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Amplify CKLA Review for Alabama
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 CKLA?
Amplify CKLA is a core ELA program for grades PK–5 that delivers:
- 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 CKLA work?
Daily instruction
Grade PreK: Developmentally appropriate foundational knowledge
Our PreK program delivers developmentally appropriate instruction and activities that do more than lay the groundwork for foundational skills—they offer content knowledge, incorporating research that shows true literacy requires background knowledge in history, science, art, and literature. Amplify CKLA PreK easily fits into any class routine, with 45 minutes of interactive instruction designed to accommodate full-day or half-day schedules.
Grades K–2: Dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction
Every day, students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that explicitly and systematically builds foundational reading skills in the Skills Strand, as well as one full lesson that builds robust background knowledge to access complex text in the Knowledge 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, Knowledge and Skills 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.
Download our CKLA Assessment Sampler
What makes Amplify CKLA different?
Integration with mCLASS DIBELS 8
Amplify CKLA is the only core ELA program that integrates with mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition.
The CKLA Connect feature matches your students with targeted CKLA lessons based on their mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition assessment data. In other words, it aligns your assessments more closely with your core curriculum while recommending effective differentiated instruction.
Download this guide to connecting mCLASS DIBELS 8 with Amplify CKLA
Built on the Science of Reading
Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA delivers explicit instruction in foundational knowledge in PreK, both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in grades K–2, and an integrated approach to explicit instruction in grades 3–5.
Review this Science of Reading toolkit to learn more about the Science of Reading best practices integrated throughout CKLA.
Explicit systematic skills instruction
Great reading instruction starts with helping kids develop great decoding skills. By building a solid foundation of phonological awareness and phonics, reading the words on the page becomes automatic so that comprehension and critical thinking can happen. Our instruction is supported by:
- Step-by-step lessons with multisensory approaches, clear lesson objectives, and embedded formative assessments.
- Decodable books and student readers with ebook and audiobook versions that feature interesting plots and relatable characters.
- An engaging sound library with fun songs and videos that develop phonological awareness.
- An interactive Vocab App featuring engaging activities with immediate feedback and automated, customized instruction based on student performance.
Coherent knowledge instruction
Students build grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves. Our instruction is supported by:
- Knowledge builders that provide a quick overview of each domain with its key ideas.
- Interactive Read-Alouds designed to build knowledge and vocabulary.
- Content-rich anchor texts that support students as they tackle increasingly complex text and sharpen their analytical skills.
- Social and emotional learning paired with lessons in civic responsibility.
Embedded differentiation for all learners
Amplify CKLA provides built-in differentiation strategies in every lesson for all students, including supports for English language learners and Standard English learners.
- Access supports for ELLs: Integrated ELD supports in each lesson segment for English learners and Standard English learners are specific to students’ mastery of the lesson’s objectives.
- Support and Challenge for all learners: Lessons include Support and Challenge suggestions that provide assistance or opportunities for more advanced work toward the goal of the lesson. These supports are suitable for all learners, including ELLs.
- 30 minutes of Additional Support in every Skills lesson: In the Skills Strand, every lesson concludes with an Additional Support section of recommendations for 30 minutes of extended instruction and activities, directly aligned to the skills taught in the lesson to assist students who need more support in mastering the lesson’s objectives.
- Intervention Toolkit: The Intervention Toolkit provides easy-to-use resources to assist teachers in filling gaps in students’ foundational skills. Teachers will find of hundreds of activities to support phonics, fluency, comprehension, handwriting, and other key skills.
Designated ELD with Language Studio
Amplify CKLA’s designated English Language Development (ELD) component—Language Studio—helps English learners preview and revisit key content within core instruction, building a foundation of academic vocabulary and background knowledge. Core instruction lessons include point-of-use supports for English learners and Support and Challenge strategies for all learners.
This carefully developed program follows the CKLA Knowledge domains, previewing and reinforcing skills and content from core instruction using instruction specifically built for English learners. The program is also designed around frequent formative assessment, including assessment of language proficiency, giving you effective ways to guide and support your English learners.
Language Studio supports teachers and English learners through the following:
- 30 minutes of instruction with lesson segments are carefully designed around Content Knowledge, Meaning Making, Language Development, Effective Expression, and Foundational Skills.
- Every Language Studio lesson accompanies a core lesson, helping English learners deepen domain and academic vocabulary that will help them access core content.
- Culminating tasks support core projects and target the same skills as primary instruction.
Writing emphasis with Writing Studio
With Writing Studio, students in Grades K-5 focus deeply on the three key text types informative, narrative, and opinion–while applying both the skills and knowledge from the core program.
Writing Studio supports students through:
- Expanding on core writing instruction to develop analytical thinking through writing.
- Lessons that focus on writing standards, providing intensive focus and application to strengthen skills.
- Opportunities to apply knowledge in new contexts and deepen comprehension through writing.
- Scaffolded writing projects to help all students find success within the stages of the writing process.
Writing Studio lessons:
- Allow teachers to differentiate through Support and Challenge prompts for students at all levels, and Access Supports for ELLs.
