An assignment is a book you set for the whole class or for some of its students, with a note and questions of your own if you want them. Students read the book, answer your questions when they finish, and you read what they said. Students are never shown a due date, a timer or whether an answer to your questions was right.
Classes are opening soon, so nothing can be assigned yet. This article describes how assignments work once the school agreement is in force.
Choose a book
- Open the class and choose "New assignment" at the top of the page. When the Assignments tab has nothing to list, it offers "Choose a book to set" as well.
- Books in your class library are listed first, then books from the TaleTykes library. Use "Find a book by its title" to search.
- Each book says "Comes with questions" or "You write the questions". Choose "Set this book".
A draft opens with the book's own questions already filled in. On the class's Library tab, "Set this book" is also beside each finished book in the class library.
The title, your note, and who it is for
- "Title" is what students see as the name of what you set.
- "A note for students (optional)" can be up to 140 characters. Leave out dates and deadlines, because students are never shown one. Words such as "deadline", "due by", "hurry" and "score" are refused, in the note and in the questions.
- "Who it is for" is "The whole class" or "Students I choose". If you choose students, tick their names.
The questions
An assignment can have up to 8 questions, and up to 3 of them can be written or spoken answers. The book's own questions are marked "From the book", and yours are marked "Yours".
- Choose "Add a question with answers to choose from", or "Add a written question".
- Write the question under "Question". Pip can read it to students.
- For a question with answers to choose from, fill in between 2 and 4 answers under "Answers to choose from", and pick the right one with the circle beside it. Students are never told which it was.
- Use "Move up", "Move down" and "Remove" to put the questions in order.
A question from the book about feelings becomes a written question, because a feeling has no right answer. You can also set a book with no questions, and students only read it. Once any student has started answering, the questions cannot be changed, although the title, the note and who it is for still can.
Publish it
Choose "Save draft" to come back later, or "Publish to" followed by the number of students. It goes live straight away, and there is no date to set, because students are never shown one.
What students see
- The book appears under "From your teacher" on their home screen, with "Your teacher says:" and your note.
- Once they have started it, the home screen shows which page they reached, such as Page 3 of 12.
- When they finish, the questions come one at a time, with "Question 2 of 4" above each one. There is no timer, and "I am not sure" is always there.
- For a written question, they type under "Your answer", or hold "Hold to say it" to speak. A spoken answer is turned into words, and the recording is not kept. After several spoken answers in one day, a student is asked to write the next one instead.
- They are never told whether an answer was right. At the end, Pip says "Thank you. Your teacher will read what you said."
If the class has "Pip reads questions and notes aloud" switched on, which comes with the Classroom and School plans, Pip reads the questions to them. Every written answer goes through our safety checks first. If one is held, the student sees a short message from Pip instead, and you can read about it under Class safety alerts.
Read and mark the answers
Open "Assignments" in the sidebar for every class, or a class's Assignments tab. "Open", "Answers to read", "Drafts", "Finished" and "All" filter the list.
Open an assignment to see:
- How many students "Answered the questions", "Finished the book", are "Reading" or have "Not started", and where each student is.
- For each question with answers to choose from, how many students chose each answer, with "the right answer" marked, and how many chose I am not sure.
- For each written question, what each student wrote. Mark it "Got it", "Partly" or "Not yet". Students and parents never see a mark; the class's other teachers and school admins can see and change it.
An answer the safety checks held shows no words, and cannot be marked. Choose "Change it" to edit a live assignment, or "Finish it" when you are done. Students no longer see a finished assignment, and every answer stays for you to read.
A parent who has linked their account sees the title of what you set and how far their child has got with it, but never their child's answers.
Where to go next
Help for teachers has short answers while you work. For anything else, write to support@taletykes.com or use Contact.