Writing Modules
Engage students in a comprehensive and diverse digital writing experience
Essay Writing
Essay Writing is appropriate for
students of all ages. The
teacher supports the student
writing process by engaging
them in deliberate planning
that includes a feedback cycle.
Students then apply their
improved/approved plan to
write their best essay draft.
Students use feedback in the
recursive process to grow!
Book Report
Teachers can choose from a variety
of templates to support student
writing. Teachers can assign or
allow free choice books to be read.
Students engage with the book by
taking notes and filling in the
supportive template. Grow student
writing by engaging in a
rubric-structured feedback cycle.
Writing
Skills Builder
Using the Writing Skills Builder,
parents can choose from
a variety of grade-level appropriate
questions and create customized
language practice assignments
for their student.
Informal
Writing Bursts
Informal Writing Bursts are no-risk
writing opportunities to foster a
love of language, creativity, fun,
and 21st century writing. A few
well-loved Burst formats include
Tweets, social media posts,
conversations, and hashtags.
Vocabulary Assignments
Grow student vocabulary and comprehension with Cloze and Spelling Bee embedded assessments
Vocabulary
Assessments
The teacher can create personal
vocabulary assessments from
words their child spelled
incorrectly in Spelling Bee,
asked for the definition of while
reading, and/or missed while
answering a Cloze assessment.
The teacher can also choose
what questions the child is
asked about each word.
What's better than
differentiation? Customization.
Spelling Bee
Using a Lexile-aligned word list from the most
recently read Power Texts, students receive 5
Spelling Bee words to practice before an
assessment. To celebrate student growth,
Badges are awarded for a strong Spelling Bee score.
Word Work
Students receive a second chance on Cloze (fill-in-the-blank)
assessments they missed. Word Work serves as a
personalized vocbulary acquisition tool.
fluency Assessments
Fluency Assessments grow student reading speed, accuracy and prosody with performance feedback
Read Aloud
Help students develop their oral
fluency skills by assigning a
passage for them to read aloud
showing their ability to decode,
retell the story and track their
words correct per minute
(WCPM) rate.
Speaking Assignment
Extend student speaking skills using Speaking Assignments. Teacher
instructions and students' responses are supported in multi-modal
writing and audio options. Feedback is provided using template or
custom rubric criteria.
SUPPORT GROWING READERS
Excellent content shouldn't come at a high price. That's why The LightSail Library is free for all of our schools. Through partnerships with leading content providers like News For Kids and Antares Reading™, LightSail gives students and educators access to thousands of outstanding fiction and nonfiction texts – at no additional cost and with unlimited copies.
The LightSail Library contains texts for students from grades K-12 written across a wide range of Lexile measures. These texts are embedded with assessments and cover a variety of subject matter. Now all students can discover who they are as readers through a broad and appealing library filled with great texts.
Progress monitoring is embedded into daily practice in a natural way. Students answer multiple-choice, written-response, and Cloze assessments throughout each text. As student ability grows, LightSail tracks achievement and updates the selections in each reader’s library – that way, students are always reading just right texts.
LightSail’s educators have also built several key motivators into the app! Students can track their progress against individual reading goals, check their Lexile scores and the number of texts they’ve completed and show off their achievement badges – all via their personal data dashboard. Readers can also chat with peers and teachers during the reading experience using LightSail’s in-app social network.
Starting with an initial adaptive assessment, LightSail automatically creates personalized libraries for each of your students based on their reading abilities. These libraries adapt as students grow, ensuring they are already reading "just right" books.
In order to get your digital program off the ground, LightSail comes pre-loaded with over 6,000 assessed texts for free. As your school's content needs grow, and you are ready to expand your digital library, LightSail provides access to over 4,500+ premium books at a wide variety of interests and reading levels.
LightSail was designed to tackle the logistical burden of differentiation in the ELA classroom, so teachers can focus on what really matters – targeted instruction.
Educators get real-time access to meaningful data about student reading behavior, comprehension and growth. With access to student annotations and dashboards that show both individual as well as class performance, teachers are able to fine-tune instruction in ways that were rarely possible before.
Great support is a key factor in the success of any technology you bring into your classroom. Your digital transition takes you into new territory and we want to make sure you have everything you need.
LightSail is invested in your success, so we've got you covered every step of the way. Even prior to launch, your LightSail support team is there to get you off to a great start and we continue to be available to keep you going all year long.
LightSail’s SummerSail Reading Program provided at-risk middle school students with access to LightSail for seven weeks in an effort to combat “summer slide” — a phenomenon by which economically disadvantaged children rarely read during the summer as compared to their more advantaged peers.
This research study evaluates the program’s impact and outcomes for 280 students from in a large urban school district.