- Spark creativity with authentic writing projects that call on students to engage deeply with rich topics and sources.
- Implement careful design and provide rubrics so that students’ writing skills can visibly grow throughout the year.
A culminating project in each grade asks students to apply their knowledge and understanding of text types and to select the appropriate text type for a final piece of writing.
Personalized practice with Boost Reading
Boost Reading is the student-driven skill practice program within CKLA, providing differentiated, digital instruction in both foundational skills and comprehension strategies. Because Boost Reading is built on the same approach to reading as CKLA, students are able to extend their learning from the core program further, at their own pace.
Amplify CKLA and Boost Reading reinforce each other through:
- An aligned scope and sequence and instructional approach: In both programs, students get instruction and practice in phonological awareness and phonics, with the most common, least ambiguous spellings first.
- Consistent vocabulary words: Many Amplify CKLA words are taught and practiced in Boost Reading vocabulary games.
- Complementary texts: Fiction and nonfiction books within Boost Reading reinforce Amplify CKLA knowledge domains.
- Seamless integrations between platforms: Students can easily access Boost Reading directly from the Amplify CKLA Student Hub.
Ready-to-go slides and all-in-one platform
The slides-based Amplify CKLA digital experience enhances instruction while saving you time. Everything you need is all in one place, making it easier than ever to plan lessons, present digital content, and review student work.
- Simplify planning and instruction: Teachers have access to ready-to-use and customizable lesson presentation slides, complete with all the prompts from the print Teacher Guide embedded in the teacher view. As teachers deliver each lesson, students can engage with the content in one cohesive
experience—through Activity Books, slides, digital components, videos, Student Readers, and more. - Interactive student activities: Through the Student Home, students can easily access digital lessons with slides, Activity Pages, ebooks, videos, and other interactive resources from one simple dashboard.
- Your teacher command center: You’re provided with the tools you need to ensure a productive digital experience that’s personalized to meet your students’ needs. This includes a teacher home from which to launch and track lessons, LMS integrations such as Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams, and other customizations based on classroom needs.
- Get real-time insights into your students’ work: The innovative live review tool enables you to keep an eye on students drawing, recording audio, uploading and capturing images, and typing or writing in pre-placed text boxes in their Activity Pages.
Navigating the program
Digital navigation walkthrough
Physical materials walkthrough
Sample materials
Integrated Strand
Demo access
Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.
- Click the CKLA Demo button below.
- Go to learning.amplify.com
- Select Log in with Amplify
- To explore as a student, enter this username:
- Enter the password: Amplify1-mcps2024
- Click the desired program on the left side of the page.
Additional resources
Amplify CKLA review resources:
- CKLA Program Guide for Grades K–5
- CKLA Program Guide for PreK
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion in CKLA
- CKLA Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard
- CKLA Equity Guide for Grades K–5
- CKLA and Social Emotional Competencies
- Text complexity in CKLA
- CKLA Caregiver Hub
- CKLA Sample Caregiver Letters
- Assessments in CKLA for Grades K–5
- Assessments in CKLA PreK
- Remote and hybrid learning with CKLA
- Amplify CKLA Scopes and Sequences
- Grade K Skills and Knowledge
- Grade 1 Skills and Knowledge
- Grade 2 Skills and Knowledge
- Grade 3 Integrated
- Grade 4 Integrated
- Grade 5 Integrated
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Hechinger Report: ‘The Reading Year’: First grade is critical for reading skills, but kids coming from disrupted kindergarten experiences are way behind”
October 20, 2021
Hechinger Report: “OPINION: Younger students were among those most hurt during the pandemic”
September 2, 2021
EdSurge: “An Edtech User’s Glossary to Speech Recognition and AI in the Classroom”
September, 2021
SIIA Education: “ED TECH SUCCESS STORIES”
August 23, 2021
CNN: “Irish tech firm helps kids’ voices be heard”
August 18, 2021
SoapBox Labs: “Can Speech Recognition Help Children Learn to Read?”
August 12, 2021
FOX Chicago Broadcast Interview: “Pandemic widens literacy gap for students”
August 3, 2021
T.H.E Journal: “More Students of Color at Risk in Reading After Pandemic”
July 28, 2021
The 74: “Early Reading Skills See a Rebound From In-Person Learning, But Racial Gaps Have Grown Wider, Tests Show”
July 28, 2021
K-12 Dive: “Reports: Math, reading progress slowed during first full school year of pandemic”
July 20, 2021
EdNC: “The mCLASS reading assessment tool is back in North Carolina classrooms, but it’s going to look different”
July 5, 2021
WBAL: “Baltimore students from all socio-economic backgrounds get a chance to ‘Amplify’ their learning skills”
June 15, 2021
Language Magazine: “Using Evidence to Overcome Adversity”
May 7, 2021
The Dallas Morning News: “How can a one-minute kindergarten test help teachers tackle the ‘COVID slide’?”
