ACTIVE CLASSROOM

Technology can be a teacher’s best friend, but it can also be their worst enemy. We know all too well how distracting technology can be. With CARS & STARS Online, teachers can view and monitor the activities of each student logged into the program from their own device through a live view of their screens. This is especially helpful during instances of remote learning, where it can be the best - and only! - form of supervision available.

COMPLETE ACCESS

Big cost savings are only the first benefit to going digital. Every CARS & STARS student subscription gets full access to all nine levels (AA–H) of the program. This is currently the equivalent of the content of 18 printed books! Students are presented with the same stories as in the printed workbooks but in a full-colour, interactive, illustrated digital format that can be accessed on any current device, anywhere with an internet connection. It's all the same benefits as the printed text, plus much more - and all without the back strain or the need to remember to bring books to class.

Forget about the hassle of deciding what your students’ placement level should be. With the new Intelligent Placement option the program can choose their placement level for you. Exclusive to CARS & STARS Online, Intelligent Placement can automatically allocate your students to an appropriate placement test level based on their years of birth and data aggregated from their previous reading level(s).

AUTO MARKING

We know how valuable a teacher’s time is, so you’ll be able to focus on how to nurture the potential of your students instead of marking ticks and crosses all day. Our program is designed with an intricate algorithm that can mark your students’ work for you, giving instant feedback and rewards as students excel through our program.

ASSESSMENT TRACKING

Our program grants teachers the freedom to examine the performance of students in relation to each other. In this way, students who are struggling can be brought to the attention of their teachers, providing each individual with an equal opportunity to receive help.

COMPREHENSIVE DATA

We believe that the presence of useful data is important in pinpointing the best way to help students achieve amazing results. Our reports are detailed yet simple and understandable so that any areas of concern can be acknowledged directly, not hidden behind a tiring string of numbers.

MAKE DATA-DRIVEN ADJUSTMENTS

Each student brings different skills, backgrounds and motivations to the act of reading, which means how they grow as a reader will also be different to others. Personally monitoring and changing their reading level can be a hassle. With CARS & STARS Online, you can easily reassign or reset a student's reading level with three simple clicks, and colour-coding helps keep track of where they are assigned.

INTERACTIVE TEACHER GUIDE

The CARS & STARS Online Interactive Teaching Guides offer comprehensive information on using the series effectively in your classroom. The strategies are explained, and the detailed research behind the program is outlined. The guides also include complete answer keys for both CARS and STARS. For STARS, the in-depth Lesson Plans take teachers through each of the lessons in detail and include correct answers as well as teacher tips. Each Lesson Plan also includes some of these special features: ELL Support; Genre Focus; Teacher's Corner; Reteaching; and Connecting with Literature, all designed to broaden and enhance the specific instruction being given in that lesson.

DRAG & DROP REPORTING

Prioritise your favourite reports using drag and drop. Easily get insights early and often, allowing you to prepare lessons and activities that target your students' actual needs. Quickly convert data into useful and actionable information.

All your previous reports produced will be saved in Reporting History. The Reporting History acts as a set of dynamically created bookmarks that can be easily retrieved by a single click.

Teachers would have the ability to customise and brand the look of their Dashboard. Branding allows teachers to change profile and cover images. This is an excellent way to ensure teachers using the CARS & STARS Online feel they are using a product belonging to the school, and gives a much more professional look.

Student access cards can be used in the classroom or sent home. This is a super easy way for students – especially young students – to access CARS & STARS Online directly, without having to navigate the Internet. No typing – just hold the access card up to the device’s webcam. Students can login automatically to their iOS, Chromebook or Windows device with one simple scan!

Teachers have long been able to use CARS & STARS Online to get an unprecedented, real-time picture of their students' progress and results. Now, with the new Student Participation feature, teachers can review how active and engaged students are in the classroom as well. With this increased insight into not just the ensuing results but the process by which students arrive at them, CARS & STARS Online now offers even more ways to develop authentic and consistent classroom engagement.

The new Question Timer feature is designed to slow down students who might try and click through activities without reading them so as to finish more quickly. When a School Administrator enables this feature, students will receive a notification to “slow down” when they try and click through to the next question too hastily, ensuring that they spend an appropriate amount of time reading the question and considering their answer choice.

The handy new Lesson Bookmark feature allows students to instantly jump back to lessons they want to access quickly or repeatedly. By bookmarking a lesson they can easily return there by accessing all their bookmarked lessons from the personal My Bookmark section of their account, at any time and on any device.

ENGAGING STORIES

We understand how laborious reading can be for growing minds. That’s why we endeavour to create engaging narratives that make reading an adventure, not a task.

GUIDED NEXT STEP INSTRUCTIONS

With the guidance of our program, students can avoid being stranded, with step-by-step instructions on how to improve and what to do next. Students are not limited by content available, but only by their desire to do better.

ANSWER ANALYSIS

Whether a student gets the answer right or wrong is not as important as understanding why. Alongside our auto-marking feature, students can view which answers were correct or incorrect, coupled with explanations of why this is the case.

HIGHLIGHTING

Allow your students to type their thoughts and comments right into the interactive assessments and lessons. Use various colours to emphasise different ideas or to connect important ideas to review that information later.

Read Aloud can be switched on for students who prefer to listen to content instead of reading, as well as those with dyslexia or other learning differences. The Read Aloud feature increases word exposure and improves vocabulary. This exposure helps build background knowledge, an essential component of an evolving student. It also helps develop higher-order thinking skills.

Students begin to interact with the strategy through drawing. Students learn to use their imagination and learn to think visually. Feeling comfortable with simple drawing and sketching can help early years and ESL students, as well as learners with special needs. Best of all, these techniques build self-esteem and the confidence that emerges is transferable to other areas of the curriculum.

CARS & STARS Online is not only about the freedom a learner should have to be the architect of their own learning experience. It’s also about the teacher having the full control to lock or unlock tests or lessons for students to ensure they are on the correct tasks and not rushing ahead or getting bored staying behind.

Announcements allow classroom teachers to communicate with students about activities and post interesting notices. Announcements are designed to work with Lock Settings to allow classroom teachers to broadcast information directly to every student in a class. These announcements will be visible to students on their Dashboard, and after they have completed the Placement Test.

IMPROVEMENT FROM HOME

At Hawker Brownlow Digital, we believe that learning doesn’t only happen in the classroom but continues when they arrive home. That’s why we’ve formulated our program to be accessible anywhere, anytime.

PARENT ENGAGEMENT IN CHILDREN’S LEARNING

CARS & STARS Online allows you to keep up to date with day-to-day progress, while reducing strain on teachers, all from the comfort of your own home. The software ensures that you share a constant connection with your child's progress throughout the program.

RECOMMENDED LESSONS

Based on the student’s skill level, our program recommends specific lessons which aim to help them improve in any areas of concern. Through this, students can engage in self-learning and are not heavily reliant on teachers, meaning they can continue to grow outside of the classroom.