Based on students' results on their diagnostics, Quill will create a personalized learning plan of recommended activity packs for each student. The Practice Recommendations report, which can be found under Diagnostic in the My Student Reports tab, allows you to assign recommended independent practice, recommended whole-class lessons, and the corresponding post-test (growth diagnostic.)
Table of contents:
Independent practice table - assign recommended practice
The independent practice table automatically checks activity packs based on students' results. The checked boxes indicate that the student has shown partial proficiency or no proficiency in that skill; therefore, the student is recommended to work on the pack of activities that aligns with that skill set.
Recommended activity packs are automatically checked when you access the page:
If you wish to assign every recommended pack to every student, click the green "Assign activity packs" button. You can also uncheck the boxes next to students' names if you do not wish to assign activities to those students yet.
After clicking the green "Assign activity packs" button, you will see a pop-up with the question "How would you like to release activity packs to students?"
Choose your preferred pacing method (staggered release to unlock only one pack of recommended activities at a time for students or immediate release to open all recommended packs at once.) You can always come back to this page and edit your selection. Click here to learn more about staggered vs. immediate release.
After choosing your release method, the table will indicate that every checked activity pack was "Assigned." You will only see this message for a few seconds. The table will soon update with the number of activities that have been completed by students in each pack. Initially, every column indicates that there are 0 activities completed, but you can come back to the Practice Recommendations page at any time to keep track of how many recommended activities the student has completed!
For a detailed explanation of how to assign practice recommendations, read this article about how to assign diagnostic practice recommendations.
Understanding the independent practice recommendations table
The independent practice table displays different icons and messages depending on the actions you've taken or the status of the recommended packs. See below to understand what each type of cell indicates.
A white cell with an empty checkbox indicates that the student is proficient in the skill set and does need to be assigned this activity pack. Note: you can check the box to assign this activity pack to a student who is proficient if you believe the student would benefit from practicing this skill set.
A green cell with the Quill symbol and a checked box indicates this student is recommended to work on this activity pack based on their diagnostic results. The student showed partial proficiency or no proficiency in that skill set.
A green cell with the Quill symbol and the number of completed activities shows the number of activities assigned and completed by the student for that recommended activity pack. This helps you keep track of recommended activity completion.
A white cell with the number of completed activities shows the number of activities assigned and completed by the student. The white cell without a Quill symbol indicates this student was not originally recommended to complete this pack-- they had shown proficiency in this skill set on the diagnostic, but this pack was manually assigned to the student for additional practice.
Need to remove a student from an activity pack that was assigned in error? Click here to learn how to add or remove students from activity packs.
Whole-class instruction - Assign recommended whole-class lessons
The recommended activity packs in the Independent practice grid above only contain activities that students can do independently, without a teacher's assistance. We recommend creating a process model and assisting students with implementing the feedback they receive on their answers.
Additionally, at the bottom of the Practice Recommendations page, you will find a section titled whole class instruction. These activities contain teacher-led slides that can be launched with your entire class for synchronous instruction. They include full lesson plans, customizable slides, real-time paired practice, and whole-class discussion.
The rows highlighted in green with the circular Quill symbol indicate that over 50% of students in the class showed partial proficiency or no proficiency in that skill; therefore, we recommend leading a whole-class lesson to introduce or reteach the concept.
You can click the dropdown arrow to preview the slides, and if you'd like to use the activity, check the boxes in the green highlighted rows and click "Assign activity packs" to assign them to the entire class.
When ready to use this whole-class interactive activity with your students, you will need to launch it. We recommend accessing our Quill Lessons guide to learn how to use this tool. Click here to access the Quill Lessons guide.
Assign a growth diagnostic to measure progress
On the far right of the independent practice table, you can easily assign a growth diagnostic (post-test) by checking the boxes next to students' names or clicking the three dots under the question mark to select all.
The growth diagnostic is a post-test intended to be used after students complete a baseline diagnostic and some or all of the recommended practice packs.
Once students complete the growth diagnostic (post-test), you will unlock access to growth reports, where you can view student gains at a class-wide and individual level, and even more recommended practice for students that need to further practice skill sets.
Have more questions?
Please feel free to live chat with us through the green message bubble on the bottom right corner of the screen or email us at hello@quill.org.