What is eSpark?
eSpark is a supplemental online curriculum resource used to differentiate instruction and practice for math, reading, and writing in grades PK-8. It is the only program built to engage today’s generation of learners by helping students build the skills they need through topics they genuinely care about.
eSpark is not like traditional digital learning tools. Unlike the cookie-cutter, drill-and-kill programs kids have become all too familiar with, eSpark personalizes the learning experience based on student levels, interests, and responses.It’s the ideal combination of evidence-based instructional practices and cutting-edge technology, and it is immediately distinguishable from anything students have used before.
What is eSpark Used For?
eSpark in your classroom
This overview video shows the basics of how to use eSpark.
eSpark for Reading
The science of reading meets highly relevant, engaging content, with infinite possibilities for exploration.
eSpark’s research-based approach to reading instruction features extensive coverage for all five core components of reading instruction, with special emphasis on phonics, fluency, and reading comprehension.
Students encounter a wide variety of engaging instructional videos, practice games, and awe-inspiring AI-powered activities in which the level of the lesson, the lesson themes, and the real-time instruction and feedback are all tailored to each individual student.
eSpark Reading highlights include:
Explicit and systematic instruction
Framing Videos clearly define the purpose of each lesson and provide concise, direct instruction. Learning goals are restated multiple times, and sequentially built on prior learning.
The power of student choice
“Students read more, understand more, and are more likely to continue reading when they have the opportunity to choose what they read.” (Allington and Gabriel, 2012)
Personalized decodable readers
Decodable Choice Texts empower students to craft unique stories based on the choices they make before practicing the same phonics skills that make decodables such a cornerstone of elementary classrooms.
“It not only expands their creativity, it makes them have that passion to read which, I think, is one of the hardest things to teach.”
-Rachel R., 1st Grade Teacher
Activity spotlight: Reading Lab
New in 2024, the eSpark Reading Lab brings the latest advancements in speech recognition and AI technology to science of reading-aligned phonics instruction.
Reading Lab is a place for students to receive clear and engaging feedback and instruction on phonics and fluency without the traditional time demands of 1:1 guided instruction.
Reading Lab makes reading more accessible to every student by empowering them to work on phonics independently, removing the barriers presented by limited classroom instructional time.
How it works
Students work from a full phonics scope and sequence spanning grades K-3. Each activity is aligned with a specific phoneme or pattern. Students read words aloud, and eSpark’s AI tutor delivers micro-interventions in real-time when inaccuracies are detected. These micro-interventions feature modeling at the phoneme level, followed by blending to help students put it all together.
Activity spotlight: Choice Texts
Choice Texts are a foundational part of eSpark’s reading curriculum, encountered by students on both their Adaptive Path and in dozens of teacher-driven Assignments. This unparalleled reading activity empowers students to work on their reading skills in a context that appeals to them. Where traditional programs ask all students to work from one-size-fits-all reading passages, eSpark transfers that agency by giving them the ability to select the topic that appeals to them. This approach takes two forms:
Open-ended responses with limitless possibilities
Students in grades 3+ working on reading literature (fiction) skills have the opportunity to do so with stories, characters, and topics completely of their choosing. eSpark’s built-in content moderation ensures the themes remain age-appropriate without limiting students’ creative freedom.
Culturally relevant and high-interest non-fiction topics
Students working on reading informational (non-fiction) skills do so from a variety of pre-vetted topics drawn from reliable source material, including seasonal themes and the same topics they’re talking about on the playground or in the hallways.
eSpark for Writing
Extend your teachers’ toolkits and reach with an AI tutor that walks students through every step of the writing process.
Research has shown the importance of tightly integrating reading and writing instruction, but teachers often have a hard time allocating sufficient time and resources to writing. eSpark offers the perfect opportunity to build a writing culture into the classroom without diverting instructional time away from other subjects.
eSpark Writing includes:
Diverse prompts tailored to students’ chosen texts, fostering engagement through relevance.
Sentence starters, suggestions, and contextual feedback to promote active participation.
Real-time guidance to celebrate student success and support productive struggle.
Extensive safeguards and moderation to keep students focused and on-track.
Full transparency for teachers into what students are writing about and how they are growing over time.
eSpark for Math
Standards-aligned instruction and practice, with a personalized twist.
eSpark math features all the greatest hits teachers need to help students catch up to (and stay on) grade level. The curriculum includes:
Engaging instructional videos, including catchy tunes from NUMBEROCK and eSpark’s own Minute Monsters
A variety of fun math games to support conceptual understanding, including fact fluency practice in the eSpark Numbers Lab
AI-powered Choice Math activities that deliver highly contextualized, real-world word problems based on student interests
A mix of independent, Adaptive Pathways tailored to student level and teacher-driven Assignments to help reinforce specific skills
Continuous formative assessment and progress monitoring
Evidence-Based and Proven Effective
eSpark meets all ESSA evidence requirements for federal funding and has repeatedly been proven to improve student outcomes on independent assessments
eSpark is a multi-time recipient of the Digital Promise Research-Based Design Product Certification.
eSpark’s Theory of Learning guidepost is grounded in seven research-driven elements that have all been directly linked to improved student learning outcomes, including:
Differentiation - eSpark is the only program that differentiates on three dimensions: student levels, student interests, and student responses.
Adaptivity - eSpark consistently adjusts within each student’s Zone of Proximal Development. Students are always working on-level.
Student engagement - eSpark is the students’ choice for a reason. The program’s unparalleled personalization ensures a unique experience for every student, every time.
Direct instruction: eSpark’s Framing and Instructional Videos are interspersed between practice activities to ensure systematic and explicit instruction of standards and skills.
Practice: eSpark features comprehension monitoring, asking questions, summarization, and graphic organizers, all of which have been proven to lead to better retention and learning transfer.
Assessment and feedback: eSpark students are given multiple attempts on formal formative assessments and challenges. Real-time feedback is a cornerstone of eSpark activities.
Reflection and synthesis: Students summarize and reteach the concepts they’ve learned at the end of every Quest.
Learn more (and read the studies) at: https://www.esparklearning.com/research-based-curriculum
Dr. Hibner’s comprehensive research concluded that student growth is significantly higher when eSpark is used in the classroom.
Engage the Disengaged
The age of one-size-fits-all multiple choice/drag-and-drop digital learning is over. eSpark is the future of personalized learning.
Yes, kids these days are built differently, but that just means we have to think outside the box to keep them engaged in their learning. eSpark’s evidence-based, AI-powered, and student-centered approach is helping schools and districts everywhere do just that.
85% of teachers
believe personalization of learning content based on their students’ interests results in better learning outcomes…
…but only 29%
believe their current resources engage their students and keep them excited about learning.
