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Overview
Smart Tutor™ is a K-5, web-based advanced learning management system (LMS). Smart Tutor offers a revolutionary technology that automatically provides assessment-driven differentiated instruction and increases achievement in weeks rather than months. It is designed to accelerate learning, increase student motivation, and improve student test scores in reading and math. Every student is automatically assessed and provided with an individualized learning program so educators have no extra work to do!
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Smart Tutor™
Smart Tutor™ by Learning Today is a revolutionary K-5 research based advanced learning management system. It is designed to accelerate learning, increase student motivation, and improve student test scores by building a strong foundation in reading and math. Smart Tutor’s advanced technology provides assessment-driven differentiated instruction that increases achievement in weeks rather than months in low-performing students. It provides a unique solution through a comprehensive diagnostic assessment and a targeted individualized learning plan for each student. Teachers and parents are kept informed with timely progress reports and strategies designed to support student learning and skill mastery. Since the program is web based, all that is required is a computer and an internet connection.
Smart Tutor has three significant components:
(1) An online diagnostic pre-assessment to determine where the gaps and deficiencies are in a student’s reading and/or math knowledge base
(2) An automatically generated individualized instructional program in reading and/or math that is aligned with national and state standards to close those gaps
(3) A complete learning management system that provides comprehensive reports and prescriptive intervention strategies that are available immediately with progress reporting, time on task, student mastery, grade level gains, parent reports and more…
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Curriculum
Learning Today’s K-5 reading and math curriculum is research-based, and aligned with state and national education standards. It provides students with explicit instruction – which means that each lesson includes an interactive tutorial before the student is asked to perform or demonstrate skill proficiency.
The Learning Today content is provided in an engaging, interactive and high impact learning environment, and students work with real world, relevant examples. Students love it because the program is designed specifically for our demanding 21st Century learners.
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| Learning Today’s reading curriculum comprises over 1500 tutorials and activities. The reading instruction is designed to develop literacy, meet NCLB guidelines and improve standardized test scores. The Learning Today reading curriculum covers ”Reading First's Big 5” and more, including: High Frequency Words, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary Development, and Comprehension. |
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| With over 1200 tutorials and activities, this comprehensive curriculum covers numeral skills such as addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, fractions and decimals as well as measurement concepts such as length, weight, capacity, temperature, time, money, maps and scales etc. Coming in Fall 2006 are hundreds of new lessons in geometry, algebra and data probability and analysis. |
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pGain number sense through an understanding of operations and computations, including their relationships to one another
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Understand measurable attributes of objects and their units, systems, tools and processes of measurement
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Analyze characteristics, properties and relationships of two and three-dimensional geometric shapes |
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Identify number patterns, relationships and functions
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Collect, organize and display statistical methods to analyze data and answer formulated questions
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Smart Tutor™
Smart Tutor is a web-based, reading and math program designed for K-5th grades. It provides an automated differentiated instruction program that establishes an individualized reading & math program for every student based on their academic abilities.
Learning Today created Smart Tutor by utilizing state-of-the-art technology and the knowledge and experience of world-class educators to automatically provide web-based differentiated instruction to every student. Differentiated Instruction means that each student receives instruction at his or her own level, allowing each student to learn at his or her own individual pace & path.
It is fully automated, so teachers do not have extra work to do. It builds and improves the essential academic skills students need to be successful in school and on high-stakes tests.
Smart Tutor enables administrators and teachers to make timely, data-driven decisions by providing the essential data needed for intervention and accountability. Since it is web-based, Smart Tutor™ is available anywhere / anytime - in school, in extended day programs and at home! |
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Smart Tutor Highlights:
Differentiated Instruction for Each Student
Smart Tutor provides true differentiated instruction by automatically establishing an individual learning path for each student.
Comprehensive Formative Assessment
It begins with a comprehensive formative online assessment that is fully automated and provides an in-depth skills inventory for each child. Assessment results are then used to develop individual instruction programs for each student.
Automatic Positioning for Instruction
Students are automatically positioned for instruction based on their assessment results within each sub-skill in reading and math, allowing students to learn at their own level.
Learning at Their Level
Learning Today’s formative assessment ensures that instruction positioning is at the sub-skill level.
