Compass+-+Curriculum+Index,+Centers,+and+Student+Feedback

CompassLearning Math: Curriculum Index, Creating Centers, and Immediate Feedback for Students


 * Compass Math - Plain and Simple (Timeline and Task Checklist)** [[file:CompassMath-PlainandSimple.pdf]]

Curriculum Index

 * Teachers will use the curriculum index to find independent learning activities needed to create assignments for students at computer stations.

CompassLearning provides a Curriculum Index as a tool for browsing all activities available. To bring this more to a familiar frame, think of the CompassLearning Math program like a textbook adoption, but with great digital and interactive features. Just like a new textbook series, Compass provides content for learning, opportunities to practice, tools for teachers, manipulatives, and reproducibles. It is a lot to sort through. Luckily, all of the content can be found by using the index. CompassLearning calls their index the Curriculum Index. To find the Curriculum Index, sign onto CompassLearning, click on the CONTENT tab, and then click the CURRICULUM INDEX link.

Build Assignments
Once you have created your student groups and loaded them with the children in your class, one of 2 things will happen. Either your school's academic coach will assign those students the district math pre-assessment or you can begin to add assignments to those students yourself. All students involved in the CompassLearning Odyssey program, whether assessed or not, should have assignments created for them by their teacher. The tutorial below will walk you through the simple process for doing just that.

As you are building your assignments, you can preview the student activities 3 different ways to decide if they are appropriate.
 * 1) If you click on the highlighted activity name, it will open a window so you can work through the activity just as your students will. (Most activities take approximately 8 min.)
 * 2) If there is a quiz that coincides with the learning activity, you can click the quiz to see quickly how the activity addresses the learning.
 * 3) If there are the resources available, you can click on those printable resource pages to quickly preview the content and instruction level for the associated activity.

** Update -** When building assignments, DO NOT include any activity that has the words **Exploratory** or **Handbook** in the name. Additionally, you should avoid building activities with a letter B in its number. They are teacher tools, not activities for independent practice. They do not generate scores. Students can click through and receive credit without reading or learning anything.

The district level assessments are built around some key standards for that student at their instructional level. A learning path, also created by the academic coaches, is automatically assigned to the assessed students at the end of their test.

Decision Points - Making Smarter Assignments
While creating assignment, you can add decision points to help monitor the students' progress. You set the level of mastery, which in our district is 80% for proficiency. You pick what happens when they don't meet that level of proficiency. A decision point can make a student repeat a set of activities within an assignment to help them learn what they missed. If they still don't meet the 80% mastery level, the decision point can lock them out using a Progress Alert. This keeps them from clicking their way through assignments while not learning to the proficient level. It will cause you to have to unlock them, but it will alert you that they are not where they need to be academically.

Creating Centers

 * Teachers will identify resources within CompassLearning Math for creating offline student stations that are alligned with TN Math Standards.
 * Teachers will learn classroom management strategies for centers created in CompassLearning Math.

Using Compass Materials at Centers Without a Computer
There are a wealth of resources in CompassLearning Odyssey for Math instruction. There are questions to build into assessments. There are independent activities to build into targeted assignments and learning path activities for students to use at their independent level at computer centers. There are even teacher tools to use to teach students during direct instruction from their teacher, such as the Math Toolkit manipulatives, Exploratory manipulatives, Handbooks interactive presentations, and Boxer Math activities. The newest finds in the CompassLearning arsenal are the sets of materials that can be printed and laminated to be turned into ready-made centers that require __no computer at all.__ Yes, it is true there are printable activities that you can use for centers including workmats, game pieces, paper manipulatives and lesson plans.

The printable resources are found in different places in different grade levels. All starte by going the Assignments tab, then Assignment Builder. Once in Assignment Builder, click to change the subject to Math. Click on a grade level to search. (Remember the activities are arranged by national standards. In Tennessee, our math standards may be found in your grade level, a grade level above, or a grade level below.)


 * **Grade Level** || **Printable Activities found in Assignment Builder for Math in ...** ||
 * Kindergarten || # Click on a blue folder on the left, such as "Under the Sea".
 * 1) Click on a blue and gold folder on the left, such as "Adventures Under the Sea".
 * 2) Look in the main section to the right for a folder with a red apple icon named "Teacher Materials".
 * 3) Click the "L" button to the right. A PDF with many pages of lessons, activities, and printable manipulatives will download. ||
 * 1st Grade || # Click on a blue folder on the left, such as "Addition and Subtraction".
 * 1) Click on a blue and gold folder on the left, such as "Subtraction".
 * 2) Click the 'S' button by activities that DO NOT say "Exploratory", "Handbook", or have a "B" in the number.
 * 3) When the PDF opens, scroll down past the worksheets to the activities and manipulatives in the portion labeled "Connections" ||
 * 2nd Grade || # Click on a blue folder on the left, such as "Addition and Subtraction".
 * 1) Click on a blue and gold folder on the left, such as "Subtraction".
 * 2) Click the 'S' button by activities that DO NOT say "Exploratory", "Handbook", or have a "B" in the number.
 * 3) When the PDF opens, scroll down past the worksheets to the activities and manipulatives in the portion labeled "Connections" ||
 * 3rd Grade || # Click on a blue folder on the left, such as "Addition and Subtraction".
 * 1) Click on a blue and gold folder on the left, such as "Subtraction".
 * 2) Click the 'S' button by activities that DO NOT say "Exploratory", "Handbook", or have a "B" in the number.
 * 3) When the PDF opens, scroll down past the worksheets to the activities and manipulatives in the portion labeled "Connections". ||
 * 4th Grade || # Click on a blue folder on the left, such as "Multiplication and Division".
 * 1) Click on a blue and gold folder on the left, such as "Multiply Large Numbers".
 * 2) Click the 'S' button by activities that DO NOT say "Exploratory", "Handbook", or have a "B" in the number.
 * 3) When the PDF opens, scroll down past the worksheets to the activities and manipulatives in the portion labeled "Connections". ||
 * 5th Grade || # Click on the blue folder on the left called "Practice". //This is the only blue folder with printable activities.//
 * 1) Click on a blue and gold folder on the left, such as "Add and Subtract Fractions".
 * 2) Click the 'S' button by activities that DO NOT say "Exploratory", "Handbook", or have a "B" in the number.
 * 3) When the PDF opens, scroll down past the worksheets to the activities and manipulatives in the portion labeled "Connections". ||
 * < 6th Grade ||< # Click on the blue folder on the left called "Practice". //This is the only blue folder with printable activities.//
 * 1) Click on a blue and gold folder on the left, such as "Divisibility Rules".
 * 2) Click the 'S' button activities that DO NOT say "Exploratory", "Handbook", or have a "B" in the number.
 * 3) When the PDF opens, scroll down past the worksheets to the activities and manipulatives in the portion labeled "Connections". ||

==

Reports & Immediate Feedback for Students==
 * Teachers will learn to motivate their students by training them to access the immediate feedback on performance available in the student backpack.
 * Teachers will create a set of class norms for student use of centers that incorporates the regular use of data in the backpack

Student Backpack
Every student login screen has a backpack icon. In the real world, the student's backpack is used to take home graded work so both his parents and the student himself can see the grades on work they have completed. The virtual backpack in CompassLearning Math gives students the same access to information. It also acts like a work folder that lets them see what work is completed and what work is yet to be finished. When the student clicks on the backpack icon, also called "My Portfolio", there are 3 tabs available to him. They are the Recent Work, Assignments, and Reports.



2013 PD Survey