books by clicking on “Iniciar.”
Having students play games in Quests
Select a game from the list to play!
Students can play games in Quests by selecting the curioso icon.
Students should hear quest narratives in Spanish.
The Automatic Placement Tool (APT)
The Automatic Placement Tool will be served when students first log in and choose the Lectura product. The Experience should take about 15–20 minutes total.
Students are greeted with a comical animation explaining we need their help with answering a few questions.
Students are guided through a few short activities measuring different skills domains.
Students receive closure to their experience via another short animation.
Troubleshooting guide
Please check to ensure “cookies” are accepted on your device. If you still receive an error message or blank screen when accessing an Amplify page, please email Aya Bukres.
We recognize and respect the unique differences of each of our partnering districts—and that includes San Francisco USD.
Out of the box, Amplify Caminos offers districts a rich, comprehensive, research-based SELA experience. That said, no two districts are exactly alike. To that end, we are committed to working with San Francisco USD to ensure that Amplify Caminos addresses the needs of your community. This includes providing implementation guidance and support, as well as collaborating with your staff to determine which domains need to be modified or exchanged.
What is Amplify Caminos?
Amplify Caminos is a core Spanish language arts program for grades TK–5 that delivers:
Authentic instruction built from the ground up for the Spanish language.
A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge-building.
Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
Watch the video below to learn more about Amplify Caminos for Grades K–2.
Watch the video below to learn more about Amplify Caminos for Grades 3–5.
How does Amplify Caminos work?
Amplify Caminos is built on the science of how kids learn to read—in Spanish.
Amplify Caminos is all about helping you teach students how to read, all while giving them authentic and engaging reasons to read. That’s why Amplify Caminos develops foundational skills and builds knowledge in tandem.
Knowledge: Through complex and authentic Spanish read-alouds with an emphasis on classroom interactivity, oral comprehension, and contextual vocabulary, students start to build their awareness of the world around them—and the way the reading skills they’re building give them access to it.
Skills: Starting with the sounds at the core of the Spanish language, students practice their phonemic awareness, handwriting skills, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. Through daily practice, students become aware of the connection between reading and writing, building confidence as they go.
Respecting the development differences between grade ranges, Amplify Caminos teaches foundational skills and background knowledge as two distinct strands in grades K–2, and combines them into one integrated strand in grades 3–5.
Grades K–2: Every day, students in grades K–2 complete one full lesson that explicitly and systematically builds foundational reading skills in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand, as well as one full lesson that builds robust background knowledge to access complex text in the Amplify Caminos Conocimiento strand. Through learning in each of these strands, students develop the early literacy skills necessary to help them become confident readers and build the context to understand what they’re reading.
Grades 3–5: In grades 3–5, the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura and Conocimiento strands are integrated in one set of instructional materials. Lessons begin to combine skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis. Students can then use their skills to go on their own independent reading adventures.
What do Amplify Caminos students explore?
Amplify Caminos builds students’ knowledge about the world.
In addition to teaching all students to crack the written code (which is vital for equity), the Amplify Caminos program helps students see the strengths and experiences we all share while celebrating their own unique identities and experiences.
This is accomplished through the exploration of topics and text that feature people who resemble students and familiar situations or experiences while also exposing them to people whose appearances, lives, beliefs, and backgrounds differ from their own.
Engaging domains
Amplify Caminos builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.
Throughout the program, students use their skills to explore domains that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world as seen through the eyes of many different groups.
Carefully selected to build from year-to-year, our grade-appropriate topics help students make and deepen connections while also reading, writing, and thinking creatively and for themselves.
New Knowledge Research Units for Grades K–5
Our brand-new Knowledge Research units carry forward Amplify Caminos’ powerful and proven instructional approach while also:
Adding more diversity. The rich topics and highly visual components featured in these units provide students with even more “windows and mirrors” and perspectives as they work to build knowledge.
Adding more authentic literature. Each new research unit revolves around a collection of high-interest authentic trade books that will spark more curiosity and inspire more inquiry.
Adding more flexibility. Units can be implemented for extended core instruction during flex periods, district-designated Pausing Points, or enrichment periods.
Units cover a variety of rich and relevant topics:
With these new units, students will soar to new heights with Dr. Ellen Ochoa, Amelia Earhart, and the Tuskegee Airmen. They’ll feel the rhythm as they learn about Jazz legends Miles Davis, Tito Puente, and Duke Ellington. And they’ll explore the far reaches of the world with Jacques Cousteau, Matthew Henson, and Eugenie Clark.
Grade K: El arte y el mundo que nos rodea
Grade 1: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
Grade 2: ¡A volar! La era de la aviación
Grade 3: Jazz y más
Grade 4: Energía: pasado, presente y futuro
Grade 5: Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
Units will be made available in English and Spanish, and will include the following components:
Why we added this unit: “Every child is an artist,” said Picasso, meaning that every child uses art to explore and understand the world around them. El arte y el mundo que nos rodea honors that truth by introducing Kindergarten students to some of the ways in which artists have explored and understood the world around them.
This domain introduces students to artists from different time periods, countries, and cultures. Throughout the unit, students learn about different kinds of art and how artists use the world around them as they make art. They also connect this to what they have already learned about the earth, plants, and animals in other Caminos domains: Granjas, Plantas, and Cuidar el planeta Tierra. In addition, students connect this to what they have learned about sculptors in the Presidentes y símbolos de los Estados Unidos domain. As they explore different artists and artistic traditions, they develop their ideas about how humans are connected to each other and to the world around them.
As you read the texts in this unit, students may observe ways in which the characters or subjects are both similar to and different from students. This is a good opportunity to teach students awareness and sensitivity, building on the idea that all people share some things in common, even as they have other things that make them unique. This unit also offers an excellent opportunity to collaborate with your school’s art teacher, as many lessons have suggested activities to help students understand the kind of art they are studying.
Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
Use details to describe art.
Identify three ways to create art.
Identify characteristics of cave art.
Sequence the steps of making pottery.
Describe how artists can create work connected to the world around them.
Describe what makes Kehinde Wiley’s portraits unique.
Explain how the texture of a surface can affect artwork created on it.
Explain what a sculpture is.
Describe what makes James Turrell’s artwork about the sky unique.
