S5.E6. Why skepticism is essential to the Science of Reading, with Dr. Claude Goldenberg
What’s included in our Grades 3–5 language arts curriculum
Grounded in the science of reading, Amplify CKLA for grades 3–5 integrates foundational skills students have learned in grades K–2 while continuing to build rich content knowledge. With Amplify CKLA, you’ll have the instruction and guidance of proven, evidence-based practices to help all of your students become strong readers, writers, and thinkers.
Year at a glance
The Amplify CKLA curriculum is modeled after proven research in early literacy that supports a two-strand approach to literacy instruction in the early years. With this approach, students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson per day that builds foundational reading skills in the Skills Strand, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge in the Knowledge Strand. The deep content knowledge is sequenced together with research-based foundational skills in Grades K–2 so that students develop the early literacy skills necessary to help them become confident readers, as well as build the context to understand what they’re reading.
In Grades 3–5, lessons combine skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater emphasis on writing. Students start to use their skills to go on their own independent reading adventures, further opening up their worlds.
Units at a glance
Students move fluidly between reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language activities, with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis.
Unit 1
Classic Tales: The Wind in the Willows
Students explore international classic tales, including The Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, and “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.”
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 2
Animal Classification
Students learn how scientists use animals’ characteristics to classify and study them; students apply knowledge through text-based discussions and writing exercises.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 3
The Human Body: Systems and Senses
This unit involves the study of the human body, building students’ understanding of its senses and skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems.
Number of Lessons: 14
Unit 4
The Ancient Roman Civilization
Students dive into ancient Rome, studying its history, culture, and myths about Roman gods and goddesses.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 5
Light and Sound
Students learn the science behind light and sound, read biographies of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, and write newspaper articles.
Number of Lessons: 17
Unit 6
The Viking Age (with Core Quest)
This unit’s informational and literary texts convey information about the Vikings, their culture, and their exploration.
Number of Lessons: 11
Unit 7
Astronomy: Our Solar System and Beyond
Students learn about astronomy, the universe, and important figures in the history of space exploration, including Nicolaus Copernicus and Mae Jemison.
Number of Lessons: 20
Unit 8
Native Americans: Regions and Cultures
Students compare, contrast, assemble information, and reflect on what they have learned about Native Americans and their ways of life.
Number of Lessons: 13
Unit 9
Early Explorations of North America
Students explore reasons for European exploration, what exploration was like, and who went exploring; then students write opinion pieces using this information.
Number of Lessons: 14
Unit 10
Colonial America
Students learn about colonies in early America, including how colonies were started and the progress colonists made after settling.
Number of Lessons: 16
Unit 11
Ecology
Students learn about different aspects of ecology, including food chains, the balance of nature, changes to the environment, and protecting the environment.
Number of Lessons: 12
Unit 1
Personal Narratives
This unit examines the genre of personal narratives, including nonfiction works written by a first-person narrator involved in the events being described.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 2
Empires in the Middle Ages
This unit covers the history of various empires and geographical regions throughout the Middle Ages.
Number of Lessons: 25
Unit 3
Poetry
Students explore poetry, training in methods and devices poets use and learning to read, write, and interpret formal and free verse poems.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 4
Eureka! Student Inventor
This Core Quest, a narrative-driven unit, immerses students in close-reading adventures and scientific and historical content about inventions. Students write and read opinion, informational, and narrative texts.
Number of Lessons: 10
Unit 5
Geology
This unit focuses on the composition of Earth and the forces that change its surface.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 6
Contemporary Fiction with excerpts from The House on Mango Street
This unit explores narrative literature and writing, using excerpts from The House on Mango Street as its anchor text.
Number of Lessons: 13
Unit 7
American Revolution
Students learn that disagreements about principles of government led colonists in North America to seek independence from Great Britain.
Number of Lessons: 17
Unit 8
Treasure Island
Students focus on character development, setting, plot, and literary devices while reading an abridged version of a classic novel, Treasure Island.
Number of Lessons: 19
Unit 5
Writing Quest (supplemental): The Contraption
In this supplemental Quest, students interact with a mysterious machine fueled by their writing and solve the machine’s puzzles. This Quest features a digital environment controlled by the teacher.
Unit 1
Personal Narratives
This unit examines the genre of personal narratives, including nonfiction works written by a first-person narrator involved in the events being described.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 2
Early American Civilizations
Students study the geography, climate, flora, and fauna of the Americas and the rise and fall of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 3
Poetry
Students explore poetry, training in methods and devices poets use and learning to read, write, and interpret formal and free verse poems.
Number of Lessons: 13
Unit 4
Adventures of Don Quixote
In this unit students trace the development of plot, characters, and literary elements while reading a full-length, adapted version of Don Quixote.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 5
The Renaissance
This unit provides students with a broad exposure to the art and literature of the Renaissance through the works of renowned masters.
Number of Lessons: 19
Unit 6
The Reformation
This unit teaches students about the Reformation, a movement involving religious and political upheaval that shifted the political power in Europe.
Number of Lessons: 10
Unit 7
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Core Quest)
This unit is an immersive Quest that treats Shakespeare’s comedy as both literature and a living text for interpretation and performance.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 8
Native Americans
Students learn how settlers, explorers, and the American government in the 1800s affected Native American cultures and their relationship with the land.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 9
Chemical Matter
Students learn about chemistry and close-reading through a literary and informational work, The Badlands Sleuth, in which the protagonist uses chemistry to solve mysteries.
Number of Lessons: 15
Unit 10
Writing Quest (supplemental): The Robot
Students interact with a classroom pet that learns and grows with their writing. This Quest features a digital environment controlled by the teacher.
Program components
The program includes instructional guidance and student materials for a year of instruction, with lessons and activities that keep students engaged every day.
Component
FORMAT
Teacher Guides
Teacher Guides for each unit provide engaging lessons with standards-based objectives and formative assessments that empower teachers with proven strategies and research-based tools.
Print or digital
Differentiation resources
The online Assessment and Remediation Guide (Grade 3) and the Decoding and Encoding Supplement (Grades 4–5) provide thousands of pages of targeted activities in decoding, spelling, and other core literacy skills. Supplemental Guides provide opportunities for enrichment.
Digital
Writing Studio
A riveting connected writing program for more time, practice, and challenge in writing, with a focus on informative, narrative, and opinion modes of writing.
Print or digital
Digital experience
The Amplify CKLA digital experience delivers ready-made, customizable, slides-based lesson presentations to enhance instruction and save time. Everything needed to plan and present high-quality, engaging early literacy instruction is in one convenient place.
Digital
Component
FORMAT
Student Readers
Amplify CKLA’s Student Readers anchor each of the content-based units, providing a close-reading experience fueled by rich background knowledge that inspires students to dig deeper.
Activity Books
In addition to providing daily opportunities for students to respond to text and apply skills and knowledge, Activity Books feature formative assessments for each day’s objectives.
Digital experience
The Amplify CKLA digital experience delivers ready-made, customizable, slides-based lesson presentations to enhance instruction and save time. Everything needed to plan and present high-quality, engaging early literacy instruction is in one convenient place.
Digital
Explore more programs
Our programs are designed to support and complement one another. Learn more about our related programs.
CKLA – Knowledge Research Units for K–5
Introducing new units for Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos K–5
As part of our commitment to creating even richer and more wide-ranging curricula, we are excited to release six new units for both Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos!
About these units
Our brand-new Knowledge Research units carry forward the powerful and proven instructional approach of both Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos while also:
- Adding more variety to engage students from many 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: Art and the World Around Us/El arte y el mundo que nos rodea
- Grade 1: Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World/Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Grade 2: Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation/¡A volar! La era de la aviación
- Grade 3: All That Jazz/Jazz y más
- Grade 4: Energy: Past, Present, and Future/Energía: pasado, presente y futuro
- Grade 5: Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present/Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
Units are available in English and Spanish, and will include the following components:
- Teacher Guide
- Student Activity Books
- Image Cards
- Trade Book Collection
- Digital Components (grades K–3 and 5)
Grade K: Art and the World Around Us/El arte y el mundo que nos rodea
“Every child is an artist,” said Picasso, meaning that every child uses art to explore and understand the world around them. Art and the World Around Us honors that truth by introducing Kindergarten students to some of the ways in which artists have explored and understood the worlds around them, too.
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 Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos domains: Farms/Granjas, Plants/Plantas, and Taking Care of the Earth/Cuidar el planeta Tierra. In addition, students connect this to what they have learned about sculptors in the Presidents and American Symbols/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, and 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.
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.
- The First Drawing by Mordicai Gerstein
- Van Gogh and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt
- My Name is Georgia by Jeanette Winter
- A Life Made by Hand by Andrea D’Aquino
- Rainbow Weaver by Linda Elovitz Marshall
- Luna Loves Art by Joseph Coelho
Grade 1: Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World/Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
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 of 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.
This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos units that students will have encountered in the previous grade.
- Nursery Rhymes and Fables/Rimas y fábulas infantiles (Kindergarten)
- Stories/Cuentos (Kindergarten)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used 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 by Monica Brown
- Tomas and the Galápagos Adventure by Carolyn Lunn
- The Astronaut with a Song for the Stars: The Story of Dr. Ellen Ochoa by Julia Finley Mosca
- Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
- Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating
- Manfish by Jennifer Berne
- Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole by Deborah Hopkinson
- The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins
Grade 2: Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation/¡A volar! La era de la aviación
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, Aída 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 CKLA and Amplify 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.
This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos units that students will have encountered earlier in the year.
- The Ancient Greek Civilization/La civilización griega antigua (Grade 2)
- Greek Myths/Mitos griegos (Grade 2)
- Westward Expansion/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 Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used 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.
- Up and Away!: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot-Air Balloon by Jason Henry
- The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Blériot by Alice and Martin Provensen
- The Flying Girl: How Aída de Acosta Learned to Soar by Margarita Engle
- Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane by Kirsten Larson
- Helicopter Man: Igor Sikorsky and His Amazing Invention by Edwin Brit Wyckoff
- The Tuskegee Airmen Story by Lynn Homan and Thomas Reilly
- Skyward: The Story of Female Pilots in WWII by Sally Deng
- Aim for the Skies: Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith’s Race to Complete Amelia Earhart’s Quest by Aimee Bissonette
Grade 3: All That Jazz/Jazz y más
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.
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
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.
- Birth of the Cool: How Jazz Great Miles Davis Found His Sound by Kathleen Cornell Berman
- Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Kathryn Russell-Brown
- Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson: Taking the Stage as the First Black and White Jazz Band in History by Lesa Cline-Ransome
- Tito Puente, Mambo King by Monica Brown
- Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle
- Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Pinkney
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.)
Grade 4: Energy: Past, Present, and Future/Energía: pasado, presente y futuro
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.
This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA units that students will have encountered in previous grades as well as earlier in the year.
- Plants/Plantas (Grade K)
- The History of the Earth/La historia de la Tierra (Grade 1)
- Eureka! Student Inventor/¡Eureka! El arte de la invención (Grade 4)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Energy: Past, Present, and Future. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used 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.
- Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm
- Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed their World by Allan Drummond
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Picture Book Edition by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Grade 5: Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present/Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente
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.
This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA units that students will have encountered in previous grades.
- Native Americans/Los nativos americanos (Grade K)
- A New Nation: American Independence/Una nueva nación: la independencia de los Estados Unidos
(Grade 1) - The U.S. Civil War/La Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos (Grade 2)
- Immigration/La inmigración (Grade 2)
- Native Americans/Los nativos americanos (Grade 5)
The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used 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.
- All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson
- The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob Lawrence
- Sing a Song: How “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Inspired Generations by Kelly Starling Lyons
- Side by Side/ Lado a lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/ La Historia de Dolores Huerta y Cesar Chavez by Monica Brown
- Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama
Amplify CKLA Review for Alabama
S1-09: Supporting K–8 science students in the digital world: Ricky Mason
In this episode, Eric sits down with Ricky Mason, chief executive officer of BrainSTEM. Ricky shares his passion for inspiring students into science careers, and his path from an engineering career with organizations like the Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Central Intelligence Agency to starting BrainSTEM, an education program that develops creative digital tools to enable all teachers and students to dive deeper into STEM content. Ricky and Eric talk about representation in science classrooms and the importance of embedding fun within K–8 science content! Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.
Ricky Mason (00:00):
I feel like comfort is where dreams go to die. And I’m still dreaming every night. So I’ll wake up, chasing them.
Eric Cross (00:08):
Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. My guest today is Ricky Mason. Ricky is an engineer whose career included lead roles at the Department of Defense, NASA, and the CIA. Ricky transitioned to education as an adjunct faculty at the University of Kentucky. And while there, he founded BrainSTEM, an edtech company that developed a 3D virtual reality metaverse for STEM education. Today, BrainSTEM serves public school districts, private schools, and nonprofits. And in this episode, we discuss what led Ricky to creating BrainSTEM Metaversity, and how he’s using the metaverse to transform STEM learning for students. And now please enjoy my conversation with Ricky Mason. How did you, so like maybe going back doing your origin story, maybe you can talk about it, but brother, you don’t sleep. Talk about keep making moves, your hashtag, I mean, I was looking at your LinkedIn profiles, looking at your details. You get after it. I was getting tired just reading it. I was like John Hopkins, electrical engineering, real estate, starting companies. You must have that gene where it’s like four hours of sleep and then you’re like, ready to go.
Ricky Mason (01:19):
Yeah, man. My mom told me if I didn’t stay busy, then I’m in trouble. So when I was about 14, she told me that. I said, well, Mama, I guess I’m gonna stay busy then. And yeah, man, that’s just been my life. I feel like if I don’t keep making moves, then I’m in trouble. So, feel like comfort is where dreams go to die and I’m still dreaming every night. So I’ll wake up chasing them.
Eric Cross (01:44):
I feel like a kindred spirit with you. So, were you always interested in STEM like, was there something like a moment or a year where you remember you were like, this is my jam. This is what I’m gonna get into.
Ricky Mason (01:57):
Yeah, man. When it really clicked for me was in the fifth grade. I was at a school assembly and an IBM engineer came in and he brought a robot and he programmed it with punch cards right on the stage. And I got the opportunity to come up andyou know, put one of the punch cards in the robot to program it. And I asked him, I’m like, what is your job? He said, I’m a robotics engineer. And I went home right after that assembly and I said, Mom, that’s what I wanna do, become a robotics engineer. And my mom would take me to the libraries. Well, I felt like I was getting outta bible study on Wednesdays by going to the library. So I went there and I started researching robots.
Ricky Mason (02:39):
And at the time the robots that were popular were all being sent to space. And it was the spiritless. It was being sent to Mars. And I said, Mom, well, I guess I gotta become an astronaut if I’m gonna be a robotics engineer. And that’s kind of what set me out on that dream. And my mom started trying to find outlets for me to get involved in STEM, but it was really tough to find those outlets, you know, especially in that fifth to eighth grade range here in Kentucky. So that was kind of where it started for me man, when I knew that yeah, engineering is what I wanna do.
Eric Cross (03:14):
What does an electrical engineer do? I imagine there’s different types of specialties, but like, was there something that you specialize in that you focused on or was it, is it just kind of like a generalist field?
Ricky Mason (03:23):
Yeah, so I would say, yeah, man, it’s a huge field. So you could be doing anything from, you know, power, like power coming into your house. So those large power systems all the way down to nanotechnology and microchips. I like to tell people I’m a real full stack engineer, so my wheelhouse is kind of from the PCD, the little green computer chips, all the way to the cloud. Over my career, I’ve had some pretty cool jobs. One of those things was I was a test engineer for the army. So I got to test weapons up at Aberdeen Proving Ground for the Army. So I got to drive those weapons and test them before they went to theater there. After that,I worked at United Launch Alliance down at Cape Canaveral where I launched five rockets.
