Amplify CKLA

1 Where it came from

Peabody is not connected to Amplify or to the Core Knowledge Foundation, and nothing here is written or checked by either. The Core Knowledge Foundation's own page says it began creating Core Knowledge Language Arts in 2010 and released the first complete edition in 2014. Amplify publishes a program under the name Amplify CKLA, built on those materials. The Core Knowledge Foundation lists its own edition for preschool, kindergarten to grade 3, grades 4 to 5 and grades 6 to 8.

2 The big ideas

• Sounds are taught in a set order. For kindergarten to grade 2, the Amplify page describes 150 spellings for 44 sounds taught in a structured progression.
• Early reading practice is made of the sounds taught. The same page says the readers for those grades are 100% decodable, and that the program comes with a Sound Library and sound cards.
• Phonics is a daily lesson, not an extra. The Core Knowledge Foundation's page says its Skills strand gives daily, sequenced phonics lessons beginning in kindergarten.
• Two strands run side by side. On the Core Knowledge page, the early grades have a Skills strand and a Listening and Learning strand.
• Older children move into longer work. Amplify names choice units, culminating research units that use nonfiction trade books, novel studies in grades 3 to 5 and poetry units in grades 2 to 5.

3 What a lesson looks like

Neither publisher's page gives a minute-by-minute lesson, so this page does not invent one. What the Core Knowledge Foundation's page does say is what a unit in kindergarten to grade 3 contains: a Teacher Guide, a Student Workbook, a Student Reader and an Assessment and Remediation Guide, organized into the Skills strand and the Listening and Learning strand. Amplify's page says the early grades use decodable readers that match the sounds taught, and that sound cards and a Sound Library support the teaching. If you are deciding whether to adopt the program, ask the publisher for a sample unit. Amplify's page offers samples and a demo, and a sample will show you what a real lesson looks like far better than a description can.

4 The adult's job

The publisher's pages do not describe the adult's job in detail. Taken from what they do say, the teacher follows the Teacher Guide, teaches the sound-by-sound progression in the early grades, hands children the decodable reader that matches, and uses the Assessment and Remediation Guide to see who needs more. Teachers who add practice beside the program can do so without changing its order: keep the program's lessons first, then use extra reading that stays inside the sounds already taught.

5 How progress is checked

The Core Knowledge Foundation's page lists an Assessment and Remediation Guide with each unit in kindergarten to grade 3. The pages read do not say how often children are assessed or what the assessments look like, so ask the publisher for a sample before relying on a description.

6 Strengths and criticisms

7 What the research says

The evidence this page can report is limited to what the pages read say. Amplify says the program meets ESSA Tier I criteria. EdReports reviewed Amplify CKLA Skills, the kindergarten to grade 2 foundational skills materials, and released its report on 12 January 2021, rating it as meeting expectations on both gateways in kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 2. That review covered the Skills strand only, on an earlier review tool, and the whole program's review was not read. EdReports reviews judge how materials are built, not how children score after using them. Neither publisher's page reports a study of children's results, and none was found in the pages read.

8 How to try it

1. Ask Amplify for a sample unit and a demo, which its page offers, before you decide; read one Skills lesson and one reader.
2. If you teach the early grades, keep the program's sound order exactly as written; do not skip ahead to sounds the children have not met.
3. Add short, daily fluency practice on text the child can already read, so reading stays fast and confident.
4. When a child finishes a decodable reader, ask for a retelling in their own words, to check meaning as well as decoding.
5. For older children, choose extra nonfiction or poetry that fits the unit you are in, so practice and program point the same way.

9 Using Peabody with it

• Fluency practicePick a passage a child can already read, time it, and repeat it a few days in a row beside the program's decodable readers to build speed.
• Book standardsUse it to check what a book asks of a reader when you add trade books or novels to a unit.
• Decodable readersHand a child a free extra decodable story after the program's own reader, to practice the same kind of reading.

Peabody is free and has no ads. Pages on peabody.kids are for children; pages here are for the adults teaching them.

10 Programs that follow it

Programs and materials often named with this approach: Amplify CKLA, Core Knowledge Language Arts.