Progress Builds

Each Amplify Science unit is designed around a unit-specific learning progression called a Progress Build. Progress Builds define levels in the increasingly complex explanation of a unit’s anchoring phenomenon that students should be constructing over the course of the unit. Each Progress Build level integrates and builds upon the knowledge and skills from lower levels. In this way, the unit’s Progress Build provides teachers and students with a clear roadmap for how understanding of the unit’s anchor phenomenon is expected to deepen and develop over the course of the unit’s learning experiences. For example, for a given unit, it might take six lessons for a student to be able to demonstrate understanding of Progress Build Level 1. Then, it may take another five lessons for students to build on that knowledge, go deeper, learn new concepts, synthesize new information, and be able to demonstrate understanding of Progress Build Level 2, et cetera.

Because Progress Builds carefully consider not only the knowledge students are likely to have at the beginning of a sequence of instruction, but also how those learning experiences will position students for success with future learning opportunities, Progress Builds support a consistent and coherent approach to a single unit of instruction by aligning instruction and assessment around focused, meaningful, standards-based learning goals, and clearly showing how the learning experiences in the unit deepen with each successive chapter and lesson. Further, by aligning instruction and assessment to the Progress Build, assessment information about how student understanding is developing may be used in an informed way to modify instruction and support student learning.