Explain what a museum is and what kinds of things you can see or do there.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
Georgia O’Keeffe por Erica Salcedo
Yayoi Kusama: De aquí al infinito por Sarah Suzuki
Tejedora del arcoíris por Linda Elovitz Marshall
Las tijeras de Matisse por Jeanette Winter
El museo por Susan Verde
Quizás algo hermoso: Cómo el arte transformó un barrio por F. Isabel Campoy
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: This domain introduces students to adventure stories set around the world and challenges students to dig into the adventures through research. By listening to the Read-Alouds and trade books, students increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, learn valuable lessons about perseverance and teamwork, and become familiar with gathering information for research.
In this unit, students study the careers of real-world explorers Dr. Eugenie Clark and Sophia Danenberg, marvel at the inventions of Jacques Cousteau, think critically about how teamwork and collaboration can make greater adventures possible, learn about the science and technology that enable adventures, and research some of the ways humans have confronted challenges at the edges of the world, from the oceans below to space above.
Each lesson in the domain builds students’ research skills as they ask questions, gather information, and write a paragraph about their findings. Students share what they have learned about adventures in an Adventure Gallery Walkthrough. By taking on the persona of one of the adventurers they meet in the Read-Alouds and trade books, students deliver their final paragraphs as if they are a “speaking portrait” of that person. Students are invited to dress up as that adventurer if they desire.
In addition, teachers can set aside time outside the instructional block to create the picture frames students will hold as they present to the Adventure Gallery Walk guests. Frames can be made from shirt boxes, cardboard, construction paper, or any art supplies that are on hand. This might be an opportunity to collaborate with the school’s art department if resources are available. Another option is to ask students to make their frames at home with their caregivers. On the day of the Adventure Gallery Walk, students will be the hosts and take on specific jobs, such as welcoming the guests, describing their work throughout the unit, and pointing out the areas of study on the domain bulletin board. You can find a complete list of student jobs in Lesson 13.
How this unit builds knowledge: This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in the previous grade.
Rimas y fábulas infantiles (Kindergarten)
Cuentos (Kindergarten)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
My Name Is Gabito/Me llamo Gabito por Monica Brown
Galápagos Girl/Galapagueña por Marsha Diane Arnold
My Name Is Gabriela/Me llamo Gabriela por Monica Brown
El viaje de Kalak por María Quintana Silva y Marie-Noëlle Hébert
Señorita Mariposa por Ben Gundersheimer
Sharuko, el arqueólogo peruano/Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello por Monica Brown
Abuelita fue al mercado por Stella Blackstone
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: With this domain, students head up, up, and away with an introduction to the soaring history of aviation. Students learn the stories of early aviators, such as the Montgolfier brothers, the Wright brothers, Aida de Acosta, and Amelia Earhart.
During the unit, students study the science of flight, including the physics concept of lift, and research the social impacts of the world of flight. Finally, students let their research skills take flight as they explore key figures from the world of aviation.
The lessons in this domain build on earlier Grade 2 Caminos domains about the westward expansion, early Greek civilizations, and Greek myths, and lay the foundation for learning about other periods of world history in future grades.
How this unit builds knowledge: This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered earlier in the year.
La civilización griega antigua (Grade 2)
Mitos griegos (Grade 2)
La expansión hacia el oeste (Grade 2)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in ¡A volar! La era de la aviación. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
¡A volar! Todo sobre aviones por Jennifer Prior
Amelia sabe volar por Mara dal Corso
Héroes de la aviación que cambiaron el mundo por Dan Green
El niño que alcanzó las estrellas por José M. Hernández
La niña que aprendió a volar por Sylvia Acevedo
Buenas Noches Capitán Mamá por Graciela Tiscareño-Sato
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: This domain teaches students about the vibrant music, poetry, and culture of the Jazz Age in the United States. Students learn about famous writers and musicians like Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Melba Liston, Tito Puente, and Miles Davis. They study how the jazz art form took root in the South, then spread to the North to become the sound of the Harlem Renaissance, eventually connecting people around the world in musical expression.
During this unit, students perform guided research to further explore both the history of jazz and what jazz is today. They develop research skills and then use those skills to find deeper connections between the stories and music of the Jazz Age and music today. As students learn about the world of jazz, they collaborate and share ideas with their classmates. They also practice sharing feedback focused on their written work, and, at the end of the unit, students present their research to the group.
The lessons give students opportunities to dive into the rhythms and stories of jazz, utilizing the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
Collaboratively generate research questions about jazz, jazz musicians, contemporary musicians from the state where they live or have lived, and the evolution of jazz music.
Utilize Read-Alouds, independent reading, and partner reading to learn about the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz music, and biographies of celebrated jazz musicians and writers.
Research the answers to their generated questions, gather information, write a short research essay about a famous jazz musician, write a short essay about a contemporary musician from the state where they live or have lived, and give a presentation about their research.
How this unit builds knowledge: Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
Ask relevant questions and make pertinent comments
Identify details in texts
Determine key ideas of texts by evaluating details
Make text-based inferences
Generate questions based on prior knowledge and gathered information
Synthesize details across texts to demonstrate comprehension
Discuss and explain an author’s purpose
Identify and cite reliable primary and secondary sources of information
Compose a well-organized and focused informative essay
Make connections between topics
Present information using appropriate media
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
¡Esquivel! Un artista del sonido de la era espacial por Susan Wood
Ray Charles por Sharon Bell Mathis
Tito Puente, el Rey del Mambo por Monica Brown
Me llamo Celia, la vida de Celia Cruz por Monica Brown
¡Azúcar! por Ivar Da Coll
In this unit, students also read the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. (Available for free through the Academy of American Poets website and the Poetry Foundation website, with recorded audio available through the website for John Hancock College Preparatory High School.)
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: With this domain, students become tomorrow’s problem solvers in this study of energy in the United States. Analytical reading skills are developed by examining the challenges of early energy innovators. Students then read about current energy practices and young energy change-makers across the world.
Throughout the unit, students conduct research into different sources of energy and present a proposal, putting them in the shoes of future energy innovators. They also use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
Collaboratively analyze texts to identify cause-effect and problem-solution relationships.
Generate questions and conduct research about energy.
Write an opinion essay making their case for a fuel of the future.
Create energy proposals using primary and secondary resources.
How this unit builds knowledge: This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in previous grades as well as earlier in the year.
