Using Literably at home: recommended steps and a parent-friendly letter

Overview: Students can take Literably assessments at home if they have a supported device and an internet connection. If you’d like your students to take Literably assessments at home, we would recommend you take the following steps:

1. Email each student and/or parent about Literably (customizable email template below).
2. Review your teacher dashboard to ensure that each student’s “Next Assessment” is set as you'd like.
3. Email each student/parent, asking them to take an assessment on Literably by a certain date (e.g., by Friday, by the last day of the month, etc.)
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed throughout the school year.  More information on when to reassess here.
5. Important: Please remind parents not to help students read during their assessment. In some cases, parents may need to help students log into Literably, however, they should avoid reading words for students and limit the amount of direct communication they have with students while they're assessing.  More information on this topic can be found here.

Email template: Below is a short email template that teachers can feel free to copy/paste and then send to students/parents.  IMPORTANT: you will need to make a least a few customizations to this email and we encourage you to customize as much as needed to best suit your needs. 

Hello!

I'm writing to tell you about Literably, a new tool that I’d like your student to use while they’re at home.  

About Literably

Literably is a website/app that records students reading aloud and then asks them comprehension questions. Literably employees listen to the recordings overnight, generate a transcript of each student's reading (that is sent back to me to review), and calculate scores for accuracy, reading rate, and comprehension.  In addition, Literably helps me understand:

• Your student’s independent reading level = the level where they can read easily for pleasure without any (or little) assistance from me.
• Your student’s instructional reading level = the level where they can still read successfully but may need more assistance from me and may, at times, feel “stretched” or challenged in their thinking.

Literably helps me to track your student's progress in reading and to identify the areas where I need to focus my instruction. It also allows me to share recordings with parents, so I may be sending you these recordings as evidence of your student's progress.

Directions for getting started with Literably

To help get your student set up on Literably at home, I've put together some directions/resources that you can access by clicking the below links:

• Slides: using Literably at home (you can easily scroll through in less than 10 minutes)
• This short video shows you how to log in and take a Literably assessment on an iPad (less than 5 minutes)
• This short video shows you how to login in and take a Literably assessment on a computer (less than 5 minutes) 

Next steps

Once you review the above directions/resources, please let me know if they make sense and/or if you have any questions.  

Moving forward, I am requesting that your student log in and take one Literably assessment by [insert date].  After your student completes their assessment, there will not be a need to take another assessment until you or your student hear back from me.