Enrolling Students:

1. Click the door to the Administration Office. The Administration Options dialog box appears.

2. Click the User Register button. Note: The identification number (ID#) is generated by the program and cannot be edited.

3. Click the Add button.

4. Enter information into the First name and Last name boxes.

5. Enter information into the Grade box (required).

6. Enter a password into the Password box. Teachers generally use the student’s last name. While this entry is optional, a password is a good idea to prevent students from accessing files other than their own.

7. Select one or more check boxes in the Access rights box. The default is student.

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Creating a Class:

Note:
Only users with instructor or administrator rights can add classes, or modify classes.
New users added to the Academy are automatically saved in a common group named “All.”
Only the person creating a class may modify that class.

1. Click the door to the Staff Room.

2. Click the Class Setup button. The Groups dialog box appears.

3. Click the Add button. ‘New Class’ appears in the Groups Box.

4. Click once on ‘New Class’ to place it in the Name box for editing. Edit the class name in the Name box.

5. Click on New Class again in the Classes box and the name changes to your edited name.

6. Add users from the list in the All users box. To add a user to the group, click any unhighlighted name in the All users box then click the up " arrow. To remove a user from the group, click any highlighted name in the Users in group box then click the down # arrow. You can also double-click a student name to quickly add it to the new class.

7. To return to the previous dialog box, click the Close button.

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Removing a Teacher Time Hold:

1. Click the door to the Staff Room. The Instructor Options dialog box appears.

2. Click the Assignments button. The Assignments dialog box appears.

3. Select a group from the list in the Groups box. The users in that group appear in the Users box. Note: You cannot remove an “on hold” status for an entire group.

4. Select a user from the list in the Users box. The current assignments marked [OH] appear in the Assignments for user box.

5. Select the [OH] reading subskills assignment from the Assignments for user box.

6. Click the Remove Hold button. You are prompted to delete the old results from the subskills exercise.

7. Click Yes. A message confirming deletion of the exercise appears.

8. Click OK. The original assignment appears in the Assignments for user box.

9. To return to the previous dialog box, click the Close button.

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If Teacher time hold reoccurs shortly after removal of the hold.
Follow the same procedure listed in the directions for removing a teacher time hold and then add these steps:
(click here if you forgot how to remove teacher time hold)

1. Click on the modify button.

2. Look for ‘Trial limit’ near the center of the box (the default is 25).

3. Change this number to 50.

4. Click on OK

5. Click on Close

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Viewing Subskill Results:

1. Log on as an instructor or the default administrator. (Students may view their own results in a similar fashion as described below. They access the results room when logged on as themselves. Reviewing results with students is a definite teachable moment).

2. Click the door to the Results Room

3. Select a user from the list in the Users box.
(Students would go to step 4).

4. Select Subskills from the list in the Modules box.

5. Click the Training button. The Training Results dialog box appears.

6. Select an exercise from the list in the Training Results dialog box. The speed and accuracy graphs for that exercise appear. To print the graphs, click the Print button. To view a full screen version of a graph, click the border around it. To remove the full screen version of the graph and return to the Reading Subskills Training Results dialog box, click the OK button.

7. To view details about the training exercise, click the Details button. The graphs will be replaced by a list of details and the Details button will be replaced by a Graph button. To print the training exercise details, click the Print button. To view the graphs again, click the Graph button.

8. To view complete details about one training session, click a point on one of the graphs. The complete details for the selected training session appear. To print the training session details, click the Print button. To return to the Reading Subskills Training Results dialog box, click the OK button.

9. To view the Reading Subskills Progress window, click the Progress button.
The Reading Subskills Progress window appears. The shading in each cell indicates whether an exercise has been worked on or mastered (see the legend in the bottom right corner of the window). To view additional information about a reading subskills exercise, drag the mouse pointer over a cell in the Progress window. Details about that exercise appear in the bottom left corner of the
window. To return to the Reading Subskills Training Results dialog box, click the OK button.

