Blended learning has been shown to be an effective approach to integrating teacher-led instruction with technology-assisted instruction and practice. But blended learning requires an abundance of varied resources for flexible instructional approaches and independent student practice. Fortunately, Learning A-Z has a suite of resources in its new product, Raz-Plus, that can help you meet important standards while exploring the benefits of blended learning. With Raz-Plus, you can personalize instruction to reach every student through leveled materials in printable, projectable, and digital formats. Raz-Plus efficiently combines classroom instruction, independent practice and assessment in a way that strengthens the connection between what students practice and what is being taught.
Effective Classroom Delivery
Raz-Plus is designed to assist the complex and recursive nature of teaching by allowing you to integrate the tools and processes that help you personalize learning for your students. With over 50,000 adaptive instruction resources, including leveled books with lessons and activity sheets, projectable passages, skill building packets, and project-based learning packs, Raz-Plus helps you deliver lessons that target key 21 st century skills of critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration.
Enhancing large-group instruction is easy with the interactive tools that accompany Raz-Plus projectable books. These interactive tools, built into every page, allow you to demonstrate highlighting, underlining, and annotating for students and then have students use the tools as they independently read a book.
Student Practice
Online options for reading engagement are integral to supporting students’ self-reliance and independence when practicing literacy skills. Raz-Plus allows students to strengthen their skill development with reading activities outside the classroom.
Raz-Plus leveled books are perfect for personalized reading practice, allowing students to build literacy skills within their zone of proximal development while reading about topics that interest them. These books can be printed and distributed to students in the classroom or digitally accessed from any laptop, PC, or mobile device. Some engaging digital features include tools for note-taking, text-markup, and journaling.
Assessment
Along with access to independent reading activities through eBooks, printable and projectable materials, Raz-Plus assessments measure student progress in reading rate and gains in reading level. Benchmark passages with running records allow teachers to assess a student's reading level for accurate placement of developmentally appropriate reading resources for each student. Skill-tagged quiz items accompany each book and provide data for skill reports that you can use to inform your instruction.
Reporting
In class instruction is only as effective as the data that informs it. That’s why Raz-Plus offers tools and resources to help you translate the information from assessments into detailed individual and whole class reports. These reports help you see what skills students have mastered, what skills need re-teaching, or what assessment formats could use revision. You can access data-driven reports on the Kids A-Z Student Management hub and filter class-wide assessments according to skill and activity. For example, if class-wide reports for a particular quiz indicate that a large number of students missed a quiz question related to main idea and details, you can plan another activity that allows students to practice that skill. The search tool on Raz-Plus can quickly identify resources at the appropriate level that can be used to address a particular skill deficiency.
How Raz-Plus Benefits Your Classroom
Regardless of where your student are in terms of skill level, Raz-Plus’ blended learning resources can help you personalize instruction to reach all learners. With a variety of formats and activities, Raz-Plus empowers you to adapt instruction to engage students while gaining a better understanding of their progress with data-driven reports. Raz-Plus complements the complex work you already do in the classroom by providing flexible options for blended teaching, practice, and learning.
