Getting Started - Teacher

Welcome to ReadTheory!

Please check out this short video to help explain what ReadTheory is and how to use it.

To get started, you will need to create your teacher account. Navigate to https://readtheory.org/app/sign-up/role and select "Teacher". Please note, if you are a parent who homeschools or wishes to use to use your ReadTheory account to monitor your child's progress, you would still want to proceed with creating a "Teacher" account, not a "Parent" account. 

You'll want to proceed with creating your log-in credentials including entering a username, email address, and password. If you wish to use our "Log in with Google" feature, make sure to make your username matches your email address. 

Once you have entered your personal information, you can then create your first class. Here is a video about creating classes: Creating a Class Video. To create a class, navigate to your "My Classes" page and select "Create New Class". 

You'll fill in a few specifics about your class and when finished you will select the "Create Class" button. You can continue to add as many classes as you'd like by navigating back to your "My Classes" page and clicking on "Create New Class" until you have all of the classes that you need.

Next, you will want to add your students. Please see our article on creating new student accounts. You can either create new student accounts for your students or connect to students with existing accounts, or who choose to create their own accounts. 

To create new student accounts yourself, select the class you wish to add the students to on your "My Classes" page. Then choose "Add New Students".

You are then brought to the page where you can enter your students' information. You can choose to enter your students' information in individually.

Alternatively, you can import all of your students at one time via the "Import from CSV" located on the right-hand side of the screen. Check out our YouTube video explaining how to import students via CSV: https://youtu.be/gsSptC5xwO0.

When creating new student accounts, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Usernames need to be unique. If you find that the username you are trying to assign to your student is already in use, try changing it to something more unique. Consider adding their class number, their graduation year, or their middle name for example.

2. Student Email Addresses are Optional. Students can use the site with only a username and without an email address. 

3. Google Log-In. We do offer a "Google Log-In" feature for both teachers and students. If you would like your students to use our "Google Log-In" feature they must have an email address and their username needs to match their email address. For example, if a student's email address is "student@myschool.com", you would also want their username to be "student@myschool.com".

4. Password Credentials. Passwords must be at least 8 characters and contain at least 1 number. You can program all of your students to have the same password or you can create unique passwords for each of them. That is up to you!

5. Student First Names. For security purposes, under FERPA regulations, our site only allows an initial to appear as a student's first name if your students are under the age of 13. When creating your class you are offered the option to select if you have students in your class under the age of 13, if you checked that box, you will not be able to enter students' full first names into the program, only an initial will appear.

Once you have created your students' accounts, you will be emailed login cards that provide the students' login credentials for you to distribute to your students.

If you do not see the login cards in your email, please make sure to check your "Spam" and "Promotions" folders. If you continue to have trouble locating them, please contact support: support@readtheory.org. Check out this article for more information about our login cards: Login Cards

If your students already have existing ReadTheory accounts, or if you prefer your students to create their own accounts, then you will need to proceed by having your students connect to you via your classcode. Each class has its own unique classcode. A student will use the classcode just one time in order to connect to their teacher's class. This only needs to be done if the student has an existing account or has created their own account, this is not needed if the teacher has created the student account themselves. Please note, the classcode is only used to connect a student to their teacher, it is not the same as a student's password.

To locate the classcode for your class, navigate to your "My Classes" page and click on the class whose classcode you wish to view. Here you can find the classcode in 2 locations, directly under the class name on the left-hand side of the screen or in the classcode bubble on the right-hand side of the screen. Additionally, right after you create your class you will be sent an email with the classcode.

To have students with existing accounts connect to you, you will provide them with this classcode. Once they log in to their account, they will navigate to their "My Teachers" page located in the drop-down menu on the top-right hand side of their screen. Then they will enter the classcode in the classcode field.

Once they have done this, the student will be automatically enrolled in your class and will be able to view any of their associated quiz history and scores.

Please note that students do have the option of entering their teacher's email address to get connected, instead of the classcode. If they choose this route, the teacher will receive a notification at the top of their "My Classes" page informing them that the student has sent them an invitation.

The teacher will need to click on "Assign Students", select the class they wish to sort the student into and click "Approve".

At this point, you are all set! Students can start logging in and completing quizzes. When a student logs in for the first time they will be automatically presented with their pre-test, no further action needs to be taken by you to assign this. Once students have finished their pre-test PLUS one additional quiz, their scores will start appearing under their progress report pages.

Our adaptive system will continue to automatically issue students their next quiz based on their performance. This does not need to be assigned by you.

Additionally, we offer the ability to set a quiz goal for students every week using our "Activities" feature. This allows the teacher to task the students with completing a certain number of quizzes over a specific period of time. Teachers can assign this activity by navigating to their "Activities" page and selecting "Create New Activity". 

Students will continue to be assigned their unique quizzes based on our adaptive design and teachers can easily monitor their progress from either their "Activities" page or from the student's progress reports page. 

Check out this YouTube video to see what's next for your students! What's Next Video

Want to know more about the student experience? Check this out! Student Experience Video