Grades 4–Middle School

• Student and Adult Views

• How Lessons are Organized

• Starting the Lesson

• Activities

• Assessments

• Lesson Navigator

Student and Adult Views

For grades 4 through middle school there is a student view of the lesson and an adult view of the lesson. Views are based on the user name and password you use to log in. (To create a student view, use the My Account area of the OLS Home page.)

The main difference between the two views:

• The adult view provides access to printable materials written for the adult including teacher guides, lesson answer keys, assessments, and assessment answer keys.

• The student view displays only printable materials designated for the student.

How Lessons are Organized

Units

A unit is a group of lessons that have related content, skills, and objectives. Each K12 course is divided into units, typically consisting of about 8–15 lessons. Many units conclude with an assessment.

Resources

Click the “Resources” button in the lower left to bring up the Resources area, a collection of unit-level media files, links, and keywords that can be used for additional reference or review. This area includes the following sections:

• Reference: Includes instructional materials, such as the periodic table,  maps, project examples, the Grolier’s encyclopedia, and links to websites.

• Review: Includes material from lessons within the unit that can help the student prepare for the unit assessment as well as act as refreshers for previously learned information, including unit reviews, timelines, galleries, flash cards, interactive activities, and biographies.

• Supplemental Materials: Includes recommendations for books, periodicals, movies, videos, and CD-ROMs.

• Tools: Includes protractors, thermometers, calculators, and other tools.

• Keywords and Pronunciations: Includes a listing of the keywords in the lessons of a unit.

Starting the Lesson

The first screen of a lesson prepares the student to learn. (You should print and refer to your Teacher Guide, and your student should print the student guide and related worksheets before starting the lesson on the computer.) For grades 4–5, the left side of the screen introduces the lesson and sets up the activities that follow. The right side of the screen shows all the activities, clearly marking the assessment. For middle school, the introductory text appears on the right.

As the student progresses through the activities, the screens will indicate when it is time to go offline or if adult intervention is needed before continuing. For example, if the student is logged in to the Online School, the adult must enter her user name and password for the student to open the assessment.

The “Materials” button in the lower left is for your convenience. “Materials” has a list of everything you need for all the activities. If you are logged in, you will see all materials for you and your student, including assessments and answer keys. If your student is logged in, he will see only the student materials.

Click the “Begin” arrow to go to the first activity.

Activities

The first screen of an activity gives the student a list of everything needed to complete the activity.

Once inside an activity, the screen looks like this:

The student may click on a link in the text (if there is one) to go to another website, see a definition, or hear a pronunciation. Interactive visuals and fact cards help reinforce lesson concepts.

Use the arrows at the lower right to move through the lesson. The arrow at the top of the screen returns to the first screen of the lesson.

Icons in the space below the text and photos pertain to the entire lesson and link to interactive screens such as art galleries, time lines, and unit reviews. The student may choose these icons from any screen.

Assessments

Many lessons in grades 4 through middle school have an assessment at the end, and most units end with a unit assessment. (Note that in Language Arts, there are no assessments for Handwriting or Independent Reading/Read Aloud.) If the student is logged in to the Online School, the adult must enter her user name and password to access assessments.

Assessments may be either offline (paper-based) or online.

Offline Assessments

Print the offline assessment and, if you are logged in, its answer key.

After the student has completed the assessment, check the answers and then click the arrow in the lower right to enter the results.

Click “Submit” to score and record your student’s results.

Online Assessments

In some online assessments for grades 4–5 and all of the middle school assessments, the student answers questions independently. These may include yes/no, true/false, or multiple-choice questions. In addition, for some questions in middle school, the student will type text onto the screen. These questions are often associated with alternate answers. (In some instances, alternate answers may be scored as partial credit when the assessment score is calculated.)

Other online assessments for grades 4–5 require you to ask questions and evaluate the student’s response. For these assessments, the answer to each question is available, as are the objectives that the question covers.

Some middle school assessments have questions for both the student and the adult. The questions for the adult are displayed only when she is logged in to the Online School. The results for both sets of questions are combined for the final score. Until both portions are answered, the assessment will not be considered completed.

Click the “Submit” button to see the assessment results. If the assessment score does not reflect mastery, the results page will suggest that the lesson be reviewed.

Clicking "Close” at the upper right of the screen will return the student to the password screen. The results are not recorded if the student closes the window without submitting the answers.

If a lesson does not have an assessment, the last screen of the lesson will let you mark the lesson as completed. Click “Go to my lesson plan” to return to Planning & Progress.

The student may continue to use the lesson by clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the screen.

Lesson Navigator

This tool provides a quick way to jump between activities within a lesson or to go to other lessons within the current unit without having to first

go back to the Plan.  

Clicking the Lesson Navigator button on a lesson page launches the navigator.