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Amplify Reading FAQ

Welcome to our Frequently Asked Questions page, where we’ve compiled a list of Amplify Reading questions that are most commonly asked by you! This page is updated periodically. Please check here for answers to commonly asked questions. 

Getting started

Getting started FAQs

Q: How can I assign tasks or subskills?
A: In general, we recommend that students play within the Amplify Reading quest system, which ensures that the games and activities they see are appropriate to their unique learning progression, providing them with the most valuable skill practice for their needs. That said, Practice Mode can be a helpful option to give students extra opportunities to work on a particular skill — for example, if they have encountered a Trouble Spot, you might have them play particular game levels that work on precursor skills to the one that they are struggling with.

Q: How do I see which grade/season my student is placed in?
A: The Skill View page in the Student section of the Amplify Reading Teacher Dashboard will show how students are progressing through each of the 13 skill domains that make up Amplify Reading.

Q: What is the recommended time for being on Amplify Reading?
A: Check out our weekly usage recommendations here.

Q: How can I access Instructional activities/activity library?
A: There are two ways you can access our library of instructional resources: 

  1. By using the Trouble Spots sections of your Teacher Dashboard
  2. By clicking on the Resource Library button on the navigation bar at the top of the screen.

Because the Resource Library is directly aligned with adaptive skill map, every trouble spot has at least one (but often more!) instructional resource linked to it. Your Teacher Dashboard makes it easy to find the right resources for any trouble spots your students might encounter.

Q: Why are my students expected to read aloud when they first log in?
A: Students in grades 1–5 without assessment data will take the Amplify Reading Benchmark Assessment to determine their placement in Amplify Reading when they first log in. The Amplify Reading Benchmark Assessment contains word recognition activities as well as fluency and comprehension activities that are supported by Speech Recognition Technology. Our program analyzes students’ responses and performance on the fluency and comprehension measures to place them at a starting point within the program that best suits their current reading needs. 

To best support students through this Amplify Reading Benchmark experience, we recommend providing them with headphones, a quiet place to play, and reminding them to try their best! If, during the Amplify Reading Benchmark Assessment, there are any kinds of technical errors (microphone issue, unstable network connection, background noise), the student will be routed to the Automatic Placement Tool (APT) which does not require any use of the microphone. The student will be placed in Amplify Reading with their APT data. 

Q: What is a Curioso Skill Scan?
A: From September- June, the first time students log in each month they will automatically receive a monthly assessment known as the Curioso Skill Scan. This assessment is used to measure students’ reading growth over time by assessing key skills for their current grade level. This is a brief, monthly, on-grade level activity that will not have any impact on students’ learning paths and skills-based game content in Amplify Reading. 

Curioso Skill Scan measures the key reading skills that students in a given grade level are learning, and are tasks found to be predictive more broadly of overall reading skill for students in that grade level. In grades K–1, your students are assessed on their decoding skills while grades 2–5 students are assessed on fluency and comprehension via a MAZE task. Amplify Reading uses the results of the Curioso Skill Scans to show student’s performance, growth, and risk of reading difficulties in the Teacher Dashboard.

Q: How can I print the Teacher’s Guide?
A: It is accessible through the Teacher Dashboard.

Data

Data FAQs

Q: What does “Invalidated” mean?
A: In the event that a student is clearly rushing through the activity — in other words, if their accuracy is very low relative to their response time — Amplify Reading will flag the attempt as rushed, and the student’s score for the month will appear as Invalidated in your Teacher Dashboard. We encourage you to remind your students to take their time and try their best on the activity the next time they see it. When this happens, you can use the Reset Skill Scan button in this pane to wipe scores for students who have completed their Skill Scan and re-administer the activity.

Q: What can I do in Amplify Reading Class Settings?
A: The Class Settings page is a powerful tool that allows you to:

  • View and download student login information,
  • Download progress reports for parents and caregivers
  • Enable or disable Spanish voiceover in your students’ skill games and quests
  • Enable or disable Practice Mode. 

This page was designed to save you time — each setting and download option can be toggled for individual students or your entire class, no repeated clicking necessary!

Q: Why is my data missing for Trouble Spots, Literacy Growth and Risk on my Teacher Dashboard?
A: Students’ Literacy Growth and Risk of Reading Difficulty are both calculated using their monthly Curioso Skill Scan data, and at least 2 Skill Scan scores are needed to show students’ literacy growth over time. Curioso Skill Scan is administered for the first time in September so no data would appear here until October at the earliest. And teachers should not worry if they don’t have students in their Trouble Spots section! Trouble Spots are meant to flag students who have struggled with a subskill several times (6 or more attempts at a specific skill game level!) in case teachers would like to sit down with them one-on-one. 