10. To return to the Results Room dialog box, click the OK button on the Reading Subskills Training Results dialog box.

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Server not found - error message when logging on

If you get a message that the academy is not connected to the server and you have previously been successfully connected, you may try reconnecting by following these steps:

For Windows workstations: (go to Macintosh workstation information)

1. Double click on my computer.

2. Double click on the C: drive.

3. Locate the programs file and double click to open it.

4. Locate the Autoskill folder and double click to open it.

5. Locate the AcadRead folder and double click to open it.

6. Locate the AcadData file (AcadData.ini) and double click to open it.

7. This file should open in notepad and have similar information:

[Academy]
DBName=ReadDB
PC Academy Path=c:\Program Files\Autoskill\AcadRead
Server ID=
Workstation ID=ACADEMY

Your server name should be listed in the fourth line.
For example:Server ID=freedom-apps

View server names by school.

Once you see that the correct information is listed as above, close the file and close all windows then try relaunching the Academy of Reading program. If the information of the server name is missing or incorrect, type in the correct server name, save the file, close the file and all windows and relaunch the program. This most likely will resolve the problem. If not, call for help.

For Macintosh Workstations:

1. Double click on the hard drive.

2. Locate the Users folder and double click to open it.

3. Locate the Shared Documents folder and double click to open it.

4. Locate the Autoskill folder and double click to open it.

5. Locate the AcadData file (AcadData.ini) and double click to open it.

6. This file should open in SimpleText and have similar information:

[Academy]
DBName=ReadDB
Server ID=
Workstation ID=ACADEMY

Your server name should be listed in the fourth line.
For example:Server ID=10.64.80.10

View server names by school.

Once you see that the correct information is listed as above, close the file and close all windows then try relaunching the Academy of Reading program. If the information of the server name is missing or incorrect, type in the correct server IP address, save the file, close the file and all windows and relaunch the program. This most likely will resolve the problem. If not, call for help.

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Assign the Phonemic Awareness Test Battery:

The Phonemic Awareness Test Battery should be the first activity each student completes. This test will determine placement in the Phonemic Awareness Exercises. See the Instructional Sequence for more information.

1. Log onto the program as yourself, the teacher, or as default administrator.

2. Click the door labeled Testing.

3. Select a user from the list in the user box.

4. Select phonemic in the module dialog box.

5. Click the testing button and the Phonemic Awareness Testing Assignment dialog box will open. Leave the defaults on‘Fixed A’ and ‘Child’.

6. Click the New button.

7. The student’s name will appear in the logged on blue box in the lower left hand corner. The student will progress through ten screens for each of the phonemic awareness exercise categories.

Note: If a student needs to finish the test on another day, have them stop between categories rather than escaping during the middle of a test as this will affect the results. Students are scored on the percentage of correct answers in each category. Students will be placed in the program based on their scores from this test. Determine where the student fell below mastery and place them in the category before it. See the Instructional Sequence for a more detailed explanation.

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Assign the Comprehension Test:

The comprehension test does not affect placement in the Academy of Reading program but will give information on the student’s aptitude in the area of reading comprehension. This test will be given at the beginning and the end of the year as a pre- and post-test to help determine reading improvement.

5. Click the testing button and the Comprehension Testing Assignment dialog box will open. The defaults are ‘silent’ and ‘child’ at level 1. For most young students you want to leave these defaults in place. If you are sure the student has at least a 3rd grade comprehension level, then select level 3 for testing purposes.

6. Click the New button.

7. The student’s name will appear in the logged on blue box in the lower left hand corner. The student will read a passage and then answer questions regarding the passage. They will get a split screen as a second chance for all questions initially answered incorrectly with the question on the left side of the window and the text on the right side. Student continue to take tests until there is a message that testing is complete.

Note: If a student needs to finish the test on another day, have them stop between tests rather than escaping during a test as this will affect the results. Students are scored on how long it takes them to read the passage and how accurately they respond to the questions.

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