Ricky Mason (04:07):
So I was a part of the electrical ground systems team there where we were responsible for all of the electrical systems on the rocket while it was on the pad. Somonitoring the temperature of the rocket, the fuel, the entire system for safety while it was on that pad. And then finally I worked at the CIA as a computer engineer building data centers and as a data center architect for some of our remote systems and virtualizing our systems. So kind of had a broad spectrum of things there. And then finally coming back to the University of Kentucky as a research engineer and faculty. I developed drone technology for monitoring crops. So flying drones over crops with LIDAR, just like self-driving cars with high-definition cameras to pull in data about those crops, to help farmers determine about pesticides fertilizers, and the overall health of their crops from a remote location.
Eric Cross (05:10):
It’s so neat to hear you talk about it and to see how this is all built up to what you do now with BrainSTEM. How would you explain what BrainSTEM is? I know that’s your, that’s kind of your baby right now and what you’ve been working on a few years.
Ricky Mason (05:23):
Yeah, man, we started BrainSTEM in 2019 officially, but I would say BrainSTEM has been almost 10 years in coming. While I was in undergrad, I played football at the University of Kentucky. But I got hurt going into my sophomore year and that kind of shattered my dreams of football. And that’s when I really got back into engineering. One of my professors asked me to come to a robotics competition and I saw these third graders and sixth graders programming robots. And I’m like, oh my God, they’re programming robots! And I had no idea how to code or what to do with these things. And where was this a when I was a kid? And so I immediately bought one of those robots and taught myself how to program it <laugh> and then we started a robotics team in Lexington,there at a church.
Ricky Mason (06:10):
And we got a sponsorship from Lexmark to start that team. And that was kind of my first leap into STEM and teaching STEM and creating programs for students in STEM. I did that in undergrad and like I said, fast forward 10 years later, I’m teaching at the University of Kentucky and we’re struggling to recruit STEM students. Why aren’t students going into STEM? I hear too many adults tell me, oh man, I wish I would’ve done engineering, or I started out in engineering, but I left engineering or I wish I could go back to school for engineering or learn to code. And I’m like, I asked them like, why didn’t you do this? What happened? And often it’s like, it was the math. It was, oh, I didn’t get into it until I was in college. And I’m like, well, that’s the key.
Ricky Mason (06:52):
I knew I wanted to do this in the fifth grade. And I started with a plan in the fifth grade to achieve these goals and dreams. And I started doing that research and realizing that the same problem existed that I had. There was no outlet for kids to get involved in STEM, and so many kids have an affinity for STEM an early age. So we started BrainSTEM to provide access to STEM education and exposure STEM careers, STEM professionals, and just to STEM fields as a whole, because too often kids may know about the term, engineer, or the term, scientists, but they don’t really know what those people do or have a strong connection with the field or have any hands-on projects that they kind of done around those things or met anyone like me.
Ricky Mason (07:42):
I didn’t meet an engineer until I was in college. So that has really been impactful for some of the students that we’ve been able to touch. I had a family reach out to me. They moved to Lexington from California and they were like, man, I really want my ninth-grade son to get involved in engineering. So we started a weekend program with that one student and it went amazing. Like we competed in science fairs, we applied for different college programs and things like that. So it became an entire like mentorship program. And I’m proud to say that a year ago, he actually graduated with his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from your side of town, UCSB. It was just awesome to actually see this come full circle. And that’s kind of one of the first things that we did before we actually formalized as BrainSTEM University.
Eric Cross (08:34):
What will be like your elevator pitch for a teacher? If you were gonna say, this is what BrainSTEM does. I have the luxury of going through it on the site, but since we’re on a podcast, how would you kind of pitch it to people letting them know, like what, what does it do? Who does it serve?
Ricky Mason (08:47):
Yeah. So BrainSTEM provides STEM curriculum and STEM magnets for schools and nonprofits looking to increase access to STEM for K through 12 students. We also have launched our BrainSTEM Metaversity, a metaverse product for teachers to take their 2D Google classroom and convert it into a 3D metaverse classroom where students can collaborate during a 3D class. So all of your students show up as their avatars that they can select from our inventory of 150 avatars, and enjoy class in a 3D gameified Minecraft like World.
Eric Cross (09:26):
So I made my avatar by the way. It’s kind of tight, I have to say, it’s kind of tight. Hey, I’m gonna share. So those of you in the podcasts I’ll share it so you can see it. You’re not gonna be able to see it right now, but since I have the man himself I gotta share it with him just so I can get a reaction. So can you see that?
Ricky Mason (09:43):
Yeah. <laugh> That’s so good.
Eric Cross (09:44):
I feel like I wanna look like him though. I want him in real life. Like I want be able to switch to looking like my avatar
Ricky Mason (09:52):
<Laugh>
Eric Cross (09:54):
That was the first thing that I jumped on, when I went on your site, was making the avatar and I had so much fun doing it. I actually took longer than I probably wanna admit cause I was like customizing everything
Ricky Mason (10:03):
Yeah, man. It’s so fun. And that’s exactly what, you know, when you can show up as the person you want, it changes your whole being. I’ve seen kids that are quiet in class. They show up as their avatar and they’re talkative, they’re asking questions, they’re moving around the room, interacting with other kids. I feel like it’s almost like a superpower just to put your avatar on.
Eric Cross (10:25):
So what is something that a teacher could have their students go and learn or do if they, if they signed up,
Ricky Mason (10:31):
Let’s kick it off. So how we started with the metaverses, was teaching coding. So our first class was Minecraft and Python coding in the metaverse. So students showed up in the metaverse with our virtual instructor, that instructor led a lecture in the metaverse and then those students could collaborate on their Python games. So, they created and built the game in Python. We shared those games in the metaverse and we have our leaderboards that are in the metaverse, as they’re completing these challenges, including these games, then sharing them back in the metaverse with other students and getting that feedback on their game. So we’ve seen huge excitement from students when I can come back in and see my friend’s work. Like too often, students don’t get to see their work and that’s motivation to do better when I’m like, Jim’s gonna see my work. It’s amazing to see that motivation when students are sharing their work with other kids and not just their parent or just them and the teacher or seeing their grades. It’s been really cool to see.
Eric Cross (11:33):
You have that genuine audience too. Like that real-time feedback. And then like an authentic audience for students that makes everything seem, it takes it up a notch.
Ricky Mason (11:42):
Yeah, man. And then as we have built on this platform, so like you said with that avatar, so think if you created a really cool looking avatar and other students wanted to be that avatar, we have a way of sharing that avatar back into the world and in the inventory so that other students could then be your avatar. Or, if you create a world, we could then share that world back into the inventory, so the teacher could have class in a world that you created.
Eric Cross (12:07):
They’re creating content, not just consuming it. They’re actually creating content that could be shared across like grade levels or students.
Ricky Mason (12:14):
Well, we’re gonna say right now it’s just within your classroom. Eventually yes, we want students to be able to share that across school districts. At least we think that data will be probably limited to those kinds of realms as far as schools go. But you’ll be able to share this across sixth grade. We’ll be able to see what everyone in the sixth grade is doing in their STEM class or their game development class or their history class, per se, even if they’re giving back a presentation or what we have here in JCPS is backpack skills of success, where students are presenting on things that they’re learning that relate back to core competencies that the district is focused on. And I think that sharing those in the metaverse and doing those in the 3D world will be an awesome experience for students.
Eric Cross (12:56):
Are you seeing anything else as far as those skills that we see that are needed in coding? Is there something that the VR adds that was distinct from maybe just a kid with a Chromebook in his class that it’s just him in isolation doing the coding? Was there any like aha moments or surprises when they’re in the VR world doing this?
Ricky Mason (13:13):
I think the biggest thing is we could actually show them real examples of code working in other ways. Sofor example, if we’re working through loops, we can show them something looping. We can relate these functions to real-world things happening in the VR world so that they can see and better relate the actual concept with visuals, if that makes sense. So, you’re in loop Allen the whole time you’re learning about loops. You’re immersed in that kind of world. What we’ve seen is students really start to, you know, they it pick up and it clicks a lot faster because some of these concepts are so abstract for students to understand, when we can relate them to things in that world that they see that are in front of them, that they can grasp before we go to okay, type in “while” “”parentheses” <laugh> they can thenrelate that and pick up on those clues a lot better after they’ve seen those things in the world.
Eric Cross (14:09):
So they can actually visualize it in the metaverse. Whereas outside of it, it’s more just, just text-based coding and they’re not isolated. Like the first thing I’m thinking about is how like, with my own students, when they’re learning Sratch or Python, it’s not easy to share back and forth because they all are on individual accounts and they’d have to go on a different computer, or we’d have to find some way to publish it. And then all the kids would have to access it. But it sounds like in the metaversity classrooms, it’s easy for students in that same class to see each other’s work. Am I getting that right?
Ricky Mason (14:37):
Yeah. So most of our classrooms are limited to 24 students and in some of our breakout classrooms, we limit them to about eight students. Everybody can share their screen, so students can share their screen in the metaverse. They can share their video in the metaverse. They can share documents in the metaverse. They can share their, like I said, their code or anything that they want to share with other students. They can kind of do that. So it’s been a really cool product, I think, for students to almost find independence to work within a group, in an online setting. As they’ve been working through these problems online and remote it’s been really cool to see how they use the metaverse and break out. Even in a class, they can go off into a section because it’s all spacial. If you walk away, I can’t hear your conversation. So they can go into a little section within a metaverse class and have their own breakout. And a teacher can walk over to them. Okay. You guys are working over here. Let me walk to my next group. Just like in class. So it’s been really cool to see those students use the metaverse like that.
Eric Cross (15:41):
Just listening to you talk about this. One of the exciting things about emerging technologies or taking what the private sector does, and someone with a mind like yourself, and go, how do I use this for education? Like, that’s something that like excites me and you’ve run with it. But I just thought about, you’re doing an hour of code, you’ve created this metaverse, and you can bring in somebody, a professional into the metaverse, but they’re in, you know, the Bay area, but they could be a software engineer for Tesla or Google or anybody. Could they move around the metaverse and take a look at different students’ work and interact in that way.
Ricky Mason (16:17):
Yeah, man, we get in there. We make metaverse selfies. I drop Lambos in the metaverse, we take picture with Lambos. We have scavenger hunts in the metaverse. It’s a really awesome experience. And that’s one of the big things I think that is so powerful, is like you said, we could have that engineer, that celebrity, we could have Travis Scott, you know, in the world meeting thousands of kids motivating them because they met their STEM goals. They met their, you know, their testing school goals or whatever. These are things that kids really care about. If I get the Travis Scott avatar or the Elon Musk avatar, because I completed the Elon Musk rocket challenge, like that’s huge for me to show up in class as that avatar, like it’s just like Fortnite and it’s bringing all of those mechanics into the classroom.
Eric Cross (17:07):
When I hear you talk about the metaverse and I hear you talk about the potential of where you want to go with it, I think about my own students, and I think about, how they would really have a genuine interest and desire to want to do this and probably be doing it when they don’t have to, like at home at night wanting to go back into it and interact. And, you’re also building this virtual community. I mean, are you seeing that like, cause I’m hearing that?
Ricky Mason (17:28):
Yeah, man, building that community is huge. And I often tell people all the time, I want the STEM community to be just like the basketball community, the football community. I want students to have that camaraderie built around them for learning STEM and participating in STEM activities and competitions. Because when you see students out there at a robotics, they have the same zeal, the same, you know, everything that you find at a football competition. So we just have to get behind them and back those events with the same enthusiasm that we back sports. And that’s the environment that I want to create for STEM students and for that STEM community, because I longed for that community when I was in school. And like I said, I had it in football, but I wanted both. I wanted the best of both worlds. I wanted my robotics guys and my football guys to show up together here at the competition and have a good time.
Eric Cross (18:23):
You’re absolutely right. Like robotics STEM, these things, community helps fuel like people’s interest and working together. And it brings people from the outside who are seeking that community. Like, hey, my friends are doing this, I wanna kind of check it out. That’s how we recruit a wider swath of our population into it. So it’s not this kind of very narrow channel of folks who are going into STEM.
Ricky Mason (18:45):
If you can’t find that community. I mean for me, I felt like I was the only one playing football who was interested in robotics. So I never told anybody because I didn’t feel like that related to anybody within my vicinity. So I kept that to myself and that’s the biggest thing. I think if we get these kids just talking more about their interests, because a lot of them are interested in robotics and space and these STEM topics, but they don’t have anyone that’s really nudging them or asking them or piquing their interest in those spaces and saying, hey man, it’s okay to, you know, learn about robots. It’s okay to geek out on space. <Laugh> So that’s been my goal and that’s kind of why I felt like this was the time in my career for me to kind of do this, be a face for STEM education and inspire kids to chase their goals and dreams. Over my career, I’ve had some really cool jobs, but I felt like I could keep doing cool jobs, but I’m like at the right age to still connect with those students and inspire them to chase their dreams. And that’s why I feel like right now, man, it’s just an opportune time to get these students involved in STEM.
Eric Cross (20:01):
We don’t get that. Oftentimes, when we’re solely doing the cool job or simply in the private sector, we don’t get those experiences as much as we do when we’re able to actually serve our community or students or take our passion, our skill set, and use it to serve another person. I hear that like, as you describe what you’re doing now is like, there’s something beyond just, you know, the using your skills and doing cool stuff, but there’s something I hear. That’s helping people and actually doing something you believe in that resonates deeply in you. And I can hear it as you talk about it.
Ricky Mason (20:30):
It’s been just amazing to actually chart out that journey. Like I said, and like tell kids, like, no man, I’m from right up the block from you, cause I mean, I’m building this back at home in my hometown. And that’s the reason why I kind of came back to kind of do that in my hometown, because I really want to, you know, relate to those students and inspire, you know, students here. Nobody thinks about technology coming out of Kentucky and that’s been a gift and a curse, I guess, with launching BrainSTEM in Kentucky. When I first started, I said, we’re a STEM education company, people are asking me what is STEM? So, that was where we started out with this in 2019, all the way to, you know, hey, in 2020, we’re gonna launch a metaverse. A metaverse! What is that? It’s been amazing to try to change the minds of not only Kentuckians about STEM and the importance of STEM, but the world that a metaverse company is coming outta Kentucky. <Laugh>
Eric Cross (21:31):
The work that you’re doing and, it exists beyond you and you probably know this, but as a Black science educator out here in San Diego … We don’t see people who look like all of us in this work often, and I saw that you had created something, a network group, network and chill. And that was one of the things, we had touched on community, but I thought that that was so huge because we need each other.
Ricky Mason (21:55):
I feel like that was the biggest thing for us in engineering. Like I showed up to my first internship and I’m like, I mean, my boss was cool. Everything else was cool, but I just didn’t feel like, hey, this is a community for me. And I almost changed my major because of that. But I’m glad that I didn’t, it’s huge to have more of us represented in, in these spaces.
Eric Cross (22:16):
And you know, in engineering, especially when we look at the disproportionate, you know, men versus women. Like it’s not, you know, it’s not just culture, but it’s, you know, gender, all of these different things. And if we’re gonna change it, I think a program like yours that gets exposure to all kids and then giving them choice. What advice would you give to students? Or what advice I should say, do you give to students now? When you see like your younger self in the different kind of K12 grades who are thinking about their futures or they’re thinking about STEM, what do you say to them?
Ricky Mason (22:46):
So my biggest advice, man is start now. Whatever that big thing is, that big dream is that you have, what is that now? You’re thinking about planes. You’re thinking about robots. You’re thinking about RC cars, whatever that is. Let’s start now. Let’s get your hands on an RC car. Let’s take it apart. Let’s start coding. Let’s start thinking about those problems now. But the biggest thing is, is getting kids used to solving tough problems. Typically, most students that have an affinity for, you know, STEM — and you just know that that kid’s gonna go into, STEM — they’re problem solvers. They’re typically looking and seeking those tough problems and seeking opportunities to learn. That’s where I feel like it’s parents’ jobs to provide that environment to foster, that zeal. A five-year-old kid, we started our STEM program with them at the beginning of this month.
