Challenges encourage growth and resilience, but they can be detrimental if given at the wrong time, without support, or if they are a barrier to functionality. Our most recent upgrades increase accessibility in several ways.
Story time with Freckle
Freckle has always provided read-aloud support within early reader articles, stories, and questions in the ELA Library. We have now expanded this feature to first- and second-grade content! At the click of a button, students can have articles, stories, or questions read to them for level 1A-2C ELA Library content.
This change will accommodate students who need extra support with reading during their ELA assignments. Furthermore, it expands the content available to students who need read-aloud support—students may still be introduced to new concepts and ideas, but are not limited by their need for extra help. Teachers can expect to gain control over which students receive read-aloud support in the near future.
Intentional challenges
A healthy dose of academic challenge does wonders to improve student confidence and proficiency with abstract concepts. This is why Freckle implemented Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Challenges in math for students who demonstrate a strong understanding of the concepts and skills within a given domain. In short, DOK Challenges help students become experts through application in realistic contexts and make them better prepared for state testing.
Previously, DOK challenges appeared for students only as part of the natural progression within a domain. Now, DOK challenges are assignable by teachers through the Math Content page and Assignments page. This increases teachers’ ability to provide compelling and real-world-based assignments to promote thorough learning.
Aligned content
Many teachers are required to adhere to state standards for their curriculum. This can sometimes inhibit their ability to utilize Freckle. Alignment to state standards is an ongoing project at Freckle to give teachers confidence that their assignments facilitate practice in the required standards. Most recently, Virginia K-5 Math state alignments have been deployed and are available for teachers to select. Teachers can do so in their settings, which are located at the top right of the teacher dashboard.
The Freckle Pennsylvania math system has been enhanced by leveraging resources from Renaissance and Star Math. The adjustments made the PA alignment even more skill-based and provide teachers practice that is better catered to state standards. In addition, content coverage was improved so that PA teachers can create assignments for all core standards.
With these changes, teachers in these states—and other states where we offer alignment—can take full advantage of our Math Standards page to create state-standard-informed assignments. As always, teachers who use common core or a skills-based system can also utilize the Math Standards page to target specific skills and standards as well.
RGP, a gateway to the Administrative Dashboard
Administrators utilizing Freckle on the Renaissance Growth Platform (RGP) are now automatically provisioned with Freckle accounts as part of the nightly roster sync. In addition, administrators can now sign into their Freckle admin dashboard from a tile in RGP!
Administrators will see the Freckle tile on their homepage if their school(s) have active Freckle licenses and shared rostering/SSO is enabled.
If the admin does not double as a teacher, then clicking the Freckle tile will take them directly to the Administrator Dashboard. If the admin also acts as a teacher (e.g., a math coach with active math sections), then they will be prompted to choose which Freckle application to log into when they click the tile.
This will allow administrators easier and quicker access to crucial growth and usage reports kept within the Freckle Administrator Dashboard.
As always, please let us know if you have any feedback on these new features by contacting support@freckle.com.
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