Over the last semester we’ve been hard at work taking your feedback and ideas to make Read to Lead even more impactful for your class. 

So what’s new?

Curated Playlists to Keep Students Engaged 

Super-charge student engagement with new curated playlists that target different literacy skills practice ranging from Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Development to Social Emotional Learning. Best part? New curated Playlists are dropped every few months to help you teach timely topics like Bullying Prevention Month and National Career Development Month too! Need a jump-start to getting started with Read to Lead? Jump into a Playlist and assign it to your class. 

Pro tip: Planning for substitute teacher days? Simply assign your class a Playlist, and point your Sub to the premade wrap-around curricula including lesson plans, discussion questions, and more. You’ll be able to track student progress from afar on the new Performance Reports! (Read on to learn more about that!)

Teach the Skills Your Students Need Most 

You can now search the learning game library by Reading Standard, SEL Competency, Lexile Range, or Grade Level! Find the learning games and wrap around materials you want to teach and assign the material right from the library! 

No matter which learning game is chosen, students will be reading approximately 3,000-5,000 words, making around 7 leadership decisions, and reflecting on those decisions through metacognitive prompts and a written reflection.  

Pro tip: With standardized testing season around the corner, focus on the Reading Standards your class needs to practice most. Do a learning-game blitz where you incorporate 15-20 minutes of independent game-play in the beginning of each class or as an early-finisher activity!

Know Where Each Student Stands

The new Performance Report is here and it is the first of its kind. For the first time ever, you will be able to assess not only English Language Arts (ELA) skills, but also Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skills. Easily toggle between the two views and choose to Save the Report as a PDF, Print, or Email as well. 

The gradebook feature also allows you to see how each student performed, and where they need more practice. View the class overview, or drill down to each individual student for a more detailed view.

Pro tip: Use the Performance Report to know where to focus in small-group settings or during Station Rotation. Easily identify trends and areas to go deeper with students. 

Know What Skills to Teach Next 

Teachers are busy, so we’re trying to make life just a little easier. The new Recommendation feature populates the learning games your students should play next based on their past performance on the platform– taking the guess-work out of deciding what to teach next. 

Pro tip: Use this feature to assign additional learning games related to the skills your students need more practice with. This is a great extra credit or early-finisher activity to deepen learning where students need it most.

Best part is, these updates are just the start. We’re dedicated to helping you empower the next generation of readers and leaders. More updates are coming soon! (Rumor has it… there is a new learning game series cooking… and the theme is timely– Pharmacy!) 

Create a free account or log in to create your class and begin building your students’ literacy, life, and career skills!

Need help implementing Read to Lead? Email us support@readtolead.org and our expert team of former educators and ed-tech peeps will reach out!

The post What’s New – Winter Product Release appeared first on Read to Lead.

So what’s new?

Seamless tech integrations  

You can now integrate Read to Lead with the tech tools you’re already using! Get up and running at the speed of light with Clever and Google Classroom Single Sign On (SSO) and rostering integrations. One username and password unlocks Read to Lead on any device – say goodbye to forgetting your password!

Shorter games, deeper daily engagement

Turbocharge reading engagement with NEW 15-minute learning games. Teachers, you told us 15-minutes is the ultimate time-block for independent reading and would be the most seamless to integrate into your classrooms.  Now you have more time for classroom discussions, debate, and wrap-around supplemental curricula found on the platform! 

A community built for educators, by educators

So many of you have asked how you can be more involved in game-creation and ideation. That’s why we’re uniting our most-passionate educators by forming a national community of Educator Leaders who are committed to empowering the next generation of readers and leaders, solve real classroom challenges, and are a part of the future of ed-tech. Sound like you? Start your application here!

Get up and running faster

Have questions with your account? Want to talk to a human? You can use the Live Chat function on our website and our Customer Success Team will be there for you. You can also check out the Help Center, or join a free Onboarding Training Webinar.

Best part is, this is just the start. Hold onto your hats – more updates are coming soon! (HINT: A brand new game series!)

Snag your free account or log in to create your class and begin building your students’ literacy, life, and career skills! New school year – it’s on!

See you on the leaderboard!

Read to Lead Team

The post Back to School – What’s New! appeared first on Read to Lead.