Ricky Mason (23:39):
The first day I came in after I told him I was a rocket scientist. And now he’s like, well, I wanna be a pilot. I said, if you pay attention to this class, we’re gonna get you started on your way to being a pilot. And he knows all the parts of a rocket and he knows a rocket needs an oxidizer. And he knows the fuselage, the wings, the wing flaps. He knows all the different parts of the plane and how the forces, the drag, the lift, the weight, he knows how those are working cause we talked about those in class and he has so much more confidence and it came all to fruition when a kid said, wow, I thought it was gonna be really hard to be a robotics engineer. And I’m like, no, that’s not gonna be that hard. That is exactly what we set out to do when we started BrainSTEM, was to break down those barriers and those walls and build that confidence and say, look man, you can do this. It’s easy.
Eric Cross (24:26):
Society doesn’t help much either because one of our terms, right, if something’s really hard, or if something’s not hard, we say it’s not rocket science. That implies that rocket science is really hard and inaccessible. If kids would hear that it kind of instills in their brain, okay. It’s really hard, it’s probably too hard for me. To that point to parents, it sounds like a lot of just exposure, like giving students the opportunity to be able to be exposed to these things and letting them create wonder from it.
Ricky Mason (24:51):
Yeah, man. I often tell parents we’re gonna set kids up to go pro no matter what,
Eric Cross (24:56):
And those skill sets transfer, whether they decide to go into coding or they decide to manage a bank, you’re still gonna be dealing with people. You’re still gonna be problem-solving. You’re still gonna have to come up with creative solutions to things. It sounds like through a program like this, they learn those skills early.
Ricky Mason (25:12):
Yes. And I think that one thing that parents don’t think about … We talk about all the STEM and we want smart kids, but we need those soft skills also within STEM. So those competitions, getting them involved in those communities with STEM students is really huge in presenting their ideas because oftentimes, you know, our STEM guys, we’re in a lab working and that’s where we love and that’s where we wanna be because we haven’t, you know, been prepared to talk and present our ideas. So I think that’s a huge part of what we have to teach our STEM students. And we do that by providing that community and those opportunities for them to, you know, do that.
Eric Cross (25:47):
Thinking about where you are now, looking back on your K-12 education, were there any teachers that stood out to you or that inspired you as I even just say that, can you think of a particular teacher or one or two?
Ricky Mason (26:00):
When I think about my teachers, my teachers really taught me to solve those tough problems and those subjects that you don’t kinda like <laugh>, cause I was always a great student, but my teachers helped me to focus on those subjects that I didn’t so much, you know, enjoy. So I enjoyed math and science, but English social studies, like why do I have to be here? I had two teachers during my high school career that really supported me in that regard, and helping me to be the best student all aroundfrom like I said, STEM to English and social studies, and making me realize that I have to be a well-rounded student if I’m gonna be truly successful. As far as engineering, man, I would say one guy, my teacher, Nick Bazar up at John Hopkins. During my master’s there, I had a really cool project. I got to do data forensics on a real live murder case. <Laugh> That was really inspiring because I’m like, wow, this is real life where my coding skills are being used in a jury trial <laugh>. And so that was a really cool experience to partner with my professor to kind of do that. I mean, that was just mind blowing that I got to help with that and that, I mean, he was using his programming skills to help solve a murder case.
Eric Cross (27:22):
What’s the best way for people to connect with you and follow your journey? And if a teacher’s interested and they’re listening to this and they’re hearing, okay, this metaverse coding thing sounds awesome, I want to get involved, I wanna know more, where can people go? What steps should they take to be able to get connected to you and what you’re doing?
Ricky Mason (27:40):
Yeah. So you can check us out at brainSTEMu.com, that’s brainSTEM, the letter “u” dot com and on all social medias, we’re BrainSTEMu or BrainSTEM University. Teachers, right now, we are doing our free course for teachers. So sign up at brainstemu.com. You can sign up for your class to get into a free metaverse experience, just so you can kind of check it out and get your class into the metaverse and see how your students like the metaverse, how you like teaching in the metaverse and convert one of your 2D lessons from Google classroom into a metaverse classroom. For me, I’m Ricky Mason, 5 0 2 on all social media platforms. So you can just type that in Ricky Mason502 and get with me there.
Eric Cross (28:28):
Nice. Well Ricky, I wanna thank you for sharing your story and creating BrainSTEM. And then for, I know you’re a man of tremendous talents and skills and accomplishments, and you’re focusing all that on not only being back in your community, but also creating something for younger versions of you and opening up opportunities that they might not otherwise have, as you said, folks are like, what is STEM? And that is exactly where we need those seeds planted. So thank you for doing that.
Ricky Mason (28:55):
Oh man, this is awesome. I appreciate you, man for hosting this podcast and providing this platform and sharing the message of, you know, educators and people in the space.
Eric Cross (29:07):
Thanks so much for joining me and Ricky today. Make sure to support Science Connections by subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts. And you could hear more from Ricky in our Facebook group, Science Connections the community, where you can check out all the exclusive content. Until next time.
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Meet the guest
Ricky Mason is the dynamic CEO and founder of BrainSTEM, an ed-tech company that developed a metaverse for education. His corporate career included lead engineer roles at the DoD, NASA, and CIA. Ricky transitioned to education as adjunct faculty at the University of Kentucky. While there, he started BrainSTEM to bring innovative technology and an inspirational curriculum to STEM education. Today, BrainSTEM serves public school districts, private schools, and nonprofits.
Follow Ricky on all social media @rickymason502
About Science Connections
Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. Listen here!
A closer look at grades 6–8
Amplify Science California is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the domain model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science California to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the California NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45-minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science California. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Resources
A curiosity-driven K–12 program that builds students’ lifelong math proficiency
Meet Amplify Desmos Math. Our structured, problem-based approach builds on students’ curiosity while strategically developing math fluency and lasting grade-level understanding. Amplify Desmos Math for grades K–8 has been rated all-green by EdReports.
Math that motivates
Picture a classroom where students are so eagerly engaged in a lesson, they wish it wouldn’t end. The room is buzzing with the sounds of natural curiosity. This is what an Amplify Desmos Math classroom looks and sounds like.
Request a demo to see how math can motivate.
A structured approach to problem-based learning
Amplify Desmos Math combines and connects conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Lessons are designed with the Proficiency Progression™, a model that provides teachers with clear instructional moves to build from students’ prior knowledge to grade-level learning.
A powerful suite of math resources
Amplify Desmos Math fuses problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments to create a cohesive and engaging experience that maintains academic rigor while meeting the needs of 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. Connect with a product expert to see it in action.
Student thinking is valuable and can be made evident.
We believe that math class is a place where teachers can elicit, celebrate, and build on their students’ interesting ideas. Those ideas fuel meaningful classroom conversations and drive the learning process.
Robust assessments that drive learning and inform instruction
A variety of performance data in Amplify Desmos Math provides evidence of student learning, while helping students bolster their skills. With explicit guidance on what to look for and how to respond, teachers can effectively support students as they develop their understanding.
Diagnostic screening and progress monitoring assessments identify what students know and can do.
Integrated mCLASS® Math assessments go beyond accuracy to reveal students’ math thinking through an asset-based approach. This data provides better insights about what students know, what math assets to leverage, and where students need support.
Reporting and insights
Teachers and administrators have visibility into what students know about grade-level math with a variety of data reports. By evaluating not only what students know about grade-level math but also providing insight into how they think, teachers can confidently plan whole-class instruction and targeted intervention.
Access to grade-level math for every student, every day
Amplify Desmos Math provides teachers with lessons, strategies, and resources to eliminate barriers and increase access to grade-level-content without reducing the mathematical demand of tasks—all while supporting students in building strong number sense, fluency, and conceptual understanding.
Differentiation when and where it matters most
Teachers are provided with clear student actions to look for, matched with immediately usable suggestions for how to respond to student thinking. Each lesson also includes recommendations for resources to use with students to support, strengthen, and stretch their understanding of the lesson goal.
Connect with a product expert to learn more.
Boost Math
Boost Math® drives tiered intervention and practice for grades K–8, bringing grade-level math within reach of every learner. Students are grouped into learning pathways based on assessment data for key math topics.
Visit Boost Math to learn more.
Personalized Learning
Personalized Learning™ extends each Amplify Desmos Math lesson with short, targeted digital activities designed around the day’s core concepts. Students receive just-in-time support based on their current understanding, helping them build fluency and confidence in the exact skills they’re working on in class.
Intervention Mini-Lessons aligned to core instruction
Amplify Desmos Math Mini-Lessons are aligned to the most critical topics throughout a unit and provide targeted intervention for small groups of students who need additional support or need more time.
Elevate math instruction with Amplify PD.
Amplify Desmos Math offers targeted professional development (PD) sessions designed to enhance teaching strategies, improving student engagement and mastery of mathematical concepts. Gain insights and techniques to maximize instructional effectiveness.
What’s included
The program integrates print and digital resources, along with manipulatives and Centers Kits in grades K–5, to help students build mathematical understanding, reason through mathematical ideas, and express their mathematical thinking. Resources are designed to support the educational rigor of daily core math instruction.
For students
- Print Student Edition (two-volume)
- Digital access to lesson resources and practice
- Interactive Student Activity Screens
- Responsive Feedback™
- Collaboration tools
- Personalized Learning
- Hands-on manipulative kits
- Additional Practice
For teachers
- Print Teacher Edition (two-volume)
- Digital access to planning and instruction resources
- Presentation Screens
- Facilitation and progress monitoring tools
- Assessment and reporting suite, featuring mCLASS Assessments (grades K–8)
- Assessment Resources
- Center Resources (grades K–5)
- Intervention and Extension Resources (grades K–A1)
- Math Language Development Resources
- Additional Practice
Visual and dynamic interactions pique student interest and invite all students to engage in the mathematics.
- Engaging interactions
- Social, collaborative experiences
- Teacher Dashboard
- Teacher Presentation Screens
- Digital facilitation tools
- A powerful conversation toolkit
Amplify Classroom
Amplify Classroom is a free teaching and learning platform that places student engagement at the center of instruction.
Amplify Classroom features free lessons, lesson-building tools, sharing features, and more. Built by math educators, the platform makes leaning into good pedagogy easier for teachers—which makes the lesson a more interactive experience for students.
Create your teacher account at classroom.amplify.com.
Our free lessons can be used alongside any core math program. Click here to view crosswalks to core programs.
Explore more programs.
Our programs are designed to support and complement one another. Learn more about our related programs.
A curiosity-driven K–12 program that builds students’ lifelong math proficiency
Meet Amplify Desmos Math. Our structured, problem-based approach builds on students’ curiosity while strategically developing math fluency and lasting grade-level understanding. Amplify Desmos Math for grades K–8 has been rated all-green by EdReports.
Math that motivates
Picture a classroom where students are so eagerly engaged in a lesson, they wish it wouldn’t end. The room is buzzing with the sounds of natural curiosity. This is what an Amplify Desmos Math classroom looks and sounds like.
Request a demo to see how math can motivate.
A structured approach to problem-based learning
Amplify Desmos Math combines and connects conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Lessons are designed with the Proficiency Progression™, a model that provides teachers with clear instructional moves to build from students’ prior knowledge to grade-level learning.
A powerful suite of math resources
Amplify Desmos Math fuses problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments to create a cohesive and engaging experience that maintains academic rigor while meeting the needs of 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. Connect with a product expert to see it in action.
Student thinking is valuable and can be made evident.
We believe that math class is a place where teachers can elicit, celebrate, and build on their students’ interesting ideas. Those ideas fuel meaningful classroom conversations and drive the learning process.
Robust assessments that drive learning and inform instruction
A variety of performance data in Amplify Desmos Math provides evidence of student learning, while helping students bolster their skills. With explicit guidance on what to look for and how to respond, teachers can effectively support students as they develop their understanding.
Diagnostic screening and progress monitoring assessments identify what students know and can do.
Integrated mCLASS® Math assessments go beyond accuracy to reveal students’ math thinking through an asset-based approach. This data provides better insights about what students know, what math assets to leverage, and where students need support.
Reporting and insights
Teachers and administrators have visibility into what students know about grade-level math with a variety of data reports. By evaluating not only what students know about grade-level math but also providing insight into how they think, teachers can confidently plan whole-class instruction and targeted intervention.
Access to grade-level math for every student, every day
Amplify Desmos Math provides teachers with lessons, strategies, and resources to eliminate barriers and increase access to grade-level-content without reducing the mathematical demand of tasks—all while supporting students in building strong number sense, fluency, and conceptual understanding.
Differentiation when and where it matters most
Teachers are provided with clear student actions to look for, matched with immediately usable suggestions for how to respond to student thinking. Each lesson also includes recommendations for resources to use with students to support, strengthen, and stretch their understanding of the lesson goal.
Connect with a product expert to learn more.
Boost Math
Boost Math® drives tiered intervention and practice for grades K–8, bringing grade-level math within reach of every learner. Students are grouped into learning pathways based on assessment data for key math topics.
Visit Boost Math to learn more.
Personalized Learning
Personalized Learning™ extends each Amplify Desmos Math lesson with short, targeted digital activities designed around the day’s core concepts. Students receive just-in-time support based on their current understanding, helping them build fluency and confidence in the exact skills they’re working on in class.
Intervention Mini-Lessons aligned to core instruction
Amplify Desmos Math Mini-Lessons are aligned to the most critical topics throughout a unit and provide targeted intervention for small groups of students who need additional support or need more time.
Elevate math instruction with Amplify PD.
Amplify Desmos Math offers targeted professional development (PD) sessions designed to enhance teaching strategies, improving student engagement and mastery of mathematical concepts. Gain insights and techniques to maximize instructional effectiveness.
What’s included
The program integrates print and digital resources, along with manipulatives and Centers Kits in grades K–5, to help students build mathematical understanding, reason through mathematical ideas, and express their mathematical thinking. Resources are designed to support the educational rigor of daily core math instruction.
For students
- Student Edition (two-volume)
- Digital access to lesson resources and practice
- Interactive Student Activity Screens
- Responsive Feedback™
- Collaboration tools
- Personalized Learning
- Hands-on manipulative kits
For teachers
- Teacher Edition (two-volume)
- Digital access to planning and instruction resources
- Presentation Screens
- Facilitation and progress monitoring tools
- Assessment and reporting suite, featuring mCLASS Assessments (grades K–8)
- Assessment Resources
- Center Resources (grades K–5)
- Intervention and Extension Resources (grades K–8)
Visual and dynamic interactions pique student interest and invite all students to engage in the mathematics.
- Engaging interactions
- Social, collaborative experiences
- Teacher Dashboard
- Teacher Presentation Screens
- Digital facilitation tools
- A powerful conversation toolkit
Amplify Classroom
Amplify Classroom is a free teaching and learning platform that places student engagement at the center of instruction.
Amplify Classroom features free lessons, lesson-building tools, sharing features, and more. Built by math educators, the platform makes leaning into good pedagogy easier for teachers—which makes the lesson a more interactive experience for students.
Create your teacher account at classroom.amplify.com.
Our free lessons can be used alongside any core math program. Click here to view crosswalks to core programs.
Explore more programs.
Our programs are designed to support and complement one another. Learn more about our related programs.
Welcome, Florida educators!
Welcome to Amplify Desmos Math Florida! Below, you’ll find links to sample lessons and more information about our Amplify Desmos Math Florida program.
Preview Lessons.
Check out the links below to explore our interactive sample lessons.
Register to learn more about Amplify Desmos Math Florida.
Join us as we sit down with math experts and educators to explore how to support both students and teachers in math classrooms across Florida. This free professional learning series is designed to deliver collaborative, effective, and engaging math practices, as well as free activities to use right away.
A structured approach to problem-based learning
Amplify Desmos Math combines and connects conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Lessons are designed with the Proficiency Progression™, a model that provides teachers with clear instructional moves to build from students’ prior knowledge to grade-level learning.
Student thinking is valuable and can be made evident.
We believe that math class is a place where teachers can elicit, celebrate, and build on their students’ interesting ideas. Those ideas fuel meaningful classroom conversations and drive the learning process.
Robust assessments that drive learning and inform instruction
A variety of performance data in Amplify Desmos Math Florida provides evidence of student learning, while helping students bolster their skills. With explicit guidance on what to look for and how to respond, teachers can effectively support students as they develop their understanding.
