Planning Assignments: Selecting Skills and Assignments and Scheduling Assignments – Accelerated Reader

Who can do this with standard user permissions?

District level administrators, school level administrators, teachers

Teachers follow these steps to assign subskills for students to work on in Accelerated Math Instructional Practice.

On the Home page, select Accelerated Math IP.
Select Plan Assignments.
The next page will list the plans that you have created so far (if any). Select New Plan.
First, select the classes or groups that you want to plan assignments for. If the class that is selected by default is not the one that your new plan will be for, select Change Student(s) to begin selecting the classes or groups that you want to plan assignments for.
Choose the classes and groups that you want to assign work to. For most school personnel, the school is already selected in the first column. However, if you have access to more than one school, you can choose whether to include all schools or to select specific ones; if you decide to select schools, check the schools that you want to create assignments for.

In the second column, first choose whether to plan assignments for all classes or to select classes. If you choose to select classes, check the classes that you're planning assignments for. (You can search the items in a column by clicking within that column and then typing Ctrl+F or control-F on the keyboard.)

In the third column, check the groups to include; check Whole Class to plan assignments for the class as a whole.

When you're done, select Apply.

If you started choosing assignments for this class or group before, and you didn't finish, after you select the students, you will see a message like the one below. Choose whether to continue working on the plan you started (with the skills you previously selected) or to start over.
the plan in progress message with the continue and discard buttons
If you need to create new groups, see Manage Groups Page.

Next, click the Select Week field to choose the timeframe that you want to assign work for. You can choose one of the week-long time periods in the drop-down list, or you can choose custom dates.

If you choose Custom as shown below, in the calendars, select the first date, then the second one; then, select Apply. (You can use the arrows on each side of the months shown to see a previous or future month.)

It is helpful to schedule assignments just one week ahead so that you can make adjustments as needed based on how students do on the work.

Edit the plan name in the Name Your Plan field as needed. Note: It's helpful to give each plan a unique name so that you can identify the plans easily later.
Select Start Planning to go on to the skills selection.
Next, choose the skills that you want to assign.

If your students have taken Star Math tests, you will see a bar like the one below, showing the range of your students' scores (with the lowest and highest scores marked) and the benchmark categories and cut scores that fall between those scores. The median Scaled Score will be marked on that bar.

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).

Benchmark colors and cut scores are not shown at all if you select students from more than one school or if you select classes with different grade levels. This is because cut scores are different across grades and may be different between schools.

If none of your students have taken a Star Math test, you will also see lighter colors, and the cut scores will be included. The projected score will still be shown on the bar; instead of a Star score, the projected score (placement) is based on the students' grade and the current timeframe in the school year. (You will also see lighter colors if you select just one student.)
example of the bar when there are no Star Math scores
You can find skills based on the median score, by domain, or by searching.

Finding skills by median score: In the list of skills below the bar, the skills that match the median or projected score will be shown first and will be marked "Recommended." Check the skills that you want your students to work on. In the list, you'll see a section for the closest score (650 in the example below).

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. Also, note the colors to the left of each skill row; they show the benchmark category for each skill. Focus skills are also marked. To see more information about a skill, such as skill details, domains and standards, or subskills (if applicable), select the skill name.
Finding Skills by domain: If you prefer to find skills by domain, select the Skills by Domain tab. On this tab, the bar that shows your students' median Star Math score (or the projected score by grade) includes the full Scaled Score range. 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, only the matching skills will be listed. In the bar above the list, skills that are in the selected domain will be marked with triangles. Check the skills that you want your students to work on. As on the Skills by Recommendation tab, you can scroll through the list to find skills that occur before or after the recommended skills in the learning progression.
On both the Skills by Recommendation tab and the Skills by Domain tab, you can search for skills by keyword. Type a keyword from the skill name in the search field; then, select Search. After you search, the bar will 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. Check the skills that you want your students to work on.

Use the My Content tab to 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 Next: Find Resources after you check skills.
On the next page, the skills that you selected are listed on the left, and the first skill is highlighted by default. In the middle column, the assignments that are available for the skill are listed. To add one of the assignments to your plan, select + Add.

In the list that opens, select the day when you want students to start seeing the assignment in the Assignments List on their Home page.

The assignment will be added to the day you select in the "Schedule" list on the right. If you want to change the day that you chose, select the green check mark; then, select a different day in the list. If you decide you want to remove an assignment that you have added, select X to the right of the assignment name.

As you view and select assignments, you can do the following:

To preview an assignment, select Preview on the assignment card. A preview of the assignment will open in a new tab or window, and you can answer the questions as a student would and click Next to go on to the next question. When you are done, you will see your score. Select Close Preview to close the preview. (You can also select + Add to Plan to add the assignment while previewing it.)
Select the filter button () above the list of assignments to search for an assignment by keyword.
If you want to see other assignment types in addition to Accelerated Math assignments, select the filter button () above the list of assignments. Then, check the assignment types or sources that you want to include. (The assignment types available depend on the software that your school has purchased.) Select Apply to update the list of results.
To go back and choose other skills, select Change next to the "Selected Skills" heading on the left.

After you finish adding assignments for one skill, you can select the next skill to find assignments for that skill.
When you have finished choosing the assignments for your students, select Review under the Schedule.
On the next page, you can schedule the skills and assignments that you have selected for your group(s). At the top of the page you can choose when you will be teaching each selected skill. To move a skill, click the skill and drag it to the day(s) that you prefer.

To expand the skill over multiple days, select the arrow to the right of the skill name and drag it to expand the skill over the days that you prefer.

Any days off that your administrator has added for the school are marked so that you can avoid scheduling work for that day. Days off are not shown if you selected students from multiple schools.
example of a day off in the schedule

Below the skills, choose the day when students should start seeing each assignment in their Assignments list. To do this, click an assignment card and drag it to the day that you prefer. As you move assignment cards, the skills at the top of the page will also move or expand to reflect when students are working on the skills' assignments.

If you want to delete an assignment or to preview it, select the assignment card. Then, click Delete in the Details window to delete the assignment from the plan, or select View to preview it in a new browser tab (working through the assignment as a student would).
the Delete and View options for an assignment in the Details window

If you want to add more assignments, select Add Assignments to go back to the page where you choose assignments.
the Add Assignments link

You can also print or save the Assignment Plan from this page. To do this, select PDF at the bottom of the page.

Since you can't change the assignments after you create them, it can be helpful to print or save this page as a record of the days you selected for skills and assignments. This is also helpful if you want to share the Assignment Plan with teachers of other classes.

When you have finished setting the schedule for skills and assignments, select Create Assignments at the top or bottom of the page.

If you need to go back, select < Back at the bottom of the page or one of the links at the top of the page.

The window that opens will confirm the students you are planning for and the date range.
The name that you entered for the plan when you started it is shown. You can change the name if necessary. It is helpful to make each plan's name unique so that you can identify plans easily.

You'll also be reminded that the assignments will be listed in the students' My Assignments list on the dates that you have chosen. You cannot change the schedule once you finish; be sure that you have the assignments and schedule that you want before you continue (click Cancel if necessary). When you are ready to finish and schedule the assignments, select Continue.
When the window confirms that the assignments have been assigned, select OK.

Students will see the assignments in the Assignments list on their Home page, starting on the dates that you selected for the assignments.