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:

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.

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

A powerful partnership

Amplify Science was developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify. This partnership extends to 2032, allowing us to continuously improve our program and provide our customers with the most up-to-date enhancements, free of charge. Get a glimpse at our latest back-to-school updates here.

Instructional model

The Amplify Science program is rooted in the proven, research-based pedagogy of Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize. Here’s how each element works:

Phenomena-based approach

In each Amplify Science unit, students take on the roles of scientists or engineers in order to investigate a real-world problem. Students work to define the problem and collect and make sense of evidence. Once the context is clear, students collect evidence from multiple sources and through a variety of modalities. At the end of the unit, students are presented with a brand new problem, giving them an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned over the course of the unit to a new context. This represents a shift from asking students to learn about science to supporting students in figuring out the science.

Resources to support your review

• What’s so phenomenal about phenomena?—ebook
• Phenomena in grades K–5
• Phenomena in grades 6–8
• Student Books in grades K–5
• Literacy-rich science instruction in grades K–5
• Active Reading in grades 6–8
• Engineering in Amplify Science
• Amplify Science: See it in action
• EdReports—Compare resources

Remote and hybrid learning support

See an example of our remote and hybrid learning support below:

• K–5 example—Balancing Forces: Chapter 2, Lesson 2.3
• 6–8 example—Force and Motion: Chapter 3, Lesson 3.2

This fall, Amplify launched a new remote learning solution called Amplify Science@Home. Intended to make extended remote and hybrid learning easier, Amplify Science @Home includes two useful options for continuing instruction: @Home Videos and @Home Units.
Amplify Science @Home Videos are recordings of real Amplify Science teachers teaching the lessons. For those teachers who are unable to meet synchronously with their students, the recorded lessons are a great way to keep their students on track and engaged with Amplify Science while at home. These videos will be produced for all K–5 units, and for the first four units of each 6–8 grade level. Their release will be rolling, beginning in August.

Amplify Science @Home Units are modified versions of Amplify Science units, strategically designed to highlight key activities from the program. The @Home Units take significantly less instructional time than the complete Amplify Science program and allow students to engage with science at home. @Home Units will be developed for all Amplify Science K–8 units. Each @Home unit includes:

• Teacher overviews explaining how to use the materials, including suggestions for enhancing the @Home Units if synchronous learning or in-class time with students is available
• Overviews to send home to families

Student materials will be available in two formats:

• @Home Slides (PDF/PPT) + Student Sheets (PDF) for students with access to technology at home
• Downloadable @Home Packets (PDF) for students without access to technology at home

Download the remote and hybrid learning guide

Benchmark Assessments

Amplify’s Benchmark Assessments are designed to help teachers measure student progress toward the three dimensions—Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), and Crosscutting Concepts(CCCs)—and performance expectations (PEs) of the NGSS. The assessments provide important insight into how students are progressing toward mastery of different standards ahead of high-stakes, end-of-year assessments.

The Benchmark Assessments are built to be delivered after specific units in the recommended Amplify Science scope and sequence.* They are given three or four times per year, depending on the grade level. The benchmarks are intended to show progress at various points in time across a school year, and are therefore not summative in nature. Digital items and item clusters are also tagged to specific NGSS standards, allowing customization to align with other course sequences. The assessments are available via the following platforms:

Print
PDF files: For administering Benchmark Assessments on paper

Digital platforms

• Illuminate
• SchoolCity
• Otus
• QTI (“Question and Test Interoperability”) files
  Not sure whether QTI files are compatible with your assessment platform? Contact your school IT or assessment platform representative for more information.
  Please note that Amplify is able to provide access to the QTI files themselves, but is not able to support the integration process. Your assessment platform provider should be able to assist with QTI file integration.

Flexible implementation

One of the key features of Amplify Science is the flexibility that it offers. We give students authentic opportunities to experience the full breadth of what it means to be a scientist or engineer. Just as scientists gather evidence from many types of sources, so do students in our program. Like scientists, students gather evidence not just from physical models, but also from digital models, texts, videos, photographs, maps, data sets, and even their peers!
Simply put, real scientists don’t just get messy—they read, write, analyze, hypothesize, model, test, and communicate with purpose, too.

Science articles

The middle school science articles serve as sources for evidence collection and were authored by science and literacy experts at the Lawrence Hall of Science.