For example, a student may receive different levels in each of the following subskills based on his or her reading assessment score
- Phonics
- Phonemic Awareness
- Sight Words
- Vocabulary
- Reading Comprehension
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Essential Academic Skills
Learning Today’s theoretical and methodological foundations combined with an engaging non-threatening learning environment ensure that students gain the essential academic skills they need
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Pedagogy
The Smart Tutor technology based program format is designed so that objectives can be easily tied to time on task and lessons successfully completed. This can be achieved with the short term goals of two to three hours per week. As lessons are completed, a student’s learning is accelerated because missing bits of information in their knowledge base is filled in and concepts become clearer. Also, as students achieve success, they become more self-confident and intrinsically motivated.
Each Learning Today lesson is typically divided into three components: Tutorial, Practice & Skills Assessment with certain lessons containing more than one practice and skills assessments depending on the number of concepts covered in that lesson.
Tutorial: Students are introduced and taught the main concepts using a problem-solving approach and guided practice. Age-appropriate characters that reflect a broad range of ethnic diversity cover pre-requisites, introduce and model new skills and guide learners through the lesson. Students are constantly invited to practice problems step by step throughout the tutorial and immediate corrective feedback is given for both correct and incorrect responses.
Practice: The practice activity provides an opportunity for students to review and practice what they have just learned. Depending on the level and the skills covered in the tutorial, students may be presented between three to ten problems. Problems are randomly generated from a bank of questions and students are given two tries to answer each problem. As in the tutorial, students are provided with immediate feedback and fun animations to reinforce correct responses.
Skills Assessment: The skills assessment component is similar to the practice activity with the only difference being that student performance is tracked, timed and recorded in the Learning Today Management System. If students fail to pass the lesson, the system will take students back to the tutorial , and then they are brought back to the skills assessment. If a student fails the skills assessment a second time, the system moves the student on to a different lesson and the student is listed on an intervention report.
Better Performance
| Learning Today’s Smart Tutor program has continued to demonstrate its ability to positively impact student motivation and achievement in the areas of reading and math. Not only has it provided positive evidence of its impact in the classrooms, but also in the results garnered from efficacy studies in some of the poorest districts of Arkansas and Florida. |
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Read Testimonials
Essential Data for Decision Making
Learning Today's reporting system enables teachers and administrators to view and print important information about each student's progress at any given time... 24/7, from almost any computer, anywhere. The reporting system includes an Automatic Data Collection System, Management Information Reporting System, Reading Assessment Results and Math Assessment Results.
Using our reporting system, it is easy to track test results, averages, state standards and benchmarks, time-on-task, and to identify students in need of remediation.
Assessment Reports
Progress Reports
| Smart Tutor also monitors and tracks student progress on a continuous basis by providing time-on-task reporting, lessons completed, and standards and benchmarks achieved. Student gains are represented in several formats including GLG score (grade level gains), standards mastered or objectives (benchmarks) achieved. |
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Web-based Technology
Harnessing native web technology, Smart Tutor has been created using an ASP Model combined with a Microsoft database and operating system. The learning management application is cross-platform compatible – i.e. it will work on either PC's or Macs and will run on any browser such as Internet Explorer, Netscape or Safari.
Unlike the older LAN-based systems, Learning Today’s curriculum and applications were built from native web technology allowing implementation in minutes versus days or weeks.
IT specialists are not needed to implement Smart Tutor™ as it is built to be used in any of the following environments
- In School
- Extended Day Programs
- In Home
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Why It’s Unique
We Focus on “At Risk” Students
Although, by definition, Smart Tutor™’s differentiated instruction can help all students and all types of learners, Learning Today’s pedagogy and product design is especially successful in helping “At Risk” Students.
Our definition of “At Risk Students” includes:
- Economically Disadvantaged (Title I)
- ESOL / LEP
- ESE
- Students in need of Academic improvement (AIP).
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“Why does it work for “At Risk” Students?”
By providing focused time on task and explicit instruction, “At Risk” students begin to increase their intrinsic motivation to learn. This opens the gateway to learning and enables Learning Today to help them develop the essential reading and math skills they need to become successful in school and on high-stakes tests.