Plantas (Grade K)
La historia de la Tierra (Grade 1)
¡Eureka! Estudiante inventor (Grade 4)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Energía: pasado, presente y futuro. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
La historia de los combustibles fósiles por William B. Rice
El niño que domó el viento por William Kamkwamba y Bryan Mealer
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: Within this domain, Students learn about General Granger’s announcement in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, a day marked in history as Juneteenth. Texts and multimedia sources will support foundational knowledge-building about the end of slavery in the United States. A review of the first freedom announcement, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, provides students with background knowledge to further emphasize the significance of Juneteenth in American history.
This unit also takes students on a journey beyond Juneteenth, as they study specific contributions of African Americans from 1865 to the present day. Students participate in a virtual field trip to Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas and use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
Collaboratively generate research questions about Juneteenth, The Great Migration, innovators and inventors, education, the humanities, activists, and allies.
Use Read-Alouds, independent, and partner reading to learn about African American contributions from 1865 to the present.
Research to find answers to their generated questions, gather information, and write a four-chapter Beyond Juneteenth book.
How this unit builds knowledge: This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in previous grades.
Los nativos americanos (Grade K)
Una nueva nación: la independencia de los Estados Unidos (Grade 1)
La Guerra Civil de los Estaods Unidos (Grade 2)
La inmigración (Grade 2)
Los nativos americanos (Grade 5)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente . The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
Martí’s Song for Freedom/Martí y sus versos por la libertad escrito por Emma Otheguy
¡Celebremos Juneteenth! escrito por Carole Boston Weatherford
Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/La Historia de Dolores Huerta y César Chávez escrito por Monica Brown
Canto de alabanza para el día: Poema para la ceremonia inaugural del mandato de Barack Obama escrito por Elizabeth Alexander, traducido por Rodrigo Rojas
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Amplify Caminos puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day.
Amplify Caminos includes both transadaptations and authentic texts written by Latin American and Spanish authors. In addition to featuring a diverse range of authors and topics, our texts represent individuals and characters with a broad range of identity factors, including socioeconomic status, age, ability, race, ethnicity, country of origin, religion, and more.
Amplify Caminos texts include:
Authentic literature: Authentic literature exposes students to a variety of text types and perspectives to deepen their knowledge of fascinating topics in social studies, science, literature, and the arts. Authentic texts support text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections for readers.
Decodable Student Readers: Amplify Caminos is built on the conviction that equitable instruction is vital to an effective program. Decodable Student Readers at grades K–2 are newly re-designed to celebrate students’ diverse experiences and feature individuals with a broad range of identity factors, including socioeconomic status, age, ability, race, ethnicity, country of origin, religion, and more.
ReadWorks® texts: Amplify and ReadWorks have partnered to deliver high-quality texts curated to support the Amplify Caminos Knowledge Sequence and to extend student learning. Texts include high-interest nonfiction articles in topics in social studies, science, literature, and the arts. These texts are accompanied by vocabulary supports and standards-aligned formative assessment opportunities. Teachers can monitor their students’ progress using the ReadWorks reporting features.
Amplify Caminos Trade Book Collection Guide
Each book in our authentic literature collection was selected specifically to support and enhance the content of the K-2 Conocimiento Strand. These anchor texts are intended for use as an introduction to each domain—engaging students, piquing their curiosity, and building initial background knowledge—before diving into the deeper content of the domain Read-Alouds.
Every trade book has an instructional guide that includes the following:
Author and illustrator
Book summary
The Essential Question of the Knowledge domain, connecting the book to the domain
Key Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary words found in the book
A group activity to reinforce and extend students’ knowledge and understanding
A performance task to help gauge students’ comprehension of concepts in the text
Writing prompts to expand understanding and critical thinking
Text complexity ratings and descriptors for quantitative, qualitative, and reader/task categories
Detailed information about text complexity ratings and descriptors; additional uses for the books before, during, and after domain instruction; and the complete list of domains and books for each grade level can be found in the More About the Books section of this guide.
What makes Amplify Caminos different?
Built on the Science of Reading
Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify Caminos delivers explicit instruction in both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in grades K–2 with an integrated approach to explicit instruction in grades 3–5.
Explicit systematic skills instruction
The skills instruction in Amplify Caminos was distinctly developed with the Spanish language in mind. Its foundational lessons are specific to the language, rather than a direct translation from Amplify CKLA’s English skills instruction.
Reading instruction begins with the vowels first, then the most common consonants, and finally the least common consonants. Students will blend and segment sounds to form syllables, and syllables to form words.
Although Spanish has a highly predictable orthography, there are a few silent letters (h is always silent, u is silent after g or q), as well as letters that can make different sounds, depending on the letters that follow them. For that reason, syllables with these letters are taught somewhat later in the progression. The same is true for syllables with infrequently occurring consonants, such as z, k, x, and w.
Coherent knowledge instruction
While students are learning how to read, the Conocimiento strand gives them authentic and engaging reasons to read.
Amplify Caminos uses spiral learning to reinforce every student’s ability to develop skills like reading, writing, speaking, and listening in Spanish that can be transferred to English. As students engage with their lessons, they explore the similarities and differences in grammar, vocabulary, writing, and language use between Spanish and English. This bridge helps students learning two languages to strengthen their knowledge in both.
Through cross-curricular content, students explore units that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world in a holistic and thoughtful way. With these units, you’ll bring the world to your students, showing them how reading can become an exciting, rewarding, and useful part of their lives.
Embedded differentiation for all learners
Amplify Caminos provides built-in differentiation strategies and supports in every lesson.
Apoyo a la enseñanza y desafío: Support and Challenge suggestions in every lesson provide assistance or opportunities for more advanced work toward the goal of the lesson.
Notas culturales: These point-of-use notes provide additional information about the traditions, foods, holidays, word variations, and more from across the Spanish-speaking world.
Apoyo adicional: Every lesson in the Lectoescritura (Skills) Strand provides additional support activities suggested to reinforce foundational skills instruction. These activities can be given to any student who requires extra help, including students with special needs.
Systematic and cohesive writing instruction
Writing instruction in Amplify Caminos builds systematically and cohesively within and across grades.
