DreamBox Math Assignments: How to Create a Personalized Assignment (Educators)

This article walks through how to create an assignment aligned with a print program, or the NWEA or Quantile assessment frameworks.  

Support Icons_Tip Box_50px.png Before you begin:
  • This article walks through how to create assignments from the teacher's Home page.
  • Administrators must go through a class Assignment History report or use View Mode to create an assignment. Click here to learn more about View Mode.

 

What is the difference between a Short-Term Assignment and a Long-Term Assignment? 

Assignment Type Duration Purpose Lesson Details
Short-Term
Shortterm_Assignment_icon.png
1 to 2
weeks
  • Introduce a concept
  • Reinforce a topic taught in class
  • Lesson Review
  • The student receives 1-2 lessons within the selected standard.
  • The student does not need to demonstrate proficiency.
  • After a student completes 1-2 lessons, they will not see additional lessons. 
Long-Term
Longterm_Assignment_Icon.png
2 to 10 Weeks
  • Help a student make progress in targeted areas
  • Typically used for Progress Monitoring, RTI, and MTSS
  • The student continuously receives lessons aligned to the selected standard for 2-10 weeks or until they demonstrate proficiency or the assignment is stopped.
  • The assignment will be stopped if the student completed 3 of the earliest lessons in the standard with no demonstrated understanding. 
  • The assignment will end if the student demonstrates proficiency before the end date.
Support Icons_Tip Box_50px.png Assignments will end before the duration time if the assignment is canceled and they will not appear in the Assignment History.

 

Create a Personalized Assignment

  1. Select Home in the Top Navigation Pane.
  2. Using the filter drop-down menus, select the classroom and/or student you wish to view. School administrators may need to select a school and teacher first. 
  3. Click Add Assignment.

New Add Assignment button1_numbered filters.jpg

Select the parameters of the assignment
Step 1: Choose Short-Term or Long-Term by clicking the circle.

Step 2: Using the drop-down menu, customize the length of the assignment from 1-10 weeks.
Step 3: Select your academic standards, DreamBox Learning Units, domain, and/or cluster:

  • When using Assignments selected by standards, we recommend utilizing higher tiers such as Domains or Clusters, instead of the narrower standards themselves. Creating an assignment at the Domain or Cluster level will broaden the range of lessons that DreamBox can offer to the student providing more differentiated learning pathway options within Assignments.
  • Looking for your state or regional standards?  Click here. 
  • If a learner is struggling with lessons assigned by print program, we recommend using DreamBox Learning Units to target specific concepts being taught in the classroom. 

Step 4: Choose an aligned print program (optional - skip to step 5 if you are not selecting an aligned print program.)

Support Icons_Tip Box_50px.png Don't see the print program you're looking for? You may need to enable the print program. To open directions on how to do this, click here. After the print program is enabled, it will appear in the Assignment tool. 
 
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Which print programs does DreamBox Math support?

Click here to open the list of supported print programs

 
Step 5: Select an assessment (optional).

Support Icons_Learn More_50px.png If you would like to use NWEA or the Quantile® Framework for Mathematics assessment to create assignments, open the articles below to learn more:

 

Preview Sample Lessons

After selecting the parameters of the assignment, review the description of the standard and click Just Started Lesson, In-Progress Lesson, or Review Lesson to preview samples of the different lessons the standard includes.

Assignments.previewlessons. redone.final_flatten.jpg

 

Select Students

Check the boxes of all students you would like to receive the assignment. For students who have Standard Not Started or have Standard In Progress, the lesson box will automatically be checked. 

Save the Assignment

Save your new assignment by clicking the Add Assignment button in the bottom-left corner of your screen.

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The assignment will be created and appear in the Assignment History Report.

 

How Do Students Identify Assignments After they are Created?

Students will see the blue calendar icon next to an assigned lesson. A student may need to complete an existing lesson before the new lesson will appear or primary students may need to pick up a backpack for the lesson to appear on their Lesson Chooser. 

Q: How will students identify their assigned lessons?

A: Assignment lessons are highlighted by a blue star icon, based on the assignment length.

Short-Term Assignment Long-Term Assignment
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Support Icons_Tip Box_50px.png Note: Students playing in the K-2 learning environment will need to select a theme and story before they can see the blue calendar icon.

 

Q: Why can't my students in the K-2nd grade environment see the assignment I created?

A: If a student is playing in the K-2nd grade learning environment and doesn't see an assignment, they may need to pick up a backpack to collect an item. After they open their backpack and collect an item, their lesson path will adjust, showing the assigned lesson. 

 

Additional Resources

Click the help article title below to learn more about DreamBox Math Assigments.

 

Assignment FAQs 

DB-Icons_20221116_1-Color_Constantly learning_50px.png Note: The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below focus on creating assignments. Click here to see these and additional Assignments FAQs.

 

Q: How many assignments can a student receive?

A: A student can receive up to two assignments at once. The two assignments can be any combination of Short-Term Assignments and Long-Term Assignments. A new assignment cannot be added until one of the existing two assignments is ended or canceled.

DB-Icons_20221116_1-Color_Constantly learning_50px.png Note: If a student is enrolled in two DreamBox Math classrooms, the student can still only work on two open assignments at the same time.
Q: How many assignments can teachers create at the same time? Is there a limit?

A: Students can have up to two active assignments at one time. If a student has been assigned two assignments, their name is grayed out and their teacher cannot assign any additional assignments to that student. When the student completes at least one of their two active assignments, the teacher can assign another short or long-term assignment to the student. 

 

Q: What if my student has multiple teachers or is in more than one classroom?

A: If a student has more than one teacher with access to their account, all of their teachers can create or cancel assignments for the student. If the student is in more than one classroom, you will see an option to select which classroom the assignment should be tracked under when creating the lesson. You can also see the name of the teacher who created the assignment.

 

Q: When I create an assignment, why doesn’t DreamBox Math hide all other lesson recommendations?

A: The Assignments function honors student agency by continuing to present other concepts for the student to complete. Just as a student can choose not to complete homework, a student can choose to not complete a DreamBox assignment. This is critical to building strong decision-making principles for the student. They need to make the best choice, based on the information they have. 

Q: Why can’t I create an assignment for a particular student?

A: You will be unable to create an assignment for a student if one of the following is true:

  • The student already has two assignments, as indicated by two blue icons next to their name.
  • The student already has an In Progress or Not Started assignment for this standard. Once the assignment is completed, you can reassign it.
Q: Why is my student's name grayed out?

A: The student already has two open assignments in DreamBox Math. Each student can only work on two open assignments at a time. If you did not create assignments for the student and they are enrolled in two DreamBox Math classrooms, they are likely working on assignments created by their other teacher.

DB-Icons_20221116_1-Color_Constantly learning_50px.png Note: If a student is enrolled in two DreamBox Math classrooms, the student can still only work on two open assignments at the same time.

Q: How do I cancel an assignment? 

A: For directions on how to cancel an assignment, open our support article here.

Support Icons_Learn More_50px.png Click the links below to learn more about:

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