Reporting and insights
Teachers and administrators have visibility into what students know about grade-level math with a variety of data reports. By evaluating not only what students know about grade-level math but also providing insight into how they think, teachers can confidently plan whole-class instruction and targeted intervention.
Access to grade-level math for every student, every day
Amplify Desmos Math Florida provides teachers with lessons, strategies, and resources to eliminate barriers and increase access to grade-level-content without reducing the mathematical demand of tasks—all while supporting students in building strong number sense, fluency, and conceptual understanding.
Differentiation when and where it matters most
Teachers are provided with clear student actions to look for, matched with immediately usable suggestions for how to respond to student thinking. Each lesson also includes recommendations for resources to use with students to support, strengthen, and stretch their understanding of the lesson goal.
Boost Personalized Learning
Boost Personalized Learning activities in Amplify Desmos Math Florida target a skill or concept aligned to the day’s core lesson, with each student receiving personalized scaffolds based on what they already know. Designed to build fluency in mathematics, these activities adapt to each student’s unique needs and support skill-based growth.
Intervention Mini-Lessons aligned to core instruction
Amplify Desmos Math Florida Mini-Lessons are aligned to the most critical topics throughout a unit and provide targeted intervention for small groups of students who need additional support or more time.
Boost Math
Boost Math is a K–8 personalized learning and intervention program that provides Learning Pathways to ensure that every student succeeds. Our system supports all aspects of a strong Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) through learning progressions that connect foundational skills directly to core instruction.
Contact us
Support is always available. Our team is dedicated to helping you every step of the way. Contact your dedicated Florida representative for program access, samples, and additional information.
Free professional learning to support your Science of Reading journey
We know you seek the best research-tested methods for your students—and want to start applying them as quickly and easily as possible. Whether you’re looking to improve your students’ writing or understand how to boost their comprehension, here are a few resources designed to save precious time!
Science of Reading: The Podcast Essentials episodes
Looking for a roundup of the latest research on key topics? Look no further! Our Science of Reading Essentials episodes can unlock insights that can truly transform your instruction. Each episode is just over 30 minutes. You can also download our discussion guides to fuel your own professional learning sessions.
Comprehension episode
Comprehension podcast listening guide
Writing episode
Writing podcast listening guide
Dyslexia episode
Dyslexia Support Power Pack
Science of learning episode
Science of Reading: A Primer—Part One
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Explore the Science of Writing
Discover the captivating journey of writing with our new guide, Science of Writing: A Primer. Explore the history of writing to understand the crucial link between reading and writing instruction—and why handwriting still matters in today’s digital world.
A year’s professional learning from Science of Reading: The Podcast
Looking for ways to bring Science of Reading: The Podcast into your professional learning communities? Here’s one starting place: Share a presentation of top takeaways to jump-start your discussions.
Science of Reading professional development on your own schedule
Science of Reading: Learning Lab offers unparalleled research-backed instruction crafted to the standards of the International Dyslexia Association. Explore enriching activities, curated resources, and guidance from Susan Lambert, Chief Academic Officer of Literacy and Host of Science of Reading: The Podcast.
Free K–8 science classroom resources
Fuel engagement and encourage student agency with free K–8 science resources for teachers. Our science classroom resource library provides free activities, posters, and guides to elevate teaching and learning in your classroom. Browse topics from science and literacy connections to Earth Day and facilitating Science Seminars.
Free K–8 science classroom resources
Download free K–8 science resources built to fuel your classroom. Our Science Classroom Resource Library provides printable activities, posters, and guides to elevate teaching and learning in your classroom. Browse and filter resources for grades K–2, 3–5, and 6–8, and download what you need at no cost. Our team adds new resources regularly, so check back often!
Unleash the potential of knowledge building in language comprehension
Managing the change that matters most: Implementing the Science of Reading with integrity
Reading requires deliberate, systematic attention—and so does shifting to the Science of Reading in your school or district. It requires not only the correct curriculum, but also all-new mindsets, metrics, and more. Reflecting years of experience supporting real educators, our resources will walk you through the process of change management in your community—and show you why the shift is worth it.
How data drives Science of Reading change management
Making the shift requires meticulous planning, open communication, and most importantly, data. Learn how to harness data to drive your implementation forward.
Step 1: Prepare your team
Big change doesn’t happen without buy-in. We’ll help you take the crucial first step of getting your team on board.
Build a Science of Reading digital bookbag
Getting up to speed with the Science of Reading takes some homework. We’ve pulled some key resources into one place for you and your team.
Subscribe to Science of Reading: The Podcast
Tune in to our chart-topping Science of Reading podcast—which recently celebrated four million downloads—to keep up with the latest insights from experts and practitioners. Subscribe to listen to the latest episodes exploring relatable, real-life challenges faced by literacy educators—from managing small groups to delivering trauma-informed instruction—and visit the archives to binge Seasons 1 through 7!
Read The Knowledge Gap and Science of Reading: The Defining Guide
You’ll want to curl up with The Knowledge Gap, Natalie Wexler’s essential work making the case for the power of knowledge to fuel literacy. You can also get all the basics in Science of Reading: The Defining Guide by our friends at the Reading League.
Professional development to support your shift to the Science of Reading
Ignite literacy transformation with Amplify’s Science of Reading: The Learning Lab—an inspiring three-course series.
- Dive into a comprehensive overview with course one, Foundations to the Science of Reading.
- Examine assessments and their roles in course two, Advanced Topics in the Science of Reading: Assessment and Reading Difficulties.
- Apply effective literacy instruction to your classroom in course three, Applied Structured Literacy.
Crafted to the standards of the International Dyslexia Association, this self-paced online series provides unparalleled, research-backed instruction. Explore enriching activities, curated resources, and learn from Susan Lambert, chief academic officer and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast.
The best investment you can make is in knowledge, and the returns are priceless.
Learn more about the online courses or request a quote!
Tap into individual online course seats.
Step 2: Adopt the right program
Making the Science of Reading a reality in your school means choosing the right evidence-based curriculum.
Change management
Our Change Management Playbook is your trusted companion in transforming schools with proven strategies. Crafted alongside educators who have successfully pioneered change, this comprehensive guide lays out actionable steps and critical questions for each phase of your implementation journey.
Evaluate curricula and look out for red flags
A core literacy curriculum needs to be aligned with evidence-based practices every step of the way. This curriculum evaluation guide from the Reading League will walk you through the evaluation you need to conduct to ensure that you’re investing in only the best instruction for your students and teachers, and to know that the curriculum you’re selecting is true to the research.
Make the five most critical instructional shifts
Big change is best done gradually. That’s why we’ve identified five key shifts in reading instruction that will set you on the path to transforming your classroom with the Science of Reading.
Watch our Science of Reading webinars
In our Literacy Is Opportunity webinar series, you’ll learn why it’s crucial to get reading instruction right for all students—and how to make the shifts needed in your school.
“I really think that educators should make the shift to the Science of Reading because it’s data-driven and purposeful, and it really encourages personalized learning.”
Step 3: Build an evidence-based literacy ecosystem that supports all students
Science-based reading instruction can actually reduce the need for intervention and support. These principles and practices show how evidence and data build a culture of literacy for everyone.
Establish a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) grounded in the Science of Reading
A complete Science of Reading system is one that aligns with a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. Because an MTSS includes all students—and stakeholders—it prevents struggles before they happen, setting everyone up for literacy success.
Explore Amplify’s Science of Reading early literacy suite
Built on more than 20 years of Science of Reading experience, our early literacy suite ensures that research-based and data-driven literacy practices are at the heart of everything you do. The suite includes every component of instruction, from assessment and personalized learning to intervention and professional development.
Bring the Science of Reading to middle school and biliteracy instruction
The Science of Reading can have an impact on learning outside of traditional K–5 literacy instruction, too—it can also address the specific needs of middle schoolers and multilingual students.
View our resources:
“This goes out to the interventionists, coaches, and administrators … support your staff. Be a part of and/or lead staff trainings, provide push-in support, model and co-teach so that the staff will see that this is not ‘just another initiative.’ Remember, this is the start of a long, powerful journey. Take small steps, do them well, then use data to move on to the next small step.”
Step 4: Sustain change for long-term results
Educational change doesn’t happen overnight, or by itself. We’ve helped thousands of Science of Reading champions make the shift, and they’re eager to share the secrets of their long-term success with fellow educators like you.
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 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.
- Guía del maestro: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Cuaderno de actividades: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Tarjetas de imágenes: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Componentes digitales: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
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.
Diverse texts
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
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.
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.
Sample materials
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.
Conocimiento Strand:
- Guía del maestro, Conocimiento 12: Luchar por una causa
- Cuaderno de actividades, Conocimientos 7–12
- Rotafolio de imágenes, Conocimiento 12
- Tarjetas de imágenes, Conocimiento 12
Lectoescritura Strand:
Additional resources
- Caminos Program Guide
- Biliteracy and Science of Reading Principles
- Amplify Caminos Conocimiento Scopes and Sequences
- Grade K Knowledge Strand
- Grade 1 Knowledge Strand
- Grade 2 Knowledge Strand
- Grade 3 Integrated Strand
- Grade 4 Integrated Strand
- Grade 5 Intgrated Strand
Amplify Science – West Virginia – state review
How teachers can address math anxiety
How teachers can address math anxiety
No one is born knowing the quadratic formula, or how to measure a triangle—math needs to be taught.
Likewise, no one is born a “math person”—or not a math person. And no one is born with math anxiety.
“Children don’t come with math anxiety,” says Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, senior vice president of curriculum and content for Sesame Workshop and a guest on Math Teacher Lounge. “Math anxiety is learned.” That’s actually good news because it means math anxiety can be unlearned, too. We can teach students (and even teachers) how to overcome it. In this post, we’ll cover some helpful learning strategies, teacher tips, and supports for caregivers.
Anxiety in—and beyond—the math classroom
First, let’s review what math anxiety is and is not.
Math anxiety is more than just finding math challenging, or feeling like you’re not a math person. Dr. Gerardo Ramirez, associate professor of educational psychology at Ball State University, defines it as “a fear or apprehension in situations that might involve math or situations that you perceive as involving math. Anything from tests to homework to paying a tip at a restaurant.” Here’s what else we know:
- Causes: Math anxiety is not correlated with high or low skill or performance. For students who’ve been pressured to excel, math anxiety comes with the fear of not meeting expectations. For students who historically haven’t done well in math, the anxiety comes with the assumption they’ll do poorly every time. Other triggers include a mismatch between learning and teaching styles that can lead to struggle, or false cultural messages like “girls aren’t good at math.”
- Consequences: People who suffer from math anxiety may deliberately avoid math, the consequences of which are obvious and far-reaching: not learning math at all, thus limiting academic success, career options, and even social experiences and connections. (This webinar mentions real-life—and relatable—examples of adults affected by math anxiety.)
- Prevalence: Math anxiety affects at least 20 percent of students, and parents and teachers can suffer from math anxiety, too. In fact, some research suggests that when teachers have math anxiety, it’s more likely that some of their students will as well. Luckily, those teachers and parents can also play a key role in helping students (and maybe even themselves) get more comfortable with math.
Addressing math anxiety in the classroom
Math anxiety can arise from the contexts and cultures in which students encounter math, so it makes sense that we can also create conditions that can help reduce it—and even prevent it from taking hold. Here are some key strategies for helping even the most math-anxious students thrive:
- Invite explicit conversation about math anxiety. In this webinar, Math Teacher Lounge podcast co-host Bethany Lockhart Jones recommends having open and direct conversations with all students about how doing math makes them feel. “The more you know about your students’ ‘math stories,’ the more you can help them,” she says.
- Build a positive, supportive, and collaborative math community where different learning styles and incorrect answers—often fuel for math anxiety—are considered part of the learning process. Embracing and working from wrong answers encourages students to focus on the “how” of math. Students feel more comfortable asking questions, taking risks, and making mistakes (as well as learning from them).
How do you build a supportive environment in your math classroom?
- Cultivate a growth mindset. Create a culture where mistakes are not just acceptable, but inevitable—even welcomed. Encourage perseverance and persistence. Emphasize that being challenged by a math concept doesn’t mean a student is inherently bad at math or just can’t do it. It means only that they can’t do it yet.
- Encourage collaboration. Promote a culture of cooperation and teamwork by incorporating group activities, peer support, and class discussions into your lessons.
- Play. Game-ifying problems and introducing friendly competition builds camaraderie and helps students find shared joy in math—a win-win!
- Give students plenty of time. Alleviating the pressure of time constraints allows students to think more deeply, take brain breaks, make fewer rushed errors, and develop a sense of control and confidence. Here are some ways to build time into your math lessons:
- Allow students ample time to think when you ask them questions.
- Allow students to work on assignments in class with support and take them home to finish if they need more time.
- Consider giving tests and quizzes in two parts and allowing students to complete them over multiple days.
- Create a culture of revisions. Allowing students to revise homework assignments and tests/quizzes for partial credit will remind them that learning math is a process, not a mandate to get everything right the first time. This will help them deepen their understanding by learning from and correcting their errors—and remind them that mistakes are part of growth.
- Use intentional language. The phrase “This is easy” might sound encouraging, but anxious students may hear it as “You should be able to do this.” Instead, use supportive, objective language such as “This problem is similar to when we…” or “Try using this strategy.”
Addressing math anxiety at home
Caregivers may be accustomed to reading to students at home, but sitting together and doing math? Probably less so. Some caregivers may even inadvertently perpetuate math anxiety—or the ideas that feed it—by repeating some of the associated stereotypes and misconceptions. (“Sorry, kiddo, grandpa’s not a math person.”)
Teachers can address this by sending materials home to support caregivers in engaging kids in math. Math games, for example, offer a fun, accessible opportunity for home practice—and they can even be played at bedtime, along with story time.
In general, teachers can also encourage caregivers to:
- Use and point out their use of math in the real world wherever possible.
- Help with math homework as much as possible.
- Use intentional, positive phrasing about math—including about their own use of it.
Teachers have the ability to reduce math anxiety and help students unlearn the stereotypes associated with it by building a positive math ecosystem. They can build a positive community in their math classroom, set caregivers up for success in supporting students at home, and even shine a light on their own relationship to math.
To learn more, tune in to Season 5 of Math Teacher Lounge, dive into our math webinars, and read the rest of our math blog.
Defining math fluency with Jason Zimba
When we think of fluency, especially as a goal, we might think of speaking or reading a language. But fluency is also a goal in learning math! So what is math fluency? And what does it look like in the math classroom? In Season 6, Episode 1 of our Math Teacher Lounge podcast, Amplify’s own Jason Zimba helps us understand—using some analogies to baseball and chicken, of course.
Definitions of math fluency
We can develop fluency in many things, from coding to cooking. On the Math Teacher Lounge podcast, Amplify Chief Academic Officer of STEM Jason Zimba recounted becoming fluent in…roast chicken.
Jason describes practicing one particular recipe until it was perfect. For Jason, that meant not just that the outcome was flawless or delicious, but that he was eventually able to make it from memory, without thinking—and to naturally adjust and calculate for variables like a smaller or larger chicken, or an unfamiliar oven.
Math fluency works the same way. Practice brings effortlessness—freeing up time and mind space for new opportunities.
The word “fluency” comes from the Latin fluentia, which means “flowing.” When applied to math, it means ”skill in carrying out procedures flexibly, accurately, efficiently, and appropriately,” says podcast host and math teacher and advocate Dan Meyer. As with someone fluent in a language (or a recipe), someone fluent in math is able to think and calculate mathematically without struggle or effort—that is, with fluidity.
Podcast host and elementary educator Bethany Lockhart Johnson adds this informal description: “It’s that thing you don’t even think about anymore. ‘Cause it’s in there. You’re not still thinking about addition facts, because you’ve got it. And it fuels you. It’s the foundation that allows you to do all the other cool stuff.”
Fluency in the math classroom
What does fluency look like in practice? A young learner fluent in math will be able to smoothly recite the number word list in order (“one, two, three…”) and write the numerals from 0 to 9. As the student grows, so does their fluency with multi-digit calculation, rational-number arithmetic, and eventually even variable expressions.