Student Books
Beginning and young readers have unique developmental needs, and science instruction should support these students in reading more independently as they progress through sections of content, the school year, and each grade. One way Amplify Science meets these needs is by strategically deploying different modes of reading throughout each unit: Read-Aloud, Shared Reading, and Partner Reading.

Student Investigation Notebooks

Available for every unit, the Student Investigation Notebooks provide space for students to:

• record data.
• reflect on ideas from texts and investigations.
• construct explanations and arguments.

Available with full-color article compilations for middle school units.

Digital student experience

Students access the digital simulations and Modeling Tools, as well as lesson activities and assessments, through the digital student experience. Students can interact with the digital student experience as they:

• conduct hands-on investigations.
• engage in Active Reading and writing activities.
• participate in discussions.
• record observations.
• craft end-of-unit scientific arguments.

Dive into a quick example of our powerful simulations

• Grades K–5 simulation
• Grades 6–8 simulation

Hands-on materials kits

Hands-on learning is at the heart of Amplify Science and is integrated
into every unit. Students actively take on the roles of scientists and engineers as they gather evidence, think critically, solve problems, and develop and defend claims about the world around them.

Check out these 2-minute videos to see an Amplify Science hands-on investigation in action.

• Grade 2: Hands-on investigation from Animal and Plant Relationships
• Grade 6: Hands-on investigation from Populations andResources

Each unit kit contains:

• consumable and non-consumable hands-on materials.
• print classroom display materials.
• premium print materials for student use (sorting cards, maps, etc.).

Teacher’s Guides

Available digitally and in print, the Teacher’s Guides contain all of the information teachers need to facilitate classroom instruction, including:

• detailed lesson plans.
• unit and chapter overview documentation.
• differentiation strategies.
• standards alignments.
• in-context professional development.

Scope and Sequence

Minnesota Academic Standards in Science coverage

Amplify Science was designed from the ground up to meet the NGSS, a set of standards that closely align with the K–8 Minnesota Academic Standards in Science (MASS). Therefore, most grade levels’ respective set of Amplify Science units address the necessary MASS (see K–5 reverse alignment and/or correlations for K–5 and 6–8). However, for grades 2–4, teachers should also use the resources provided in the sections below to achieve full coverage of the appropriate standards before their students move on to the next grade level. Organized by grade level, each section outlines:

• companion lesson materials that were written to support 100% alignment to the Minnesota Academic Standards in Science when used with the core Amplify Science units for the grade level
• the standard being addressed with each companion lesson; and
• the recommended placement of each companion lesson within a specific Amplify Science unit 

Explore the digital Teacher’s Guide

To familiarize yourself with navigation of the digital Teacher’s Guide, watch our navigational guide videos:

Grades K–5:

Grades 6–8:

Looking for help?

Powerful (and free!) pedagogical support

Amplify provides a unique kind of support you won’t find from other publishers. We’ve developed an educational support team of former teachers and administrators who provide pedagogical support for every Amplify curriculum, assessment, and intervention program. This service is completely free for all educators who are using our programs and includes:

• Guidance for developing lesson plans and intervention plans.
• Information on where to locate standards and other planning materials.
• Recommendations and tips for day-to-day teaching with Amplify programs.
• Support with administering and interpreting assessment data and more.

Timely technical and program support

Our technical and program support is included and available Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET, through a variety of channels, including a live chat program that enables teachers to get immediate help in the middle of the school day.

Ready to dive in?

Contact your Minnesota representative:
Kristi Stengel
Account Executive
kstengel@amplify.com
(612) 306-3941

Tammy Sigwarth
Account Executive
tsigwarth@amplify.com
(563) 663-0056

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April 5, 2023

EdNC: “K-3 students show growth in literacy skills, mid-year DPI data show”

Read Full Article

March 24, 2023

The 74: “COVID & School Recovery: Critics Warn Washington Bill Would Reduce Classroom Learning Time By 4 Hours a Week”

Read Full Article

March 24, 2023

Edutopia: “Using Collective Leadership to Make a Major Shift in Your District”

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March 15, 2023

K-12 Dive: “California at center of latest push for science-based reading approaches”

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March 7, 2023

District Administration: “ESSER pressure: How one district intends to spend wisely as deadline looms”

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March 3, 2023

The 74: “‘The Other Long COVID’ Affecting Kids: Missed Opportunities”

