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Getting Started (for Teachers)

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Welcome to CARS & STARS Online and your new Teacher account.

The following is some useful information to help you get started. Follow the steps below and you will be on the way to making your students’ reading comprehension extraordinary.

For more information on student success stories, click here.

If you have any questions, please type your question in the Search field which is located at the top of the page. If you can’t find your answer, please click here to submit a support ticket for further assistance.

Before getting started, you need to check that your computer or tablet meets CARS & STARS Online's system requirements. Accessing CARS & STARS Online may not work without meeting these system requirements. For more information, click here.

STEP 1:

Check that all your students are listed in your student list

  1. Navigate to the main menu, and click on the Students section.
  2. Click on View Student List.
  3. Choose the Classroom, Account Type and Status.
  4. Click on the Submit button.

Please note: It is strongly advised that you have all your students listed in your student list at this point. Otherwise, please inform your School Administrator to have your students added or transferred to your classroom.

STEP 2:

Student Access Cards

  1. Obtain the Student Access Cards from your School Administrator.
  2. Distribute the Student Access Cards to all your students.

For Student Login

  1. Make sure no one else is logged on to the program on your computer.
  2. To log someone else out, click at the top right of the username and select Logout from the menu.
  3. Go to https://app.carsandstars.com.au and click on Students to switch to the student login and enter the access code. Your student can login with their issued access code, listed on the Student Access Card.
  4. Click Login.

STEP 3:

You're almost there.

Depending on your subscription and which module you want to start with, please click on either CARS & STARS or FOCUS Reading below.

CARS & STARS

A Placement Test is preset when a student account is created.

NEW The Intelligent Placement option will intelligently allocate the beginning Placement level for the students based on their years of birth and any data from their previous reading levels (you do not need to manually direct your students to take a Placement Test).

Before your students take their Placement Test, if you know that your students have learning differences, you can change the initial placement level lower than the recommended one. For more information on reviewing and changing the student's recommended placement level, click here.

Once your Student accounts have been created, your students can login and be immediately directed to the Placement Centre to have their reading comprehension assessed. Once your students have completed their Placement Tests, a CARS & STARS reading level will automatically be designated for them based on the outcome. For Placement Test Settings, click here.

Please note: Students in the same year level may have differing levels of comprehension and therefore be on different CARS & STARS levels within the same class. Level AA correlates with Prep/Foundation, Level A correlates to Year 1 and Level H with Year 8 or higher.

If you have created Virtual Student accounts to manually record students' CARS assessment data, please follow the steps provided in the link below:

https://help.carsandstars.com.au/hc/en-au/articles/221173127-Enter-CARS-Assessment-Data-For-Virtual-Student-Accounts-Only-

If you would like your students to work on their reading comprehension online and you are already confident of your student’s reading level, the Teacher account that is assigned to the classroom (or you as School Administrator) can manually assign them to their reading level by following the steps below. Otherwise go straight to Step 6.

Assign Reading Level manually

  1. Navigate to the main menu and click on the Reading Levels section.
  2. Click on the View Reading Level List link.
  3. Choose an appropriate Classroom from the Classroom field.
  4. Choose All option from the Current Reading Level field.
  5. Click the Submit button.

At this point, you can assign reading levels to single or multiple students in a class.

Assign Reading Level to a single student

  1. To assign a reading level to an individual student, move your cursor onto the student’s row and, under the Action column, click on the Manage Reading Level button.
  2. In the What Would You Like to Do? field, choose Assign Reading Level.
  3. Choose a Reading Level from the Reading Level field.
  4. Click on the Submit button.

Assign Reading Level to a small group

  1. To assign a reading level to a group of students, select the checkbox next to each student’s details and click on the Mark button found on the bottom of the page, ensuring that you have the correct number of students selected.
  2. In the What Would You Like to Do? field, choose Assign Reading Level to the selected students.
  3. Choose a Reading Level from the Reading Level field.
  4. Click on the Submit button.

Assign Reading Level to the whole class

  1. To assign a reading level to the whole class, click on the View All button and then the Select All button.
  2. Click on the Mark button, ensuring that you have the correct number of students selected.
  3. In the What Would You Like to Do? field, choose Assign Reading Level to the selected students.
  4. Choose a Reading Level from the Reading Level field.
  5. Click on the Submit button.

You can click on the green plus symbol to reveal more detailed information about how each student’s assigned reading level relates to the CARS and STARS series as a whole.

FOCUS Reading

FR_assign_readinglevel.gif

  1. Navigate to the main menu and click on FOCUS Reading, then View FOCUS Reading List.
  2. Choose an appropriate classroom from the Classroom field.
  3. Choose the All option from the Current Reading Level field.
  4. Click the Submit button.

Assign Reading Level to a single student

  1. To assign a reading level to an individual student, move your cursor onto the student’s row and, under the Action column, click on the Manage Reading Level button.
  2. In the What Would You Like to Do? field, choose Assign Reading Level.
  3. Choose a reading level from the Reading Level field.
  4. Click on the Submit button.

Assign Reading Level to a small group

  1. To assign a reading level to a group of students, select the checkbox next to each student’s details and click on the Mark button found on the bottom of the page, ensuring that you have the correct number of students selected.
  2. In the What Would You Like to Do? field, choose Assign Reading Level to the selected students.
  3. Choose a reading level from the Reading Level field.
  4. Click on the Submit button.

Assign Reading Level to the whole class

  1. To assign a reading level to the whole class, click on the View All button and then the Select All button.
  2. Click on the Mark button, ensuring that you have the correct number of students selected.
  3. In the What Would You Like to Do? field, choose Assign Reading Level to the selected students.
  4. Choose a reading level from the Reading Level field.
  5. Click on the Submit button.

Once you have completed the above setup, you may follow the Teacher Guide to use CARS & STARS Online in Your Classroom.

To watch the student walkthrough video with your students to demonstrate how students can navigate the pages, click here.

To view the full Teacher User Guide, click here.

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