“It’s a wordless but still somehow almost verbal sort of fluency, with properties of operations as the grammar of the language,” says Jason.
But “it’s not fact recall,” he says. “Recall is remembering or just knowing. Fluency refers to calculation.”
Why and how to improve math fluency
There are different paths to fluency, but all can lead to “conceptual richness and mathematical joy,” says Dan.
If fluency provides that crucial foundation, what happens to students who are not math-fluent?
“When kids don’t have access to [fluency], it keeps them from diving into the juicy parts of math,” says Bethany. “Math is so much bigger than addition facts, but when they don’t know those addition facts, that becomes all math is.”
Without fluency, students miss opportunities to progress in (and enjoy) math, and may even develop math anxiety.
So how can you support math students in developing fluency?
For one thing, it’s important not to underestimate the value of practice and repetition. These approaches—especially when used in combination with other, more organic modes—can be highly productive, says Jason. “I worry about whether discomfort with repetitive practice is short-changing students of the power and confidence that fluency can bring.”
Dan compares it to achieving excellence in a sport—”like shooting from the same spot on the court over and over again,” he says. That kind of rote repetition is valuable in sports, and should also have its place in math instruction.
It’s also important for students to understand why they’re learning and even drilling their numbers, arithmetic, or times tables, Jason notes. They need to be “invested in understanding and agreeing that this is going to do something for them.”
One thing that helps: providing students a sense that they’ve accomplished something. “We need to have moments for them to reflect on what has been learned and what is now easy that was previously hard,” Dan says. He calls this process “humanizing fluency”—and Math Teacher Lounge will be here all season to help math educators do just that.
Save the date
Join us at NCTM in October for a live Math Teacher Lounge podcast recording with Dan Meyer and special guest Jennifer Bay-Williams! We’ll be investigating math fluency and finding fun ways to get all students engaged in math instruction.
Math Teacher Lounge LIVE!
NCTM | Oct. 27 | 2:30 p.m. EST (doors at 2:15) | Room 158AB
More to explore
Implementing math fluency games
OK, shuffle the deck and draw four cards. Place them face up, in no particular order. Your job: pair them into two-digit numbers with the lowest possible difference between them.
If you draw a 3, a 9, and two 8s, you’re not going to want to make them into 98 and 38. 89 and 83 might be a better move.
Whatever pairs you create, you’re likely more engaged by this challenge than you might have been by the invitation: “Let’s practice subtracting two-digit numbers!”
That’s just one of the benefits of integrating math fact fluency games and other math-driven games into your classroom.
A special live recording of Math Teacher Lounge at NCTM 2023—in which host Dan Meyer plays the above card game—explores how games can not only help build math fluency, but also help bring joy into the classroom.
As Dan notes during the live show, playing a game creates an energy shift in the room: “There’s like a moment of activation for a game versus a worksheet, where people are kind of murmuring and chattering,” he says. “I just want to, like, catch the vibe.”
Let’s find out more.
Math facts fluency, defined
When we think of fluency, we might think of speaking or reading a language. But fluency is also a goal in learning math. (And it’s the theme of this entire season of Math Teacher Lounge!)
As discussed in this post, the word “fluency” comes from the Latin fluentia, which means “flowing.” When applied to math facts for kids, it means ”skill in carrying out procedures flexibly, accurately, efficiently, and appropriately,” says Dan. As with someone fluent in a language (or a recipe), someone fluent in math is able to think and calculate mathematically without struggle or effort—that is, with fluidity.
Podcast co-host and elementary educator Bethany Lockhart Johnson provides this informal definition: “It’s that thing you don’t even think about anymore. ‘Cause it’s in there. You’re not still thinking about addition facts, because you’ve got it. And it fuels you. It’s the foundation that allows you to do all the other cool stuff.”
Math facts for kids through games
How do games help with all of this?
They can help make math more fun, for sure—but that’s just a start.
Podcast guest Jennifer Bay-Williams, Ph.D., a math education professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, knows that the learning and practicing of basic math facts can be rote and dull—but it doesn’t have to be. She likes to ask teachers: “How can you bring more joy to the learning of math, in a serious way?”
As this Edutopia article notes, “effective games…link content with low-stakes competition and can provide a more collaborative, engaging classroom experience—especially for students who may struggle to focus or find their niche in learning.”
There’s plenty of research to show that games can boost student participation, comfort with taking risks, interpersonal skills and classroom community, and positive attitudes toward learning. For kids with ADHD and dyslexia, they can also help improve focus and certain types of attention that support improved reading. All of this can help students get the practice and comfort with math they need to build the fluency they require.
But that doesn’t mean math class should be all fun and games. It’s important to integrate games into instruction thoughtfully and with purpose. As Bay-Williams says, she makes sure to ask teachers, “Really, why are we doing the game?”
Fluency games in Desmos Classroom
Desmos Classroom offers numerous math fluency games for all grade levels.
- K–5 educators should check out the Desmos K–5 Math Routines collection, including Guess My Fraction in grades 3–5 (for instructions, see this Instagram explainer from Kristin Gray).
- 6–12 educators should check out the 6–12 activities collection for more examples of math fluency games such as Battle Boats.
Additional resources
Using formative assessment to support literacy
Learning to read is not linear. That’s because reading is not just one skill, but a bundle of skills, intertwined and supporting one another.
In the late 1990s, reading and literacy expert Hollis Scarborough helped us visualize this complex process by creating a model that’s now known as the Reading Rope. Grounded in the Science of Reading, this now-iconic model emphasizes the need for a comprehensive, deliberate approach to reading instruction. It’s an approach that recognizes the importance of building both reading skills and the background knowledge that makes them even stronger.
The Reading Rope model also connects educators to key strands of formative data that guide instruction and assessment.
With data and information that support the relationship between language comprehension and word recognition skills, teachers can devise reading comprehension strategies and get a better idea of where to focus their instruction. And thanks to the Science of Reading, this data can also help you track what students know, and where they need to go.
Let’s take a closer look to see how it all works.
Reading comprehension and more: The strands of the Reading Rope
The design of the Reading Rope shows that the two core components of reading are word recognition and language comprehension.
Word recognition encompasses the ability to accurately, effortlessly, and rapidly decode printed words. Phonological awareness, phonics, and sight word recognition contribute to this strand.
- Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) within spoken words. It includes skills such as identifying rhymes, segmenting words into syllables, and manipulating sounds within words. Phonological awareness provides the foundation for phonics instruction.
- Phonics involves the systematic relationship between letters and the sounds they represent. It includes understanding letter-sound correspondences, decoding unfamiliar words by applying sound-symbol relationships, and blending sounds to form words. Phonics instruction gives students the tools to decode printed words.
- Sight word recognition happens when students have had enough practice decoding words that they can automatically recognize and apply sound-spelling patterns across words. Automaticity in word recognition allows students to shift their focus from decoding to comprehending texts.
Language comprehension involves the understanding of spoken and written language. This includes vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and the ability to make inferences and draw conclusions. Language comprehension allows readers to extract meaning from and create meaning with text.
- Vocabulary refers to the words one knows and understands, both orally and in writing. A robust vocabulary enhances comprehension and communication.
- Grammar and syntax are the rules and structures that govern language. Understanding and applying grammatical rules help students comprehend and construct sentences, enhancing their ability to make meaning from and create meaning with text.
- Inference skills involve the ability to draw conclusions, make predictions, and derive implicit meaning. With these skills, students are able to combine their background knowledge with information in the text to make guesses and reach conclusions.
The importance of knowledge
The Reading Rope affirms that readers use their existing knowledge and experiences to make sense of what they are reading. A student who brings relevant background knowledge to a text can understand it even better than a stronger reader who’s new to the topic.
Background knowledge also helps readers navigate unfamiliar vocabulary or concepts. When readers encounter words or ideas they already have some familiarity with, they can make connections and use contextual clues to determine meaning, which contributes to reading fluency and comprehension.
Intentionally building background and academic knowledge—coupled with comprehension strategies—fuels students’ capacity to understand texts, answer questions, and grapple with ideas.
As educators Barbara Davidson and David Liben write: “Although students’ independent reading is often at lower complexity levels at the beginning of a unit, as they acquire knowledge about the core topic they are generally able to read texts on their related topic at complexity levels greater than their diagnosed grade level.”
Putting it all together with formative assessment
There are a variety of ways to gather information about your students’ skills and knowledge, using the Reading Rope as your guide. Here are just a few examples that correspond to its strands:
Word recognition
- Letters: See how students do with letter-sound correspondence tasks such as: matching graphemes to phonemes, writing letters that represent sounds, word-building activities, and sound sorts with word cards.
- Words: Gauge students’ ability to apply sound-symbol correspondences by asking them to spell words with sound-spelling patterns they’ve already learned.
Language comprehension
- Knowledge: How much are students learning about a topic overall? Keep asking—through pre-reading tasks, discussions, and checks for understanding.
- Vocabulary: Track students’ vocabulary growth with word-mapping, context-clue, and word-brainstorming tasks.
Skilled reading
Here’s where it all comes together. Many formative assessment activities will help you discover what your students know about the skills they’re using as readers. Here, we’ll focus on the power of students speaking and writing about what they’re reading.
- Speaking: As children learn to speak, they develop vocabulary and knowledge of sentence structure, both of which support reading comprehension. Simply giving students the opportunity to talk about a topic can provide insight into their oral language development.
- Writing: Challenge students to write summaries, critiques, and analyses of texts to see what they’re comprehending from what they’re reading.
More to explore
Making the most of a science education conference
A typical science education conference such as NSTA may offer hundreds of booths, sessions, and new people to meet—and, most of the time, a typical science educator can’t do it all! So how can you maximize these opportunities to learn even more about teaching science … without maxing out? Middle-school educator and Science Connections podcast host Eric Cross is here to offer his tips. Here’s what he shared with us:
Proven tips for capitalizing on science education conferences
- Fuel up: Good food and good coffee are essential for me. Before you arrive, do some pre-trip research into local coffee shops and restaurants near the conference center. Avoid the long lines and overpriced food at the conference venue; instead, support local businesses to keep your energy levels up. Also important: comfy shoes, a reusable water bottle, and extra snacks.
- Make a plan: Once registered, head to the conference website to build your agenda. Phone apps are handy, but I often find the desktop version works better for planning.
- Narrow it down: NSTA, as just one example, offers more than 1,132 sessions! So it’s crucial to zero in on your options. Use a session schedule filter to focus on the sessions most relevant to your interests and needs.
- Go where you’re fed: If you’re torn between sessions, go to one to collect resources, then move onto the other. Usually presenters list their session resources on the schedule or in the beginning of their session. Don’t hesitate to leave a session if it’s not meeting your needs, either—you’re there on behalf of your students. Presenters get it.
- Divide and conquer: If you’re attending with a team, collaborate on a shared document for session notes and resource links. This way, everyone in your department and administration can benefit from the resources gathered at the conference.
- Visit the expo hall: I recommend visiting right when it opens. You’ll find the booths fully stocked and the energy levels high.
- Embrace downtime: Remember, conference venues are huge, and you’ll be on your feet quite a bit. Make sure to schedule 30–45 minutes of downtime. Use this break for a bit of mindless relaxation or to catch up on emails and reflect on earlier sessions. This brief pause can be a game changer for your overall conference experience.
- Revisit next-day plans: Schedules can shift at the last minute. After dinner, I like to give the lineup a fresh look for any speaker or time changes. Being prepared allows me to have a game plan, but flexibility is also key.
- Network: I especially find value in connecting with educators who teach content or student populations similar to my own and learning about their best practices in science instruction. Sometimes, these new connections can be just as enriching as the sessions themselves.
Note: Amplify will be at NSTA (March 20–23) at Booth #713. Stop by to experience real Amplify Science lessons; gain access to exciting, free resources and activities; and pick up fun swag. You’ll also hear from product experts and real educators about how they use Amplify Science to benefit all students.
Can’t wait? Check out our Amplify Science success stories to see how our K–8 curriculum is helping students everywhere read, think, and talk like scientists.
More to explore
- Amplify Science
- STEM free resource library
- Eric Cross’s podcast, Science Connections, and his most recent webinar on AI in the classroom
Meet Amplify Desmos Math
Meet Amplify Desmos Math, a new, curiosity-driven K–12 math program that builds students’ lifelong math proficiency. Lessons in Amplify Desmos Math are standards-aligned, easy to use, and fully customizable by educators. And every Amplify Desmos Math lesson includes suggestions for differentiation that support, strengthen, and stretch student understanding.
“Engagement is a real challenge in math classrooms,” said Jason Zimba, Amplify Chief Academic Officer of STEM. “Knowing this, we created a program with interesting problems that students are eager to solve, one that keeps them engaged and learning. Amplify Desmos Math achieves rigor and delight, motivating all students to explore new horizons and develop new understanding.”
We believe that math class is a place where teachers can elicit, celebrate, and build on their students’ interesting ideas. Those ideas fuel meaningful classroom conversations and drive the learning process. Read on to learn more.
Meet Amplify Desmos Math. This is math that motivates.
A structured approach to problem-based learning
The program combines the best problem-based lessons with tightly aligned personalized practice, assessments, and intervention, creating an integrated experience for teachers and students. Data informs instruction. Comprehensive student profiles provide full data on students’ assets and skills, empowering teachers to provide just-in-time scaffolds and targeted intervention when needed.
Amplify Desmos Math is a powerful suite of math resources that includes:
- Core instruction: Amplify Desmos Math lessons provide a structured approach to problem-based learning, where each lesson builds on students’ curiosity using a Proficiency Progression™ to develop lasting grade-level understanding for all students.
- Screening and progress monitoring: mCLASS® assessments and daily formative checks measure what students know and how they think. The asset-based assessment system provides teachers with targeted, actionable insights, linked to core instruction and intervention resources.
- Integrated personalized learning: Personalized Learning activities help students access grade-level math through engaging, independent digital practice. The program’s signature Responsive Feedback™ adjusts to students’ work, providing item-level adaptivity to further support their learning.
- Embedded intervention: Integrated resources like Mini-Lessons and math fluency games provide targeted intervention on specific concepts or skills connected to the daily lesson. Extensions are also available to stretch students’ understanding.
Amplify Desmos Math expands on the Desmos Math 6–8 curriculum, which is featured in a recent efficacy study led by WestEd that demonstrates increased math achievement across more than 900 schools in nine states.
Delightful digital activities and tools
To complement robust printed materials, Amplify Desmos Math leverages a digital platform that enables educators and students to connect with one another as they work through lessons, engage in personalized learning, and check for understanding. The interactive platform and facilitation tools foster mathematical discussions and allow educators to see student thinking in real time.
“Right now, teachers have to jump between platforms to access meaningful data, understand it, and use it,” said Alexandra Walsh, Amplify Chief Product Officer. “By combining instruction, assessment, and differentiation on the same digital platform, we’ve made student data more accessible, so educators can spend less time toggling and more time responding to student needs.”
Amplify Desmos Math is available:
- Kindergarten–Algebra 1
- As a beta release for the 2024-2025 school year, for pilot implementations and early adoptions
- As a commercial release for the 2025-2026 school year
- Geometry, Algebra 2, Integrated 1, Accelerated Grades 6 and 7
- As a beta release for the 2025-2026 school year
- As a commercial release for the 2026-2027 school year
- Integrated 2 and 3
- As a commercial release for the 2026-2027 school year
Try a free lesson.
Hundreds of free math lessons and activities from Amplify Desmos Math are available on Desmos Classroom, a free teaching and learning platform that places student engagement at the center of instruction. Desmos Classroom features free lessons, lesson-building tools, sharing features, and more. Built by math educators, the platform makes leaning into good pedagogy easier for teachers—which makes the lesson a more interactive experience for students.
You can teach these free lessons, but also customize them, or even build your own from scratch. Visit teacher.desmos.com to create a free account.
Amplify Caminos for SFUSD
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.
- Guía del maestro: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Cuaderno de actividades: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Tarjetas de imágenes: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
- Componentes digitales: Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
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.
Wide-ranging texts
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
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.
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.
Sample materials
Finally, click on the grade levels below to explore your requested sample units.
