ATI Supports ReadOnArizona Summer Reading Campaign

ATI is proud to support ReadOnArizona summer reading campaign. In order to maintain reading progress developed throughout the school year, ReadOnArizona encourages 20 minutes of reading per day. This easy-to-achieve goal is made even easier by myON, a digital library consisting of thousands of books to which students have unlimited access.

Simple tips to pass on to students and their families to encourage summer reading:
• sign up the whole family for the summer reading program at your local public library
• ask your librarian to suggest books that match a developing reader’s interests and reading level
• set a goal of reading 20 minutes every day

For more information about the ReadOnArizona summer reading campaign and myON, visit ReadOnArizona.org.

Early Math Benchmark Assessment Series Multimedia

With the tremendous popularity of the Early Literacy Benchmark Assessment Series (ELBAS) for kindergarten language arts, Assessment Technology Incorporated is pleased to offer the Early Math Benchmark Assessment Series (EMBAS) for kindergarten math for 2014-15. These assessments enhance kindergarten assessment by engaging kindergarten students with multimedia assessments that utilize sound and interactivity to measure performance on kindergarten assessment standards. These assessments are able to be administered to the entire class in a computer lab or to be assigned to small groups/individuals using classroom computer resources, allowing teachers to focus on other tasks.

 

Sample 1

 

Sample 2

 

With the EMBAS, students will be assessed on items aligned to the most up to date standards in an early-elementary friendly environment using sounds and images. The assessments will allow for easy assessment and quick intervention to ensure students are making progress in math skills and knowledge development.

Contact the Assessment Technology Education Management Services department to schedule the assessments for use in the 2014-15 academic year.

Instructional Units and Instructional Dialogs

Galileo K-12 Online Instructional Units and Instructional Dialogs are part of the comprehensive instructional improvement and instructional effectiveness system providing innovative technology to enhance learning. Instructional Units and Instructional Dialogs are online instructional exchanges between teachers and students designed to promote student mastery of standards. Images, animations, audio and video files, and web links can easily be incorporated providing an enriching instructional experience.

Instructional Units can be constructed to specify the scope and sequence of local curriculum aligned to Common Core and state-specific standards. Instructional Units integrate assessment with instruction in online and offline Instructional Dialogs containing lessons, assignments, and assessments.

ATI Instructional Dialogs provide a safe instructional environment promoting standards mastery and test-taking skills unique to the diversity of new item types planned by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) and by Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) for the Common Core Initiative. ATI's technology enhanced items currently available in formative assessments in English language arts, math, and science will soon be available for use in Instructional Dialogs and Instructional Units.

View a sample science Dialog

Complimentary Educational Opportunities

ATI’s Professional Development Team offers complimentary interactive online professional development opportunities for both Galileo K-12 Online and Galileo Pre-K Online users. These Learning On-Demand sessions assist administrators and educators in becoming proficient with the Galileo applications.

Registration to a Learning On-Demand session is easy, just click here

Select the “Upcoming” tab and click on the “Register” link by the session you would like to attend.

Or you may send an e-mail to ProfessionalDevelopment@ati-online.com and ATI’s professional development specialists will process your registration. If you are unable to attend a live Learning On-Demand session, the session recordings are available in the Galileo Forum after the session has occurred.

We look forward to seeing you online!
The ATI Professional Development Team

Galileo’s Technology Enhanced Items

Since the adoption of Common Core State Standards, other new state standards (e.g., Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards, Colorado’s Academic Standards, Massachusetts’s Curriculum Framework) and Next Generation Science Standards, the ATI team has been working to integrate these new standards into Galileo K-12 Online assessment and curriculum tools.

The recently new sets of standards call for a different way of teaching and learning and for the integration of assessment and instruction. They require students to move from memorization and recall to understanding and application of concepts. Students are expected to develop critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communications skills.  ATI is supporting educators responsible for providing appropriate learning opportunities by providing assessment and curriculum tools aligned with the intent of the standards. Part of this support can be found in the Technology Enhanced (TE) assessment items being offered to educators.

TE items are developed, certified, and embedded into Galileo's Formative Innovative Item Pilot assessment library every day thereby offering educators a broad range of item types and items for inclusion in assessments. Galileo offers TE, selected-response, constructed-response, and performance-based item types. TE items provide a more complex measure of student learning and a more engaging assessment experience. To follow are a few item types, available now and reflective of planned consortia items, that can be incorporated into your classroom assessments.

• Interface Enhanced Items
Customized and individually programmed items, including items that may have clickable images, drag and drop functionality, or interactive graphs. ATI interface technology makes it possible to quickly develop items reflective of changes in consortia item-type offerings.

• Item-Collection
Multiple sub-items combined into a single item. For example, one sub-item might be a selected-response item. The second item could then ask the student to explain or support that conclusion using an additional selected-response item or a constructed-response item.

• Sequencing Items
Assess sequencing skills. Sequencing tasks require the student to place things into logical or procedural order to demonstrate understanding of cause and effect relationships, order of operations, or steps in a process.

• Interactive Text Items
Require the student to identify key elements of a text by highlighting those elements.

• Multiple Right Answers
Make it possible to select multiple right answers in selected-response items.

If you are interested in incorporating TE items into your class before the end of the school year or during the summer, contact ATI today at GalileoInfo@ati-online.com or call 1-877-442-5453.

Learn more and see samples of TE items

Pilot Technology Enhanced Items

Did you know that ATI is offering clients the opportunity to pilot formative assessments composed of Technology Enhanced (TE) items? Drawing on Common Core and state-specific standards, the items help districts and charter schools to successfully measure student mastery of the English language arts, math, and science standards which each state is assessing in 2014-15. 

TE items are developed, certified, and embedded in Galileo's Formative Innovative Item Pilot assessment library - accessible for use right now and through summer school! Have a look. Try them out. Teachers can start familiarizing themselves with TE reporting functions and students can gain exposure to the engaging item types such as interface enhanced items, item-collection, sequencing items, interactive text items, and multiple right answers. Guides discussing taking assessments with different technology enhanced item types and available reports are provided as links below. Thanks for using Galileo.

Learn more: A Student's Guide for Taking Assessments Comprised of Technology Enhanced Items Quick Reference Guide

Learn more: Reporting on Students' Performance on Technology Enhanced Items Quick Reference Guide

New Webisode: Geometric Formulas for Understanding

In our conversations with users, we have learned that educators have a growing interest in digital professional development opportunities focusing on student engagement and achievement. We are developing educational webisodes that emphasize the integration of technology and teaching strategies relevant to Common Core with the goal of increasing student involvement in the learning process.

 

Click to view the webisode.

 
The latest instructional webisode from ATI, Teaching Geometric Formulas for Understanding, presents an approach that supports instructional balance between mathematical understanding and procedural skill development. Understanding of geometric formulas is an important component in accomplishing the Common Core objective for students to obtain a level of mathematical knowledge that can be used in solving real-world mathematical problems.

“Know this formula, understand it, and use it!” Watch the educational webisode demonstrating the inclusion of formula understanding in instruction addressing the measurement of the area of a circle. View the webisode now.