In Grades K-2, writing mechanics—including handwriting and spelling—are taught in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand. Starting in Grade 1, instruction includes four steps in the writing process: planning, drafting, editing, and publishing and features lessons that have modeling, collaboration, and sharing. As students gain skills and confidence, they are able to take on more of these steps independently. Students learn to use planning techniques, including brainstorming and graphic organizers.
Beginning in Grade 4, the Amplify Caminos writing process expands to also include sharing and evaluating. In Grades 4 and 5, the writing process is no longer conceptualized as a series of scaffolded, linear steps (an important change from the Grade 3 writing process). Rather, students move between components of the writing process in a flexible manner, similar to the process mature and experienced writers follow naturally.
Amplify Caminos’ writing instruction provides a clear progression through the text types in each grade.
Because Amplify Caminos has two strands of lessons in Grades K-2, Lectoescritura and Conocimiento, students are exposed to both narrative and informational texts throughout the year. In Grades 3-5, the integrated units feature study in literary, informational, or a mix of both types of texts, depending on the content of the unit.
Grades K–2 introduce and establish the key elements of each text type, allowing students to gain comfort and confidence writing narratives, opinions, and informative texts. This enables students to practice thinking about content in different ways, offering more depth and breadth to their understanding of core content and of the writing text types.
By Grade 3, students will have gained significant practice in narrative, opinion/argumentative, and informational/explanatory forms of writing and will continue to apply those skills through Grade 5.
How does Amplify Caminos integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?
Amplify Caminos + mCLASS® Lectura
Achieve complete parity between English and Spanish assessments with mCLASS Lectura for K–6. mCLASS Lectura allows teachers to connect with their Spanish-speaking students face-to-face, one-on-one, and in the language most comfortable to them. The result? Valid and reliable student data reports available in both English and Spanish, enabling teachers to pinpoint where their Spanish-speaking or emergent bilingual students really are in their skill development and what instruction to prioritize.
Amplify Caminos + Amplify Reading
Amplify Reading is an engaging, adaptive digital program that extends the learning in Amplify Caminos. Amplify Reading offers support to a large sub-group of English learners (ELs) through Spanish voice-over. Spanish voiceover instructions are available in vocabulary and sentence-level comprehension games so ELs can build their vocabulary, language, and critical comprehension skills before moving into analyzing complex texts
Demo access and sample materials
Ready to explore on your own? First, watch the videos below to learn about the program’s components and how to navigate the digital platform.
Physical materials walkthrough video
Digital navigation video
Demo access
Next, follow the instructions below to access your demo account.
Click the CKLA and Caminos Demo button below.
Select Log in with Amplify.
To explore as a teacher, enter this username: t1.sfusdreviewer@demo.tryamplify.net
To explore as a student, enter this username: s1.sfusdreviewer@demo.tryamplify.net
Enter the password: Amplify1-sfusdreviewer
Click the Programs and apps menu
Select CKLA Teacher Resource Site
Select the desire grade level
Use the toggle to switch between English (CKLA) and Spanish (Caminos) resources.
Finally, click on the grade levels below to explore your requested sample units.
Each book in our authentic literature collection was selected specifically to support and enhance the content of the K-2 Conocimiento Strand. These anchor texts are intended for use as an introduction to each domain—engaging students, piquing their curiosity, and building initial background knowledge—before diving into the deeper content of the domain Read-Alouds.
Every trade book has an instructional guide that includes the following:
Author and illustrator
Book summary
The Essential Question of the Knowledge domain, connecting the book to the domain
Key Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary words found in the book
A group activity to reinforce and extend students’ knowledge and understanding
A performance task to help gauge students’ comprehension of concepts in the text
Writing prompts to expand understanding and critical thinking
Text complexity ratings and descriptors for quantitative, qualitative, and reader/task categories
Download the Amplify Caminos Trade Book Collection Guide for Grades K–2. Detailed information about text complexity ratings and descriptors; additional uses for the books before, during, and after domain instruction; and the complete list of domains and books for each grade level can be found in the More About the Books section of this guide.
Amplify Caminos is an authentic elementary Spanish language arts program. Like its English language counterpart, Amplify CKLA, Amplify Caminos provides explicit, systematic foundational skills instruction sequenced with deep knowledge-building content to foster comprehension. When used with Amplify CKLA, Amplify Caminos provides full parity across English and Spanish that’s suitable for any dual language implementation model.
Amplify and SFUSD Partnership
We recognize and respect the unique differences of each of our partnering districts—and that includes San Francisco USD.
Out of the box, Amplify Caminos offers districts a rich, comprehensive, research-based SELA experience. That said, no two districts are exactly alike. To that end, we are committed to working with San Francisco USD to ensure that Amplify Caminos addresses the needs of your community. This includes providing implementation guidance and support, as well as collaborating with your staff to determine which domains need to be modified or exchanged.
What is Amplify Caminos?
Amplify Caminos is a core Spanish language arts program for grades TK–5 that delivers:
Authentic instruction built from the ground up for the Spanish language.
A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge-building.
Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
Watch the video below to learn more about Amplify Caminos for Grades K–2.
Watch the video below to learn more about Amplify Caminos for Grades 3–5.
How does Amplify Caminos work?
Amplify Caminos is built on the science of how kids learn to read—in Spanish.
Amplify Caminos is all about helping you teach students how to read, all while giving them authentic and engaging reasons to read. That’s why Amplify Caminos develops foundational skills and builds knowledge in tandem.
Knowledge: Through complex and authentic Spanish read-alouds with an emphasis on classroom interactivity, oral comprehension, and contextual vocabulary, students start to build their awareness of the world around them—and the way the reading skills they’re building give them access to it.
Skills: Starting with the sounds at the core of the Spanish language, students practice their phonemic awareness, handwriting skills, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. Through daily practice, students become aware of the connection between reading and writing, building confidence as they go.
Respecting the development differences between grade ranges, Amplify Caminos teaches foundational skills and background knowledge as two distinct strands in grades K–2, and combines them into one integrated strand in grades 3–5.
Grades K–2: Every day, students in grades K–2 complete one full lesson that explicitly and systematically builds foundational reading skills in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand, as well as one full lesson that builds robust background knowledge to access complex text in the Amplify Caminos Conocimiento strand. Through learning in each of these strands, students develop the early literacy skills necessary to help them become confident readers and build the context to understand what they’re reading.