Conocimiento Strand:
- Guía del maestro, Conocimiento 12: Luchar por una causa
- Cuaderno de actividades, Conocimientos 7–12
- Rotafolio de imágenes, Conocimiento 12
- Tarjetas de imágenes, Conocimiento 12
Lectoescritura Strand:
Additional resources
- Caminos Program Guide
- Biliteracy and Science of Reading Principles
- Amplify Caminos Conocimiento Scopes and Sequences
- Grade K Knowledge Strand
- Grade 1 Knowledge Strand
- Grade 2 Knowledge Strand
- Grade 3 Integrated Strand
- Grade 4 Integrated Strand
- Grade 5 Intgrated Strand
Welcome to Transitional Kindergarten
Amplify Science California jump-starts a lifelong love of science with developmentally and pedagogically appropriate instruction featuring:
- Real-world problems and scientific phenomena.
- An experiential approach with lots of hands-on.
- Explicit support for building oral language and early literacy skills.
What students learn
Our program is comprised of three units: one life science, one physical science, one Earth science.
As students take on the role of a scientist or engineer to figure out real-world phenomenon, each unit:
- Sparks curiosity and engagement.
- Encourages students to wonder, think, and talk.
- Builds a solid foundation for future success with science.
Look below for a summary of each unit.
Unit 1
Unit: Wondering About Noises in Trees
Student role: Life scientists
Phenomenon: Strange noises appear to be coming from the trees outside.
Unit 2
Unit: Wondering About Buildings
Student role: Building engineers
Phenomenon: One class made a play city. Some of the buildings stayed up, while others fell down.
Unit 3
Unit: Wondering About Puddles
Student role: Weather scientists
Phenomenon: Puddles exist in some places but not in other places along a girl’s walk to school
Program structure
To meet the unique needs of little learners, our program follows a unique structure.
Each unit:
- Begins with an Introductory Activity that
introduces the phenomenon. - Includes a series of three Explorations that are comprised of a Kickoff Discussion, four activities, and a Shared Drawing and Discussion.
- Ends with a Culminating Activity that consolidates students’ understanding.
Each activity is designed to span 15 minutes. Depending on how the program is implemented, an entire unit generally takes 4–6 weeks.
How teachers teach
Tom Teacher feels confident delivering 3-D instruction with our resources by his side. Watch this video to learn more. >
When you’re ready, scroll down to take a closer look at sample resources.
Printed Teacher’s Guide
Our unit-specific Teacher’s Guides are chock full of helpful resources, including scientific background knowledge, planning information and resources, detailed lesson plans, tips for delivering instruction, differentiation strategies, additional classroom resources, and copymasters.
Big Books
Big Books contain vivid photographs and are used to introduce topics, facilitate group discussions, and support students’ firsthand investigations. Each Big Book is an integral part of instruction and is used multiple times for multiple purposes across a unit.
Science Questions
Each unit includes three printed Science Question cards, one for each Exploration of the unit. The cards can be posted on classroom walls and support the class as they are introduced to and revisit the focus of their investigations over the course of an Exploration and, ultimately, the unit.
Vocabulary and Picture Cards
Each unit includes six or seven printed Vocabulary Cards and a set of colorful Picture Cards that can be posted on classroom word walls and concept walls. Cards are used for a variety of purposes, including gathering evidence, building background knowledge, and introducing the focal phenomenon.
Resources
A closer look at grades 6–8
Amplify Science California is based on the latest research on teaching and learning and helps teachers deliver rigorous and riveting lessons through hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools that empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.
In the 6–8 classroom, this looks like students:
- Collecting evidence from a variety of sources.
- Making sense of evidence in a variety of ways.
- Formulating convincing scientific arguments.
Is your school implementing the domain model? Click here.
Program structure
Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.
It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science California to teach less, but achieve more. Rather than asking teachers to wade through unnecessary content, we designed our 6–8 program to address 100% of the California NGSS in fewer lessons than other programs.
Scope and sequence
Every year our grades 6–8 sequence consists of 9 units, with each unit containing 10–19 lessons. Lessons are written to last a minimum of 45-minutes, though teachers can expand or contract the timing to meet their needs.
Unit types
Each unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, while also serving a unique purpose.
In grades 6–8, there are three types of units:
- One unit is a launch unit.
- Three units are core units.
- Two units are engineering internships.
Launch units
Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science California. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.
Core units
Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.
Engineering Internship units
Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.
Units at a glance
Microbiome
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Microbiological researchers
Phenomenon: The presence of 100 trillion microorganisms living on and in the human body may keep the body healthy.
Metabolism
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Medical researchers
Phenomenon: Elisa, a young patient, feels tired all the time.
Metabolism Engineering Internship
Domains: Life Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Food engineers
Phenomenon: Designing health bars with different molecular compositions can effectively meet the metabolic needs of patients or rescue workers.
Traits and Reproduction
Domain: Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biomedical students
Phenomenon: Darwin’s bark spider offspring have different silk flexibility traits, even though they have the same parents.
Thermal Energy
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Thermal scientists
Phenomenon: One of two proposed heating systems for Riverdale School will best heat the school.
Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: During El Niño years, the air temperature in Christchurch, New Zealand is cooler than usual.
Weather Patterns
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic meteorologists
Phenomenon: In recent years, rainstorms in Galetown have been unusually severe.
Earth’s Changing Climate
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Life Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Climatologists
Phenomenon: The ice on Earth’s surface is melting.
Earth’s Changing Climate Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Civil engineers
Phenomenon: Designing rooftops with different modifications can reduce a city’s impact on climate change.
Geology on Mars
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Planetary geologists
Phenomenon: Analyzing data about landforms on Mars can provide evidence that Mars may have once been habitable.
Plate Motion
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Mesosaurus fossils have been found on continents separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, even though the Mesosaurus species once lived all together.
Plate Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Patterns in earthquake data can be used to design an effective tsunami warning system.
Rock Transformations
Domain: Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Geologists
Phenomenon: Rock samples from the Great Plains and from the Rocky Mountains — regions hundreds of miles apart — look very different, but have surprisingly similar mineral compositions.
Phase Change
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Chemists
Phenomenon: A methane lake on Titan no longer appears in images taken by a space probe two years apart
Force and Motion Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Mechanical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing emergency supply delivery pods with different structures can maintain the integrity of the supply pods and their contents.
Chemical Reactions
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Forensic chemists
Phenomenon: A mysterious brown substance has been detected in the tap water of Westfield.
Populations and Resources
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea has increased.
Matter and Energy in Ecosystems
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Ecologists
Phenomenon: The biodome ecosystem has collapsed.
Harnessing Human Energy
Domains: Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Engineering Design
Unit type: Launch
Student role: Energy scientists
Phenomenon: Rescue workers can use their own human kinetic energy to power the electrical devices they use during rescue missions.
Force and Motion
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: The asteroid sample-collecting pod failed to dock at the space station as planned.
Phase Change Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Physical Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Chemical engineering interns
Phenomenon: Designing portable baby incubators with different combinations of phase change materials can keep babies at a healthy temperature.
Magnetic Fields
Domain: Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Physicists
Phenomenon: During a test launch, a spacecraft traveled much faster than expected.
Light Waves
Domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Spectroscopists
Phenomenon: The rate of skin cancer is higher in Australia than in other parts of the world.
Earth, Moon, and Sun
Domains: Earth and Space Science, Physical Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Astronomers
Phenomenon: An astrophotographer can only take pictures of specific features on the Moon at certain times.
Natural Selection
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Biologists
Phenomenon: The newt population in Oregon State Park has become more poisonous over time.
Natural Selection Engineering Internship
Domains: Engineering Design, Life Science
Unit type: Engineering internship
Student role: Clinical engineers
Phenomenon: Designing malaria treatment plans that use different combinations of drugs can reduce drug resistance development while helping malaria patients.
Evolutionary History
Domains: Life Science, Earth and Space Science
Unit type: Core
Student role: Paleontologists
Phenomenon: A mystery fossil at the Natural History Museum has similarities with both wolves and whales.
Resources
Meet the 2025 Science of Reading Star Awards finalists
Celebrating the 2025 Science of Reading Star Awards finalists
Every day, teachers and education leaders across the country are guiding students toward a future lit up by literacy.
It’s not always easy—especially when they’re the ones championing and implementing shifts toward literacy programs grounded in the Science of Reading.
That’s why we’re thrilled to celebrate the finalists of the 2025 Science of Reading Star Awards!
These awards recognize the educators who go above and beyond to make evidence-based reading instruction a reality for students learning in their schools and districts. Whether they’re rolling out new district-wide literacy programs, coaching fellow educators, or introducing innovative teaching practices, these education leaders are making a real difference for students.
And just like the light from distant stars, the impact of their efforts reaches far and wide, shaping futures for years to come.
Empowering students through literacy
The Science of Reading Star Awards aim a beacon on the champions of literacy—teachers, administrators, and education leaders who are putting the best literacy research into action.
Studies show that systematic phonics instruction—one of the key components of the Science of Reading—leads to significantly higher reading achievement than alternative methods, particularly for struggling readers. Literacy instruction grounded in the Science of Reading strengthens critical thinking by systematically building the language comprehension skills—like vocabulary, syntax, and background knowledge—that students need to make meaning, draw inferences, and evaluate ideas in complex texts. And when you teach knowledge in tandem with literacy, you inspire students to become confident readers, writers, and thinkers.
But shifting to instruction aligned to the Science of Reading isn’t just about swapping one program for another or bringing innovative teaching methods into one classroom—it’s about leading change, engaging stakeholders, and being an inspiration to others.
These awards celebrate the educators, schools, and districts whose innovative approach to literacy is doing just that. Here’s a look at this year’s categories and finalists:
- District: The District Captain For the leaders bringing Science of Reading practices to life across entire districts
- Puyallup School District, WA
- Celina City Schools, OH
- Waukegan CUSD #60, IL
- Madison County School District, MS
- School: The Literacy Legend For the school that has seen significant reading gains among their students school-wide when using the Science of Reading
- Angie Grant Elementary School, Benton School District, AR
- Bataan Memorial Primary School, Port Clinton City School District, OH
- Bruin Point Elementary School, Carbon School District, UT
- Individual: The Changemaker For showcasing exemplary Science of Reading routines and practices, and serving as an inspiration to others on the journey
- Stephanie Wilcox, District Elementary School Improvement Specialist, Redmond School District, OR
- Emily Tessalone Garcia, Grade 8 Teacher, Passaic City Public School District, NJ
- Reena Mathew, Literacy Coach, Suffern Central School District, NY
- Individual: The Language Luminary For outstanding success in developing the skills and strengths of multilingual/English learners
- Johanna Quinde, Teacher, The Nancy DeBenedittis School, NY
- Dayana Orozco Rojas, Kindergarten Dual Language Teacher, Kannapolis City School District, NC
- Eimy Maria Galindo Medina, Grade 2 DLI Teacher, Denver Public Schools, CO
- Individual: The Background Knowledge Builder For showing the world that the Science of Reading empowers students with knowledge, context, and vocabulary from elementary through middle school
- Ann Ingham, Grade 3 Teacher, Cedarburg School District, WI
- Katie Chappell. Grade 5 Teacher, Rome City School District, GA
- Demi Grosely, Teacher, Clarkston School District, WA
- Individual: The MTSS Maestro For implementing a data-driven Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework that creates a thriving and robust literacy ecosystem
- Samantha Umali, Special Education Teacher and Elementary K–4 General Education Teacher, Bering Strait School District, AK
- Kylie Altier, Grade 1 Teacher, East Baton Rouge Parish School System, LA
- Erin Custadio, Elementary Literacy Manager, Falmouth Public School District, MA
- Victoria Green, Reading Specialist, Roswell Independent School District, NM
- Individual: The Science of Reading Rookie For a teacher in their first year already making strides with the Science of Reading
- Miracle Austin, Kindergarten Teacher, Guilford Preparatory Academy, NC
- Pei-Ching Peng, Instructional Apprentice, Uplift Elevate Preparatory, TX
- Todd Payne, Elementary Teacher, Renaissance School, WI
- Individual: The Cross-Disciplinarian For skilled weaving of literacy practices across subject areas in the classroom
- Katie Kirkpatrick, Teacher, Graham Dustin Public Schools, OK
- Laura Horvath, K–12 Science & Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator, Harrison School District 2, CO
- Christina Miller, Lower Elementary Teacher, South Bend Community School Corporation, IN
- Individual: The Writing Whiz For integrating writing instruction with the Science of Reading and cultivating articulate and confident writers through innovative and effective practices
- Michelle Luebbering, Grade 5 Teacher, Jefferson City School District, MO
- Jennifer Dove, Grade 3 Teacher, Rockingham County Public School District, VA
- Daphne Long, Teacher, St. Clair County School District, AL
From districts undergoing transformations to educators supporting professional development on the ground, these finalists are proving that with the right approach—and the right support—every child can become a strong reader.
Congratulations, finalists! We know the long hours, extra effort, and deep belief in your students that fuels your work. You’re making the future brighter, one reader at a time!
Learn more on our Science of Reading Star Awards page.
Unleash the potential of knowledge building in language comprehension
Every child is capable of becoming a skilled reader. Every classroom can provide that opportunity and drive student success, through a content-rich literacy curriculum.
We’ll show you how.
The relationship among knowledge, language comprehension, and literacy skills
The Science of Reading shows that early literacy skills are best built deliberately, on a foundation of knowledge. Knowledge building is not a result of reading and language comprehension; it’s a vital prerequisite and a fundamental part of the process. When students read a text on a familiar topic–event a tough one–they’re more likely to comprehend it. In other words: The more you know, the more, and faster, you learn.
Why is building knowledge so important?
Background knowledge—coupled with comprehension strategies—fuels students’ capacity to understand texts, answer questions, and grapple with ideas.
Students bring different bodies of knowledge into school. Some are whizzes at baseball or mechanics; some visit museums, have tons of books at home, and know the word “yacht.” That means their comprehension of a given topic or text will correlate with what they already know. But what happens when they learn the same content together? A recent independent study showed that a knowledge-building literacy curriculum in elementary school raised test scores and helped eliminate income-based opportunity gaps.
It is our responsibility as educators to bring the world into the classroom for all students and help them grow their literacy skills.
Literacy instruction has typically focused on decontextualized skills—finding the main idea, making inferences—before, or instead of, the content of texts and resources that students engage with. Many teachers may have been trained to “put the skills and strategies in the foreground, like a skill of the week, then bring in texts that they find suited for demonstrating the skill or strategy,” says Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap. But science shows that harnessing skills and strategies to content is actually more effective. That is, using a coherent and systematic progression of content that helps knowledge and skills build on each other has been shown to result in better student outcomes.
“The advantage of a coherent curriculum is that the topics it covers can build on one another, with one unit providing a foundation of knowledge for others that come later, both throughout a single school year and across grade levels,” according to Barbara Davidson and David Liben. Along the way, students also cultivate curiosity and confidence, accelerating the entire process. So the more you know, the faster you learn—and that lasts a lifetime.
Getting started with knowledge based learning
Effective literacy instruction must celebrate the experiences students have but not assume each student has specific pieces of prior knowledge. Rather, it must build knowledge in the classroom. Students (and teachers) need curricula that expose them to a diverse array of new topics—spanning history, science, literature, culture, and the arts—in an intentional sequence that builds a rich and common knowledge base from which all students can draw.
Want to get started now? We’ve got an ebook to help you out.
Professional development to support your shift to the Science of Reading
Ignite literacy transformation with Amplify’s Science of Reading: The Learning Lab—an inspiring three-course series.
- Course 1: Foundations to the Science of Reading
- Course 2: Advanced Topics in the Science of Reading: Assessment and Reading Difficulties
- Course 3: Applied Structured Literacy
Crafted to the standards of the International Dyslexia Association, this self-paced online series provides unparalleled, research-backed instruction. Explore enriching activities, curated resources, and learn from Susan Lambert, chief academic officer and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast.
The best investment you can make is in knowledge, and the returns are priceless.
Learn more about the online courses or request a quote!
Tap into individual online course seats.
