The Standards and Tests section of the Assignment Library allows teachers to browse NoRedInk's writing and grammar content by state standards and tests to create aligned assignments quickly. NoRedInk content aligns with:
- Smarter Balanced
- Common Core standards
- State-specific standards
- APⓇ English Language
- APⓇ English Literature
- WIDA’s Key Language Uses
- SATⓇ
- ACTⓇ
- NWEA MAPⓇ
Within each standard, you’ll find aligned writing activities and grammar topics ready to assign to your class.
Viewing alignment to standards and tests
- From the teacher dashboard, select Browse & Assign at the top of the screen to access the Assignment Library, followed by Standards & Tests.
- From the Standards & Tests section, select the standard or standardized test for which you'd like to browse content.
- Next, you can filter by grade level and specific standards. You'll find a list of NoRedInk topics and activities nested directly under each standard:
Creating standards-aligned assignments
To create a standards-aligned writing assignment, you can follow these steps:
- After navigating to the Standards and Test section following the steps above, select a standard to open a list containing NoRedInk topics and activities.
Within each standard, you'll find pre-made writing assignments, text sets, and prompts for Quick Writes, Guided Short Responses, and Guided Essays.
- Select the blue arrow next to an assignment to make customizations, then select Continue to assign it to your class.
💡 Depending on the activity, you can preview a topic by selecting the eye icon, view lessons for the topic by selecting the paper icon, view an interactive tutorial by selecting the footsteps icon, and view the text source for a writing assignment by selecting View text.
To create a standards-aligned Diagnostic, Practice, or Quiz assignment, you can follow these steps:
- After navigating to the Standards and Test section, following the steps in the first section, select a standard to open a list containing NoRedInk topics and activities.
- Select the checkbox next to the individual Practice topics you'd like to include, then choose your activity type from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the screen.
💡 On average, we recommend that students master 2-4 topics per week!
You'll also find multi-paragraph Passage Quizzes listed with the topics that they cover, which can be assigned by selecting the arrow next to the passage.
Best practices and tips
- Plan out scope and sequence: You can use the Standards & Tests page to map NoRedInk content to an existing scope and sequence you're using, or use the Standards & Tests page to plan your curriculum for the year. You can use a Unit Diagnostic to identify which topics to focus on.
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Build Units focused on specific standards: Grouping topics together into Units is a great way to measure student growth within certain standards.
- While browsing standards, you can create a Unit Diagnostic by clicking the checkboxes for the topics you'd like to include.
- After students complete a Unit Diagnostic, you can assign Practice on any topics where students may be struggling.
- Then, follow up with a Growth Quiz, which provides valuable data on how students have grown in the skills included in your Unit. You can find more information on structuring Units here!