Step 1: Create your class

Once you’re logged in to your new Read to Lead account, you’re ready to create your first class.

1. Click ‘New Class’
2. Enter Class Name and supporting details, then click ‘Create New Class and Invite Students’

Step 2: Enroll your students

There are 4 easy options in how you enroll your students. Choose an option to get started! 

Option 1: Send an email invitation

Enter each student’s email address separated by a comma. Your students will receive this email:

Option 2: Import a CSV class roster

Use our CSV template to add your whole class. Once you’ve uploaded your CSV roster successfully, students will be invited to join Read to Lead via email.

Option 3: Share a class code or link with your students (your fastest option!)

Once your students click on or enter the class code in their browser, they will be prompted to create a username and password.

Option 4: Manually enter student names

Enter each student’s first and last name. Our system will automatically generate usernames and passwords for each student. Remind students to keep their username and password somewhere they can easily find it.

Students can access their Read to Lead account anytime by going to readtolead.org

You are able to view every student’s username and passwords within your class roster. You can change student’s passwords here if needed. Students will be prompted to create their own username and password. Once your students do this, their usernames and passwords will appear on your class roster.

Step 3: Choose a game

Here’s our favorite part… it’s time to choose a game. 

Navigate over to the Activities tab in the homepage view. In the Activities view, you can explore our content library, which includes over 30  Read to Lead games.

With each Read to Lead game, students read 3,500 words and practice Reading Anchor Standards. By playing Read to Lead, students can explore over 20 jobs across the public service, medical, pharmacy, and journalism industries.

To find the right game for your students, use the filters to search by career, grade level, reading skill, Lexile range, and SEL Skill. In each game tile shown above, you’ll find lesson plans and activities that support each game.

In the top panel of the series hub, shown above, you’ll find:

1. Summary: A brief description of the series and student responsibilities as the boss.

2. Starring Characters: Students will be the boss of a diverse staff. These character profiles will help build context about each character’s background and role at work.

3. Game Overview and Pacing Guide PDFs: Game Overview outlines the skills and standards addressed in each game along with sample pacing guides to simplify planning.

The middle panel, depicted below, includes menus for series-level resources. 

Each series includes the following resources:

1. Games: 15-20-minute digital workplace learning experiences where students become the boss, read, write, solve problems, and think critically.
2. Introductory Lessons: Collaborative activities that set students up for success by building background knowledge, introducing vocabulary, and exploring leadership traits.
3. Enrichment Projects: Three engaging projects where students work together to apply their leadership skills and positively impact their community.
4. Literacy Skill-Building Lessons: Close reading and reading intervention lessons provide practice in making inferences, citing evidence, interpreting words and phrases, analyzing word choice, and evaluate the content.

We know you’re busy, that’s why we’ve made sure each game comes with resources like a Lesson Plan, Student Worksheets, Game Answer Key, and after-game Discussion Worksheet.

Be sure to explore the Game Detail page to access the following resources:

• Before, Play and After supplementary lessons
• Game Preview
• “How-To”/FAQ page links
• Answer Key
• Student worksheets
• Student Certificate of Completion

Step 4: Assign your student their first game

Once you’ve chosen your game you want to assign, click the assign button. 

Select the class or individual students that will play this game along with any specific instructions or reminders. Click “Assign Game.”

You can then track each student’s completion progress in your Assignments tab.

We know what you’re thinking… how will students receive assignments?

Easy! Students will have their own assignment dashboard, so they know exactly what to work on and can view their own progress.

1. Students access their assignments within their Read to Lead account.
2. Once logged in, students should click on “Assignments” in the top navigation bar. 
3. Students can read the note from you and then select “Play Game” to begin.

Step 5: Gain student insights and reporting 

Read to Lead offers you formative assessment data so you can continually adapt your instruction to meet the needs of your students. You can find all your data reports by clicking on Reports tabs in the top navigation.

The hallmark of our instructional model is the standards-aligned formative assessment embedded within each game. This assessment doesn’t feel like a traditional test but rather an authentic workplace task like gathering evidence for a report or editing a project plan. As students complete the task, you are receiving their results in real-time.

The Class Performance Report is a classroom management tool. It provides a quick overview of how many words read and leadership decisions students in a class have completed across all games played. 

