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Texas ELAR 6-8

Preparing to teach by grade level

Amplify ELAR Texas is different to make a difference—unlike other language arts programs that span grades 6–12, Amplify ELAR Texas was carefully crafted to respond to the unique challenges, strengths, and interests of middle school learners.

We’re excited to share a number of resources with you to give you a jump start on the new year. The tools provided in this implementation kit will guide you through the fully digital curriculum, and include key program supports, must see instructional resources, and access to our Professional Learning Site. 

Teacher & student using Amplify

On the Amplify Texas page, customers using Amplify Texas ELAR 6–8 can find links to past webinars and additional training resources under the Learn More section of the page. 

We hope you find these tools helpful in the early weeks of this 2023–24 school year! 

Learning the program

Learning the program

Amplify ELAR Texas was carefully crafted to respond to the unique challenges, strengths, and interests of middle school learners. With Amplify ELAR Texas by your side, you can rest assured that skills will be taught and TEKS and ELPS will be covered, all while ensuring you are free to focus on what’s most important–bringing text to life in your classroom and providing each student the right instruction and supports at the right time.

Dive deeper into ELAR 6–8 with the Program Guide, a comprehensive resource that covers everything you need to know about the curriculum, from lesson structure to assessment and digital versus print materials, and everything in between.

  • Flip to page 20 to begin reviewing the units for each grade level and pages 52–63 for a visual walkthrough of a lesson. 
  • This document is also located in the Materials section of the Year Overview within the curriculum.

Core units: Overview

Each grade level of Amplify ELAR Texas consists of six multimedia units. Four or five of the units are focused on complex literary texts and one or two are Collections based on primary source documents and research. Each grade also provides two or three immersive learning experiences called Quests, a dedicated story writing unit, and a grammar and poetry unit.

Flexible Units

Unique multimodal experiences such as apps and Quests keep students engaged, while flexible resources such as the Poetry in America units (flexible units), Amplify Library, and Grammar unit support and extend learning.

Materials

Grade level student and teacher materials including graphic organizers, writing rubrics, and pacing guides support a smooth implementation.

Sub-units

Upon login, select a unit to view the Unit Overview, which includes that unit’s sub-units and the lessons within them, Materials, and additional resources such as Planning for the Unit and Teacher References.

Lessons

The lessons in each sub-unit follow a similar structure with flexible activities.

  1. Build vocabulary (5 minutes): Students develop word knowledge.
  2. Analytic read (20–25 minutes): Students collaborate and interpret text.
  3. Performance task (15–20 minutes): Students develop and present ideas.
  4. Reflect (5 minutes): Students solidify learning through Exit Tickets or Wrap-Ups.
  5. Independent work (10–20 minutes): Students apply their developing reading skills to a new text by annotating and answering a range of auto-scored questions that track their reading comprehension.

Spanish support

Amplify ELAR Texas has a number of resources available in Spanish, including:

  • Unit Background and Context documents.
  • Caregiver Letters.
  • Spanish language articles that are topically or thematically aligned to each core unit.
  • Solo Text Previews.
  • Multi-Language Glossaries for each unit.
Grade 6

Preparing to teach for grade 6

Starting your year with Amplify ELAR Texas 6–8

There is a plethora of instructional materials embedded within each grade-level sub-unit—from embedded assessment measures to allow personalized instruction, to six levels of differentiation to meet students where they are.

Instructional resources

Learn more about the ELAR grade 6 materials and access them using the quick links in the must-see materials below. Make sure you’re logged into learning.amplify.com using your credentials to access the resources.

Units

Learn more about the Grade 6 units 

  • Preview the Unit Overview and Lesson Brief to begin planning for unit instruction and review materials, including text titles, necessary preparation, skills and objectives, differentiation, and sensitive content.
  • Familiarize yourself with the Lesson Brief and Lesson Tips, as well as digital resources included within lesson instruction, from the Vocab App to Solos.

Pacing

Learn more about the Year at a Glance guides

G6: 105-Lesson Pathway (for non-CRIMSI districts)

Note: The lesson pathways resources should not be used in districts that are a part of the CRIMSI program. For pacing guidance, please connect with your TNTP partner. If you are unsure who your partner is, please email crimsileader@tntp.org.

Differentiation

Amplify ELAR Texas lessons provide multiple levels of reading and writing supports to allow every student, including ELLs, to read and write about the same texts.

Flex Days are an opportunity for you to provide students with needed grammar instruction and support additional practice in a targeted area of reading, writing, language, or speaking and listening, beginning in Unit B.

Assessment

Learn more about the daily formative assessments, Embedded Assessment Measure, end-of-unit summative assessment, and actionable reporting on pages 12–13.

Grade 7

Preparing to teach for grade 7

Starting your year with Amplify ELAR Texas 6–8

There is a plethora of instructional materials embedded within each grade-level sub-unit—from embedded assessment measures to allow personalized instruction, to six levels of differentiation to meet students where they are.