Students feel successful as they never ‘get stuck’ and never visibly ‘fail’ as the program provides them helpful hints and immediate corrective feedback. Smart Tutor provides the student with the equivalent of an individual tutor, one that is engaging, encouraging, motivating, challenging, non-threatening, non-judgmental and capable of targeting specific deficiencies.
Theoretical & Methodological Approach
Smart Tutor’s differentiated instruction automatically assesses and provides instruction that matches each student’s profile and learning ability. Learning Today’s pedagogy of “Tutorial, Practice, and Assessment” ensures that students learn in an engaging, encouraging, motivating, challenging and non-threatening learning environment.
Differentiated Instruction
In differentiated classrooms, teaching begins where students are, not at the front of a curriculum guide. (Tomlinson,1995) They accept and build upon the premise that learners differ in important ways. Thus, they also accept and act on the premise that technology must be ready to engage students through different learning modalities, by appealing to differing interests, and by using varied rates of instruction along with varied degrees of complexity. In differentiated classrooms, teachers ensure that a student competes against himself as he grows and develops, more than he competes against other students. (Tomlinson, 1999) Learning Today’s Smart Tutor provides true differentiated instruction by first determining the students reading and math profile then delivering instruction to match the student’s profile and learning ability.
Multiple Learning Modalities
The Learning Today program appeals to struggling learners because it engages them through the use of all three learning modalities: visual, kinesthetic, and auditory.
Tactile, kinesthetic learners need to touch, move, and experience. Through the use of the keyboard, mouse, and virtual manipulatives, children are able to interact with the program. The use of high-end, colorful graphics and flash technology provides the visual stimulation that children of the 21st century have become accustomed to. The program meets the auditory learning styles of learners through the use of speech and sounds which are incorporated throughout each aspect of the program. |
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Pedagogy
Each lesson is typically divided into three components: Tutorial, Practice & Skills Assessment with certain lessons containing more than one practice and skills assessments depending on the number of concepts covered in that lesson.
Tutorial: Students are introduced and taught the main concepts using a problem-solving approach and guided practice. Age-appropriate characters that reflect a broad range of ethnic diversity cover pre-requisites, introduce and model new skills and guide learners through the lesson. Students are constantly invited to practice problems step by step throughout the tutorial and immediate corrective feedback is given for both correct and incorrect responses.
Practice: The practice activity provides an opportunity for students to review and practice what they have just learned. Depending on the level and the skills covered in the tutorial, students may be presented between three to ten problems. Problems are randomly generated from a bank of questions and students are given two tries to answer each problem. As in the tutorial, students are provided with immediate feedback and fun animations to reinforce correct responses.
Skills Assessment: The skills assessment component is similar to the practice activity with the only difference being that student performance is tracked, timed and recorded in the Learning Today Management System. If students fail to pass the lesson, the system will take students back to the tutorial and then they are brought back to the skills assessment. If a student fails the skills assessment a second time, the system moves the student on to a different lesson and the student is listed on an intervention report.
Enabling Technology
Smart Tutor is built from native web technology and utilizes advanced caching techniques that allow for smooth uninterrupted service. It is simple to implement and extremely cost-effective to install and maintain. The fully automated system requires little to no teacher intervention – students receive their individualized learning programs by simply clicking on an icon!
Harnessing native web technology, Smart Tutor has been created using an ASP Model combined with a Microsoft database and operating system. The learning management application is cross-platform compatible – i.e. it will work on either PC's or Macs and will run on any browser such as Internet Explorer, Netscape or Safari. |
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Unlike the older LAN-based systems, Learning Today’s curriculum and applications were built from native web technology allowing implementation in minutes versus days or weeks.
- Proprietary Streaming Technology
- Implementation is Simple
- Extremely Cost Effective to Install and Maintain
- System is Fully Automated – runs with little or no teacher intervention
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What IT Is
Smart Tutor™ is a web-based, reading and math program designed for K-5th grades. It provides an automated differentiated instruction program that establishes an individualized reading & math program for every student based on their academic abilities.