Before and after knowledge building: What knowledge looks like in the classroom
Making connections to what students already know
Before: Teachers “activate” students’ prior knowledge before reading.
After: Teachers build students’ knowledge explicitly for students to leverage later as background knowledge.
Developing reading comprehension
Before: Teachers focus instruction on comprehension strategies (e.g., “strategy of the day” instruction).
After: Teachers focus on content and use comprehension strategies to help students gain knowledge of that content.
Introduction of new topics and information
Before: Students learn about content-area topics individually in disconnected units of instruction.
After: Students learn topics through a coherent approach that builds knowledge within and across units of instruction.
See the remarkable difference shifting to a knowledge-building approach can make in your school. Our enlightening flyer guides you through a before-and-after journey, illustrating the profound impact of knowledge building on learning. Check it out!
What to look for in a knowledge-building literacy curriculum:
It develops content knowledge.
The program should immerse students in a given domain for weeks—that’s how they acquire academic knowledge. The content should also develop from grade to grade, so that students learning about Renaissance art can reflect on and compare to what they previously learned about art in the Middle Ages.
It leverages read-alouds for exposure to complex language.
In early grades, students’ listening comprehension outpaces their reading comprehension. Interactive read-alouds can be used to expose students to academic language and rich vocabulary. With background knowledge, vocabulary words are “the main support beams in the comprehension house.” This approach also helps teachers introduce students to new information and experiences—in a supportive and interactive environment.
It introduces students to a wide variety of topics and content.
A content-rich curriculum exposes students to broad knowledge over time in a systematic, cumulative way, which is more effective than spending several months on just one topic. And while that’s happening, students are participating in enriching discussions and writing activities so they can further interact with the content, promoting deeper engagement and supporting retention of both the knowledge and associated vocabulary.
It builds both knowledge and foundational skills.
Knowledge building is just one component of literacy development. A content-rich curriculum that helps students build both knowledge (language comprehension) and skills (word recognition) takes into account both sides of the Reading Rope, giving students everything they need to build the foundation for a lifetime of literacy success. Instead of learning to read so they can read to learn, students who use a content-rich curriculum learn to read and learn about the world at the same time, enabling them to understand what they’re reading.
Amplify Desmos Math
for New York
Welcome to Amplify Desmos Math, a powerful new core program from Amplify and Desmos Classroom built for NYC teachers and students.
Amplify Desmos Math is built on four core tenets:
- Math can motivate students.
- A structured approach to problem-based learning can best tend to all aspects of rigor.
- Student thinking is valuable and visible.
- Students can catch up while keeping up with grade-level math.
What if your students asked to do more math?
Amplify Desmos Math lessons are powerful in their ability to elicit student thinking and spark interesting, productive discussions.
The lessons pose problems that invite a variety of approaches with their dynamic and interactive learning experiences on devices, as well as experiences on paper that are flexible, creative, and engaging.
As students work online, they interact with visuals and simulations that show their thinking and decisions. When appropriate, students see other students’ responses and engage in collaborative math discussions.
A Responsive Feedback feature responds to student thinking by showing the mathematical meaning behind it. This is more powerful than simply evaluating thinking as right or wrong, because it motivates and engages students in the learning process.
In this Grade 6 activity, students internalize the coordinate plane by plotting points to navigate the marble through the maze to collect the star.
This prepares students to accurately and efficiently plot points with positive and negative coordinates on grids with different scales and explain the relationship between ordered pairs that differ only by the signs of the coordinates.
In this Grade 7 activity, students explore positive and negative integer operations using the up and down movement of a submarine.
Students are then prepared apply this understanding in a variety of word problem contexts.
In this Grade 8 activity, students create rate, distance, and time equations based on turtle races.
This prepares students to understand that a graph representing a proportional relationship is a line through (0, 0) and (1, k). They also begin to see connections between a context and features of a corresponding graph, equation, and table.
Data at your fingertips on the road to mastery
Facilitate a collaborative, connected classroom community.
The powerful teacher facilitation tools in Amplify Desmos Math give teachers insight into student thinking in real time. Teachers can select student work to display and discuss quickly and easily, leading to better questions that guide more productive discussions.
Amplify Desmos Math helps guide the learning process by connecting students to each other and to an understanding that they can use math to make sense of the world. Students learn and collaborate in every lesson. Whether using print, digital, or a mix of both, students stay connected to each other’s ideas and thinking, fueling classroom conversations and a shared understanding of math.
Standards alignment
Amplify Desmos Math is customized specifically to meet the New York State Next Generation Math Learning Standards. Within each document below, you’ll find direct links to lessons and activities where each individual standard is addressed.
Grade 6 correlation
Grade 7 correlation
Grade 8 correlation
The program is also aligned with the expectations outlined in the New York City Department of Education Definition of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education and the New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. Download the CR-SE alignment.
Digital review
Ready to explore the program? To log in, click the orange “Review now” button below, select “Log in with Amplify” and use the following login credentials:
Username: t.nycadmsample-01@tryamplify.net
Password: AmplifyNumber1
To review Algebra 1 content from Desmos Math 6–A1, which serves as the foundation for Amplify Desmos Math, click this link after logging in using the credentials above.
Support
Throughout your review, you can reach our support team by email or phone. We are available any time over:
Live chat: Click the orange icon while logged in to get immediate help.
Phone: Call our toll-free number: (888)-960-0380.
Email: Send an email to help@amplify.com. In the message body, please include your name and question. Provide as much detail as possible, so we can help you find a solution.
Confirmed: Knowledge matters.
Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) for K–5 and Amplify ELA for 6–8 are high-quality, knowledge-building literacy programs recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign.
Our shared message: Background knowledge is essential to literacy and learning.
High-quality curriculum recognized
Rigorous evaluators have affirmed the quality of both Amplify CKLA and Amplify ELA. Now each curriculum has been recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as a literacy program that excels in building knowledge.
Knowledge fuels comprehension.
The Science of Reading reveals knowledge as an essential pillar of reading comprehension, and even lifelong literacy. That’s why leading scientists say knowledge building must be incorporated into reading instruction from the beginning—and continued throughout every subsequent grade level.
The more you know, the faster you learn.
That’s the message of the Knowledge Matters Campaign, and it’s the foundation of Amplify CKLA and Amplify ELA. Both content-rich literacy programs systematically braid knowledge building with skills instruction, creating a curriculum that enables all students to build reading comprehension and confidence alike.
Resources for teachers: Bring the world to students with knowledge!
The Science of Reading shows that literacy develops best on a foundation of knowledge. In other words, the more you know, the easier and faster you learn!
The Amplify CKLA literacy curriculum intentionally builds students’ background and academic knowledge—along with comprehension strategies—that fuel their capacity to understand texts, answer questions, and grapple with ideas.
Explore resources for teachers from educators across the country who are bringing Amplify CKLA Knowledge Domains to life in their classrooms!
Kindergarten
In kindergarten, students develop phonemic awareness with storybook characters like Zack and Ann Chang; draw a chart to identify different smells; learn about the Lenape, Wampanoag, and Lakota Sioux; and pay homage to classic nursery rhymes by jumping a candlestick.
Domain 1: Nursery Rhymes and Fables
To celebrate the end of the Nursery Rhymes and Fables unit, students participated in a Nursery Rhyme Olympics.
Credit: Kelly O’Connor, Huber Street Elementary School, NJ
BONUS VIDEO: Watch this video to see Nursery Rhyme Olympics in action!
Domain 2: The Five Senses
As a special activity for the Five Senses unit, students explored their sense of taste with a pop-up farmers market.
Credit: Debbie Braaten, Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, OH
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how Jamie Vannoy, a teacher in Wirt County, WV, plans a braille activity for this unit!
Domain 3: Stories
Kindergarteners worked in groups to construct houses using straw, sticks, and bricks to commemorate the reading of “The Three Little Pigs.”
Credit: Manal Abuhouran, Clarendon Elementary School, NJ
Domain 4: Plants
To apply their learning, students at Superior Elementary planted grass seeds at the beginning of the Plants unit, then cared for and observed the grass daily to ensure it flourished.
Credit: Emma Fynbu, Superior Elementary School, NE
Domain 5: Farms
To celebrate the Farms unit, students visited a local farm to study the equipment and farm animals!
Credit: Kirsten Tingley, Cumberland Valley School District, PA
Domain 6: Native Americans
To showcase their knowledge, students created a gallery walk that displays information about the Lakota Sioux, Wampanoag, and Lenape tribes.
Credit: Dalphne Harrison, Aldine ISD, TX
Domain 7: Kings and Queens
To mark the end of the Kings and Queens unit, this class hosted a royal tea party in the cafeteria, featuring cloaks and handmade crowns.
Credit: Chrystal Wise, Malvern School District, AR
Domain 8: Seasons and Weather
Teach your students more about seasons and weather: Invite your local meteorologist to visit, like this classroom did!
Credit: Chrystal Wise, Malvern School District, AR
Domain 9: Columbus and the Pilgrims
Students create illustrations of Columbus’s journey to present their knowledge for this unit!
Credit: Mandy Collins, Fayette County Public Schools, TN
Domain 10: Colonial Towns and Townspeople
As you wrap up this unit, take inspiration from this school: Make shop signs and tables to create your own colonial town!
Credit: Andrea Gatten, Propel Schools, PA
Domain 11: Taking Care of the Earth
We love this culminating activity! Students create awareness for a cause by creating persuasive signs, videos, and a class petition. This multimedia display shows them embracing the values of environmental stewardship.
Credit: Heather Keating, Gulliver Prep, FL
Domain 12: Presidents and American Symbols
To close the Presidents and American Symbols Domain, hold a sample election in your classroom! Create a voting booth, ballot box, ballot cards, election music, campaign posters, stickers, balloons, and confetti! Before announcing the winner, discuss the importance of voting, the voting process, what a campaign looks like, and what to look for in a great leader.
Credit: Andrea Gatten, Propel Schools, PA
Grade 1
In Grade 1, students sing about a fabulous fox, learn to tell the difference between fairy tale heroes and villains, write an opinion statement about the worst part of going to the moon, and learn ancient Egyptian techniques for mummifying an apple.
Domain 1: Fables and Stories
To celebrate the Fables and Stories domain, students participated in a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” race while teachers dressed as fable characters.
Credit: Brittany Sachs, Monon Trail Elementary School, IN
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how Brittany planned a Fable Olympics for her Grade 1 students!
Domain 2: The Human Body
To showcase their knowledge of the topic, students participated in a “hospital day.” The classroom was transformed to look like different operating rooms. Stations included blending and segmenting CVC words with Band-Aids, a Tricky Words eye exam, sentence writing, an X-ray light table, food sorting according to the food pyramid, and an operation game!
Credit: Erin Chester, Thompson Crossing Elementary School, IN
BONUS VIDEO: Erin explains how she planned the activity, and shows us snippets of the culminating activity in action.
Domain 3: Different Lands, Similar Stories
Take inspiration from this classroom and have your students create a Thumbelina floral craft to round out the unit’s celebration of folktales.
Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH
Domain 4: Early World Civilizations
Looking for a culminating activity for this domain? Plan an ancient Egypt day filled with crafts and activities, including pyramid-making, writing in hieroglyphics, trying Egyptian food, and mask-making.
Credit: Camy Stirling, Brevard Academy, NC
BONUS VIDEO: Watch this short video about how to make pyramid-making easy in your classroom!
Domain 5: Early American Civilizations
Students can apply their learning about early American civilizations by creating their very own Moctezuma headdresses.
Credit: Emmett J. Hoops, Moriah Central School, NY
Domain 6: Astronomy
A surefire way to ignite your students’ excitement about astronomy is to create a moon phase Oreo chart!
Credit: Shelby Varchmin, Fred Wild Elementary School, FL
BONUS IDEA: Have your class send postcards to space through the Club for the Future program.
Domain 7: The History of the Earth
Students channeled their inner geologists during this unit and dug for rocks.
Credit: Ronda Scott, Dixon Public Schools, IL
Domain 8: Animals and Habitats
Students can express their creativity by drawing animals, plants, and environments on rocks, then sorting by habitats or comparing by Venn diagram.
BONUS: Check out these students’ creative and colorful dioramas that were showcased at the end of this unit!
Credit: Christine Thomas, The School District of Palm Beach County, FL
Domain 9: Fairy Tales
To wrap up the Fairy Tales unit, sharpen your students’ drama skills by having them act out their favorite stories.
Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH
Domain 10: A New Nation: American Independence
Posters beautifully summarize the learning from a unit. Pair students up to create and present to their classmates!
Credit: Tracy Hatch Gagnon, Holy Name Parish School, MA
Domain 11: Frontier Explorers
Students can celebrate this unit by hosting a Pioneer Day and making Daniel Boone hats!
Credit: Shelby Varchmin, Fred Wild Elementary School, FL
Grade 2
In Grade 2, students thrill to the crimes of the Cat Bandit, assemble books about ancient Chinese culture, write their own Greek myths, and learn the story of the people who escaped to freedom from slavery by “follow[ing] the Drinking Gourd.”
Domain 1: Fairy Tales and Tall Tales
To celebrate the end of the Fairy Tales and Stories Unit, encourage students to showcase their favorite stories by crafting paper collages and clay figures.
Credit: Jessica Berg, Arlington Public Schools, VA
Domain 2: Early Asian Civilizations
Second-grade teachers worked together to create an amazing dragon at the end of their Early Asian Civilizations Unit. Each student created a scale for their grade-level dragon!
Credit: Emma Bridgeforth, Windsor Elementary School, WI
BONUS: This class at Windber Elementary, PA, celebrated this unit by hosting a Chinese New Year dragon parade.
Domain 3: The Ancient Greek Civilization
This class had a great time becoming world travelers and celebrating all the knowledge gained throughout the Ancient Greek Civilization domain. The students started their day getting their passport stamped. After entering ancient Greece, they engaged in many centers. They built the Parthenon and Athena’s throne, wrote facts about Sparta, created locks for Pandora’s box, built a harp for Apollo, and played vocabulary games. In addition to centers, the students learned that they all qualified for the Olympics, and were led by teachers on a victory walk as the entire school cheered for them!
BONUS: Take inspiration from this Louisiana educator and plan a potato Olympics day with your students!
Credit: Terri Hart, Jefferson Parish Public School District, LA
Domain 4: Greek Myths
Students wrote and shared their very own Greek myths, made props, and dressed in togas to celebrate this unit!
Credit: Chelsey Steinmetz, Cornell Elementary School, WI
Domain 5: The War of 1812
Bring a battle to life by having students create boats out of foil and other common household materials to participate in a boat race!
Credit: Jerica Falevai, Pacific Heritage Academy, UT
Domain 6: Cycles in Nature
To bring the Cycles in Nature unit to life, students learned how to make their own greenhouses and watched lima beans germinate and sprout.
Credit: Amber Taylor, Corbin Primary School, KY
Domain 7: Westward Expansion
To commemorate the end of this domain, this class had two grandparents come to the classroom to bake bread, make trail mix, and pan for gold.
BONUS: In another classroom, students made people, animals, and their very own pioneer wagons out of paper.
Credit: Jennifer Murphy, John E. Bryan Elementary School, AL
Domain 8: Insects
These students celebrated all the knowledge they gained by researching and writing about an insect, then using household items to build a model of their chosen insect!
Credit: Tamara Gore, Harrison Hill Elementary School, IN
Domain 9: The U.S. Civil War
Have your students showcase their knowledge of the U.S. Civil War by creating posters of important historical figures of the time!
Credit: Heather Griffin, Rochester School District, NH
Domain 10: The Human Body
We love this culminating activity! Students made digestive-system models out of air-dry clay and traced themselves on large paper to make a life-size model of the body systems!
Credit: Olga Cabrera, Aldine ISD, TX
Domain 11: Immigration
Students participated in an Ellis Island simulation in their classrooms at the end of the Immigration Unit, and even created their own passports!
Credit: Sandra Garcia, Austin Independent School District, TX
Domain 12: Fighting for a Cause
To wrap up this unit and showcase their knowledge, students created VIP books about important historical figures!
