Create Reference Units for Your Students

Reference Units are a powerful resource for teachers and parents who want to either teach their students new material, or simply test their reading comprehension skills.  The site contains many great reference units with hundreds of related questions, but if you can't find precisely what you're looking for, Pro Members can use the Pro Control Panel to create their own reference units.

Step One: Create a Reference Unit

From your Pro Control Panel, click the "Reference Units" link, and then click "New." You will be prompted to fill out the following form:

• Title: This should be a short but descriptive explanation of the unit's contents.
• Description: In this text box, you can provide a detailed explanation of what visitors will find in your unit.
• Keywords: Keywords can help visitors (and search engines) find your reference unit.  Simply enter a series of words or phrases related to your unit, separated by commas.  This is the least important field in the form, so don't spend too much time worrying about what to enter!

Click "Submit," and your reference unit has been created.

Step Two: Create a Reference Page

A reference unit is made up of one or more reference pages.  Each page will contain the content you want the students to read, along with comprehension questions related to the reading.  When you create a new unit, you will be redirected to a new form to add a page to your unit.  Fill out the form as follows:

• Title, Description Keywords: See descriptions above.
• Text:Here is where you can enter the text you want your students to read.  You can enter some basic formatting, such as bold, italic, underscore, etc, simply by using the word processor style buttons.  Hover over any button on the toolbar to find a description of the button.  Note that the globe icon can be used to add images to your page, once you have created a media gallery for the page.
• Add New Media Files:  If you want to add pictures to your page, click "Add Media Gallery."  This will save your changes to the page, create a gallery for you to upload images into, and reload the form.  Now you will see a file upload button.  Click this and browse to the image you want to upload.  Once you've uploaded it, you can add it to the page by using the globe icon.

Step Three: Create Questions for the Page

In the section of the form labeled "Questions and Answers," click "Add new question."  A new sub-form will appear with a space to add a question and also to add an answer.  Note that in the upper-right corner of this form there is an up-arrow, a down-arrow, and a delete icon.  Once you have added multiple questions to your page, you can change their order by using the arrows, and you can delete any question you decide not to use.

Step Four: Share your Reference Unit

Before you can assign this unit to your students, you must share the unit.  This will not link your unit in to the main part of the site, but it will make it searchable, so people who type search terms related to your unit may find it.  For more information on sharing your unit, click here: sharing and publication.

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