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Enter the Fortress of Solid Learning
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Feb 2009, Vol 8, Issue 6
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We're the GREEN Solution
...in More Ways Than One!
Castle Learning Online has always been a good value. As educators ourselves, we're always mindful of budget restraints. But despite today's economic challenge, where schools are feeling the pinch, you can count on Castle Learning's commitment to remain an affordable solution for student review, testing and assessment.
- Your Budget: Our Internet-based service is easy on the district budget. We continue to offer new features and content without additional costs and pledge to hold the line on pricing in 2009-10.
- Your Staff Development Budget: From day one, we have offered FREE Staff Development with every site license. This translates into big savings, more effective teachers, higher usage and improved academic performance of students.
- Your Supply Budget: There's no such thing as a paperless classroom, but limiting the amount of paper, ink, toner, copier maintenance and time, can reduce expenses in these areas. Students working with the district's technology investment from school or home, provides more benefits for everyone with reduced supply costs.
It is the goal of Castle Software, Inc. to continue to provide educational solutions that are cost effective in order to meet the needs of our customers. We are your GREEN PARTNERS in reaching higher academic achievement and controlling budgetary costs.
- Professor Bill
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Focus on 'Intermediate World History'
Released in the spring of 2008, this course provides an excellent introduction to world history for middle school and junior high school students, as well as a review of important concepts for high school students. "Intermediate World History" presents an overview of the important people, places and events in civilizations around the globe spanning four major time periods:
- Early Humans and Early River Civilizations (4000 BC-750 BC)
- Ancient Civilizations (750 BC-500AD)
- Early Civilizations (500-1200)
- The Age of Global Interaction (1200-1650)
In addition, the World History Toolkit unit introduces students to basic
 concepts in social studies, including:- Why Study Social Studies
- Tools, methods and resources used by Social Scientists
- Occupations within the Social Sciences
- Reliability of sources
- Geographic terms and places
- Map skills
- Chronology
Many Intermediate World History questions include supplementary information such as maps, tables, charts, graphs, time lines, outlines and reading selections, which assist students in developing analytic and interpretive skills. In addition, many questions, hints, and reasons are beautifully illustrated with drawings, photographs and artwork. Extension questions posed in many of the reasons challenge students to think about the impact of these early events on society today, providing real answers to the question of why we study social studies!
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IN THIS ISSUE
Focus on
'Intermediate
World History'
This overview of
history's people,
places and events
are enriched
with photos,
maps, timelines
charts and many
more image features.
New Features
The latest new content
and conveniences.
February Mail Bag
The hows and whys
of creating
Bench Mark testing
for your district
with Castle Learning.
Spanish Edition
Watch for the
blue link SP
for an optional
Spanish version
of the question.
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New Features
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New Literature Unit: Romeo & Juliet
A new unit has been added to the English course, called "Literature: Romeo and Juliet." This is the seventh set in a series of literature short answer questions. The unit contains five sections, corresponding to the five acts of the play. Questions quote extensively from the lines of this famous Shakespearean drama and focus on plot points, literary and poetic elements, and themes.
To add these questions into an assignment, go to the Add Question page, select the unit named "Literature: Romeo and Juliet", choose a section for the desired act, and then use the Browse and Select option to select the questions that you would like to include in your assignment. The order of the literature questions for a particular act parallels the sequence of events in the play. Thus, the use of randomization is not recommended in assignments with literature questions.
New Pre-Calculus Unit: Conic Sections
Pre-Calculus has been updated. An entire new unit, Conic Sections, has been added. Topics include circles, ellipses, hyperbolas and parabolas, as well as systems of equations (linear and second degree, or both second degree) with algebraic solutions. Other additions include advanced questions on trigonometric equations, more questions on inverses of functions, and a new section in the Matrices unit on using matrices to represent transformations in the coordinate plane. New reference information includes general information on conic sections and matrix transformations.
New Feature: Incorrect Answer Displays
Because it can be beneficial for students to see their incorrect answers, incorrect first try and retry answers are now displayed when the student views a previously answered Short Answer question.
New Feature: Administrator Add/Drop
Administrators can add a student to a teacher's class or remove a student from a class.
To add a student to a class:
From the Admin Home page, select Accounts.
Click the Details icon for the student to add to a class.
On the Classes tab, under the table of classes, click the Add to a Class link.
Choose a class from the drop-down list of classes that is displayed in a pop-up window,then click OK.
To remove a student from a class: click the appropriate icon from the Remove column.
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February Mail Bag
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FOR TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS
Question:
Our school district wants to create benchmarks across the board for each grade level in various subject areas. How can Castle Learning Online help us with this task?
Answer:
In general, a benchmark is a standard against which something can be measured or evaluated. A benchmark assignment administered to all students at a grade level in a particular subject area provides a method for measuring student achievement. Two important points distinguish a benchmark assignment from an ordinary assignment:
- In a benchmark assignment, all students see exactly the same questions. If it is to measure anything at all, a benchmark must be the same for all students.
- Access to a benchmark assignment must be controlled. A benchmark assignment is normally locked until an administrator decides it is appropriate for teachers to assign it to students. This ensures that no student gets a head start on anyone else.