Below the default selected ‘Skill Insights’ tab pick if you want to view your class’s performance in ELA or SEL skils. Students are group based on their performance on games they played that target the specific skill.

Clicking on ‘view gradebook’ lets you see how students are performing against all SEL or ELA skills, depending on your skill insights selection. Clicking on a student’s score in this view will present you with their performance in the game. To go one step deeper click on ‘view assessment’ and view their answers to the formative assessment.Clicking on ‘view student report’ under their name shows their individual student report.

Selecting the ‘Game Performance’ tab shares a view of the class performance by each game within the report filters selected (Career world, ELA skills, SEL Skills). You can sort your report students performance in a game by clicking ‘sort by support level’. Clicking on ‘view performance’ under the game title will show your students workplace decision accuracy and their written end-game reflection. Clicking on the student’s name in the Game Performance report will bring you to their individual student report.

Did you know students read 3,500 words in a single Read to Lead game?  Clicking on the Stats tab displays how many words your students are reading as a class. When students go to the Dashboard page in their view they can see how many words they read on their own to view their classes standings and which badges they earned they just need to go to the Stats page. Badges can be printed, hung up, or sent home as a way to celebrate your student’s hard work!

Be sure to check the Leaderboard to see how many words your class has read compared to other classes across the nation. 

Join our Million Words Word Read Challenge simply by playing the Read to Lead games. Once your students read one million words collectively, we’ll send them awesome student prize packs for you to hold a celebration for your class. What are you waiting for? Let’s do this!

Need additional support?

If you have any questions about using Read to Lead, please contact us at support@readtolead.org. 

The post 5 Steps to Getting Started with Read to Lead appeared first on Read to Lead.

It’s a common adage that you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and this absolutely holds true for our students’ achievements. The key to their success in the classroom lies in tracking and measuring their progress over time, in order to celebrate their accomplishments and address their weaknesses. With a variety of tools available to educators within the Read to Lead®️ platform, we can help you manage student growth and help them achieve success.

Data + Tools = Student Success!

Within Read to Lead®️, each episode addresses a specific English Language Arts standard within the Common Core Anchor Standard. Mastery of that standard is gauged on how well the student performs in the workplace activity for each episode. Each episode also includes a writing prompt for students to complete, which educators can then review and assess based on the rubric provided.

The data reports available in Read to Lead®️ allow educators to view students’ progress within the games, their performance for each reading anchor standard, and their workplace activities and responses to the writing prompts. Based on this, educators can then provide additional guidance and coaching to students in need, in the areas in which they struggle.

Class Progress Report

To get a quick overview of where students are in the game, educators can use the Class Progress Report. This handy tool allows educators to see which episodes students have completed and the specific reading standard that was addressed in each. This report also shows, at a glance, which students are currently online, and which students have started but not completed an episode.

Performance Report

For more detail on how well each student or the class is performing, educators can tap into the Performance Report. This report provides a detailed breakdown of how well a class or individual student is performing on each assessed standard. In addition to the name of the episode and a description of the reading skill being assessed in that episode, this report also showcases the number of episodes completed by each student, how well they performed on each assessed activity and the task level of that activity for each reading anchor standard.

The color-coding by task level also provides a clear visual representation of how students are performing. In addition, the ‘Sort’ function makes it easy for educators to group students by their capabilities to provide more assistance to students who may require more guidance with the tasks or certain reading standards.

Student Activity Report

The third type of report available to educators is the Student Activity Report, which shows individual student progress and work. This report provides educators access to each individual student’s score and the task level for each episode completed, as well as the amount of time they spent on the activity. This is also where educators can evaluate a student’s workplace task performance against the provided answer key, and review their writing prompt response to see if the suggested key points have been adequately addressed.

Using Data Reports to Create Student Success

Together, these three reports provide educators with a comprehensive understanding of each individual student’s progress over time, the areas in which they excel, and the skills they may be struggling with. This detailed look into students’ performance enables educators to channel their resources and efforts appropriately to set their students up for success.

For a deeper dive into Read to Lead’s data, take a look at our recent webinar.

How are you using Read to Lead’s data reports to create student success in your classroom? Join us in our Educator Community to share your ideas, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and join the conversation!

The post Using Read to Lead’s Data Reports To Create Student Success appeared first on Read to Lead.