Read Full Article

March 2, 2023

3 WTKR: “More students on track to learn to read in 2022-2023 school year since start of pandemic, researchers say”

Read Full Article

March 2, 2023

ABC 7: “Reading skills rebounding for young students following pandemic disruptions”

Read Full Article

March 1, 2023

K-12 Dive: “By The Numbers: DIBELS testing shows improved reading progress over last two years”

Read Full Article

February 27, 2023

The 74: “Exclusive: Despite K-2 Reading Gains, Results Flat for 3rd Grade ‘COVID Kids’”

Read Full Article

February 27, 2023

Education Week: “Students’ Early Literacy Skills Are Rebounding. See What the Data Show”

Read Full Article

February 7, 2023

The 74: “Using High-Quality Curriculum Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Still Have Fun Learning”

Read Full Article

January 13, 2023

NPR: “Can a middle school class help scientists create a cooler place to play?”

Read Full Article

January 6, 2023

News & Record: “After a numbing low, NC students now heading in ‘right direction’ in reading, math”

Read Full Article

January 5, 2023

CBS17.com: “K-3 students in NC make significant strides on literacy exams, DPI says”

Read Full Article

2022

December 20, 2022

District Administration: “Literacy Under the Lights: 10 ways to bring the community back together”

Read Full Article

December 14, 2022

The 74: “14 Charts This Year That Helped Us Better Understand Covid’s Impact On Students Teachers and Schools”

Read Full Article

December 14, 2022

The 74: “Learning Loss Is Worse than NAEP Showed. Middle School Math Must Be the Priority”

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November 21, 2022

Voicebot.ai: “SoapBox Labs Brings Child-Centered Voice AI to Dyslexia Detection Assessment”

Read Full Article

October 24, 2022

Education Week: “Two Decades of Progress, Nearly Gone: National Math, Reading Scores Hit Historic Lows”

Read Full Article

October 20, 2022

The 74: “Exclusive Literacy Data: Small Gains Since Last Fall, But No Reading Rebound”

Read Full Article

August 30, 2022

The 74: “Test English Learners in the Languages They Speak at School and at Home”

Read Full Article

August 29, 2022

WTKR TV NC: “News 3 investigates childhood literacy rates, raising money to give books to local kids for new school year”

Read Full Article

August 28, 2022

EdNC: “Elementary students made growth last year in skills that lead to reading proficiency, new data show”

Read Full Article

August 18, 2022

SHRM Blog: “The Great Resignation Skipped Us. Here’s why.”

Read Full Article

August 16, 2022

Forbes: “Curious About Knowledge-Building Curricula? Check Out This Website”

Read Full Article

July 20, 2022

District Administration: “Out-of-school STEM learning is much more powerful when it’s inclusive”

Read Full Article

July 19, 2022

Chalkbeat: “The state of learning loss: 7 takeaways from the latest data”

Read Full Article

June 28, 2022

The Preschool Podcast: “Early literacy strategies that stick with Darryl from Run-DMC and Makeda from Nickelodeon [Podcast]”

Listen To The Podcast

May 24, 2022

Forbes: “States That Want To Boost Literacy Should Keep An Eye On Texas”

Read Full Article

April 24, 2022

Business Ecosystem Alliance: “Ecosystems in Education–Collaborating to Efficiently Serve the End User”

Watch Full Video

April 18, 2022

KQED Mind Shift: “Weighing the best strategies for reading intervention”

Read Full Article

April 15, 2022

Fordham Institute: “Assessing a standards-aligned physical science curriculum”

Read Full Article

March 23, 2022

The Baltimore Sun: “National test scores show student gains from in-person learning in all but a critical group: new and pre-readers | COMMENTARY”

Read Full Article

March 15, 2022

NPR: “Two years ago schools shut down around the world. These are the biggest impacts”

Read Full Article

March 11, 2022

The Hub – Dallas ISD: “Students at Greiner and Anson Jones Elementary find success in reading and writing with a new program”

Read Full Article

March 10, 2022

NY Daily News: “Read it and weep: The new reading instruction emergency”

Read Full Article

March 10, 2022

WISH TV Indianapolis: “Study shows student performance plummeted during pandemic”

Read Full Article

March 9, 2022

New York Post: “Young students have suffered ‘alarming’ drops in reading skills during pandemic”

