Lake Washington - Benchmark Advance Pilot by Mindy Hawley

Grade K

mhawley29 — 2025-09-11 15:36:19 UTC

Grade 1

mhawley29 — 2025-09-11 15:37:48 UTC

Grade 2

mhawley29 — 2025-09-11 15:38:52 UTC

Grade 3

mhawley29 — 2025-09-11 15:39:14 UTC

Grade 4

mhawley29 — 2025-09-11 15:39:43 UTC

Grade 5

mhawley29 — 2025-09-11 15:40:01 UTC

If you would like to see all grade levels of Advance and Adelante K-5. Here is a demo account.

mhawley29 — 2025-09-11 18:50:38 UTC

Staff and Student Access URL: https://nsdba.benchmarkuniverse.com

Staff Login information

Username: lwsd_teacher

Password: password

Time frame

2025-09-12 22:10:35 UTC

Are the lesson estimation times accurate?

The times are suggested pacing. This program is designed with a spiraling curriculum approach, based on the latest research showing that students learn best in small, manageable chunks, with concepts revisited over time.

Slides for Grades 2-3 - 9.12.25

2025-09-15 20:32:22 UTC

Slides for Grades 4-5 9.12.25

mhawley29 — 2025-09-17 15:43:25 UTC

Literacy Planner sheets

2025-09-17 19:07:12 UTC

Could we get an electronic copy of the Literacy Planner that we received in our folder?

Please see above.

Kindergarten phonics

2025-09-25 23:23:50 UTC

Looking at Unit 1 Week 2- Focus letter M and Preview of S. Will we have S as a focus letter in upcoming weeks?

Yes, the letter s is the focus skill in Unit 2 Week 1. Here is the kindergarten phonics scope and sequence for quick reference.

Comprehensive Literacy Planner

2025-09-29 19:09:32 UTC

Where can I find the CLP for the 90 min and 70 min blocks?

The 75-90 minute CLP for each week of each unit can be found on Benchmark Universe. Open the TRS for the unit, click the dropdown arrow for the correct week, click on "Comprehensive Literacy Planner." Also, attached please find an example of the Pacing Options for Advance for Grade 1. This varies for each grade level and can be found in any TRS under the "Overview" dropdown arrow on BU.

3rd Grade Consumable "Texts for Close Reading"- the student edition is printed incorrectly. The "Knowledge Blueprint" is printed back to back - pages are printed- ii, iv, v, iii on all of the student editions for my students.

2025-09-29 20:34:57 UTC

Please reach out to Ana Gamez to switch your 3rd Grade Consumables. She has extras agamez@lwsd.org 425-936-1323

Where do I find saved presentations?

2025-09-29 22:11:17 UTC

I annotated two presentations and saved them in the digital presentation of my Extended Read. Where do I find those saved presentations?

Underneath the picture tile of the source you customized, click on the blue editing square to show the list of customizations. Click on the name of customization you wish to open, then click on the picture tile to open.

Student work on eNotebook

temitu — 2025-10-03 20:34:28 UTC

How do I see what the students have written on their e-Notebooks? I assigned it but all it will tell me is if they finished the assignment. It won't show me what they wrote on the pages themselves.

On your BU Dashboard, scroll down to the last section titled "How-to Videos: Benchmark Universe." Click the icon for "Assignments on Benchmark Universe." View the video titled "Monitor Assignments."

testing

giparsons — 2025-10-13 18:16:12 UTC

When I assigned my first assessment, I could have the text read to me on my computer, and I told the students they could use this option, but I don't see this as an option for them.

Please watch the video above to enable the audio for eAssessments on Benchmark Universe.

Presentations

2025-10-21 15:37:28 UTC

I just watched the video for digital presentations. Does 1st grade have presentations for comprehension? I'm only seeing foundations.

BEC created the foundational slides to guide the flow and cover the key components of systematic, explicit phonics—the building blocks for kids in kindergarten through second grade. In contrast, comprehension and writing instruction are most effective when students in early grades are actively engaged in thinking and talking about the text alongside the teacher, rather than viewing slides.

Poems in Unit 1, Week 1

2025-10-25 01:27:01 UTC

I tried to teach the "Two Famous Poems" lesson from Unit 2, Week 1 of 3rd grade. There was no way I could teach the "Make Connections to Learn about Characters' Actions" in 20 minutes. Many of our students are ML students and the vocabulary in both poems was extremely difficult. Also, having not grown up in the US, I did not know who John Henry was. I don't think our students had background knowledge to make sense of either poem. The first poem also did not do justice to John Henry's story. And asking student to make connections between the poem and other texts, personal experiences, and society seemed to simplify the complex situations in John Henry's life. The example of comparing how hard John Henry worked to trying hard to make a soccer team seemed simplistic. John Henry was an emancipated slave who had been told he could work to own land only to have that threatened to be revoked. He worked so hard he died. The second poem had so many words that were unfamiliar to the students that they could not make sense of it (e.g., sinewy, brawny, sexton, iron bands ...). The ELD support just says to teach the words which would have taken 20 minutes by itself (there are a total of 11 words they suggest pre-teaching). And the students needed to understand many of the words (sexton, brawny, and iron bands) to be able to understand the Lesson 12 on similes. We never got there. I am most concerned about the lack of building background knowledge and the need for extensive vocabulary instruction make it impossible to teach the concepts in the given time. I also feel as though these poems were added for their diversity without addressing the history of slavery and racism.

Thank you for sharing your feedback about your students’ challenges making personal connections while reading Two Famous Poems and the need for more background building before tackling these texts. We really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience—it helps us better understand how the materials are working in real classrooms. Your feedback has been shared with our editorial team and will be thoughtfully considered in future revisions.

Consumable Resources

2025-11-21 23:29:03 UTC

Is there a list of consumable resources that came with the Unit 1 and 2 pilot, since we need to return items to the district for storage? I understand the letter tiles and the workbooks. What about the used word work mats and used magnetic small group word building mats and tiles?

All pilot materials will need to be returned to the LWSD warehouse with the exception of the students books:

Grades K-1 - My Reading & Writing
Grades 2-5 - Texts for Close Reading