Our team recommends using the following workflow to get the most out of NoRedInk. Click each step for details!
Step 1: Assign a Planning Diagnostic
Recommended date: Week 1, Day 1
First, start the semester with a Planning Diagnostic. A Planning Diagnostic allows you to gather broad-stroke data about what your students know and don't know. You'll likely use only one Planning Diagnostic for the whole semester. We recommend giving a four- to six-category Planning Diagnostic at the beginning of every school year or semester to get a general sense of strengths and weaknesses.
- Click here to browse our pre-made Planning Diagnostics or create your own.
Note that Planning Diagnostics do not produce a percentage grade; rather, they’ll group students into one of four performance bands. These results will show class patterns of strength and weakness, and they will help you in setting up a long-term plan for the semester. Your students will work through the rest of the semester in Units.
Let's take a look at the sample Planning Diagnostic results below. Based on these results, the teacher might choose to start with an Adjectives vs. Adverbs Unit because many of their students are in the first two performance bands.
Step 2: Start a Unit by assigning a Unit Diagnostic
Recommended date: Week 1, Day 2
After you have given a Planning Diagnostic, use the results to decide which Units to teach over the semester. Here's how we recommend that you structure each of your Units:
For each unit you plan to teach, begin with a Unit Diagnostic. The Unit Diagnostic is a more targeted pre-assessment for a single unit of study. Your Unit Diagnostic should include a smaller number of topics around a centralized category. This assessment will serve as a benchmark for student understanding, and you'll later be able to refer back to it in order to track student growth.
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You can generate a Unit Diagnostic from your Planning Diagnostic's results page by clicking the "Start unit" button next to the pathway you want students to work on.
- If you're not using a Planning Diagnostic, click here to create your own Unit Diagnostic from the Assignment Library.
Step 3: Review results and create a Unit
Recommended date: Week 1, Day 3
Once your students have had the chance to take their Unit Diagnostic, review the results of their work, and analyze the skills students need to work on most. NoRedInk automatically shows you the class's weakest areas, as shown in the example Unit Diagnostic results below:
Recommended date: Week 1, Day 4
From your Unit Diagnostic, start to build a Unit composed of Practice and Quiz assignments. Just select the "Start unit" button to the right of your Unit Diagnostic to start!
Step 4: Follow up with Practice
Recommended date: Over the Next 3-5 Weeks
Select Create or Continue unit to assign Practice on skills in the unit.
This will allow each student to work at his own pace to master different concepts. Rather than assigning a specific number of questions, you’ll assign a set of skills to work on; students of different levels may require more or fewer questions to prove mastery. We recommend assigning skills in "parts," as all skills in a part play off each other for more robust learning.
From the example Unit Diagnostic results below, the teacher might opt for creating Practices for the three areas where NoRedInk highlights that students are weakest:
Step 5: Compare with a Growth Quiz
Recommended date:
Week 3, Day 3 for a formative assessment
Week 6, Day 3 for a summative assessment
Select Create or Continue unit to assign a Growth Quiz to see how students have improved since the Unit Diagnostic.
The Growth Quiz asks the same number of questions on the same concepts as the Unit Diagnostic or Quiz, but uses entirely new questions. After the Growth Quiz is complete, NoRedInk directly compares the two assessments, and the data will show how each student grew overall and on each specific sub-skill assessed. You can assign a Growth Quiz in the middle of your unit to gauge progress and see if students might need additional support. You can assign a Growth Quiz again at the end of the Unit for further analysis.
Step 6: Add more Practice or Growth Quizzes to your Unit as needed
Click Create or Continue unit to assign more assignments based on the Unit Diagnostic.
Step 7: Analyze Data and Celebrate Growth
Recommended date: Week 6, Day 5
- From your list of assignments, click "Performance" next to your Unit Diagnostic or Growth Quiz.
- Check the checkbox for "Compare to," then select your growth quiz at the right.
- You'll then be able to see how much your class has grown as a whole, and how students have progressed as individuals.
- Check the checkbox for "Hide student names" if you would like to anonymize options to celebrate class-wide growth!
Step 8: Repeat for each Unit
Over the semester, you'll repeat steps 2-7 for each unit of instruction.
Now that you have an idea of how to create unit cycles in NoRedInk, it's time to learn more about other great features and resources you'll be able to use: Get Started: Get to Know NoRedInk