Are you striving to make Amplify CKLA accessible to your less-fluent readers? Do you teach 4th or 5th grade Amplify CKLA?
There are links to my products on Teachers Pay Teachers included in this post. I create resources I personally use and sell what I know can help other classrooms.
Due to its incredible evidence-based reading program, Amplify CKLA is becoming more and more prevalent in public schools today. It is a rigorous curriculum meant to bring students not only to grade level, but it also pushes them to reach beyond. Because it is so rigorous, differentiating the curriculum becomes very important.
In my opinion, it appears the curriculum strives to take students who were reading on grade level to the next level. To, you know, push them a little more. When I decided to take a close look, it appeared that the reading level of some of the books chosen actually placed a couple of grades higher. For example, some of the reading material for 4th grade students had a reading level of 6th or 7th grade.
Now, I know that I don’t usually get a class full of students reading on grade level, so I knew I had to add something in order to differentiate. I needed to make Amplify CKLA accessible.
From experience, here’s my 5 top tips on how to make Amplify CKLA more accessible to the students not reading on grade level!
How to Make Amplify CKLA Accessible
Teachers are always branching out, looking for the best ways to meet the needs of their students. Teachers are inventors. We are educators who innovate. We adapt and make it work. In other words, we do our absolute best. If we need to make Amplify CKLA more accessible, we make additions. To make those additions, I:
- Use pictures
- Read Aloud
- Prioritize
- Play games
- Try the supplemental Amplify CKLA Resources
You can probably get a good feel for my tips without reading more, but in case you want to know more, I’m heading straight into the details.
Tip 1: Use Pictures to Make Amplify CKLA More Accessible
All the tips are helpful, but pictures are a powerful way to boost comprehension. If you’ve taught any CKLA, you will notice that there is a list of vocabulary words for almost every lesson. In the students’ activity books, the words usually appear as the first activity page for the lesson, and the teacher guide tells you to read through each vocabulary word and definition before moving on to the reading for the day. For those students who are already on a lower reading level, the massive amount of text could leave them frustrated. I know my head would hurt!
An easy solution is to include pictures with the vocabulary words. Put them on a presentation and go through them with your class. Now, I have made pictures slides for each 5th grade lesson twice. Once as an ESL teacher, and then once again because I wanted to redo them. Each time, it has taken me hours to find adequate pictures to illustrate the ideas.
You can check the presentations I’ve made here on Teachers Pay Teachers: 5th Grade Amplify CKLA Vocabulary Bundle
If you have time, don’t stop there. Make sure you also use the pictures included in the teacher’s guide! Also consider finding extra pictures to explain the situations in the story and other vocabulary words your students might struggle with!
Tip 2: Make Amplify CKLA Accessible by Reading Aloud
Fluent readers can imagine the reading on their own as they read. Non-fluent or less-fluent readers can’t. The less-fluent reader focuses more on reading the word correctly, and less on the meaning of the words. A good fix for that is to read aloud sometimes. You can do this in a variety of ways:
- Use the Library App online that comes with the Amplify Curriculum. Almost all of the Amplify CKLA readers have a recording. If you have the students log in to Amplify online, go to the Hub, then to the Library, they can access all the unit readers online. And there’s a little speaker icon they can click on to have it read to them. Each word is highlighted in time with the read aloud. This is usually a good option for those students who can handle doing work on their own.
- Pair your best readers with your lowest readers on occasion, and have them buddy read. This is a perfect option when you do have some readers in the class doing well with the Amplify curriculum. It also can work to build a sense of community in your classroom! Try it out when you can!
- Read the passages yourself for the class. Make sure that the students are following along as you read. The Teacher’s Guide also includes some good comprehension questions every other page or so. This is my go-to in a pinch!
Tip 3: Prioritize Amplify CKLA Lessons and Content
Amplify Lessons are PACKED with content. If you follow the curriculum without a plan, you may not make it through all the units because you are doing all the meaningful work with your students included. Or, you might make it through everything, but your students will not have made meaningful connections because there was really no time to discuss and deliberate as much as they needed.
You can avoid this by prioritizing and planning. Yes, you should do every component of the lesson (writing, reading, etc.), but spend the most time on the activities that will benefit your class most.
Tip 4: Play Games that Makes Amplify CKLA Content More Accessible
Who doesn’t love a good game or two? Students can’t just take it all in the way curriculum expects them to. We are ALL human, and we need to ENGAGE with the material to learn!
Here are some ideas for games that require very little prep and can be used in a pinch:
- Split the class into two groups, and pit them against each other in a true false quiz from the reading. All the prep you need to do is make note of facts in the reading you want to quiz them on. Go the extra mile and make an online quiz using Kahoot!
- Try a word search for those spelling words:
As my store grows, I’d like to add more games for Amplify CKLA. Keep checking my Store (click here) for updates and games matching the curriculum!
Tip 5: Try the Supplemental Amplify CKLA Materials
The Amplify CKLA curriculum actually understands that it is a rigorous program. To help teachers and students meet the rigor, they have included several resources to assist students who may be reading under grade level.
- One example is the 1451-page Remediation Guide.
- It is filled with activities built around phonics, starting with CVC words, continuing on to a much higher level of reading. I don’t recommend printing it all at once! Instead, print as you need.
- Another resource is the Language Studio.
- Assuming that your district bought access to this extra resource, and that you have intervention time set aside in your day, this resource can be a great way to help your MLL/ELL students. The Language Studio has some extra lessons that should be taught prior to the main classroom lesson.
- It is meant to help your lower-performing students preview the material in a simpler format ahead of time, before you do it all together as a class. The reading for the Language Studio lesson usually includes a small excerpt from the main reading, and it is usually a short version that is much more palatable to someone struggling with reading.
- Lastly, the presentation slides.
- If your district has bought access to these, they are simply one of the BEST resources for day-to-day lessons in Amplify CKLA. The slides contain all the components of the lesson in one easy-access place. The lesson plan is all there in the presenter’s notes area, and it is quick and easy to set up.
- If you’d like students to follow along and complete work on their own devices, you can turn on a mode that enables them to do the work as you go, no paper copies required. I have really enjoyed having these slides. What a time saver! The only thing it needs is EVEN MORE PICTURES (which is why I made the vocabulary slides mentioned in Tip 1).
Making Amplify CKLA Accessible Can be Simple… so Remember to Keep it Simple
With curriculums like Amplify CKLA, it is important to remember to pick the most important things, use effective differentiation strategies, and be aware of all the resources available to you.
I know I didn’t cover it all. There’s a lot of good in there! Please consider leaving a comment below. How have you utilized the Amplify curriculum?
Happy Teaching!