Grades 3–5: In grades 3–5, the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura and Conocimiento strands are integrated in one set of instructional materials. Lessons begin to combine skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis. Students can then use their skills to go on their own independent reading adventures.
What do Amplify Caminos students explore?
Amplify Caminos builds students’ knowledge about the world.
In addition to teaching all students to crack the written code (which is vital for fairness), the Amplify Caminos program helps students see the strengths and experiences we all share while celebrating their own unique identities and experiences.
This is accomplished through the exploration of topics and text that feature people who resemble students and familiar situations or experiences while also exposing them to people whose appearances, lives, beliefs, and backgrounds differ from their own.
Engaging domains
Amplify Caminos builds knowledge coherently across subjects and grades.
Throughout the program, students use their skills to explore domains that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world as seen through the eyes of many different groups.
Carefully selected to build from year-to-year, our grade-appropriate topics help students make and deepen connections while also reading, writing, and thinking creatively and for themselves.
New Knowledge Research Units for Grades K–5
Our brand-new Knowledge Research units carry forward Amplify Caminos’ powerful and proven instructional approach while also:
Adding more content for students from all walks of life. The rich topics and highly visual components featured in these units provide students with even more “windows and mirrors” and perspectives as they work to build knowledge.
Adding more authentic literature. Each new research unit revolves around a collection of high-interest authentic trade books that will spark more curiosity and inspire more inquiry.
Adding more flexibility. Units can be implemented for extended core instruction during flex periods, district-designated Pausing Points, or enrichment periods.
Units cover a variety of rich and relevant topics:
With these new units, students will soar to new heights with Dr. Ellen Ochoa, Amelia Earhart, and the Tuskegee Airmen. They’ll feel the rhythm as they learn about Jazz legends Miles Davis, Tito Puente, and Duke Ellington. And they’ll explore the far reaches of the world with Jacques Cousteau, Matthew Henson, and Eugenie Clark.
Grade K: El arte y el mundo que nos rodea
Grade 1: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
Grade 2: ¡A volar! La era de la aviación
Grade 3: Jazz y más
Grade 4: Energía: pasado, presente y futuro
Grade 5: Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
Units will be made available in English and Spanish, and will include the following components:
Teacher Guide
Student Activity Books
Image Cards
Trade Book Collection
Digital Components (for Grades K–3 and Grade 5 only)
Why we added this unit: “Every child is an artist,” said Picasso, meaning that every child uses art to explore and understand the world around them. El arte y el mundo que nos rodea honors that truth by introducing Kindergarten students to some of the ways in which artists have explored and understood the world around them.
This domain introduces students to artists from different time periods, countries, and cultures. Throughout the unit, students learn about different kinds of art and how artists use the world around them as they make art. They also connect this to what they have already learned about the earth, plants, and animals in other Caminos domains: Granjas, Plantas, and Cuidar el planeta Tierra. In addition, students connect this to what they have learned about sculptors in the Presidentes y símbolos de los Estados Unidos domain. As they explore different artists and artistic traditions, they develop their ideas about how humans are connected to each other and to the world around them.
As you read the texts in this unit, students may observe ways in which the characters or subjects are both similar to and different from students. This is a good opportunity to teach students awareness and sensitivity, building on the idea that all people share some things in common, even as they have other things that make them unique. This unit also offers an excellent opportunity to collaborate with your school’s art teacher, as many lessons have suggested activities to help students understand the kind of art they are studying.
Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
Use details to describe art.
Identify three ways to create art.
Identify characteristics of cave art.
Sequence the steps of making pottery.
Describe how artists can create work connected to the world around them.
Describe what makes Kehinde Wiley’s portraits unique.
Explain how the texture of a surface can affect artwork created on it.
Explain what a sculpture is.
Describe what makes James Turrell’s artwork about the sky unique.
Explain what a museum is and what kinds of things you can see or do there.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
Georgia O’Keeffe por Erica Salcedo
Yayoi Kusama: De aquí al infinito por Sarah Suzuki
Tejedora del arcoíris por Linda Elovitz Marshall
Las tijeras de Matisse por Jeanette Winter
El museo por Susan Verde
Quizás algo hermoso: Cómo el arte transformó un barrio por F. Isabel Campoy
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: This domain introduces students to adventure stories set around the world and challenges students to dig into the adventures through research. By listening to the Read-Alouds and trade books, students increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, learn valuable lessons about perseverance and teamwork, and become familiar with gathering information for research.
In this unit, students study the careers of real-world explorers Dr. Eugenie Clark and Sophia Danenberg, marvel at the inventions of Jacques Cousteau, think critically about how teamwork and collaboration can make greater adventures possible, learn about the science and technology that enable adventures, and research some of the ways humans have confronted challenges at the edges of the world, from the oceans below to space above.
Each lesson in the domain builds students’ research skills as they ask questions, gather information, and write a paragraph about their findings. Students share what they have learned about adventures in an Adventure Gallery Walkthrough. By taking on the persona of one of the adventurers they meet in the Read-Alouds and trade books, students deliver their final paragraphs as if they are a “speaking portrait” of that person. Students are invited to dress up as that adventurer if they desire.
In addition, teachers can set aside time outside the instructional block to create the picture frames students will hold as they present to the Adventure Gallery Walk guests. Frames can be made from shirt boxes, cardboard, construction paper, or any art supplies that are on hand. This might be an opportunity to collaborate with the school’s art department if resources are available. Another option is to ask students to make their frames at home with their caregivers. On the day of the Adventure Gallery Walk, students will be the hosts and take on specific jobs, such as welcoming the guests, describing their work throughout the unit, and pointing out the areas of study on the domain bulletin board. You can find a complete list of student jobs in Lesson 13.
How this unit builds knowledge: This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in the previous grade.
Rimas y fábulas infantiles (Kindergarten)
Cuentos (Kindergarten)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
My Name Is Gabito/Me llamo Gabito por Monica Brown
Galápagos Girl/Galapagueña por Marsha Diane Arnold
My Name Is Gabriela/Me llamo Gabriela por Monica Brown
El viaje de Kalak por María Quintana Silva y Marie-Noëlle Hébert
Señorita Mariposa por Ben Gundersheimer
Sharuko, el arqueólogo peruano/Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello por Monica Brown
Abuelita fue al mercado por Stella Blackstone
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: With this domain, students head up, up, and away with an introduction to the soaring history of aviation. Students learn the stories of early aviators, such as the Montgolfier brothers, the Wright brothers, Aida de Acosta, and Amelia Earhart.
