Updates from the World of PLEFdom!
"Speakin of Beacon"
Beacon Overview
ELA and Math teachers experienced a mini training on the Amplify Beacon Assessment suite. Beacon is a valuable tool with it's foundation rooted through the Amplify device. Feel free to use this as a refresher and/or "Cheat Sheet."
Beacon offers the opportunity teachers to administer formative assessments that are CCSS-aligned (Math and ELA). Teachers also have the opportunity to monitor students' mastery through the Matrix view (chart-style) or Learning Map ("honeycomb").
mClass Beacon:
- Learning Map -- chart-style reporting; color coded by level of achievement (red, yellow and green)
- Matrix View -- honey-comb style reporting; related standards are in clusters
Assessment Studio:
- Quick Checks: This is best place to start since the assessments pre-made (5-7 questions) and organized my CCSS. Quick Checks can be assigned to students individually, in small groups or whole class. Each assessment comes with a rationale detailing the complexity, DOK, correct/incorrect responses as well as explanations. Student logins are generated here as well.
- Create assessment: Here, you can also create new assessments from the programs item bank. Questions are organized by subject and standard and can be further filtered by DOK, claims, etc. Teachers assign the created assessments in the same fashion as the Quick Checks.
Assigning Assessments
Once you have selected your assessment--pre-made or teacher created--scroll to the bottom of the locker page to find 'Assessment Actions' > Assign to Students. The above screen should pop up given you some options for assigning. Once you have selected your desired course, class (or individual students), administration window and the online settings (if assigning digitally), click the orange 'Assign' button.
The next screen (pictured below) allows you to generate and print the student logins. Click 'View Logins' for your desired classes/student's username/passwords. These only need to be generated once. These credentials cannot be changed by students, but can be regenerated by the teacher if lost. Essentially, students use the same given username/password for the school year.
Click 'Close' and the assessment will be ready at the start of your selected Assessment window.
All assessments can be assigned digitally or printed to be taken manually. If assigned digitally, any question requiring a constructed response will require the teacher to manually enter the score for that question. Rubrics are provided.
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To manually input answers/scores: From either side (mClass Beacon or Assessment Studio) click 'Assignments' > select desired assignment > Enter Scores. Here you can score constructed response questions and/or manually input multiple choice answer for students taking the paper version of an assessment.
Need More Info or Help???????
Online Training Modules:
- Find helpful video tutorials about Beacon from Amplify by clicking here. These self-paced training modules use video examples and give additional insight into each part of mClass Beacon and the Assessment Studio.
Your Friendly Neighborhood PLEF
Email: canteyd@gcsnc.com
Location: 501 West Washington Street, Greensboro, NC, United States
Phone: 336) 638-1226
Twitter: @malePLEF