No. Because Amplify Reading is a web-based application, students need an active Internet connection to use this program. However, we have created a number of offline, paper-based activities for engagement and skill practice that students can use without an Internet connection.

Yes! Many teachers assign Amplify Reading at home because students enjoy the program. And more time in the program leads to more growth. Students can use it on their own (no adult supervision needed!) on a variety of common devices, including Chromebooks, iPads, laptops, and desktops. Regular usage will help students extend their reading growth wherever they choose to learn. To support at home usage, we recommend sending out our parent letter and reminding caregivers of the supports that are available to them.

Our recommendation depends on whether and how you use Amplify Reading with other products:

Amplify Reading offers a variety of login methods to suit the diverse needs of the students who use our program. This login guide includes detailed recommendations and step-by-step instructions to help you determine which is the best fit for your students.

To summarize our recommendations:

Students’ weekly usage time is logged in your Teacher Dashboard.

Subskill mastery goals show how your students are progressing throughout their expected content for the school year.

The denominator you see in your Teacher Dashboard is the minimum number of subskills we expect your students to reach; it is very likely that they will surpass these goals. When that happens, students continue along the adaptive learning path and tackle more challenging subskills in the relevant skill domains.

The Amplify Early Literacy Suite refers to mCLASS, Amplify CKLA, and Amplify Reading. These programs work synergistically to support readers in their early literacy journey toward becoming proficient readers:

Quests are the narrative experience that frame your students’ experiences and skill practice in Amplify Reading.

Curiosos are magical, book-loving creatures who grow alongside students throughout their Amplify Reading experience. As students develop their own reading skills, so do their curioso companions. Together, they embark on adventures in the town of Bookerton and beyond!

Curiosos in the Amplify Reading K–3 experience

Curiosos in the Amplify Reading 4–5 experience

Alyx is your students’ in-world mentor who will guide them throughout their Amplify Reading experience, in quests, skill games, and other activities:

The Four Eyes refers to the interactive graphic novel that frames close reading practice in Grades 4–5 and the main characters in the story:

Practice Mode allows students to play any level of any game or Close Reading activity in Amplify Reading. In general, we suggest educators keep Practice Mode turned off to ensure that students focus on the games presented to them in their unique learning progression, but you can use your Teacher Dashboard to turn it on for your students at any time.

Amplify Reading offers a variety of supportive features for English Learners (ELs), including:

Yes! If your student needs to hear a game instruction again, they can click on Alyx (the character in the banner at the top of the game screen) to hear the directions again.

Yes! Use the Demo button in the navigation bar of your Teacher Dashboard to launch a demo of the student experience. You’ll be able to engage in a quest, access all the games in Practice Mode, and see why your students love to use Amplify Reading.

Trouble spots appear when your student has attempted a subskill multiple times without mastering it. If a student fails a particular game level three times, they are given a (brief) break from that content to limit frustration. They will encounter the same skill game level again later, after playing games that allow them to practice related skills.

If the student is still not able to master the same subskill later on, after three additional attempts, the subskill will be registered as a trouble spot. In other words, a student will have failed to master a specific skill game level six times when it is flagged as a trouble spot in your Teacher Dashboard.

If you would like to provide your students with support in addition to the scaffolding and adaptivity they’ll experience in Amplify Reading, the Student Detail View in your Teacher Dashboard includes a Trouble Spots tab where you can see exactly which subskill your student is struggling with, along with targeted instructional activities that you can use to help them work through the challenging subskill.

You can use this more detailed information about the challenging content set and the accompanying activities to inform student instruction, but be assured that Amplify Reading will expose students to this content again later in the program when they’ve had more time to practice the prerequisite skills.

Placement for students who do not have assessment data is determined using our Amplify Reading benchmark assessment, which ensures that students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level.

Students receive a set of word recognition activities (Grades K–5) and fluency and comprehension activities (Grades 1–5). Fluency and comprehension activities are supported by speech recognition technology.

Each grade-level set contains carefully curated activities that measure a range of skill levels for each grade and map directly to the content included in the program. Our program analyzes students’ response to each question and places them at a starting point within the program that best suits their current reading needs. For example, a third-grade student’s responses may show that they are struggling with below-grade level decoding skills, so they would be placed accordingly within Amplify Reading’sadaptive algorithm to ensure that they receive opportunities to practice those skills.

The Amplify Reading benchmark assessment is helpful for determining the right starting point for a student in Amplify Reading, and it can be used to assess text reading proficiency over the course of the school year. While it does facilitate the ability to determine proficiency, it is not a complete replacement for an in-class reading assessment and it is not considered a screener.

You will be able to see a student’s Amplify Reading Benchmark Assessment results in the Student View of your Teacher Dashboard as soon as they are completed.

