Student Online Achievement Resources
for Military Students and their Classmates
 

SOAR is the result of a partnership between the University of Northern Iowa, Princeton Review, Skills Tutor, and CORE K12. The partnership is committed to enhancing the educational experience of the children of our military personnel and the communities that serve them. Additionally, the resources help ease the transition as families move from one military installation to another, and support parents in valuing and enhancing the learning that occurs at home. SOAR is completely free of charge.

Military children and their classmates now have access to SOAR (Student Online Achievement Resources) at www.soarathome.org .

This on-line program provides students, parents and teachers the standards in all 50 states and DoD schools overseas.  SOAR’s focus is on math, reading, and language arts for students in grades 2-12.  It helps parents manage their children’s education with cutting edge technology.

Students can take an broad assessment on any of the state learning standards or mini-assessments on specific skills, receive immediate feedback, and be directed to a tutorial that will improve their skills, where needed.  Parents can monitor the progress of their child from anywhere in the world.  In addition parents are provided with resource materials that will assist their child in areas where they may need help.

SOAR is not a placement program.  It is a program that can assist students, parents and teachers:
 

·      Identify strengths and areas where students may need improvement

·      Customize instruction to address the specific needs of a student

·      Provide remediation and enrichment resources

·      Provide families that are moving with a look at the state standards in their next school district

Additionally, the University of Northern Iowa has developed Instructional Videos and Ancillary Resources in the following areas:

Mathematics: Making Sense of Mathematics helps students make sense of challenging mathematics concepts and procedures. The videos build the viewer’s conceptual understanding of mathematics by working through interesting real-life situations. Supplementary resources give students the opportunity to check and extend their reasoning by solving problems similar to those in the videos.

Videos and Ancillaries are organized within the 5 strands of Mathematics:

• NUMBERS AND OPERATIONS

• GEOMETRY

• MEASUREMENT

• ALGEBRA

• DATA ANALYSIS AND PROBABILITY

Literacy: Making Sense of Literacy helps students make sense of challenging literacy concepts. Through engaging videos, the inquisitive Knowledge Seekers demonstrate how to examine the thinking that goes on inside their heads as they process or create text. By using the Thinking Aloud videos and supplementary resources, students develop the literacy strategies necessary to construct understanding and flexibly apply them to new situations.

Videos and Ancillaries are organized within the 5 strands of Language Arts:

• READING

• LISTENING

• WRITING

• VIEWING

• SPEAKING

Early Childhood Literacy: LEARNING TOGETHER: Making Sense of Early Childhood gives teachers and parents of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers ideas on how to turn everyday activities into learning opportunities. The series of engaging videos show parents interacting with their children. The parents model creative ways to meet the developmental needs of young children in both literacy and mathematics. These video and print resources will give parents the confidence to interact with their children in meaningful ways as they learn together as a family.

Topics include:

• DAILY ACTIVITIES

• TOYS AND GAMES

• READING TOGETHER

• TALKING TOGETHER