What’s included in our literacy curriculum for 6–8

Amplify ELA is a blended literacy curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. The heart of every lesson is the text. Our core English Language Arts curriculum enables teachers to teach skills through texts and develop their students’ muscles for building meaning through reading. With Amplify ELA, students learn to attack any complex text and make observations, grapple with interesting ideas, and find relevance for themselves.

What’s included in our phenomena-based science curriculum for middle schools

Amplify Science for grades 6–8 is a phenomena-based science curriculum that is designed to give students engaging, realistic experiences that mirror how scientists and engineers actually work. To do this, the Lawrence Hall of Science and Amplify created a middle school program that includes compelling hands-on investigations, print resources, and digital modeling tools and simulations that work seamlessly together to enable students’ investigations and explorations.

Simulations and practice tools (grades 2+)

Developed exclusively for the Amplify Science program, these engaging digital tools:

  • serve as venues for exploration
  • enable data collection
  • allow students to explore scientific concepts
  • show what might be impossible to see with the naked eye

Interactive Quests

Quests are fun, week-long immersions into a specific, multilayered topic. They enable students to practice analytical reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills—all while building a strong classroom community.

Student Investigation Notebooks

Available for every unit, the Student Investigation Notebooks provide space for students to:

  • record data
  • reflect on ideas from texts and investigations
  • construct explanations and arguments

Targeted lesson plans

mCLASS Intervention provides a bank of more than 4,000 research-backed activities, including multisensory activities that use auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic techniques.

Teacher’s Guides

Available digitally and in print, the Teacher’s Guides contain all of the information teachers need to facilitate classroom instruction, including:

  • detailed lesson plans
  • unit and chapter overview documentation
  • differentiation strategies
  • standards alignments
  • in-context professional development

Immersive student resources

Amplify Caminos students stay engaged with a variety of print and digital resources, including:

  • Original decodables and read-aloud Big Books (K–2), Student Readers (3–5), and authentic Spanish literature anthologies (4–5).
  • Poet’s Journal and Writer’s Journal (write-in Student Readers for Grades 4–5).
  • Student Activity Books with embedded assessments.
  • Research units for independent research built around a trade book.
  • Multisensory phonics materials:
    • Letter Cards (K–2)
    • Syllable Cards (K–2)
    • Image Cards (K–3)
    • Plus, digital anchor charts and a Sound Library.

Student Books

Age-appropriate Student Books allow students to:

  • engage with content-rich texts
  • obtain evidence
  • develop research and close-reading skills
  • construct arguments and explanations

Student Investigation Notebooks

Available for every unit, the Student Investigation Notebooks provide space for students to:

  • record data
  • reflect on ideas from texts and investigations
  • construct explanations and arguments

Available with full-color article compilations for middle school units

Digital student experience

Students access the digital simulations and modeling tools, as well as lesson activities and assessments, through the digital student experience. Students can interact with the digital student experience as they:

  • conduct hands-on investigations
  • engage in active reading and writing activities
  • participate in discussions
  • record observations
  • craft end-of-unit scientific arguments

Teacher Edition

Available digitally and in print, the Teacher Edition contains all the information teachers need to facilitate classroom instruction, including:

  • Detailed lesson plans.
  • Video teacher tips embedded in the lesson.
  • Standards alignment and exit tickets.
  • Real-time differentiation strategies.
  • Robust reporting.

Science articles

The middle school science articles serve as sources for evidence collection and were authored by science and literacy experts at the Lawrence Hall of Science.

Student edition

Available digitally and in print, the student materials guide middle schoolers through complex texts and writing by:

  • engaging students with high-quality narrative and informational texts
  • providing videos, audio supports, and digital experiences that capture their attention
  • keeping all of their writing in one place with the personal writing journal