Read Full Article

March 9, 2022

The Daily Caller: “Childhood Literacy Plummeted Following Pandemic Shutdowns, Studies Show”

Read Full Article

March 8, 2022

The New York Times: “It’s ‘Alarming’: Children Are Severely Behind in Reading”

Read Full Article

March 7, 2022

Education Next: “The Education Exchange: Pandemic Hurt Younger Students’ Learning Worse, Amplify Data Suggest”

Listen to the Podcast

February 28, 2022

The 74: “Our 12 Best Education Articles in February: Reflections on 700 Days of COVID Chaos, Setting a Bar for Unmasking in Schools, Burying Schools in Record Requests & More”

Read Full Article

February 24, 2022

The Daily Advertiser: “Reading scores improve slightly, but pre-COVID reading levels are ‘the wrong goal’”

Read Full Article

February 24, 2022

Wall Street Journal: “The School Shutdowns and Lost Literacy”

Read Full Article

February 23, 2022

K-12 Dive: “DIBELS data illustrates pandemic reading setbacks”

Read Full Article

February 22, 2022

ABC 7 Buffalo: “Children falling behind in reading”

Read Full Article

February 18, 2022

The Carolina Journal: “Report: Elementary students lag in literacy due to pandemic”

Read Full Article

February 16, 2022

The 74: “‘We Have First-Graders Who Can’t Sing the Alphabet Song’: Pandemic Continues to Push Young Readers Off Track, New Data Shows”

Read Full Article

February 16, 2022

Education Week: “More Than 1 in 3 Children Who Started School in the Pandemic Need ‘Intensive’ Reading Help”

Read Full Article

February 4, 2022

Literary Hub: “EXCLUSIVE: Watch Joshua Bennett Discuss A.R. Ammons’s poem “Cascadilla Falls”

Read Full Article

January 26, 2022

The Ross Kaminsky Show: “Susan Lambert and the Literacy Gap”

Listen to the podcast

January 19, 2022

K-12 Dive: “Report: Colorado reading law update boosts quality of literacy curriculum”

Read Full Article

2021

December 15, 2021

Chalkbeat: “How Denver plans to address a drop in early elementary reading scores”

Read full article

December 8, 2021

The SHRM Blog: “What’s the Best Work Perk of All? Contributing to the Social Good”

Read full article

November 13, 2021

Hechinger Report: ‘The Reading Year’: First grade is critical for reading skills, but kids coming from disrupted kindergarten experiences are way behind”

Read full article

October 20, 2021

Hechinger Report: “OPINION: Younger students were among those most hurt during the pandemic”

Read full article

September 2, 2021

EdSurge: “An Edtech User’s Glossary to Speech Recognition and AI in the Classroom”

Read full article

September, 2021

SIIA Education: “ED TECH SUCCESS STORIES”

Read full article

August 23, 2021

CNN: “Irish tech firm helps kids’ voices be heard”

Read full article

August 18, 2021

SoapBox Labs: “Can Speech Recognition Help Children Learn to Read?”

Read full article

August 12, 2021

FOX Chicago Broadcast Interview: “Pandemic widens literacy gap for students”

Read full article

August 3, 2021

T.H.E Journal: “More Students of Color at Risk in Reading After Pandemic”

Read full article

July 28, 2021

The 74: “Early Reading Skills See a Rebound From In-Person Learning, But Racial Gaps Have Grown Wider, Tests Show”

Read full article

July 28, 2021

K-12 Dive: “Reports: Math, reading progress slowed during first full school year of pandemic”

Read full article

July 20, 2021

EdNC: “The mCLASS reading assessment tool is back in North Carolina classrooms, but it’s going to look different”

Read full article

July 5, 2021

WBAL: “Baltimore students from all socio-economic backgrounds get a chance to ‘Amplify’ their learning skills”

Read full article

June 15, 2021

Language Magazine: “Using Evidence to Overcome Adversity”

Read full article

May 7, 2021

The Dallas Morning News: “How can a one-minute kindergarten test help teachers tackle the ‘COVID slide’?”

