FAQs

Question: How do I know what I am supposed to have? 

Answer: DCSD Inventory Lists can be found on your grade level page within this site. Use these lists to check your materials. 

Question: I don't have enough materials for my students or the right materials, what should I do? 

Answer: Standard numbers of consumables were delivered to buildings (23 per section), see your grade level teachers first. Standard numbers of all student materials is 25 per section, with the exception of 5th grade which is 30. 

Answer:  Additional consumables will be sent out based on enrollment numbers. These numbers include special education student numbers. 

Answer:  If you believe you are missing materials, please contact Jennifer Saxon (saxonj@davenportschools.org) for help. 

Question: What do we do if we have a student reader fall apart? Can it be replaced? 

Answer: Yes, the reader can be replaced. Please contact Jennifer Saxon (saxonj@davenportschools.org) with a photo of the reader to be replaced. 

Question: What do we do if we have a Kindergarten chaining folder fall apart? Can it be replaced? 

Answer: Yes, the chaining folder can be replaced. Please contact Jennifer Saxon (saxonj@davenportschools.org) with a photo of the folder to be replaced. 

Question: Can I change the slides to match my instructional style, design, or order? Can I use slides found on TPT or another resource site outside of Amplify?   

Answer: No, the purpose of slides is to enhance instruction. They are not meant to provide all of the instruction, teacher language, explanations. Think of slides as a tool, such as a poster or anchor chart and not a teacher's manual. 

Question: Can we skip units, lessons? Can units or lessons be reorganized?

Answer: No, units and lessons are designed and organized to build students essential background knowledge and skills progressively throughout the year. Skipping and reorganizing would significantly alter the instructional integrity of the program itself. 

Question:  Which standards are we teaching? (prioritized) 

Answer: All of the standards identified for your grade level identified in the Iowa ELA Standards Document. It is important to note that the state of Iowa recently went through a standards review and adoption cycle. The updated ELA standards were approved in June 2024 and should be enacted immediately by school districts. We are teaching all standards (as we are supposed to) with the curriculum Amplify CKLA, in the order they are presented. There are some standards we will report on, as there is a heavier emphasis on those within the curriculum and it is easy to monitor and measure student progress. Those standards change and adjust based on the units that we are teaching. We are not continuing with past practice of only teaching identified "prioritized standards".

Quote from Iowa ELA Standards pg 4: 

Grade-specific standards 

• K-8 standards include individual standards for each anchor standard at each grade level. 

• 9-12 standards use two-year bands (9-10) (11-12).

 o Allow schools and districts flexibility in high school course design. 

• Define end-of-year expectations. 

• Cumulative progression designed to enable students to meet college and career readiness expectations no later than the end of high school. 

• Students are expected to 

o Meet each year’s grade-specific standards. 

o Retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades. 

o Work steadily toward meeting the College and Career Readiness (CCR) standards. 

Question: Can we teach remediation skills, since this is too difficult for my students?  

Answer: No, those lessons are designed for intervention after students have received the quality tier 1 core instruction. If students do not get the instruction in their grade level content during their time in that grade level this will only increase the learning gaps for this student. 

Question: Are we giving the Amplify Beginning of Year, Middle of Year, End of Year assessments? (BOY, MOY, EOY)

Answer:  With our initial implementation we have decided as a district to not give the identified placement assessments within the program as we do not have an intended use at this time and do not want to assess our students without purpose. 

Question: What is the purpose of the Word Reading Assessment? What information can be gained? How can it be used? 

Answer: The word reading assessments can be used as a diagnostic assessment similar to the PSI. The difference is that the PSI is categorized by skill and allows the opportunity for students to pick up on patterns to read words. The word reading assessment does not allow students to use patterns repeatedly as a crutch to decoding. It is a true measure of student decoding skills when they are not able to reference patterns or context. These can be used to determine student weakness in particular decoding skills and inform intervention instructional decisions. 

Question: When students finish their grade level quests of Boost, we were told by our trainer that they would go on to the next grade level quests, is that correct? 

Answer:  No, this is not correct. Students will only work through their grade level quests. If they complete all of their grade level quests, they will be given challenge quests. If they make it through the challenge quests, it will open up the ability to select any activity or game of their choosing. Some activities (specifically the story activities in grades 4-5 will no longer change or grow as the story is over for their grade level). Skill games will continue to provide additional levels (potentially beyond grade level skills) as they continue to work in the program.