Click on one of the following links to learn more
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Formative Assessment
The Smart Tutor Reading and Math Challenge starts with a researched based diagnostic assessment tool. The basis of the assessment was originally developed by Dr. Richard McCallum at Berkley University, a recognized expert in using diagnostic assessments, under a special US Department of Education Grant. Working in partnership with Learning Today, the assessment serves to define sub skill deficiencies, and sets up individual differentiated instructional interventions precisely to students' individual profiles of reading sub-skill performance. Our assessment takes approximately 30- 45 minutes and adapts to each test-taker as he or she undertakes an assessment. The detailed report that we produce for each student is far more accurate and diagnostic than what a "short" test can offer.
Reading Assessment
Learning Today’s Reading Assessment is a criterion-referenced instrument that accomplishes the following goals:
- Diagnostically assesses students as would a reading specialist by examining critical measures
- Provides individualized reading profiles on each student
- Prescribes targeted reading instruction that accelerates learning for each student
The system is designed in a way that does not require any reading specialists to be present or any professional development in reading assessment for teachers and administrators.
The Online Reading Assessment produces an immediate diagnostic report based on an in-depth analysis of essential sub-skill areas. It can then be used to prescribe instruction or remediation that targets individual needs.
Math Assessment
Our Math Assessment assesses students' math abilities in order to provide teachers with a detailed profile and to drive targeted math instruction. Language background knowledge is separated from pure math knowledge to remove the confusion language can bring to math assessment. So students, regardless of ability, background knowledge, or English proficiency, can be accurately profiled and targeted with the appropriate math instruction.
Instructional Management Applications
Learning Today has developed three proprietary web-based user applications that drive assessment, instruction and accountability. They are:
1) Administrator Application
2) Student Application
3) Classroom Management or Teacher Application
Harnessing native web technology, these applications have been created using an ASP model operating on a Microsoft database and operating system. The applications are cross-platform compatible, meaning they will work on either PC's or Macs and will run on any browser such as I. E., Netscape or Safari.
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Instructional Management Applications
1) Administrator Application
| Learning Today's powerful, yet simple, Administrator Application acts as an electronic assistant to school administrators. This easy-to-use tool allows administrators to accomplish many things such as easily promoting students from year to year without having to re-enter student data, allowing assessments to be given, as much, and as often as needed. In addition, the applications provide comprehensive and powerful reports about the school, grade levels, classrooms, students and even teachers. |
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2) Student Application
Learning Today's seamless formative assessment and differentiated instruction interface ensures educators and parents that each student's unique needs have been addressed automatically. Specifically, each student is given instruction based on their individual strengths and weaknesses in reading and math, the core subjects tested on exams nationwide, with the goal of providing instruction that the students can be successful with and that engages them in a positive learning environment that motivates learning.
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The Student Application automatically engages students in presentation, practice and performance so they are able to easily focus on the content rather than system functionality. Fun characters and appropriate visuals enhance assessment and learning without distracting students from the task at hand. Definitions and instructions are available via the dictionary and question mark buttons for added student support. In addition, large cursors and buttons ensure that even our youngest students can use the system.
3) Classroom Management /Teacher Application
Learning Today’s powerful, yet people-friendly, application allows teachers to:
• Select and manage lessons that support and/or supplement what is being taught in the classroom.
• Assess students in key reading and math sub-skills using our comprehensive assessment tool.
• Monitor student progress through a range of comprehensive and powerful reports. |
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Why IT Works
Learning Today's Smart Tutor™ program has continued to demonstrate its ability to positively impact student motivation and achievement in the areas of reading and math. Not only has it provided positive evidence of its impact in the classrooms, but also in the results garnered from efficacy studies in some of the poorest districts of Arkansas and Florida.
Why Smart Tutor Works
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Who IT ’s For!
Although, by definition, Smart Tutor™’s differentiated instruction can help all students and all types of learners, Learning Today’s pedagogy and product design is especially successful in helping “At Risk” Students.
Our definition of “At Risk Students” includes:
- Economically Disadvantaged (Title I)
- ESL / LEP
- ESE / Special Needs
- Students in need of Academic improvement (AIP).
