Overview

Here you'll find information on how to utilize the tools and resources in the Classworks Integrated Reading Activities to maximize instructional benefits for students and teachers. 

Student Tools

For success in the 21st century, students must interact with texts that are complex and challenging that spur readers to develop habits of close and careful analysis. 

We provide tools to assist students with building meaning and to ensure that they are able to analyze and synthesize information in the text, cite evidence, and defend their answers. 

 Dictionary: Students can use the dictionary tool to view definitions of words and for the pronunciation of individual words. This offers students the opportunity to build meaning and understanding of new words introduced within the text. 

 Highlighter: Students have access to a highlighter tool with multiple colors. Students can use it to highlight important points in the text or to practice specific skills such as identifying key ideas and details. They can also use the highlighter tool to identify story elements such as setting, characters, problem, and solution – a different color can be used for each element. 

 Sticky Note: Students can use this tool to record and save ideas or to show evidence for answers. They can type their thoughts about the text and pin them in different locations throughout the text, referring back to the note at a later time. Since many new assessments require students to answer multiple choice questions then enter text to explain their choice, they can use the sticky note to defend their answer and pin it by their choice. 

 Help: The help button provides video instructions on how to use each tool. 

 Audio: By default, Classworks enables the audio feature to allow all students to hear the passage read aloud. This tool can be used to model the correct fluency for each passage as well as help struggling readers understand and comprehend each passage. Teachers have the option to disable audio for students through the Edit User menu for each student. See below for directions on how to disable the audio. 

 Undo: This tool allows for students to reverse the deletion of a note or any of the erase all functions (see below). 

 Erase: Students can choose to erase all highlights, all notes, or erase all markings within the passage. This tool is especially helpful when using a passage for repeated readings to clear prior annotations. 

Teacher Tools

To provide teachers with additional information needed to review, analyze, and make instructional decisions, we have created teacher pages for each activity. These pages have the same tools that are located on the student pages, but also includes tools to support the teacher in helping students reach high levels of reading achievement. 

• Passage page includes both the Lexile and Flesch-Kincaid reading levels. 

• Passage sources are listed at the bottom of each page. Teachers can use these sources to promote digital literacy by having students use the sources for additional research about the topic. These would also be helpful for informational texts in science and social studies to teach reading across the curriculum. 

Note: Page sources can also be found on the student page.

Multiple choice items: Each multiple choice item includes rationales for each distractor. Teachers can use the rationales to gain insight into students' thinking and misconceptions as a guide for instruction. For example, if a student is consistently identifying a supporting detail as a main idea, the teacher can use that information to plan for individualized instruction. Teachers can also use the rationales to teach students how to eliminate answer choices. 

Launch Content

This screen is accessed by clicking on the name of the activity within an Integrated Reading unit within the Teacher Module. 

1. From the Create Tab, click Instruction then click on the arrow to the left of Integrated Reading and again to the left of the desired grade level.

• Offline Activities: Clicking this button launches a PDF with the passage and the questions for printing. These can be beneficial for students who do not have computer or internet access to complete activities for homework or during class if needed.

• Fluency Passage: Teachers can launch a PDF with the passage formatted for fluency. These passages provide teachers with the ability to complete an informal running record over texts to determine a student's accuracy and rate of words per minute. Teachers may also use the passages for daily fluency practice, having students partner up to see how many words they read correctly in a minute. 

• Teacher Page: This button launches the teacher page which contains all the teacher tools and resources.