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Staggered release or immediate release: how should I release recommended activities to students?
Staggered release or immediate release: how should I release recommended activities to students?

Stagger the release of recommendations to allow students to complete one pack at a time, or immediately release every recommended pack.

Updated over a week ago

After your students complete a Quill Diagnostic or Writing Skills Survey, Quill will automatically generate personalized plans of practice recommendation activity packs for each student based on their Quill Diagnostic/Writing Skills Survey performance. While assigning these activity packs, you have a few options as to how you pace the release of these practice recommendation activities to best support your students' progress and mastery.

Table of contents


Access practice recommendation activities

Navigate to the My Reports tab and click the Diagnostics sub-tab.

On the Diagnostics page, you will see each Quill Diagnostic that has been assigned to your classes. Use the dropdown menu in the upper left corner to select a class and only see the Quill Diagnostics assigned to that class.

To view the reports for a specific Quill Diagnostic and specific class, click the View results and recommendations button for that Quill Diagnostic.

Click the Practice recommendations tab in the menu on the left side of the subsequent page.

The Practice Recommendations report shows students' personalized plans of practice recommendation activities. After reviewing students' practice recommendation activity packs, click the green Assign Activity Packs button in the upper right corner of the table.

You will then be prompted to choose how you would like to pace the release of students' recommended activities: Staggered Release or Immediate Release.


What is Staggered Release?

The first option, Staggered Release, assigns every recommended (checked) activity pack to students; however, students are only able to access and complete the activities in one activity pack at a time. They must fully complete the activities in the open activity pack before unlocking the next.

In the example below, a teacher assigned the practice recommendation activity packs to their students using the Staggered Release method. In this case, students can see all the practice recommendation activity packs that they've been assigned, but only one activity pack is unlocked for them to complete its activities at a time.

Student dashboard view of the "staggered release" recommendation method

Because the activity packs are set to release with Staggered Release, from their student dashboard, the student above can only complete activities in the Capitalization (Starter Baseline Recommendation) activity pack. Once the student completes all the activities in this open activity pack, the next recommended activity pack, Adjectives and Adverbs (Starter Baseline Recommendation), will automatically be unlocked for them to access and complete.

The Staggered Release option supports students with completing independent-practice activity packs aligned to a single skill at a time.


What is Immediate Release?

The second option, Immediate Release, assigns every recommended (checked) activity pack to students, and students can immediately access every activity pack assigned. Activity packs will not be locked, and students can work on any activity aligned to any skill at a time.

Students can work through their assigned activity packs at their own pace, which can be a powerful time-management experience for older students, and engage in targeted practice to improve the skills where they demonstrated the need for further practice while completing the Quill Diagnostic.


Frequently Asked Questions

  • Does the chosen release method apply to the entire class?

    Yes, the Staggered Release or Immediate Release methods will apply to all students in the class who have completed the Quill Diagnostic and have been assigned the associated practice recommendation activity packs. You cannot choose different release methods for each student.

  • I chose the incorrect release method. Can I change the release method?

    Yes. On the Practice recommendations report, above the table of practice recommendation activities, you can click the Edit hyperlink next to the Release Method: copy to change the release method.

  • Can I unlock packs for students?

    If you choose Staggered Release, you are unable to unlock activity packs for students as activity packs will be automatically unlocked upon completion of the last activity in the currently unlocked activity pack.

  • How long will it take for students to complete an activity pack and unlock the next one?

    In general, we've found that students make progress when they complete 2-4 activities on Quill per week. Each activity takes approximately 10-15 minutes, and since each practice recommendation activity pack contains between 4 and 10 activities, teachers can generally expect an activity pack to be completed in 1-2 weeks. Of course, students may need more or less time depending on the number of activities in the pack, the activity pack's level of difficulty, and a student's writing skill proficiency.


Have more questions?

Please feel free to send a message to the Quill team using the green message bubble on the bottom right corner of the screen or email us at support@quill.org.

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