The Amplify Reading Benchmark Assessment does not currently support Spanish voiceover for instructions, but support is coming soon! In the meantime, students who need Spanish support for placement should take the Automatic Placement Tool.

If you have a student who should take the Automatic Placement Tool in Spanish, you will need to activate Spanish voiceover for that student before they log in for the first time. Students who already have Spanish voiceover activated in the Teacher Dashboard will be directed to the Automatic Placement Tool when they log in for the first time.

If your student has already completed the Automatic Placement Tool in English, and you would like for them to retake it with Spanish instructions, please contact our customer support team.

In certain cases, student placement is determined using our Automatic Placement Tool, which ensures that students receive the content and skill practice most appropriate for their current reading level. The Automatic Placement Tool is used to place students who:

These students receive a set of word recognition activities (Grades K–5) and comprehension activities (Grades 1–5) for their enrolled grade.

Each grade-level set contains carefully curated activities that measure a range of skill levels for each grade and map directly to the content included in the program. Our program analyzes students’ responses to each question and places them at a starting point within the program that best suits their current reading needs. For example, a third-grade student’s responses may show that they are struggling with below-grade level decoding skills, so they would be placed accordingly within Amplify Reading’s adaptive algorithm to ensure that they receive opportunities to practice those skills.

Each activity features fun animations and characters to keep students motivated and trying their best. The entire experience takes most students around 15 minutes to complete.

Note: The kindergarten experience assesses decoding, the literacy skill that is most important for kindergarten and can be most readily assessed in an online environment. The word reading measure in the Automatic Placement Tool provides the best indicator of iteracy skills for kindergarteners.

While the Automatic Placement Tool (Automatic Placement Tool) is an effective method for determining the right starting point for a student within Amplify Reading, it is not a reading assessment, screener, or benchmarking replacement.

While your student’s responses and scores from the Automatic Placement Tool are not recorded in the Teacher Dashboard, you will see each student's placement in the Teacher Dashboard. It is reflected in the skill domain as a color-coded subskill, based on whether the student is above-, on-, or below-grade level.

The Automatic Placement Tool has Spanish instructional voiceover available for the narrative sections and the skill measures. Note that the content used in the actual measures —word reading and maze passages—is all in English.

If you have a student who should take the Automatic Placement Tool with Spanish instructions, you will need to activate Spanish voiceover for that student before they log in for the first time and take the Automatic Placement Tool. If your student has already taken the Automatic Placement Tool in English, and you would like for them to retake it with Spanish instructions, please contact our customer support team.

We encourage you to download this bilingual (English and Spanish) explanatory guide for parents and caregivers. This PDF includes a brief overview of the Automatic Placement Tool’s purpose, along with transcribed instructions for each activity that caregivers can refer to if their child needs help understanding what to do.

The animated narrative for the Amplify Reading benchmark assessment and Automatic Placement Tool invites students "behind the scenes" of Amplify Reading; therefore, it includes an animation of the screen cracking.

Nothing is actually broken, and your students have done nothing wrong! After the cracked screen animation, the narrator explains how students can help "repair" the app by completing a few short activities.

Note: If your students see an error message like the one below, there may be a network issue or site disruption; please contact support.

To ensure the most accurate placement, it is important that students complete each activity independently, without any outside assistance. Help from peers, caregivers, teachers, etc. can significantly skew students' results and lead to inaccurate placements.

If you suspect a student has received outside assistance, please contact support to request re-placement.

The Amplify Reading placement activities are designed to ensure that students receive content and skill practice that is most appropriate for their reading levels. But of course, you know your students best. If you believe a student may have been placed inaccurately, we recommend the following:

Across all placement points, students begin their Amplify Reading journey practicing skills that they are expected to have already encountered. If it seems like a student is seeing content that is too easy, it is likely that they are receiving this expected review.

We do not recommend adjusting student placement in this situation. As students continue to play skill games and demonstrate mastery across the skill domains, Amplify Reading's adaptive algorithm will serve up increasingly challenging content to ensure that they are receiving the activities that are right for them. We also have a variety of printable extension activities that allow students even more opportunities to practice their skills.

Learning to read is hard work, and it's expected that students will encounter some trouble spots along their reading journey.

However, if a student has received outside help completing the placement activity, or if they struggle with or have failed to master two or more subskills in their first quest, please contact support to request re-placement.

No, it’s not possible to re-place students through your Teacher Dashboard; only Amplify Reading customer support can complete re-placement requests.

If you are certain that a student has been placed incorrectly, please contact support to request re-placement for that student.

Our support teams can be reached Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET, and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

If you are an mCLASS user, your students' placements will be updated automatically, based on their new assessment scores.

If you use a supported, third party-assessment, your district will need to share the updated scores with Amplify to update your students' placements within the program.

Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions in our new Teacher Guide if you have additional questions.