The Power of Practice for Students

When we talk about students boosting their achievement on standards-based tests, we are talking about two aspects of the standards: content and skills.

To perform well on standardized tests, students need to demonstrate knowledge of content - such as terms, definitions, geography, events, and people. And students need to demonstrate mastery of skills - such as use, recall, predict, compare, analyze, assess, and apply.

IntelliTools Classroom Suite provides students critical practice using curriculum-based activities to master content and skills. It uses well supported learning strategies for scaffolded skill building, including auditory cues, pictures, and manipulatives.

IntelliTools Classroom Suite activities give students practice that is:

• Independent: Instructions for activities can be read onscreen, read aloud, and even recorded by the teacher in the student’s native language, all enabling the student to progress without assistance.
• Self regulated: Students work at their own pace, have the opportunity to review background information, and check their own work.
• Engaging: Multimedia activities incorporate animation, video, sound, and image importing. Young students interacting with the software can paint or draw. Older students can create sophisticated presentations using digital photos, movies, animated graphics, and links to the Internet.
• Content based: Teachers incorporate their own curricula, using skills-based templates and sample activities.
• Leveled to build skills: Students progress from activities with numerous supports (pictures, writing prompts, word prediction) to activities with limited supports.
• Monitored for success and reported for assessment: All assigned activities generate reports of student work. Teachers may reassign the work, remove supports, or test for student understanding. Student performance is consolidated into a network-based student portfolio.