Read full article

April 20, 2021

Education Week: “How Teachers and Curriculum Will Shape Ed Tech’s Future: A CEO Makes the Case”

Read full article

March 24, 2021

The Hechinger Report: “OPINION: Children will need summer tutors to make up for pandemic learning loss”

Read full article

March 23, 2021

Education Week: “Most States Fail to Measure Teachers’ Knowledge of the ‘Science of Reading,’ Report Says”

Read full article

March 17, 2021

Axios: “How online education and tutoring could fight COVID learning loss”

Read full article

March 16, 2021

USA Today: “Students are struggling to read behind masks and screens during COVID-19, but ‘expectations are no different’”

Read full article

March 16, 2021

The 74: “Schools and COVID, a Year Later: 12 Months After Classrooms Closed, 12 Key Things We’ve Learned About How the Pandemic Disrupted Student Learning”

Read full article

February 25, 2021

K–12 Dive: “Reading gaps widen in mid-year data, especially for K-1 students of color”

Read full article

February 24, 2021

The 74: “One Year into Pandemic, Far Fewer Young Students are on Target to Learn How to Read, Tests Show”

Read full article

February 17, 2021

NBC Los Angeles: “Local Students Design Rovers in Mission to Mars Student Challenge”

Read full article

February 5, 2021

District Administration: “To save literacy, focus first on high-quality core instruction”

Read full article

February 4, 2021

The Hechinger Report: “5 ways schools hope to fight Covid-19 learning loss”

Read full article

January 5, 2021

The 74: “Science Matters Now More than Ever. The Time to Start Teaching It Is in Elementary School”

Read full article

2020

December 15, 2020

Education Week: “Students’ Reading Losses Could Strain Schools’ Capacity to Help Them Catch Up”

Read full article

December 9, 2020

Education Post: “How to Help Beginning Readers During the Pandemic”

Read full article

December 3, 2020

American Consortium for Equity in Education: “The Importance of Quality Curriculum With Industry Voice”

Read full article

September 29, 2020

The 74: “Beyond the Scantron: Ed Tech CEO Larry Berger on Why the Pandemic Is No Excuse to Abscond Accountability and ‘Disruptions Are Great Opportunities to Try Something New’”

Read full article

May 25, 2020

The 74: “Class Disrupted Podcast Episode 2: Why Is My Child Doing So Many Worksheets Right Now?”

Read full article

February 5, 2020

Getting Smart Podcast: “Larry Berger on EdTech Past and Future”

Read full article

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.

How does Amplify Caminos work?

Daily instruction

Grades K–2: Dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction
Every day, students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge 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: Integrated instruction
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.

Formative and summative assessments

Amplify CKLA features a progression of moment-by-moment assessments to benchmark assessments. Assessment and feedback give teachers the information they need to differentiate instruction effectively.

Checks for Understanding
Each lesson segment incorporates checks for understanding to increase engagement and to let teachers make real-time adjustments to their instruction.

Formative Assessment
Each lesson goal is tied to a formative assessment opportunity, allowing teachers to see which students need more support with a benchmark.

Mid- and End-of-Unit Assessments
Mid-Unit and End-of-Unit Assessments provide valuable information on the skills and content students have mastered. Digital end-of-unit assessments are available on a variety of platforms.

Benchmark and Placement Assessments
Benchmark and Placement Assessments help teachers set goals and monitor the growth of each student, providing a baseline at the beginning of the year and ensuring students are advancing toward grade-level objectives.

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.

Commitment to equity and diversity

Amplify Caminos builds students’ knowledge about the world, helping them see people who resemble them and their familiar situations or experiences while also exposing them to people whose appearances, lives, beliefs, and backgrounds differ from their own.

In addition to teaching all students to crack the written code (which is vital for equity), the Amplify Caminos program helps students celebrate their own unique identities and experiences while also seeing the strengths and experiences we all share.

Amplify Caminos includes both transadaptations and authentic texts written by Latin American and Spanish authors.

Our decodable Student Readers celebrate students’ diverse experiences and feature individuals with a broad range of identity factors, including socio-economic status, age, ability, race, ethnicity, country of origin, and more.

Our 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.

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.

Sample materials

Demo access

Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.

• Click the Caminos Demo button below.
• Select Log in with Amplify.
• To explore as a teacher, enter this username:

          t1.montgomery2024ela@demo.tryamplify.net

• To explore as a student, enter this username:

          s1.montgomery2024ela@demo.tryamplify.net

• Enter the password: Amplify1-montgomery2024ela
• 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.

Check out these additional resources

Caminos review resources:

• Caminos Program Guide
• Biliteracy and Science of Reading Principles
• Caminos Caregiver Hub
• Caminos Sample Caregiver Letters
• 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

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.