April 20, 2021
Education Week: “How Teachers and Curriculum Will Shape Ed Tech’s Future: A CEO Makes the Case”
March 24, 2021
The Hechinger Report: “OPINION: Children will need summer tutors to make up for pandemic learning loss”
March 23, 2021
Education Week: “Most States Fail to Measure Teachers’ Knowledge of the ‘Science of Reading,’ Report Says”
March 17, 2021
Axios: “How online education and tutoring could fight COVID learning loss”
March 16, 2021
USA Today: “Students are struggling to read behind masks and screens during COVID-19, but ‘expectations are no different’”
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”
February 25, 2021
K–12 Dive: “Reading gaps widen in mid-year data, especially for K-1 students of color”
February 24, 2021
The 74: “One Year into Pandemic, Far Fewer Young Students are on Target to Learn How to Read, Tests Show”
February 17, 2021
NBC Los Angeles: “Local Students Design Rovers in Mission to Mars Student Challenge”
February 5, 2021
District Administration: “To save literacy, focus first on high-quality core instruction”
February 4, 2021
The Hechinger Report: “5 ways schools hope to fight Covid-19 learning loss”
January 5, 2021
The 74: “Science Matters Now More than Ever. The Time to Start Teaching It Is in Elementary School”
2020
December 15, 2020
Education Week: “Students’ Reading Losses Could Strain Schools’ Capacity to Help Them Catch Up”
December 9, 2020
Education Post: “How to Help Beginning Readers During the Pandemic”
December 3, 2020
American Consortium for Equity in Education: “The Importance of Quality Curriculum With Industry Voice”
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’”
May 25, 2020
The 74: “Class Disrupted Podcast Episode 2: Why Is My Child Doing So Many Worksheets Right Now?”
February 5, 2020
Getting Smart Podcast: “Larry Berger on EdTech Past and Future”
Change management with the Science of Reading: Data is your compass
We know how children learn to read, and we know how to teach children to read—all thanks to the Science of Reading. That’s why it’s so important to use literacy programs grounded in data. But we also know that the process of shifting to data-supported literacy instruction is a whole science unto itself!
Fortunately, we know not only how to use data to drive instruction, but also how to use it to manage and drive successful educational change. In this post, we’ll explore the role data can play in implementing a new curriculum, which data to study at each phase of integration, and which assessments you can use to capture the data you need.
The power of data-based instruction and change management
“The Science of Reading represents a big shift in what folks are doing,” says Sara Thornton, a reading interventionist with Denver Public Schools in Colorado.
It’s a shift at the teacher level, it’s a shift at the school level, and it’s a shift at the district level. It takes a whole system.
—Sara Thornton
That’s why data is crucial.
To successfully navigate this seismic a shift, you need to anchor yourself in all kinds of data: literacy data, professional practice data, implementation data, and student performance data.
This data allows you to personalize instruction, track development, and evaluate your teaching strategies at the classroom level—and your implementation at the school or district level. It also guides decision-making, ensuring that your new curriculum is not just well-intended, but well-executed and effective.
Using data to drive instruction, implementation, and more
Here we’ll give you a glimpse at the types of data that can guide you through each stage of change.
Stage 1: Exploration. This is where stakeholders gather information, make the case for change, and begin to build buy-in.
To guide your efforts, you’ll need to collect the following types of data:
- Baseline literacy data that shows where students are starting from, specifically in these foundational skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
- Professional practice data to help you gauge educators’ current methods and understanding around the Science of Reading. This data can come from knowledge surveys, classroom observation forms, and more.
- Resource analysis data to help you understand the instructional tools you’ll need, in the context of relevant budget constraints.
Stage 2: Adoption. At this stage, you and your teams will evaluate, purchase, and pilot programs aligned with Science of Reading standards. We recommend tracking the following essential data measures alongside rubric-based resource evaluations:
- Literacy skill acquisition data such as unit tests, universal screening assessments, and formative daily/weekly assessments that will help you gauge the effectiveness of your piloted program.
- Stakeholder feedback that reflects the school community’s response to the program such as surveys; interviews; and conversations with teachers, family members, and district-level educators.
- Usage data, which is readily available in curricular resources with digital components, e.g. How are teachers and students using the program? How often do they log on, access given resources, etc.?
Stage 3: Initial implementation. Here, the newly adopted resources are in place and teachers begin to shift their practices. The right data in this phase will help you monitor the fidelity of implementation and track student growth. The following types of data are key:
- Instructional practice and delivery data such as lesson plan analyses, observation, usage logs, and more to show how classrooms are applying the new curriculum and practices.
- Student performance outcomes to measure student mastery. Data types include formative and summative unit assessments and progress monitoring.
Stages 4–5: Full operation, innovation, and sustainability. Here’s where you see the Science of Reading come to fruition, and where you build systems to maintain student growth. The data collected in earlier stages remains essential for guiding you through these final phases. It will serve as a touchstone as you gather and analyze additional data to help you make regular adjustments and modifications to your programs. We recommend continuing to monitor student progress, deepen your growing knowledge base—and celebrate how far your whole community has come.
More to explore
For more information, check out our comprehensive guides to literacy change management and the data that will guide you!
- Data as Your Compass: How Data and Assessment Guide Change When You’re Implementing a New Literacy Curriculum
- Change Management Playbook (A guide to navigating and sustaining change when implementing a Science of Reading curriculum)