TEACHER GUIDE
Dear Teacher,
Welcome to Brainchild Achiever! online assessment and instruction. Your school subscribed to this award-winning tool to assist you and your students make AYP, dramatically increase scores on state exams, stream-line your lessons, and ultimately help your classroom succeed!
Achiever! will save you time with self-paced instruction on your state standards; and for
students who need extra attention, it will provide hours of differentiated instruction. The program provides the content, the instruction, and the scoring so you don’t have to develop content and grade assignments or quizzes.
This User Guide was designed to help you navigate through the basic features of the program to get started today!
At Brainchild we are committed to your success and we are passionate about education, customer service, and our programs. If you cannot find the answer you are looking for in the user guide, please contact our office. Phone calls are answered personally by people who care.
Reach us via:
Toll free phone at 800.811.2724
Email at:
Once again, welcome to Brainchild and we look forward to hearing your classroom and student success stories!
Best Regards,
The Brainchild Team
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Table of Contents
Getting Started with Achiever! ...................................................... 4
Enroll a Student ............................................................................. 5
Import Students ............................................................................. 6
Create a Class................................................................................. 7
Map Students ................................................................................ 7
Create Assignments ....................................................................... 8
Group Instruction .......................................................................... 9
Make a Printable Test/Worksheet ............................................... 10
Student Password List .................................................................. 11
Student Report ............................................................................ 12
Classroom Report ........................................................................ 14
Assignment Report ...................................................................... 14
Student View ............................................................................... 15
Training & Support ....................................................................... 18
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Getting Started with Achiever!
Go to
http://achiever.brainchild.com
and log in using your user name, school ID and password.
This will bring you to the Main Menu.
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Enroll a Student
Students will be able to immediately start using Achiever! once they are enrolled and given a user name and password.
Enrolling a Student
1. Under Management, select Manage/Enroll a Student.
2. From the Student List page, verify if the student has already been added to the program to ensure the student will not have a duplicate login.
3. On the right side of the screen, under Create and Edit Users, fill in the mandatory fields marked with * .
4. Select the subjects to enroll your student in under Courses Available by highlighting the courses.
5. Be sure to Save. Your student should now show under the Student List and can begin using Achiever!
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Import Students
If you have a large amount of students to enroll, it is much easier to import using the Import feature.
To import students instead of adding them individually, you must US a .csv file in Excel.
Importing Students
1. Under Management, select Import Students.
2. Select the
Example file
to create a .csv file.
3. You may copy your student’s first names, last names, usernames, passwords, and grade into this sample file. Simply exchange the names here with your student users. If left blank, Achiever! automatically assigns student usernames and passwords as the students first name. You may create your own by using student ID numbers or a school established password.
Note: It is not necessary for the Middle Names column to be used. However, all columns must be left.
Note: If you do not specify a username and have multiple students with the same first name Achiever! will add a number after the students username: Example: Ryan1, Ryan2, Ryan3
Note: The Courses 1, 2, 3 will need to be assigned to Language Arts, Math, or Science. If left blank, the student will not have a course when imported and will have to be assigned one manually.
4. Remember to save this as a .csv file to your desktop.
5. Click on Browse, find your file, and select it in the window. Make sure to check the File
has title row Box, if used.
6.
Select Preview to notify you of any errors before importing.
7.
If the preview window shows no errors, select the Import button.
8.
If you have errors, you can scroll down to see the error and correct them before importing.
9.
Click Import, Students are now be enrolled into Achiever!
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Create Class
To help organize and manage students, teachers have the ability to create classes, or small groups of students within the Achiever! program. Creating a class is the first step towards gathering real time reports and creating student assignments.
Creating a Class
1. Under Management, select Create Class.
2. Choose the Course and the Period you would like to create a class for from the drop-down menu on the right side of the screen.
3. Select Save and your class will be added to the list on the left of the screen.
Map Students
Mapping, or assigning students to a specific class, is the final step in being able to create assignments and gather real time reports.
Mapping Students
1. Go to Management and select Map Students.
2. From the drop-down menu, select your Class.
3. Choose from the Available Students and click the > arrow next to the student names to move them over to the Selected Students and Save them to the class.
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Create Assignments
Achiever! gives teachers the option of creating assignments for students. Assignments are a great way to check the students understanding of a concept and can be created during any time of the learning process.
Once created, assignments will appear on the student’s Personal Learning plan when they log in. When the assignment is selected, students receive a 10-question assessment on that standard. The score then goes into the student’s Personal Learning Plan for teachers to view and create reports.
Creating Assignments
1. Go to Management and select Create Assignments.
2. From the drop down menu, choose the Class you would like to create an assignment for.
3. Click in the Due Date box and a calendar will appear for you to choose a completion date.
4. Select the Available Assignment by placing a check in the box to the left of the assignment name.
5. Choose the student(s) to complete the assignment by placing a check in the box to the left of the name. If you want the entire class to complete the assignment, choose Select All .
6. Click Save.
Note: You must choose a date at least one day in advance of the current day.