Castle Learning Online provides a five-step mechanism for creating and administering benchmark assignments.
- Create an assignment for measuring student achievement
- Submit the assignment to be considered as a benchmark
- Review and accept the benchmark
- Assign the benchmark to students
- Pick up the results.
Steps 1, 2 and 4 are teacher tasks; steps 3 and 5 are administrator tasks.
Step 1: (Teacher) Creating an assignment that will be turned into a benchmark is similar to creating any other assignment. Any teacher, even an administrator using his/her account as a teacher, can create the assignment. Questions can be added from the Castle Learning Online course database. Questions can also be imported from other assignments created by the teacher, from Personal Content Sets, or from Public Assignments (so long as they are not themselves benchmarks). After the assignment is created, the teacher can submit it for consideration as a benchmark.
Step 2: (Teacher) Once the teacher is satisfied with the content and placement of questions within the assignment, go back to the Assignments page. Place a checkmark in the small box to the left of the assignment and click Submit assignment as a Benchmark. The teacher has the opportunity to rename the assignment; check with the administrator for the naming conventions that the district wants to use. Click Publish to submit the assignment, and confirm by clicking OK. Note that the assignment is now locked and under control of the administrator. The teacher cannot add, delete or change the order of the questions in the assignment.
Step 3: (Administrator) While a teacher may submit an assignment to be used as a benchmark, it is up to an administrator to decide whether the assignment is acceptable and to make it available to other teachers as a benchmark assignment. From the Admin Home page, click Reports and then Public Assignments. District administrators may need to set the school name in the drop-down menu to locate and review the benchmark submissions from a particular building.
From this page, the administrator can rename the assignment, review the assignment properties, and view the questions contained in the assignment. S/he can also change the benchmark status (Yes or No), and delete unneeded entries.
All newly submitted benchmark assignments are marked as accepted (Yes) and locked. To reject the assignment as a benchmark, click the status indicator (Yes) and uncheck the Benchmark option. The status reverts to rejected (No); this action also unlocks the assignment so that the teacher who created it can review, make changes, and resubmit it for consideration.
To unlock the assignment, making it available for teachers to assign to their students, click the padlock icon and uncheck the locked option. Now the assignment is available for teachers to assign to their students.
Step 4: (Teacher) Once a benchmark assignment is accepted and unlocked, teachers may import its questions into an assignment and assign it to students. Create an assignment in the usual manner and import questions from Public Assignments. Locate the benchmark under the appropriate course, and click Import Benchmark. Notice that all questions are checked and no questions can be unchecked. Click Import Questions. The assignment now contains all of the benchmark questions; the only change that the teacher can make is to rename the assignment to the name of the benchmark. Assign to students in the usual manner.
Step 5: (Administrator) Once students have started working on the benchmark assignment, the administrator can view the results. From the Admin Home page, click Reports and then Public Assignments as in step 3. Under the Benchmark column, click the report icon. District administrators may need to set the school name in the drop-down menu to locate the benchmark results from a particular building. The administrator can view results from any or all teachers.
Three types of printable and downloadable reports are available with options for handling responses that are correct on retry:
- The Cumulative Assignment Report is similar to other Castle Learning Online reports. The bar graphs show strengths and weaknesses, breaking down the overall student results by question, unit/section, theme, difficulty level, and attribute.
- The Student Scores Report shows the individual student scores on the assignment.
- The Question Details Report shows the scores on each assigned question for individual students.
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Spanish Editions of Selected Questions
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Now available for previewing (beta) are Spanish editions of several hundred questions in key high school subject areas for students who may be preparing to take the final exam in their native language. Only the actual questions and accompanying graphics are translated into Spanish; hints, reasons and vocabulary are not translated. The courses include Earth Science, Living Environment, Math A, Integrated Algebra, Global History & Geography, and US History & Government.
A simple interface allows teachers to create assignments that include questions with Spanish editions. When adding or importing questions into an assignment, a blue link SP next to a question on the browsing page indicates that a Spanish version of the question is available; click the link to display the translated question. Additionally, on the question selection criteria (Add Questions) page, teachers can check the option to locate Questions with Spanish translations. This option is available when using Browse & Select Individually as well as Add Randomly Selected Questions.
The actual display of questions in Spanish or English is under the control of the student when working on assignments or sessions that they create themselves. If the question has a Spanish edition, a small drop-down menu indicating English or Spanish is displayed in the lower right corner of the Student Question page. The student can go back and forth between the English and Spanish versions of the question. Castle Learning Online "remembers" the last menu setting so that students may continue working in either language.
Tip: In most of the courses listed above, the more recently added questions are the ones available in Spanish editions. Thus, importing from the more recent Public Assignments will result in a greater variety of questions with Spanish translations.
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See you
Soon |
The Castle Learning Online team will be at these conferences. Hope to see you there.
FEBRUARY
Pennsylvania Educational Technology
MARCH
Virginia Association of Elementary Principals
Rochester Superintendents Meeting
Association of Suffolk Educators of Technology
APRIL
New York Council for Social Studies
Drop by our conference booth. We look foward to meeting you!
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Contact Information
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Castle Software, Inc., 626 Layport Dr., Ste. 100, Sebastian, FL 32958
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