How are Classworks units structured?

How are Classworks units structured?

Most Classworks units are comprised of 3 main parts:
  1. Part 1: A mini-lesson which is the teacher of the program (direct instruction) and introduces one standard or skill. 
  1. Part 2: Students have activities to practice and apply knowledge, these typically include interactive games where students apply the skill.
  1. Part 3: Students complete a quick quiz that is a 10-question formative assessment to see if they have mastered the skill and are ready to move on, or if they need more practice and to redo the lesson with more instructional guidance. 

Common Unit Components

Part 1: Mini Lesson

  1. Students begin each new unit by going through a mini lesson.
  1. The purpose of this mini lesson is to introduce or review the skill/objective with the students.
  1. Prior to entering a mini lesson, the student is presented with an introduction to the skill which sets the stage for what the student is about to learn.
  1. This introduction is available in English and Spanish.

  1. The mini lesson is typically 3-5 screens long and is divided into 3 parts: Learn, Apply and Review.
    1. Learn – delivers the instruction to learn the lesson content. 
    2. Apply – provides practice with feedback. 
    3. Review – reviews the key lesson content. 
  1. Time on task is recorded for the mini lesson, but it is not scored.
  1. If students exit before completing a mini lesson, they will start the mini lesson over the next time they log in. 

  1. Students can revisit the mini-lesson at any time during the unit by clicking on the lightbulb icon.

Part 2: Practice and Application Activities

  1. Practice activities provide a variety of instructional approaches to learning.
  1. The practice activities reinforce what the focus skill 
  1. Each activity focuses on a single skill.
  1. The student receives differentiated instruction to facilitate mastery. 
  1. A unit may contain several activities.
  2. The practice activities become increasingly complex as students move through the unit.
  1. Time-on-task and scores are recorded for activities.
  1. Default mastery is set at 80% students not meeting this target will be prompted to try the activity a second time.
  1. Students exiting before completing an activity will return to the beginning of that activity the next time they log in.

Part 3: Formative Assessment (Quiz)

  1. Students take a quick 10-question quiz after completing the practice and application activities
  2. The formative assessment determines the level of student achievement with the specific skill
  3. Immediate feedback provided to teacher and student
  4. Time on task and quiz score are recorded
  5. Default mastery is set at 80%.
  6. Students exiting before completing the quiz will return to the first question the next time they log in.
  7. The score the student earns on this quiz is the score earned for the entire unit.


Math Practice and Reading Comprehension Units

The second type of unit students will see are math practice or reading comprehension units

Math practice

  1. Students solve a series of math problems focused on the same concept
  2. The problems gradually increase in complexity
  3. Some units include a video mini-lesson

Reading comprehension 

  1. Students read a passage and then answer text-dependent questions
  2. Questions address multiple concepts/skills
Click the plus sign to open a Math practice or Reading Comprehension unit and see the components

Projects (not available for all units)

A project is an optional extension and application of a unit. Students who master a specific skill can participate in these performance tasks which provide an opportunity to apply what they just learned. The project lesson plans can be used in many ways, and require students to employ higher order thinking rather than simply demonstrate basic recall.

Additional Exceptions

These component frameworks for instructional units includes some variations. These are: 

  • Instructional units at a kindergarten level contain only practice activities. 

  • Instructional units at high school levels have pretests instead of mini-lessons.

    • Students may test out of the unit by passing the pretest with a score at or above the set mastery level.

    • Instead of a quiz, units typically contain a 10-15 item post-test.

    • Some units only have practice activities. 


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