Select Skills to Practice

This page opens after you have chosen to plan assignments in Accelerated Math Instructional Practice. The class and timeframe that you chose on the New Assignment Plan Setup page are shown at the top of this page.

There are three ways to find assignments starting from this page:

• Skills by Recommendation shows you the recommended skills for your students based on their Star Math scores (if they have taken the test) or their projected scores based on grade and the time in the school year (if they have not taken the test). You select the skills that you want to find assignments for.
• Skills by Domain helps you find skills based on domain. You select the skills that you want to find assignments for.
• My Content lets you find Star Custom math assessments that you have personally created. When you use this tab, you do not find Accelerated Math assignments since those assignments are not created by teachers.

Select a tab to choose which method you'd like to use.

Skills by Recommendation Tab

When you first come to the page, the Skills by Recommendation tab is selected. On this tab, you can choose skills that you want to find assignments for; the skills that match your students' Star Math scores (or projected scores) are shown first.

If your students have taken Star Math tests, you will see a bar like the one below. The lowest Star Math Scaled Score for your students will be marked on the left side of the bar, and the highest will be marked toward the right side of the bar. In between, you'll see colors that represent the benchmark skill categories and the Scaled Scores that mark the boundaries of each category (cut scores). The width of each category represents the number of skills for students in each benchmark category. The median Scaled Score will be marked on that bar. The benchmark categories that are used are the default benchmarks that have been selected for your site (School, District, or state).

If some of your students have not taken a Star Math test, the text above the bar will tell you how many (6 students in the example above). The median score for those students who have tested will be marked on the bar.

If you are planning for just one student, and that student has taken the Star Math test, you will see the full learning progression range. You will not see the cut scores, and lighter colors will be used for the benchmark categories.

If none of your students have taken a Star Math test, you will also see the lighter colors, and the cut scores will be included. The projected score (placement) will be shown on the bar; instead of a Star score, the projected score is based on the students' grade and the current timeframe in the school year.

Below the bar, you will see a list of skills; check the skills that you want your students to work on. The software chooses the skills to show first based on the median score shown on the bar. In the list, you'll see a section for the median or placement score (650 in the example below) and the number of students; underneath the score, you'll see the recommended skills. Some skills are focus skills ; these will be marked in their rows.

You may decide to assign skills that occur before or after the recommended skills in the learning progression. To see skills before the recommended skills, use the scroll bar next to the list to scroll up. To see skills that come after the recommended skills, scroll down. As you scroll up and down, note the scores and grade levels that are in the list.

If your students have taken Star Math tests, the color shown to the left of each skill shows which benchmark category that skill falls into. In the example above, the skill rows have a green border on the left, showing that they belong in the green benchmark category.

For each skill, you will also see the standard number and skill name as shown below. If you select a skill name, a window opens that includes the skill details, domains and standards, and subskills (if applicable). Select each category on the left side of the window to see the information.

Another way to find skills is to search by keyword. Type a keyword from the skill name in the search field; then, select Search. After you search, the bar will change to show the full Scaled Score range and all benchmark categories, with the skills that match the search term marked with triangles. Use the scroll bar to scroll through the matching skills; skills that do not match will not be listed.

To cancel a search, select the X in the search field.

Check the skills that you'd like to find assignments and resources for. When you are done, select Next: Find Resources at the bottom of the page.

Skills by Domain

On the Skills by Domain tab, you can find skills by domain and then choose the skills that you'd like to assign to students.

Like the Skills by Recommendation tab, the Skills by Domain tab has a bar that gives you information about your students' Star Math score range, benchmark categories, and median score. If your students have not taken the Star Math test, the projected score is shown for their grade and the current point in the school year.

Unlike the Skills by Recommendation tab, the Skills by Domain tab shows the full Scaled Score range instead of just the range of your students' scores. The range that includes your students' scores will use the typical benchmark colors; the rest of the bar will use lighter colors. (If you have selected only one student, or if no students have taken the Star Math test, the entire bar uses the lighter colors.)

By default, the page is showing recommended skills for all domains. Use the Choose Domain drop-down list to choose to see skills from a specific domain.

After you do this, the matching skills will be listed. In the bar above the list, skills that are in the selected domain will be marked with triangles.

The software chooses the skills to show first based on the median score shown on the bar. You'll see a section for that median score with the number of selected students. Use the scroll bar to scroll through the matching skills; skills that are not in that domain will not be listed.

If your students have taken Star Math tests, the color shown to the left of each skill shows which benchmark category that skill falls into; in the example above, the skills are part of the green benchmark category. For each skill, you will also see the standard number and skill name. Focus skills will be marked in each row.

As on the Skills by Recommendation tab, you can also search by keyword. Type a keyword from the skill name in the search field; then, select Search. After you search, the bar will show you the skills that match the search term marked with triangles. Use the scroll bar to scroll through the matching skills; skills that do not match will not be listed.

Check the skills that you'd like to find assignments and resources for. When you are done, select Next: Find Resources at the bottom of the page.

My Content Tab

Use this tab to find Star Custom math assessments that you have personally created. When you use this tab, you will not find any Accelerated Math assignments since those are not created by teachers.

To find the Star Custom math assessments that you have created, select Continue.