How does Amplify Caminos work?

Grades K–2: Dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction
Every day, students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge 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: Integrated instruction
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 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.

Commitment to equity

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student an equal opportunity to succeed and even excel. Amplify Caminos builds students’ knowledge about the world, helping them see people who resemble them and their familiar situations or experiences while also exposing them to people whose appearances, lives, beliefs, and backgrounds differ from their own.

In addition to teaching all students to crack the written code (which is vital for fairness), the Amplify Caminos program helps students celebrate their own unique identities and experiences while also seeing the strengths and experiences we all share.

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

Check out these additional resources

Caminos review 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

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.

How does Amplify Caminos work?

Grades K–2: Dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction
Every day, students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge 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: Integrated instruction
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 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.

Commitment to equity

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student an equal opportunity to succeed and even excel. Amplify Caminos builds students’ knowledge about the world, helping them see people who resemble them and their familiar situations or experiences while also exposing them to people whose appearances, lives, beliefs, and backgrounds differ from their own.

In addition to teaching all students to crack the written code (which is vital for equity), the Amplify Caminos program helps students celebrate their own unique identities and experiences while also seeing the strengths and experiences we all share.

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

Sample materials

Demo access

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.westadackla@demo.tryamplify.net
• To explore as a student, enter this username: s1.westadackla@demo.tryamplify.net
• Enter the password: Amplify1-westadackla
• 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.

Note: Your demo account access expires on January 19, 2023.

CKLA and Caminos Demo

Check out these additional resources

Caminos review 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

Get to know Amplify ELA

Start by taking a look at the Amplify ELA Program Guide, where you’ll find:

• Grade-level overviews for grades 6–8 (pages 11–31)
• Amplify ELA pedagogy (page 10)
• Sample lesson routine (page 38)
• Amplify ELA foundations (pp 70-80)

Want to go deeper or look at Amplify ELA’s approach to writing, vocabulary, grammar, and differentiation? Check out the Table of Contents for all this and much more! 

Navigating the curriculum

Amplify ELA is a truly blended curriculum, designed specifically for grades 6–8. The program includes instructional guidance and student materials for a year of instruction, with lessons and activities that keep students engaged every day. Materials can be accessed either digitally or through print materials, depending on what your class needs.

Navigating in print

1. Watch this video exploring the print resources available for students and teachers in Amplify ELA.
2. Follow this link to open an ebook version of the print materials for your grade level and explore Unit A (the first unit).

Navigating digital

1. Watch this video exploring the digital curriculum platform and the many resources available for teachers and students.
2. Log in to the curriculum at learning.amplify.com using the demo account and password provided by your Sales rep.
3. Once you have finished the tour, try out the scavenger hunt below!

Amplify ELA Scavenger Hunt

Inside a lesson

1. Overview & planning

The Lesson Brief equips teachers with the tools they need to plan instruction. It begins with an Overview, which describes the big ideas students will grapple with and summarizes the lesson’s sequence of activities. Next, there is a Preparation section, which points out key moments and materials to prepare. The Preparation section also describes the location and content of the lesson’s Exit Ticket.

The Lesson Brief also includes: the Lesson Objective, which details the reading, writing, and/or speaking and listening objectives; Words to Use, which points out key vocabulary from the reading; Skills & Standards, which lists the focus and coverage standards; and Differentiation, which describes differentiated supports and provides additional suggestions for modifying activities.

2. Vocab App

The Vocab App helps students master vocabulary words through game-like activities based on morphology, analogy, synonyms/ antonyms, and deciphering meaning. These activities help students develop dictionary skills by focusing on parts of speech, etymology, and multiple meanings. There are also activities for ELL-appropriate words from the unit’s texts, asking students to match an English definition, Spanish translation, context sentence, audio pronunciation, and visual definition. These activities also align to vocabulary standards.

Vocab App (Teacher View)

3. Work Visually

Visualization activities are an essential part of Amplify ELA, as they open the door to more comprehensive understanding of complex texts. In these learning experiences, students break apart the text in visual ways or use visual cues to “see” key details as they construct meaning.

In this early lesson from grade 7, students unpack propaganda images and short videos from the Chinese Cultural Revolution to build their understanding of the setting before beginning the memoir Red Scarf Girl.