Instructional resources

Learn more about the ELAR grade 7 materials and access them using the quick links in the must-see materials below. Make sure you’re logged into learning.amplify.com using your credentials to access the resources.

Units

Learn more about the Grade 7 units 

  • Preview the Unit Overview and Lesson Brief to begin planning for unit instruction and review materials, including text titles, necessary preparation, skills and objectives, differentiation, and sensitive content.
  • Familiarize yourself with the Lesson Brief and Lesson Tips, as well as digital resources included within lesson instruction, from the Vocab App to Solos.

Pacing

Learn more about the Year at a Glance guides

G7: 105-Lesson Pathway (for non-CRIMSI districts)

Note: The lesson pathways resources should not be used in districts that are a part of the CRIMSI program. For pacing guidance, please connect with your TNTP partner. If you are unsure who your partner is, please email crimsileader@tntp.org.

Differentiation

Amplify ELAR Texas lessons provide multiple levels of reading and writing supports to allow every student, including ELLs, to read and write about the same texts.

Flex Days are an opportunity for you to provide students with needed grammar instruction and support additional practice in a targeted area of reading, writing, language, or speaking and listening, beginning in Unit B.

Assessment

Learn more about the daily formative assessments, Embedded Assessment Measure, end-of-unit summative assessment, and actionable reporting on pages 12–13.

Grade 8

Preparing to teach for grade 8

Starting your year with Amplify ELAR Texas 6–8

There is a plethora of instructional materials embedded within each grade-level sub-unit—from embedded assessment measures to allow personalized instruction, to six levels of differentiation to meet students where they are.

Instructional resources

Learn more about the ELAR grade 8 materials and access them using the quick links in the must-see materials below. Make sure you’re logged into learning.amplify.com using your credentials to access the resources.

Units

Learn more about the Grade 8 units

  • Preview the Unit Overview and Lesson Brief to begin planning for unit instruction and review materials, including text titles, necessary preparation, skills and objectives, differentiation, and sensitive content.
  • Familiarize yourself with the Lesson Brief and Lesson Tips, as well as digital resources included within lesson instruction, from the Vocab App to Solos.

Pacing

Learn more about the Year at a Glance guides

G8: 104-Lesson Pathway (for non-CRIMSI districts)

Note: The lesson pathways resources should not be used in districts that are a part of the CRIMSI program. For pacing guidance, please connect with your TNTP partner. If you are unsure who your partner is, please email crimsileader@tntp.org.

Differentiation

Amplify ELAR Texas lessons provide multiple levels of reading and writing supports to allow every student, including ELLs, to read and write about the same texts.

Flex Days are an opportunity for you to provide students with needed grammar instruction and support additional practice in a targeted area of reading, writing, language, or speaking and listening, beginning in Unit B.

Assessment

Learn more about the daily formative assessments, Embedded Assessment Measure, end-of-unit summative assessment, and actionable reporting on pages 12–13.

Learn more

Learn more

Help for families and caregivers

We’ve prepared a Caregiver letter, in English and Spanish, introducing families to each unit you teach. The letter provides caregivers an overview of the unit and what to expect for their students at home. There are also unit-specific questions which families can use to encourage continued learning at home.

Amplify ELAR 6–8 help for teachers and leaders

Help articles

We have a robust library of help articles. Visit the library and use the Search tool at the top of the page to find all the articles on keywords such as answer validation, Vocab App, or year at a glance.

Program guide

Explore the comprehensive Amplify ELAR 6–8 Program Guide.

Professional learning on-demand

View this on-demand professional learning video (54:52) to learn more about Amplify ELAR 6–8 lessons and instructional pacing. View more self-paced learning sessions on the Amplify Texas ELAR 6-8 Professional Learning site.

Technical requirements

When logged in, there are two important steps to ensure you and your students can access the Amplify ELAR Texas program. 

  1. You and your students may be prompted to “accept cookies” when first accessing the program. Your computer or tablet must be set to “accept cookies” from Amplify program sites. If prompted, select to allow cookies for the Amplify site.
  2. If you see only a blank page—nothing appears to load—when trying to access an Amplify program page (such as learning.amplify.com), please check with your IT group to confirm that the URLs on this page have been allowed for your district network. A blank screen is often a sign that the website is being blocked by a school’s content filter. 

Contact us

We’re here to help you! 
Have a question about Amplify ELAR 6–8? Our Customer Care and Support teams are ready to answer them all, from digital- or tech-related issues to questions on how to teach the curriculum.

  • Need an answer fast? Chat with us! Click the orange icon while logged into the curriculum to get immediate help in the middle of the school day.
  • You can also email help@amplify.com—our team typically responds within 24 hours. For pedagogical questions, email edsupport@amplify.com.
  • For telephone support, contact us at (800) 823-1969. We have both technical and pedagogical support team members ready to answer your questions. 
    Our Customer Care and Support hours are Monday–Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.