During the unit, students study the science of flight, including the physics concept of lift, and research the social impacts of the world of flight. Finally, students let their research skills take flight as they explore key figures from the world of aviation.
The lessons in this domain build on earlier Grade 2 Caminos domains about the westward expansion, early Greek civilizations, and Greek myths, and lay the foundation for learning about other periods of world history in future grades.
How this unit builds knowledge: This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered earlier in the year.
La civilización griega antigua (Grade 2)
Mitos griegos (Grade 2)
La expansión hacia el oeste (Grade 2)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in ¡A volar! La era de la aviación. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
¡A volar! Todo sobre aviones por Jennifer Prior
Amelia sabe volar por Mara dal Corso
Héroes de la aviación que cambiaron el mundo por Dan Green
El niño que alcanzó las estrellas por José M. Hernández
La niña que aprendió a volar por Sylvia Acevedo
Buenas Noches Capitán Mamá por Graciela Tiscareño-Sato
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: This domain teaches students about the vibrant music, poetry, and culture of the Jazz Age in the United States. Students learn about famous writers and musicians like Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Melba Liston, Tito Puente, and Miles Davis. They study how the jazz art form took root in the South, then spread to the North to become the sound of the Harlem Renaissance, eventually connecting people around the world in musical expression.
During this unit, students perform guided research to further explore both the history of jazz and what jazz is today. They develop research skills and then use those skills to find deeper connections between the stories and music of the Jazz Age and music today. As students learn about the world of jazz, they collaborate and share ideas with their classmates. They also practice sharing feedback focused on their written work, and, at the end of the unit, students present their research to the group.
The lessons give students opportunities to dive into the rhythms and stories of jazz, utilizing the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
Collaboratively generate research questions about jazz, jazz musicians, contemporary musicians from the state where they live or have lived, and the evolution of jazz music.
Utilize Read-Alouds, independent reading, and partner reading to learn about the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz music, and biographies of celebrated jazz musicians and writers.
Research the answers to their generated questions, gather information, write a short research essay about a famous jazz musician, write a short essay about a contemporary musician from the state where they live or have lived, and give a presentation about their research.
How this unit builds knowledge: Within this unit, students have opportunities to:
Ask relevant questions and make pertinent comments
Identify details in texts
Determine key ideas of texts by evaluating details
Make text-based inferences
Generate questions based on prior knowledge and gathered information
Synthesize details across texts to demonstrate comprehension
Discuss and explain an author’s purpose
Identify and cite reliable primary and secondary sources of information
Compose a well-organized and focused informative essay
Make connections between topics
Present information using appropriate media
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
¡Esquivel! Un artista del sonido de la era espacial por Susan Wood
Ray Charles por Sharon Bell Mathis
Tito Puente, el Rey del Mambo por Monica Brown
Me llamo Celia, la vida de Celia Cruz por Monica Brown
¡Azúcar! por Ivar Da Coll
In this unit, students also read the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. (Available for free through the Academy of American Poets website and the Poetry Foundation website, with recorded audio available through the website for John Hancock College Preparatory High School.)
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: With this domain, students become tomorrow’s problem solvers in this study of energy in the United States. Analytical reading skills are developed by examining the challenges of early energy innovators. Students then read about current energy practices and young energy change-makers across the world.
Throughout the unit, students conduct research into different sources of energy and present a proposal, putting them in the shoes of future energy innovators. They also use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
Collaboratively analyze texts to identify cause-effect and problem-solution relationships.
Generate questions and conduct research about energy.
Write an opinion essay making their case for a fuel of the future.
Create energy proposals using primary and secondary resources.
How this unit builds knowledge: This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in previous grades as well as earlier in the year.
Plantas (Grade K)
La historia de la Tierra (Grade 1)
¡Eureka! Estudiante inventor (Grade 4)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Energía: pasado, presente y futuro. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
La historia de los combustibles fósiles por William B. Rice
El niño que domó el viento por William Kamkwamba y Bryan Mealer
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Why we added this unit: Within this domain, Students learn about General Granger’s announcement in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, a day marked in history as Juneteenth. Texts and multimedia sources will support foundational knowledge-building about the end of slavery in the United States. A review of the first freedom announcement, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, provides students with background knowledge to further emphasize the significance of Juneteenth in American history.
This unit also takes students on a journey beyond Juneteenth, as they study specific contributions of African Americans from 1865 to the present day. Students participate in a virtual field trip to Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas and use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:
Collaboratively generate research questions about Juneteenth, The Great Migration, innovators and inventors, education, the humanities, activists, and allies.
Use Read-Alouds, independent, and partner reading to learn about African American contributions from 1865 to the present.
Research to find answers to their generated questions, gather information, and write a four-chapter Beyond Juneteenth book.
How this unit builds knowledge: This unit builds upon the following Caminos units that students will have encountered in previous grades.
Los nativos americanos (Grade K)
Una nueva nación: la independencia de los Estados Unidos (Grade 1)
La Guerra Civil de los Estaods Unidos (Grade 2)
La inmigración (Grade 2)
Los nativos americanos (Grade 5)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente . The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.
Trade books in this unit: Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.
Martí’s Song for Freedom/Martí y sus versos por la libertad escrito por Emma Otheguy
¡Celebremos Juneteenth! escrito por Carole Boston Weatherford
Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/La Historia de Dolores Huerta y César Chávez escrito por Monica Brown
Canto de alabanza para el día: Poema para la ceremonia inaugural del mandato de Barack Obama escrito por Elizabeth Alexander, traducido por Rodrigo Rojas
Sample materials: Take a sneak peek at the rich instruction and engaging activities for this unit by viewing the PDFs below.
Amplify Caminos puts a variety of texts in the hands of students every day.
Amplify Caminos includes both transadaptations and authentic texts written by Latin American and Spanish authors. Our texts feature a wide variety of authors, topics, individuals and characters representing many different socioeconomic statuses, ages, abilities, races, ethnicities, countries of origin, religions, and more.
Amplify Caminos texts include:
Authentic literature: Authentic literature exposes students to a variety of text types and perspectives to deepen their knowledge of fascinating topics in social studies, science, literature, and the arts. Authentic texts support text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections for readers.