Other units include visualization activities such as using an app to “see” the evidence for and against scientific theories, making storyboards and planning visual adaptations of texts to “read like a movie director,” and comparing and contrasting illustrations with key textual moments.

4. Author Videos & Dramatic Readings

Students benefit from using listening comprehension skills as they build fluency with complex texts. In these close reading experiences, students listen to the text, perform the text out loud, or watch a dramatic reading of the text.

In this lesson, students listen and watch as author Ji-Li Jiang reads the opening prologue of her memoir, Red Scarf Girl. Her facial expressions, tone of voice, and emphasis help students develop early ideas about what matters to this narrator.

Additional author videos and dramatic readings are embedded in other units. In Unit 8D: Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, students watch WordPlay Shakespeare videos where actors perform each selected scene next to the text of that excerpt. In Unit 8B: Liberty & Equality, two members of the Marvel cinematic universe—Chadwick Boseman and Elizabeth Olsen—offer masterful performances of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave and A Confederate Girl’s Diary.

5. Reading/eReader

Reading standards establish high expectations for all students, even as they enter the middle grades at a variety of reading levels. In Amplify ELA lessons, students access universal supports embedded in the eReader (and built into the print versions of the text) to help them participate fully in grade-level activities.

Point-of-use vocab in print: The print Student Edition places key vocabulary words and their relevant definitions in the text margin to support students and keep them reading.

Reveal: By clicking on these pre-selected words, students access short contextual definitions for key and challenging vocabulary.

Highlight, Bookmark, and Notes: The digital highlighting, bookmarking, and annotation tools allow students to save and review any text notes from any lesson.

Text size and line spacing: Students can adjust text size and line spacing to find what works best for them

6. Writing

Two or three times a week, students complete their reading work by developing a piece of writing to refine their reading analysis. They write for 10–15 minutes, focusing on one claim in response to a prompt, and using evidence from the text in support of their claim.

In this lesson, students build on their discussion of the setting and their analysis of the passage to determine the author’s point of view at the start of her memoir.

Differentiated supports: Five levels of differentiated supports can be assigned in the moment or in advance to help every student work productively. Levels can be assigned ahead of time (by simply dragging and dropping students into groups) and students remain in their assigned levels until they’re changed by the teacher. For more information on differentiation in Amplify ELA, click here.

Automated Writing Evaluation: The Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tool has been developed in conjunction with Amplify’s regular writing activities, which ask students to use textual evidence to develop one focused idea or claim about the text and communicate that idea clearly and effectively to an audience. AWE is a tool designed to help teachers understand, track, and support student skill progress with these key foundational skills, which are a strong indicator of a student’s analytic writing proficiency. AWE provides auto scores for Focus and Conventions, allowing teachers to prioritize their assessment of a student’s progress with Use of Evidence, a skill that is relatively new for many middle-grade students.

7. Share

Establishing a supportive writing community in the classroom helps students develop their voices as writers. Each writing activity is coupled with a sharing session, where clear routines and student-facing feedback protocols support students as they share and respond to each other’s writing. Here, students try out their writing with an audience of their peers to figure out how to express their ideas in a clear and convincing way. In addition, these sharing sessions allow students to learn from the range of perspectives in the classroom.

Clear and consistent Response Starters ensure that students provide feedback that targets key skills and focuses on where a student is using a skill effectively, fostering an effective and supportive feedback environment.

8. Solos

Solos are an important part of the ELA curriculum, and are designed to be completed as homework—but not every student has a computer at home. However, most students DO have access to a mobile device. The new Mobile Solos give every student access to this part of the curriculum, protecting valuable classroom time for lessons and group activities.

Navigating the first unit

Dig into Unit A

It’s time to continue your journey by exploring the first unit!

1. Choose a 6th-, 7th-, or 8th-grade Unit A.
2. Find the Print Materials for your grade level’s Unit A and review the unit overview. (password: middle678school)
3. Log in to the curriculum and navigate to your chosen unit.

• Scroll down to the unit guide. Open each section and read it.
• Read the background and context document in the Materials section.
• Go to Sub-unit 3 and read the Sub-unit Overview.
• Choose two lessons to explore further.
• Open the first lesson and read the Lesson Overview. Be sure to open and read each section in the Lesson Overview.
  • Open each activity tab and read the teacher Instructional Guide. Familiarize yourself with the entire lesson and note where students are building reading and writing skills
  • Repeat with the second lesson.