Credit: Meghan Scheffler, Community Unit School District 300, IL
Grade 3
In Grade 3, students write a newspaper story about the invention of the telephone, go on a digital quest with Viking explorers, reflect on the stars with astronomy lab notes, and learn the secret to writing an excellent narrative ending.
Domain 1: Classic Tales: The Wind in the Willows
To immerse themselves in the Classic Tales domain, students hosted a party inspired by classic literary celebrations.
Credit: Laurie Valente, Secaucus Public School District, NJ
Domain 2: Animal Classification
A great way to shift perspective and get students to apply their knowledge? Transform your classroom into a vibrant “rainforest café” that showcases students’ published writing. Each student can create an informational piece about a specific vertebrate, learning how to introduce a topic, group related information, and support it with facts and details. They turn their writing, complete with text features, into restaurant-style menus! Dressed as rainforest and safari guides, students can present their work to other students and staff, answering questions about their animal and its classification.
Credit: Nicole Desmond, Riverside School District 96, IL
BONUS: To celebrate the Light and Sound unit as well as all units about animals in grades K–4, take a cue from Windber Elementary and plan an animal-themed glow show with your students!
Domain 3: Human Body
Get crafty in this unit by having students make body parts out of household supplies: a pipe cleaner becomes the spinal cord, noodles represent the vertebrae, and gummy Life Savers turn into cartilage. You can also make X-rays by tracing hands and wrists on construction paper. Students can color around the bones with a dark crayon, then use vegetable oil and a Q-tip to “paint” the bones. When held up to a light, the project resembles an X-ray!
Credit: Crystal Chwatek, Muhlenberg Elementary Center, PA
Domain 4: The Ancient Roman Civilization
Have your students put their knowledge of ancient Roman civilization to the test: Challenge them to use packing peanuts to build iconic Roman landmarks.
Credit: Melissa Vasquez, Eureka City Schools,CA
Domain 5: Light and Sound
To celebrate the Light and Sound unit, your students can make colorful suncatchers and witness the science of light and color in action.
Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI
BONUS VIDEO: Watch how another teacher plans a black light party for this unit!
Domain 6: The Viking Age
CKLA students love Vikings! In this classroom, students made paper swords before participating in a special ceremony.
Credit: Kerri Lintl, Merrimac Community School, WI
Domain 7: Astronomy
As a culminating activity for the Astronomy unit, an Oreo moon phase exercise really motivates students to apply their knowledge.
Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI
Domain 8: Native Americans
Flex your students’ creativity at the end of the Native Americans unit by having them gather natural materials and creating Native American shelters!
Credit: Alisa Byrd Fesmire, Roane County Schools, TN
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how a teacher in Wisconsin plans a basket-weaving activity for her students during this unit!
Domain 9: Early Explorations of North America
To help your students visualize North American exploration, they can draw maps of the studied expeditions and use yarn to show the various routes!
Credit: Maria Woytko-Morris, Manitou Springs School District, CO
Domain 10: Colonial America
Take inspiration from this classroom and set up a colonial town where students can barter goods and work as apprentices at the general store, blacksmith, tailor shop, and cobbler shop.
Credit: Heidi Graci, Sporting Hill Elementary School, PA
Domain 11: Ecology
For this unit, these students practiced their speaking and listening skills by presenting about an endangered animal to the rest of the class.
Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI
Grade 4
In Grade 4, students take part in a dramatic invention competition judged by Thomas Edison, George Washington Carver, and Hedy Lamarr; use writing to investigate the function of a mysterious contraption; become poets; and bring their reading skills to bear on the classic novel Treasure Island.
Domain 1: Personal Narratives
To celebrate the Personal Narratives domain, students created posters using information about their names.
Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary School, AL
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how an educator in New York plans an engaging culminating activity for the Personal Narratives unit!
Domain 2: Empires in the Middle Ages
Flex your students’ creativity: Have them create their very own shields and write a paragraph describing them.
Credit: Elisabeth Freligh, Spring Hill Elementary School, AK
BONUS VIDEO: See how students in Minnesota participated in a stained glass art project to celebrate the Middle Ages.
Domain 3: Poetry
Empower students to apply their knowledge of this writing discipline with poetry journals.
Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH
Domain 4: Eureka! Student Inventor
Encourage students to showcase their innovation at an Invention Showcase! Here, they pitched their ideas using the slides they created and the models they made.
Credit: Daniella Cucunato, Merchantville School District, NJ
Domain 5: Geology
Geology offers great opportunities to facilitate hands-on learning! Students can examine rocks and fossils, or bust geodes to supplement their lessons.
Credit: Spring Choate, Overton County Schools, TN
Domain 6: Contemporary Fiction
Students can take their favorite stories off the page in this unit! For example, lead students in a craft activity creating their own house inspired by The House on Mango Street.
Credit: Lara Andree, Aldine ISD, TX
Domain 7: American Revolution
Work a STEM activity into this Knowledge Domain by inviting students to recreate the Boston Tea Party with sticks and items of various weights.
Credit: Maureen Elliott, West Irondequoit CSD, NY
Domain 8: Treasure Island
To celebrate the end of the Treasure Island domain collaboratively, students can build their very own map sections and put them together.
Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary, AL
Grade 5
In Grade 5, students learn about villanelles and Mayan codices, read and perform Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” use their writing skills to teach a robot about human emotions, and solve a scientific mystery involving ancient fossils.
Domain 1: Personal Narratives
Have your students refine their personal narratives into graphic stories to celebrate the end of this unit.
Credit: Anna Barba, Arlington Traditional School, VA
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how a teacher plans name posters for her students to wrap up this domain.
Domain 2: Early American Civilizations
To celebrate this unit, have your students create codices and Mayan mythical character sculptures using clay!
Credit: Anita Trolese, TASIS Portugal
Domain 3: Poetry
Transform your classroom into a poetry café where students share their work with the rest of the class.
Credit: K.D. Meucci, Bethel Park School District, PA
Domain 4: Adventures of Don Quixote
These students are an inspiration! To celebrate they reenacted scenes from Adventures of Don Quixote by choosing a chapter, summarizing its plot, writing scripts, and acting out their chapter for their classmates. They even chose their own backdrops and props to help embody the characters.
Credit: Riley Montgomery, Hamilton Local School District, OH
Domain 5: The Renaissance
The arts and the Renaissance go hand in hand, so have your students get creative and create their own Leonardo da Vinci portraits.
Credit: Windber Elementary, PA
Domain 6: The Reformation
Immerse your students in the Reformation era by having them make stamps and write out some text as a great way to mimic the effect of the printing press!
Credit: Jessica Kingery, Jefferson City School District, MO
Domain 7: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Turn your classroom into a theater for this unit and have your students read the play using character cards and donkey headbands.
Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary, AL
Domain 8: Native Americans
A successful extension project for the Native Americans unit is personal totem poles! Have your students determine their own personal totems, write paragraphs to explain totem poles and why they selected their own personal totems, and use a template to create their own totem pole.
Credit: Kristin Rea, Cicero School District 99, IL
Domain 9: Chemical Matter
A great way to bring knowledge to life in this unit? Make fossils out of clay molds!
Credit: Teresa Karney, Reese Public Schools, MI
At Amplify, we believe Pennsylvania students and teachers deserve high quality instructional materials.
That’s why we partner with schools across the Keystone State to meet their core curriculum, assessment, and intervention goals. With solutions grounded in research and evidence-based practices, Amplify is leading the way with rigorous and relevant learning experiences.
Select a program below to learn more.
Amplify Desmos Math (K–12)
Amplify Desmos Math is a comprehensive K–12 math suite that has everything in one place: benchmark and progress monitoring, core instruction, integrated personal learning, embedded intervention, and more. This structured, problem-based approach builds on students’ curiosity while strategically developing math fluency and lasting grade-level understanding. The program delivers:
- Engaging, discourse-rich math lessons that fuel classroom conversations and drive the learning process.
- Comprehensive integrated resources, including print and digital, along with manipulatives and Centers Kits in K–5.
- Real-time insights, data, and reporting that inform instruction and celebrate student thinking.
Flexible, social problem-solving experiences
Digital lessons should be able to bring student thinking to the surface and spark productive discussions. We bring this vision to life with interactive social, collaborative lessons powered by Desmos technology.
mCLASS early literacy assessment and intervention (K–8)
Effective universal screening and progress monitoring means that every student is an individual and targeted instruction should become a reality, not a dream.
mCLASS® is the gold-standard K–8 assessment and intervention suite for early literacy that helps every child learn to read confidently.
- Universal screening presented in one-minute measures shows where your students are, who is at risk, and where to target instruction.
- Dyslexia screening identifies students who are at risk for reading difficulties without needing an additional assessment system
- Elimination of manual assessment process gives you instant results and clear next steps for each student.
- Progress monitoring allows you to quickly adjust to student needs, based on how they are responding to instruction.
The power of mCLASS
Based on decades of leading literacy research, mCLASS lets you know exactly which part of a skill a student is struggling with, then gives you effective next steps and lesson plans.
Watch how mCLASS can help teachers:
- Save hours of time.
- Catch at-risk students earlier.
- Connect data to personalized learning.
Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (PreK–5)
High-quality, content-rich instruction should combine multisensory phonics instruction with knowledge-rich texts and interactive multimedia resources.
Built on the Science of Reading, Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) sequences deep content knowledge with research-based foundational skills.
- Explicit, systematic foundational skills lessons are easy to teach and exciting to learn.
- Deep knowledge-building across units and grades helps access complex text, so real comprehension can happen.
- Rich, authentic texts with engaging topics and immersive learning support students wherever they are.
Students love CKLA. But don’t just take our word for it.
Amplify CKLA is impactful for teachers, administrators, families, and most of all—students! Hear what students think about Amplify CKLA.
Boost Reading (K–5)
Authentic personalized learning should be developmentally appropriate, grounded in research, and truly adaptive.
Boost Reading is a personalized, digital supplemental reading tool for grades K–5 featuring:
- Research-based approach to critical literacy skill development that is proven to accelerate reading growth in just 30 minutes per week.
- Captivating storylines and games with powerful individualized reading instruction and practice to bridge learning gaps while learning independently.
- Actionable data that offers deeper insights into student performance and needs.
Boost Reading keeps all students playing and motivated to learn.
Boost Reading includes age-appropriate storylines that excite students’ curiosity. Regardless of their reading ability, students are placed in a year-long storyline that is developmentally appropriate for them. As students grow, so do the immersive worlds around them.
Amplify ELA (6–8)
Amplify ELA is the only program truly designed to support middle school students at this critical developmental moment. We ensure that skills are taught, standards are covered, and the test is prepped – all while bringing texts to life and differentiating instruction.
- Rich, complex text and research-based instruction at the center of every lesson to build the vocabulary, knowledge, and skills needed in middle school, high school, and beyond.
- Multiple points of entry and differentiated support allow every student, regardless of fluency or ability, to engage deeply in the same curriculum.
- Immersive digital apps that offer engaging interactive experiences where students work with key skills in brand new ways.
We are the program for middle schoolers.
Let’s face it– middle school students are different from high school students. That’s why they deserve a program of their own.
Boost Close Reading (6–8)
Middle school students need to exercise their close reading skills in order to deeply comprehend across the curriculum. Based on a riveting storyline designed especially for middle schoolers, Boost Close Reading helps students find deeper meaning in a digital journey like no other.
- Inspire engagement via high-interest storytelling, choose-your-own adventure experiences, and skill-building features.
- Explore topics like claim, evidence, reasoning, word choice, and tone in both literary and informational texts.
- Detailed teacher dashboards display student progress, performance, and usage information, offering easy-to-access insights on areas of strength and weakness.
Fight the machines and save the world.
Before the machines took over, humans could fend for themselves. Now humanity is trapped. And their only hope? You.
Amplify Science Pennsylvania (K–8)
Amplify Science Pennsylvania is a proven K–8 curriculum that develops critical thinkers who are prepared to solve problems in their communities and beyond. It features:
- Phenomena-based exploration and three-dimensional learning where students take on the roles of scientists and engineers to solve real-world problems.
- Immersive hands-on activities that teach students how to gather evidence, ask questions, and develop and defend claims.
- Literacy-rich science instruction that enables young scientists to become excellent readers, writers, and speakers.
- Custom lessons specifically designed to meet Pennsylvania’s STEELS standards.
Do, Talk, Read, Write students outperform their peers.
English language learners who use Do, Talk, Read, Write outperform their ELL peers.
Do, Talk, Read, Write increases learning outcomes.
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From talk to text: How language skills shape reading success, with Charles Hulme, D.Phil., and MaryKate DeSantis
Transcripts and additional resources:
Meet Our Guest(s):
Charles Hulme, D.Phil.
Charles Hulme is emeritus professor of psychology and education at the University of Oxford. He has broad research interests in reading, language, and memory processes and their development; and is an expert on randomized controlled trials in education. He has published widely and is in the top 2% for citations of all researchers in the field of education. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Oslo (2014) and is a member of Academia Europea and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He was also elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2017.
MaryKate DeSantis
MaryKate DeSantis is the founder of Left Side Strong LLC. Her experience working in a large urban school district as a special education teacher, reading specialist, and district-wide literacy coach has fueled her passion for translational research to ensure that all children receive evidence-based instruction. Her background in teaching reading sparked an interest in researching language, literacy, and developmental trajectories. She is a full-time faculty member in the Speech and Language Literacy Lab at MGH Institute of Health Professions, and is also an ongoing-research collaborator with the BRIDGES Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
She has also served as a clinician in the Neurology Department at Boston Children’s Hospital, is an adjunct professor at the Boston College Lynch School of Human Development, and is a Ph.D. student in educational psychology at the University of Connecticut.
Meet our host, Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is chief academic officer of literacy at Amplify and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Throughout her career, she has 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. A former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, she’s 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
“Reading comprehension is the process of taking the meaning from printed symbols on a page and translating them into a linguistic and cognitive code. It's making contact with the processes of language comprehension.”
“Language comprehension is really what leads us to reading comprehension.”
“We've got to start from the premise that reading is language. Without language, there would be no reading. Reading is a process that involves taking language in its written form and translating it back into its original form, which is spoken language.”
“If we go back in development, language skills appear to form the foundation for the ability to decode print, as well as the foundation for the ability to understand what is decoded.”
“Language skills are unconstrained, meaning the sky's the limit. As long as you continue to engage in any sort of way, your language skills can continue to develop throughout your lifetime.”
“We talk about learning to read, but we also need to talk about reading to learn. A lot of what we learn in our lives is through reading, and reading is certainly a powerful driver of vocabulary and language development.”
“Focusing on language is worth the time. … When we treat it as foundational, that's when we will give more students access to success.”
“If we want better readers, we have to grow better language users.”
Syntax and comprehension, with Julie Van Dyke, Ph.D.
Transcripts and additional resources:
Meet Our Guest(s):
Julie Van Dyke, Ph.D.
Julie Van Dyke, Ph.D., holds joint appointments as an associate research professor at the Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Connecticut; clinical assistant professor at the Yale University Child Study Center; and research scientist at the Yale-UConn Haskins Global Literacy Hub. She is also Chief Scientist at Cascade Reading. Previously, she served as a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories for 22 years. Her deep dedication to improving reading outcomes for all children is fueled daily by her experience as the parent of a child with dyslexia, developmental language disability, dyscalculia, ADHD, and autism.
Meet our host, Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is chief academic officer of Literacy at Amplify and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Throughout her career, she has 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. A former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, she’s 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
“In English, syntax is word order. Syntax is the relationship between the entities in a sentence.”
“If you want to increase comprehension, you need to be explicit in syntax because that's the part of the language system that matters for comprehension.”
“Comprehension is the glue between the words. It's the process of gluing the words together, each word as you go.”
“The process itself [of comprehension] is the moment by moment, really millisecond by millisecond action of gluing words together in order to create a meaning.”
“We need to move the needle on the nation's report card. We still have two-thirds of our students who are unable to read at what we call proficient. I think the only way that we can really get that number to be closer to the 95% that we really want is to do something new. Syntax is the new thing.”
“If somebody knew how beautiful and systematic the language was, I think you would have people rushing when they wake up to go study syntax.”