Decodable Student Readers: Decodable Student Readers at grades K–2 are newly redesigned to include students from all walks of life and educational backgrounds. They feature characters with a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, ages, races, religions, and more.
ReadWorks® texts: Amplify and ReadWorks have partnered to deliver high-quality texts curated to support the Amplify Caminos Knowledge Sequence and to extend student learning. Texts include high-interest nonfiction articles in topics in social studies, science, literature, and the arts. These texts are accompanied by vocabulary supports and standards-aligned formative assessment opportunities. Teachers can monitor their students’ progress using the ReadWorks reporting features.
Amplify Caminos Trade Book Collection Guide
Each book in our authentic literature collection was selected specifically to support and enhance the content of the K-2 Conocimiento Strand. These anchor texts are intended for use as an introduction to each domain—engaging students, piquing their curiosity, and building initial background knowledge—before diving into the deeper content of the domain Read-Alouds.
Every trade book has an instructional guide that includes the following:
Author and illustrator
Book summary
The Essential Question of the Knowledge domain, connecting the book to the domain
Key Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary words found in the book
A group activity to reinforce and extend students’ knowledge and understanding
A performance task to help gauge students’ comprehension of concepts in the text
Writing prompts to expand understanding and critical thinking
Text complexity ratings and descriptors for quantitative, qualitative, and reader/task categories
Detailed information about text complexity ratings and descriptors; additional uses for the books before, during, and after domain instruction; and the complete list of domains and books for each grade level can be found in the More About the Books section of this guide.
What makes Amplify Caminos different?
Built on the Science of Reading
Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify Caminos delivers explicit instruction in both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in grades K–2 with an integrated approach to explicit instruction in grades 3–5.
Explicit systematic skills instruction
The skills instruction in Amplify Caminos was distinctly developed with the Spanish language in mind. Its foundational lessons are specific to the language, rather than a direct translation from Amplify CKLA’s English skills instruction.
Reading instruction begins with the vowels first, then the most common consonants, and finally the least common consonants. Students will blend and segment sounds to form syllables, and syllables to form words.
Although Spanish has a highly predictable orthography, there are a few silent letters (h is always silent, u is silent after g or q), as well as letters that can make different sounds, depending on the letters that follow them. For that reason, syllables with these letters are taught somewhat later in the progression. The same is true for syllables with infrequently occurring consonants, such as z, k, x, and w.
Coherent knowledge instruction
While students are learning how to read, the Conocimiento strand gives them authentic and engaging reasons to read.
Amplify Caminos uses spiral learning to reinforce every student’s ability to develop skills like reading, writing, speaking, and listening in Spanish that can be transferred to English. As students engage with their lessons, they explore the similarities and differences in grammar, vocabulary, writing, and language use between Spanish and English. This bridge helps students learning two languages to strengthen their knowledge in both.
Through cross-curricular content, students explore units that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world in a holistic and thoughtful way. With these units, you’ll bring the world to your students, showing them how reading can become an exciting, rewarding, and useful part of their lives.
Embedded differentiation for all learners
Amplify Caminos provides built-in differentiation strategies and supports in every lesson.
Apoyo a la enseñanza y desafío: Support and Challenge suggestions in every lesson provide assistance or opportunities for more advanced work toward the goal of the lesson.
Notas culturales: These point-of-use notes provide additional information about the traditions, foods, holidays, word variations, and more from across the Spanish-speaking world.
Apoyo adicional: Every lesson in the Lectoescritura (Skills) Strand provides additional support activities suggested to reinforce foundational skills instruction. These activities can be given to any student who requires extra help, including students with special needs.
Systematic and cohesive writing instruction
Writing instruction in Amplify Caminos builds systematically and cohesively within and across grades.
In Grades K-2, writing mechanics—including handwriting and spelling—are taught in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand. Starting in Grade 1, instruction includes four steps in the writing process: planning, drafting, editing, and publishing and features lessons that have modeling, collaboration, and sharing. As students gain skills and confidence, they are able to take on more of these steps independently. Students learn to use planning techniques, including brainstorming and graphic organizers.
Beginning in Grade 4, the Amplify Caminos writing process expands to also include sharing and evaluating. In Grades 4 and 5, the writing process is no longer conceptualized as a series of scaffolded, linear steps (an important change from the Grade 3 writing process). Rather, students move between components of the writing process in a flexible manner, similar to the process mature and experienced writers follow naturally.
Amplify Caminos’ writing instruction provides a clear progression through the text types in each grade.
Because Amplify Caminos has two strands of lessons in Grades K-2, Lectoescritura and Conocimiento, students are exposed to both narrative and informational texts throughout the year. In Grades 3-5, the integrated units feature study in literary, informational, or a mix of both types of texts, depending on the content of the unit.
Grades K–2 introduce and establish the key elements of each text type, allowing students to gain comfort and confidence writing narratives, opinions, and informative texts. This enables students to practice thinking about content in different ways, offering more depth and breadth to their understanding of core content and of the writing text types.
By Grade 3, students will have gained significant practice in narrative, opinion/argumentative, and informational/explanatory forms of writing and will continue to apply those skills through Grade 5.
How does Amplify Caminos integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?
Amplify Caminos + mCLASS® Lectura
Achieve complete parity between English and Spanish assessments with mCLASS Lectura for K–6. mCLASS Lectura allows teachers to connect with their Spanish-speaking students face-to-face, one-on-one, and in the language most comfortable to them. The result? Valid and reliable student data reports available in both English and Spanish, enabling teachers to pinpoint where their Spanish-speaking or emergent bilingual students really are in their skill development and what instruction to prioritize.
Amplify Caminos + Amplify Reading
Amplify Reading is an engaging, adaptive digital program that extends the learning in Amplify Caminos. Amplify Reading offers support to a large sub-group of English learners (ELs) through Spanish voice-over. Spanish voiceover instructions are available in vocabulary and sentence-level comprehension games so ELs can build their vocabulary, language, and critical comprehension skills before moving into analyzing complex texts
Demo access and sample materials
Ready to explore on your own? First, watch the videos below to learn about the program’s components and how to navigate the digital platform.
Physical materials walkthrough video
Digital navigation video
Demo access
Next, follow the instructions below to access your demo account.
Click the CKLA and Caminos Demo button below.
Select Log in with Amplify.
