BrainPOP Resources
New to BrainPOP: Back to School 2024
Big news! Just in time for back-to-school season—BrainPOP has gotten Moby-sized new learning activities to better support learning at all levels, and to track (and celebrate!) learning outcomes.
Each new feature is equally exciting in its own way, but there are five things they have in common. They all:
- Build standard-aligned, grade-leveled background knowledge and vocabulary
- Promote essential literacy skill-building, comprehension, and critical thinking
- Feature easy-to-read alignments to your state’s ELA and content standards
- Allow you to differentiate instruction
- Assess learning to let you know who needs a little more help—and in what
All of this helps teachers make the most of every instructional minute, and helps students feel empowered to learn in a way—and at a level—that works for them. Learn more about each of the new features and reports available Back to School 2024 below.
Note: As we build these new features, some resources, reports, and functionalities will be temporarily unavailable to accommodate behind-the-scenes work. Learn more here.
New Features
Get Everyone on the Same Page with Leveled Reading
What it is: Students read high-interest texts—at three different reading levels—that build extra background knowledge on concepts connected to the movie. Meanwhile, embedded assessments help students practice and apply reading strategies.
Why teachers will love it: We know that teachers need a variety of text sources for students to build background knowledge on a topic, and core instruction sometimes assumes students come with certain background knowledge. At the same time, we know that teachers must toe the line between having their students read at grade level and scaffolding extra support for those who need it.
Enter, Leveled Reading. The texts connected to the movie help all students come to the table with contextual foundations—while the three reading levels help students feel supported or challenged, or somewhere in between: all depending on the needs of the day. Simultaneously, Leveled Reading’s engaging questions help cement students’ comprehension and flex their critical thinking muscles.
Teach Tier 2 Vocabulary That “Sticks” with Vocab Builder
What it is: Interactive flashcards with a grade-leveled word bank of tier 2 words. Students engage with interactive, multi-modal activities (drag-and-drop, Venn Diagram, etc.) that provide practice and application of literacy skills—including deciphering context clues and analyzing word parts.
Why teachers will love it: We know that students need consistent exposure and practice with tier 2 vocabulary words: they’re high-frequency words that unlock understanding across subjects—and, because they transcend specific subjects, they need to be explicitly taught. That’s why Vocab Builder provides students with accessible and engaging ways to learn these all-important words. By using the movie’s background knowledge as a springboard, and comprehension-building activities to uncover the words’ meaning, Vocab Builder unlocks key vocabulary for students in a way that “sticks”—in the classroom and beyond.
Build Students’ Testing Confidence with Enhanced Quizzes
What it is: Enhanced quizzes go beyond traditional multiple-choice questions, allowing students to “show what they know” – on both content knowledge and literacy skill application – through technology-enhanced item types that mirror the format and rigor of their end of year assessments.
Why teachers will love it: We know that grade-level standards—and the end of year assessments that test for them—are increasingly complex, and require students to demonstrate true understanding. That’s why our enhanced Quiz uses technology-enhanced question types: they reflect what students will see on assessments and help them flex their critical thinking skills as they work through new knowledge.
Quizzes allow teachers, meanwhile, to make the most of every instructional minute: they help teach literacy skills, content knowledge, and test readiness in one quick activity—while measuring and tracking student understanding (without the hassle of manual grading).
Inform Future Differentiated Instruction with Teacher-Level Assignment Reports
What it is: These new and improved reports have been created with the help of teachers to cover exactly the information that teachers want—in the format they need—to make data-informed decisions for future instruction. There are three views for each report, meaning teachers can look at students’ progress in as macro or micro a view as they want.
- Assignment Progress shows how each student performs on individual activities within one topic assignment, alongside a benchmark comparison of how it compares to the class average.
- ELA Standards Performance Report shows insights on student performance of literacy skills emphasized in their grade-level state ELA standards.
- Activity Progress shows how each student performs on individual questions inside an activity, alongside a benchmark comparison of how it compares to the class average. Granular insights into student responses help identify areas where students excel or need additional support.
Each report is broken down by student and displays scores with the ability to filter for specific results.
Why teachers will love it: We know that teachers are responsible for their students meeting grade level expectations. We also know that—to fully understand content material—students must first be proficient in their cross-curricular ELA skills standards.
That’s why Teacher Reports’ Activity and Assignment tabs give teachers a high-level overview of how each class understands the activity’s content material, while the Standards tab tracks students’ transferable ELA skill-building. In other words: teachers can easily differentiate tomorrow’s lesson by quickly noting which students need more help—and in what.
FAQs
Leveled Reading, Vocab Builder, Enhanced Quiz, Teacher Reports, and state standard visibility will only be available for BrainPOP (3-8). Opportunities for improvements to BrainPOP Jr. are being considered for a future date.
Yes, all new learning activities will be available across academic subjects. At launch this summer, these activities will be available on our 125 most popular topics and added to all other topics across BrainPOP 3-8 on a rolling basis.
Yes, the new learning activities for BrainPOP 3-8 will cover all 50 state standards. The U.S. state associated with your account will be the U.S. state’s standards that you see upon logging in. If you do not have a state associated with your account, or if you are an international school, it will default to the Common Core Standards.
Great question! Yes! Our Professional Learning Services (PLS) team offers professional development packages at the school and district levels. You can also watch the recordings of May’s POPup events and look out for upcoming Connect by BrainPOP events.
Yes! All auto-graded activities can be assigned to individual students, small groups, and whole classes.
Leveled Readings are available at three levels, each corresponding to a grade band.
Grades 3-4: Lexile level 520-940
Grades 5-6: Lexile level 830-1070
Grades 7-8: Lexile level 970-1185
AnnaLiese Burich is a product marketing manager at BrainPOP with a history of Edtech writing experience. She holds an MA in Magazine Journalism and an MA in English Literature.
