The EdTech.Zone

Access at http://utahcompose.com/

Default Logins for teachers: TCactusID
Default PW’s for teachers: Birthday mmddyyyy

Student Login: State Student ID# (7 digits)
Student PW’s: SSID (same as login): Students will be prompted to pick a new password on their first login

Utah Compose is a tool. It’s not a replacement for good teaching and writing instruction. It’s a Formative process.

Goals for Utah Compose Writing:

• Increase the amount of writing in all classrooms by all students
• Improve the quality of writing in all classrooms by all students
• Increase the Career and College Readiness level among students graduating from high school

Purpose of Utah Compose:

• Allow educators across all content areas to administer writing assessments using pre-built prompts and educator-created prompts that can be shared within/school and/or LEA
• Ability for districts/LEAs/teachers to upload and control created prompts that will be scored immediately
• Students track writing progress using online writing portfolios with tracking sheets that show incremental writing improvement
• Reports showing individual student progress allow teachers to target and differentiate writing instruction
• Reports allow teachers and administrators to disaggregate writing proficiency within content areas, across content areas, and across grade levels.

Helpful Thoughts:

• It’s time to train students that passwords are private and confidential. Their world will be full of logins to keep track of – it’s never too soon to teach them how to manage and remember them.
• Manage your lab time effectively. If you only have 30 minutes in the lab a week, focus that time on actual writing. Use the graphic organizers on paper, pre-writing, etc.

Helpful links from a Course Home Page:

• Rubrics and How-To’s can be found on the Course Home page – links on the left. Text Evidence and Content Rubrics are the only ones that do not self-score. These are on a scale of 3-1.
• Example Essays from grades 3-12 as well as Graphic Organizers – black line masters that teachers can copy and use as much as they’d like. Can also be used directly by students when writing in Compose.

‘Prompts’ tab: Teachers can add their own prompts – In a course, click on the ‘Prompts’ tab. Then click the ‘+ Add’ button and fill in the information. Teachers may NOT upload pre-created prompts for copyright issues. Teachers do not need to attach a pre-made Compose graphic organizer to a prompt if they want students to use them. Just let students know which one to use and they can write in them during the writing process. Most prompts are not enabled/unpublished by default – teachers must publish a prompt in order for students to use them. Use the filters at the top to quickly find the prompt you want students to use. The ‘Paperclip’ icon indicates a stimulus is attached. Links are included, and some could be filtered at school because of comments on posts. Make sure to show the ‘Advanced Options +’ at the bottom of any prompt. Great options here – Time, number of submissions, feedback options, & peer review.

‘Lessons’ Tab: Tutorials are here. Tutorials are recommended to students once their writing has been assessed (which can vary each day) – great way to differentiate instruction. Also great for remediation.

‘Students’ tab: Lists your students and classes. The ‘Print’ button will give you a roster with usernames and passwords to quickly print and distribute to students.

‘Reports’ tab: Can show growth and improvement easily. Students should submit all writing to be scored every single time in a lab, even if they are not done. Students can re-access an incomplete prompt. This way the reports will be more complete and meaningful.

Setting up Peer-Edit Groups:
Go into Class Lists under ‘Students’ tab. Click the ‘Groups’ button (top left). +Add or Randomize will remove your existing groups (if any) and will create new random groups with 2-5 students in each (depending on your choice). When editing groups, just click in the names field and a drop-down will show up with any unassigned students.
This is sort of an advanced feature. Get up to speed on the basics, and then add in peer review.

Handouts/Presentations:

• Utah Compose Introduction (Presentation PDF)
• Compose & SAGE Writing Information PowerPoint or Google Drive Version
• Compose Training Handout, Student Tracker, and Rubrics (PDF)