Diving Deeper

Check out Amplify ELA’s professional learning website, featuring self-guided training modules and videos to help you with planning and pacing, navigation, and learning key curriculum features. 

You can log in using your Amplify credentials or the demo account and password provided by your sales rep.  

Additional support

As you continue to explore the curriculum, you may also want to take a look at the Amplify ELA Resources Website, which is full of additional information on the program. If you have any questions, please contact us through the Amplify Help section.

And you’ll find even more information by watching this session from our Literacy Symposium, in which Sarah Kitzmiller from the Niswonger Foundation and Teddy Redding from Amplify discuss some of the challenges of the 2020–21 school year. 

Amplify’s Literacy Symposium session: Focusing on the Fundamentals to Start the Year Right

You may choose to view other sessions from the Literacy Symposium as well, all accessible from the schedule menu in the top left corner. 

This webinar also offers valuable insight, with Baltimore City middle school ELA teacher Lucas Drerup describing his experiences with Amplify ELA and discussing how he brings middle school ELA to life, even in a remote teaching setting. 

How to bring middle school ELA to life: A teacher’s perspective

Support

• elahelp@amplify.com
• Amplify Help Center
• 1(800) 823-1969

What is Amplify Caminos?

Amplify Caminos is a core Spanish language arts program for grades K–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.

How does Amplify Caminos work?

Grades K–2: Dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction
Every day, students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge 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: Integrated instruction
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 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.

Commitment to equity

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student an equal opportunity to succeed and even excel. Amplify Caminos builds students’ knowledge about the world, helping them see people who resemble them and their familiar situations or experiences while also exposing them to people whose appearances, lives, beliefs, and backgrounds differ from their own.

In addition to teaching all students to crack the written code (which is vital for equity), the Amplify Caminos program helps students celebrate their own unique identities and experiences while also seeing the strengths and experiences we all share.

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 + Boost Reading

Boost Reading is an engaging, adaptive digital program that extends the learning in Amplify Caminos. Boost 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

Check out these additional resources

Caminos review 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

Demo access

Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions linked below to access your demo accounts for Caminos and mCLASS Lectura.

Caminos login instructions

mCLASS Lectura login instructions

The curriculum effect

Research shows that students learn primarily through their interactions with teachers and content. Materials influence students directly, and they influence the way teachers teach. They are an essential part of the equation, with a proven and direct impact on outcomes. According to the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy report Hiding in Plain Sight, “Research suggests that, in the aggregate and for specific instructional programs, changing from ‘business-as-usual’ to a high-quality curriculum, or from a low-quality to a high-quality curriculum, can boost student achievement.” The report calls this overall impact “the curriculum effect.” 

Individual studies cited in Hiding in Plain Sight also show that: 

• High-quality curricula increased student achievement in reading, math, and science from the 50th to the 60th percentile and higher: “a potentially transformative impact if aggregated across an entire class, grade, or school.” (Data from David M. Steiner et al., “StandardsWork: A Narrative Research Review,” Center for Research and Reform in Education; Institute for Education Policy, Johns Hopkins University, January 2017.)
• Access to rigorous materials increased achievement for Black and Latino students (Card & Giuliano, 2016).
• English Language Learners acquire knowledge and vocabulary faster when using grade-level content (with supports) (Zwiers, 2008; Walqui & Heritage, 2012).
• Math textbook choice has a significant effect on test scores (Bhatt & Koedel, 2012 & 2013; Agodini et al, 2010).

A cost-effective approach

And high-quality materials don’t have to come with sticker shock. Early evidence suggests that switching to a high-quality curriculum is not only more effective, but also more cost-effective, than other familiar school-led approaches to boosting student success.

For example, a 2015 study from the Center for American Progress found that the average cost-effectiveness ratio of switching curriculum “was almost 40 times that of class-size reduction in a well-known randomized experiment” (Boser, Chingos, and Straus, 2015). 

High quality is not defined in a vacuum—it’s all about curriculum that supports teachers in the classroom. When teachers have high-quality instructional materials, they don’t have to spend their valuable time searching for resources and creating their own materials. They know they are using materials that have been developed and reviewed by researchers, academic experts, and teachers like them. They have curriculum that works harder so they can do what they do best: teach.