To explore as a teacher, enter this username: t1.sfusdreviewer@demo.tryamplify.net
To explore as a student, enter this username: s1.sfusdreviewer@demo.tryamplify.net
Enter the password: Amplify1-sfusdreviewer
Click the Programs and apps menu
Select CKLA Teacher Resource Site
Select the desire grade level
Use the toggle to switch between English (CKLA) and Spanish (Caminos) resources.
Summer ’24 Interlude: How effective coaching transformed Mississippi, with Kelly Butler and Margaret Goldberg
In this episode, Susan Lambert talks with Kelly Butler and Margaret Goldberg about their experiences and insights into improving reading instruction, particularly in Mississippi and California. Kelly discusses her work with the Barksdale Reading Institute, its impact on reading education, and the importance of coaching and structured literacy. Margaret shares her experiences as a coach in California, the challenges of teacher training, and the importance of having a clear and effective literacy plan that includes acquiring high-quality data and using it to inform all your strategies. Both guests emphasize the need for systemic change and the role of community involvement in educational success.
Kelly Butler is Senior Advisor to Reading Universe.org, a large-scale legacy project of Mississippi’s Barksdale Reading Institute (BRI), where she served as Chief Executive Officer. BRI contributed significantly to Mississippi’s rise in reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. During her tenure there, Kelly initiated the Reading Universe concept to provide high-quality professional development to educators in schools and educator preparation programs. She authored three statewide studies on Teacher Preparation for Early Literacy Instruction which propelled The Path Forward, a multi-state initiative focused on preparation and licensure. She’s an advisor to the Mississippi Reading Panel, the Mississippi Reading Clinic, The Path Forward, the Southeast Region’s Education Laboratory, and the Education Advocacy Center, and she’s a board member for Springboard to Opportunities and Deans for Impact. She holds a master’s degree in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University.
Margaret Goldberg
Margaret Goldberg is a literacy coach at Nystrom Elementary, a California school awarded a state Early Literacy Support Block grant. With that grant, she supported a network of literacy coaches striving to improve early literacy achievement in California’s lowest performing schools. She’s held a variety of other roles, including district Early Literacy Lead, reading interventionist, and classroom teacher. Everywhere she’s worked, she’s endeavored to help schools and districts align instruction with reading research.
Margaret is the co-founder of The Right to Read Project. Her writing has been published on The Right to Read Project blog and on Reading Rockets. She holds a master’s degree in elementary education and teaching from the University of California, Berkeley.
Meet our host, Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.
As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Lambert is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.
Quotes
“How did you get the buy-in from the teachers? We didn't wait for buy-in. We said, ‘We've got a law sitting here and we've got coaches that know what to do.’ … Once they tried to do it, it worked. And then there came buy-in.”
“The laws are telling us that time's up. We need to get this job done. The good news is we know how to do it. We just need to get it done everywhere.”
“My greatest frustration with colleges of education is that we have for centuries been colleges of philosophy, not of science. And I think we are beginning to see a shift in the profession based on science, not just on what we think or believe in.”
“I think I used to think that it was going to be possible for a teacher to figure it out on her own. Or I thought that it would be possible for a school to figure it out on their own, or a district, or even a state. And the more that I realize… like, it's very rare that people are getting the outcomes that they actually want.”
“I think we have strayed away from the idea of there being a social contract between the community and schools. And if we could get back to the point where we had an agreement about what the obligations of schools actually are, then we'd do everything differently.”
Season 2, Episode 9
Embodying your passion, purpose, and personal values as an educator, starring Daniela Anello
Ana is joined by Daniela Anello, CEO of DC Bilingual Public Charter School, to discuss how educators can create environments in which they can be their whole selves. Daniela tells her own story of identifying her values as a teacher and claiming the sense of purpose she wanted to bring into her own classroom; she then lays out how she works to incorporate them on a day-to-day basis. She also explains why it’s important for teachers to take chances, make mistakes, and try again—behaviors that should be modeled for students. Ana is then joined by our Classroom Insider, middle school science teacher Eric Cross, who delves into the importance of “being yourself on purpose” when you teach.
Meet Our Guest(s):
Daniela Anello
Daniela Anella, CEO, leads the strategic vision, implementation and growth of DC Bilingual both academically and operationally. Under her leadership, DC Bilingual received the National Blue Ribbon School Award in 2024 for Educational Excellence. This is her 16th year at the school; she’s also served as literacy coach, resident principal, interim principal, and head of school.
Daniela sits on multiple boards and councils, including the State Early Childhood Development Coordinating Council (SECDCC), the My School DC Common Lottery Board, the National Charter Collaborative Board, and others. She is a graduate of the New Leaders Emerging Leaders program and the Aspiring Principals Program. She earned her Literary Specialist Master of Arts at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a bachelor of arts in elementary education and teaching at SUNY Geneseo.
Meet our host, Ana Torres.
Ana has been an educator for 30 years, working in both the K–8 and higher education sectors. She served as an administrator and instructor at various public and private colleges and universities and as a bilingual and dual language teacher, dual language math and reading interventionist, dual language instructional coach, assistant principal, and principal in K–8 schools. Ana is currently the Senior Biliteracy and Multilingual Product Specialist at Amplify, and delivers literacy and biliteracy presentations across the nation. Ana’s passion and advocacy for biliteracy and support for all students from all walks of life has led her to educate leaders, teachers, and parents about the positive impact of bilingualism and biliteracy in our world.
Meet our Classroom Insider, Eric Cross.
Eric Cross is a middle school science teacher who hopes to someday be a lifelong educator, like the guests on Beyond My Years! In each episode, Eric connects with host Ana Torres to discuss her guests’ best insights, gleaned from their long and rewarding careers in the classroom. Then, Eric talks about bringing some of their wisdom into his current classroom and busy life.
“I needed to be in a place where I could be my full self, demonstrating all of the identities that make me who I am.”
“The first step is recognizing your own identity and your own values and the aspects of you that you want to see reflected in the place that you're going to pour your love and heart into.”
“Change and improvement happen over time.”
“Go where you’re going to grow.”
“If I'm in an environment where I can't be my authentic self, and I know what that is and I know what I value, then it might be time for me to go somewhere where I can flourish.”
“A system is not a person. If you build something on a person, then when that person leaves or gets burned out, your system falls apart.”
