Castle Learning has recently updated the question criteria page to allow teachers more flexibility when searching for appropriate questions.  This especially benefits English teachers at all levels. The new topical approach allows English teachers to search all topics and levels within the entire English Database – over 40,000 questions.  The new question criteria page allows English teachers to tailor assignments based on several different search modes.

Teachers can tailor assignments by:

• Choosing Standards: The standards trees created for state and Common Core standards gives teachers the ability to create assignments based on specific standards. Teachers can focus on one specific standard or multiple standards.
• Choosing Levels: The new Level Scale allows teachers to search for questions at multiple levels. The Castle Learning English database has questions ranging from Kindergarten through High School. This provides English teachers immense flexibility when building assignments. Teachers can adjust the difficulty levels to find appropriate questions for students at all learning levels. Teachers can check lower levels for students who need extra practice or extra review, and check higher levels for students that are ready to be challenged.
• Choosing Topics: The ELA Topic Tree displays all English Topics. Instead of flipping through several different English Courses (as in the Classic Mode) to view all Castle Learning Literature Sets, teachers can now view all Literature and Reading Selections in one place.
• Choosing Additional Criteria: This section gives teachers the ability to narrow questions by a specific skill. Teachers can create assignments based on a specific skill or a set of specific skills. Sequence, Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions and Listening are just a few of the specific skills teachers can focus on in this section.

Benefits:

• Teachers can easily access questions at lower levels for review. Students often need constant review of basic skills so they can tackle the more complex questions found in high school. The new question criteria page displays all levels, making it easier to find appropriate material for all students.
• Teachers can view Literature and Nonfiction Sets at all levels. Many of these sets are taught at multiple grade levels.
• K-2 Teachers have access to the Foundational Skills Unit. This unit provides several different types of questions focused on phonics and reading skills. The theme -based topic also provides a wide range of vocabulary acquisition questions for students at all levels. This unit is especially helpful to ELL’s, (English Language Learners), Young Readers and Life Skills students.
• All Castle Learning Reading Selections are can be accessed within the topic tree. The option to view the Reading Selections on the Castle Reading Selection Tab is still available, and all of the reading selections can also be accessed through the topic tree.

Recommendations:

• When making an assignment using the Common Core Topic Tree, teachers are encouraged to choose multiple grade levels for a specific standard thread. The Common Core English Standards are threaded and built upon as the grade level increases. For example, RL.1.1 and RL3.1 are the same (Show standards).  By choosing the entire group/thread, teachers will have a more successful question search.
• Using Levels: Teachers are encouraged to pick at least three levels, especially when first searching the question database. By choosing just one level, teachers could limit the number of available questions and miss out on finding excellent material.  If you don’t see the topics you were looking for, consider adjusting the levels.