Choose what to make

The short version

1. Open Create.
2. Choose a lesson or a student at the top.
3. Choose the material you want to make.

Start with Decodable story when you are unsure. It gives a student focused practice with the phonics pattern they are learning now.

Your screen may not show every choice described below. Some choices depend on your plan, your organization’s settings, and whether you started with a lesson or a student.

Select one tile to begin. A small sliders symbol means that activity has extra choices. Select the image to see it larger.

Choose by teaching goal

For careful decoding practice

Decodable story keeps close control of the words in the story. It repeats the lesson’s target words and gives the most direct practice with the current phonics pattern.

This is the best general-purpose place to begin.

For more natural reading

Connected text has a more natural plot and dialogue. It still uses words from the lesson, but it is less tightly controlled than a Decodable story.

Choose it when you want the reading to feel more like an ordinary book.

For reading aloud together

Reader’s Theater makes a script with named speaking parts. One reader can take a short, repeating role while another reads the longer narrator lines.

Choose it for repeated reading, fluency, and expression.

For facts instead of a story

Nonfiction makes an informational passage about a real topic. It has no characters or plot and is kept decodable for the lesson.

Nonfiction appears only when it is available for your account.

Choose a word activity

Word list makes separate reading and spelling lists for practice or dictation. A word list must be made from a lesson. It is not available when you start from a student.

Bingo makes 5-by-5 bingo cards and a call list.

Word search makes a hidden-word puzzle, a word bank, and an answer key.

Word cards makes cut-apart cards. Use them for flashcard practice, sorting, matching, or games.

Roll & Read makes a six-column grid. The student rolls a die and reads the matching column.

Roll & Write uses the same idea, but the student writes the words on the provided lines.

Fill in the blank makes decodable sentences with one missing word. It may also include a word bank and picture clues. This activity appears only when it is available for your account.

Use a passage you already have

Choose Level Existing Passage when you already have a passage you want to use.

Paste the passage into Cody. Cody matches it to the selected lesson and shows which words may need to be taught before the student reads it.

This choice works only when you start from a lesson. It also appears only when it is available for your account.

What happens when you choose a tile

• A reading-text tile opens a short setup window before Cody creates the text.
• Word list opens the word-list builder.
• An activity such as Bingo creates the activity right away.
• A small sliders button on an activity tile lets you choose its options before Cody creates it.

If no lesson or student is selected, the tiles stay unavailable. Choose the lesson or student first.

Why a choice may be missing or locked

A material may be unavailable because:

• it is not included in your plan;
• your organization has hidden that feature;
• the feature has not been enabled for your account; or
• it needs a lesson, but you started from a student.

A locked tile may offer an upgrade. A missing tile is not necessarily an error.

Where your work is saved

Cody saves generated work in Materials. You do not have to download a file to keep it.

If you made something for a student, the material is attached to that student. You can later use the student filter in Materials to find it.

Related

• Start from a lesson or a student
• Find your saved materials