“Why does it work for “At Risk” Students?” |
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By providing focused time on task and explicit instruction, “At Risk” students begin to increase their intrinsic motivation to learn. This opens the gateway to learning and enables Learning Today to help them develop the essential reading and math skills they need to become successful in school and on high-stakes tests.
Students feel successful as they never ‘get stuck’ and never visibly ‘fail’ as the program provides them helpful hints and immediate corrective feedback. Smart Tutor provides the student with the equivalent of an individual tutor, one that is engaging, encouraging, motivating, challenging, non-threatening, non-judgmental and capable of targeting specific deficiencies.
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How It Works
Learning Today’s Smart Tutor™ is a very sophisticated series of web-based applications that work in concert with one another to ensure that every system user has a pleasant, seamless experience.
View a Demo |
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Easy as A-B-C
A) Set up and Maintain the System
Each school administrator sets up his or her school on Learning Today, simply by entering his or her teacher, student, and classroom data and deciding upon assessment options. Once that is done … the students are ready to begin!
B) Students’ Skills are Evaluated
Students have it made with Learning Today! First, they are greeted by two very cool characters, Belle and Bo, who prompt them to click an icon to get started. If the students are set up for assessment, they see “Reading Challenge” or “Math Challenge” icons. They simply click on either icon and take the assessment to determine their academic strengths and weaknesses.
C) Students Receive Individualized Instruction
Once they complete the assessments, Learning Today’s Smart Tutor kicks in. Now their icons change to “Smart Tutor” which is the gateway to their Differentiated Instruction.
“Smart Tutor” automatically establishes each student’s individual pace & path of instruction. It provides a non-threatening, engaging environment where they feel successful! This builds their confidence and skills, enabling them to ultimately perform better on tests.
“Smart Tutor” was also designed with the learning styles of Today’s Learners in mind. It’s high-impact, highly focused approach keeps kids interested and motivated to learn!
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Testimonials
- " Learning Today has teachers eager and excited to be able to incorporate technology in their daily class activities. They feel this is an excellent tool that will assist LEP (Limited English Proficient) students in acquiring the English language as well as provide them with opportunities to become familiar with computers. "
Miami-Dade County District Supervisor
- "The children need very little assistance when they are using it, since all the directions are read to them aloud. The different lessons on the program help offer students the one-on-one tutorial that they often need. Learning Today is not an ordinary computer game. It's more like another teacher in the classroom working with students one-on-one at their pace. "
Miami-Dade County Elementary School
Kindergarten Teacher |
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- "Learning Today is a very comprehensive learning program that enables a student to develop skills related to art, language arts, math, music, physical health, reading, science, and social studies. A teacher can select the specific skills the students will do at their instructional level or independent level. I like the fact that the program is user friendly and attractive to the children. This program engages my students in the learning process and makes them active learners. All of my students enjoy using Learning Today."
Miami-Dade County Elementary School
1 st Grade Teacher (teaching for 30 years )
- "The Learning Today program is exciting, flexible and comprehensive. The management system is straightforward and useful. I am able to create for my class, a small group, or an individual student, a set of activities on any grade level or in any subject area. It is a perfect tool to use with ESOL students as they can tap into the program and learn English on any level. All objectives are correlated to our benchmarks. It is "teacher-friendly" and very easy to navigate for the students as well. We find it absolutely the best!"
Miami-Dade County Elementary School
3rd Grade Teacher (teaching for 29 years)
- "I like the program very much. I think it targets the areas that we work on daily and the students learn more by working independently.
Miami-Dade County Elementary School
5 th Grade ESE Teacher
- " Through the use of the Internet, Learning Today enables our teachers to augment their current curriculum with complementary learning programs in their classrooms and computer labs. Unlike CD ROM or network-based programs, it saves time and money because it reduces the need to have our technical staff involved in the implementation and maintenance of the program."
Broward County Private Elementary School
Owner, American Heritage School , Plantation , Fl
- "It's simple. if the teachers like it and use it, then it's a good product and the students will get the supplemental help they need. Our teachers are enthralled with the Learning Today products and the people that support it. They have become an extension of us and are welcomed as if they are part of our staff."
Miami-Dade County Elementary School
Principal, Title I / ESOL School , Administrator for 26 years
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