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Group Instruction
Using Achiever! for group instruction provides a creative alternative in the classroom and will engage students in a group activity. This feature helps gauge class progress and understanding in the academic concept being taught.
Group Instruction:
1. Attach your computer to an LCD projector or use a Smart Board.
2. Select Group Instruction.
3. Select the Grade and Subject you wish to teach
4. Select a Lesson from the Learning Plan.
5. Select Play Lesson. A one-minute instructional piece will play about the concept.
6. Select Study to present questions for the class to answer. Share explanations on the topic from the
Explain button and supplement group instruction with your own comments. By the last few questions, you will see the impact of your teaching as the class beings to answer questions correctly.
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Print Test
Tests or worksheets may be created and printed from the program at anytime. With a printable test/worksheet, the teacher has control to choose which questions to print and how many questions to assign.
1. Select Print Test.
2. Choose the Course, Subject and Lesson from the drop-down menu.
3. Enter a name for your test.
4. Sample questions will populate automatically. Scroll through to select the desired questions.
5. Use the >> arrow button to transfer the question to the right side of the screen. Only questions on the right side will be printed.
6. Click the Print button to see a preview and then print, OR, you can Save as a Word Doc if you would like to make any modifications to the test/worksheet questions.
Note: Whether you decide to print the test or save it to a word doc your last page will be the answer key.
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Student Password List
The Student Password List generates a report of student user names and their assigned passwords. Once students have been given their log-in information, they are ready to get started using Achiever!.
1. Under Reports, select Student Password List.
2. From the drop-down menu, select the Grade to run the report from.
3. If a student has not been placed within a class, select the box next to Show Students
without a Class.
4. Select the course the student is enrolled in.
Note: This report will show all student passwords that have not been assigned to a class.
5. If you are looking for a student that has already been placed in a class, select the Class from the dropdown menu.
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Achiever! provides standards-based reports on individual and classroom performance. These reports will help you gauge how your students are performing on state standards, and allow you to provide data driven instruction in your classroom.
All reports may be viewed and/or printed and include:
Student Report
Classroom Report
Assignment Report
Student Report
The Student Report shows the pretest, most recent post test scores, number of testing attempts to master the standard, total instructional time, and the average score in the subject. If a student has attempted to master a standard three times and is making no progress, it is time to consider one-on-one instruction.
1. Select Student Report.
2. From the dropdown menu, select your Class and the Student you would like to view.
3. Select Show This Student Report button.
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4. By choosing the Show All Student Reports, you can view each student’s progress at one time.
Note: When printing this report, each student’s progress will be printed on separate pages.
5. Toggle Graph will show a visual bar graph of pre and post test scores.
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Classroom Report
The classroom report allows for data driven instruction to take place in your class. This report identifies your students educational needs and is helpful for adjusting group instruction. The Classroom Report shows the average score for each state standard across the top. The key below the student’s names displays the corresponding state standard.
1. Go to Reports and select Classroom Report.
2. From the Class drop-down menu, select your Class.
Assignment Report
The Assignment Report allows the teacher to view student scores on assigned lessons.
1.
Go to Reports and select Assignment Report.
2.
From the drop-down menu, select your Class and the Assignment.
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Student View
Once students log in to Achiever!, the Personal Schedule will display the available subjects and any assignments created by the teacher will be listed at the bottom of the page.
After choosing a subject, students will be brought to their Personal Learning Plan where they can select a lesson.
Note: Mastery = 80% or above Proficient= 70% Not Completed or Not Proficient= 60% or below
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There are three learning modes within each student lesson: Play Lesson, Study, Test.
Play Lesson: A one-minute instructional animation will teach the concept.
Study: Gives unlimited practice with immediate feedback for self-paced instruction. No scores will be recorded.
Test: Students can take a 10-question test on each state standard. This will record scores.
Students will be given a 10-question, multiple-choice format within the Test and Study modes.
The first time the student takes the test their score will show up in the pre-test column.
This score cannot be changed. Any additional attempt will show in the post-test column.
To show improvement the student may take the test as many times as needed to obtain a satisfactory post-test score. Please keep in mind; the last attempt will over-ride any previous post-test attempt.
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When a question is answered correctly, a checkmark will appear next to the answer and the student has the option to see the steps to the solution by selecting the
Explain
link above the answer choice.
Built-in Feedback:
When a question is answered incorrectly, immediate feedback appears explaining to the student how to work towards a correct answer.
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Completing Assignments
Once an assignment has been created and assigned to the student by the teacher, it will show up on the students’ Personal Schedule. The student can then select the standard and complete the 10-question assignment. Once completed, the student will see his/her score on the session summary page. The student may Review Mistakes to receive feedback on any questions missed.
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Training and Support
Brainchild is here for you every step of the way!
For support you may:
Print a hard copy of the user guide, although it is always available on line;
Call us at 800.811.2724 for immediate assistance during regular business hours; or
Email us at [email protected]
.
For training and support we can:
Walk you through the program while on the phone;
Schedule a free webinar training using joinme.com;
Schedule an on-site training session for a nominal fee.
No question or task is too small.
We love to hear about the achievement and successes
your students are having with our products!
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