Finally, the earliest a teacher would see a Trouble Spot for any student is towards the end of their third quest. After quest 1 the student would have an “Unsuccessful Attempt” if they were unable to master the subskill, during quest 2 they would take a break from the challenging content, and if they fail to meet the mastery criteria when they encounter the subkill skill again in quest 3, then it would be labeled a trouble spot.

Student usage

Student usage FAQs

Q: How do students log in to Amplify Reading using the Class Log In?
A: Watch this video about how to log in using a QR Code or Amplify username & password, and this video about how to prepare and distribute student login credentials for Amplify Reading.

Q: What do I do if a student finishes early?
A: After completing their final quest, your student(s) will continue to progress in their skill development in our personalized adaptive program through Challenge Quests. The content they will receive is not bound by grade, and they will be encouraged to take on more challenging material as long as they continue to play within the program. Note: You can see that a student has progressed to Challenge Quests by checking the Recent Activity tab in the Student Detail View. Once a student has completed the grade-level content, you may also wish to have them engage in some of our offline activities.

Q: When are the students supposed to work on these skill games when the CKLA Skills is 60 minutes and the Knowledge Program is 60 minutes?
A: Amplify Reading is a supplemental program. It’s wonderful to use during small group time, or if you have intervention/extension time. Only 30-45 mins a week is recommended as a minimum usage time. 

Q: Can you tell me how to change a student’s Amplify Reading language from Spanish to English?
A:  Amplify Reading includes Spanish voiceover for all quest narratives in all grades, instructions for many of our skill games, as well as our Automatic Placement Tool. To toggle this feature on or off for any student at any time, you can click on the check boxes in the Spanish Voiceover column from the Teacher Dashboard- Class Settings tab. To toggle Spanish voiceover for all students in a class, just check the box at the top of the column.If you have a student who would benefit from taking our Amplify Reading placement tool in Spanish, the Spanish Voiceover should be toggled on before they log in for the first time.

Q: How does the program know when to place my student on a higher/lower path?
A: Within Amplify Reading, student assessment data is used to place students into our learning map, so that students are focused on the skills they need most. As students play Amplify Reading, the adaptivity system moves them through our unique sequence of instruction, allowing them to progress at different rates through each skill domain, based on their performance.

Q: Is it normal for my student to play a game several times?
A: Amplify Reading understands the importance of productive struggle as part of the learning process. This means that when a student plays a skill game level and does not meet the mastery criteria, the algorithm will give them more opportunities to play that same skill game level within their current quest. If, after the third attempt, the student has not met the criteria needed to master the skill game level, they will take a break from it and the program will provide them with practice in precursor skills. Keep in mind that subskills are determined by the skill game levels rather than just the skill games. In other words, it may occasionally look like your students are playing the same activity several times, but they are likely playing several levels within the skill game. The content from the earlier levels of games provide students with the precursor skills needed to advance in that specific skill domain and to work towards more challenging content.

Q: How many quests do students experience each year?
A: The year-long quest narrative for students in grades K–1 has 24 quests.

The year-long quest narrative for students in grades 2 and 3 has 24 quests

The quests for students in grades 4 and 5 are broken up into 2 parts. Part 1 (for 4th graders) has 8 quests, and part 2 (for 5th graders) also has 8 quests. Fifth grade students need not to experience the fourth grade quests in order to understand the fifth grade ones.

Q: What happens when a student completes all of the quests for their grade band?
A: Students who complete all quests for their grade band will continue to progress through their personalized learning path in Amplify Reading through Challenge Quests. The content they will receive is not bound by the student’s grade (Amplify Reading covers up to EOY fifth grade content), and they will be encouraged to take on more challenging material as long as they continue to play within the program. You can learn more about Challenge Quests here

Q: Do students read on grade level texts?
A: Yes, students may encounter and read texts that are on-grade level during the Amplify Reading benchmark assessment, Curioso Skill Scan, and in our eReader. 

In terms of our eReader texts, Lexile levels for authentic texts range from K–5. Lexile is just one of many ways to consider text complexity, and our team considered many other ways that text can be complex, including assumed background knowledge and the interaction of task and text. These texts were selected for the ways in which they illustrate each of the reading topics and skills, and students are heavily scaffolded as they read.

In addition to the assessments, and eReader texts, 4th, and 5th grade students have grade level texts built into the close reading quest of their Amplify Reading experience. As students learn about concepts like text structure and author’s craft, they are able to practice their new close reading skills on grade level texts that include embedded supports.

Read the complete list of the books in Amplify Reading’s interactive eReader with their Lexile levels. 

Finding help

Finding help FAQs

Q: How can parents and caregivers learn more about Amplify Reading?
A: You can find the Amplify Reading Caregiver Hub here: amplify.com/caregiver-hub/amplify-reading. 

Q: How can I get help?
A: First, visit our help library to search for articles with answers to your program questions. Need an answer fast? Chat with us! Click the orange icon while logged into the curriculum to get immediate help in the middle of the school day.