How to prepare students for the i-Ready diagnostic

Why this matters

A fourth grader who watches nature shows can answer a question about beavers without reading the passage, and sometimes the answer he remembers is wrong for that passage. On a reading test, only the passage counts. A worksheet answer key marks the answer and never asks where it came from, and the teacher has to wait for the next diagnostic to find out who is reading and who is remembering.

What the i-Ready Diagnostic is

The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment in reading and mathematics from Curriculum Associates. Starting in the 2026–2027 school year, Curriculum Associates calls it i-Ready Inform, with a shorter test and fewer questions (Curriculum Associates). Students take it at the beginning of the school year and up to two more times. The questions get harder after right answers and easier after wrong ones, until the test finds where each student is (i-Ready Family Center). Results include each student's placement level (i-Ready Family Center), and teachers use them to plan instruction and group students (Curriculum Associates).

Flint is not affiliated with Curriculum Associates, and the activity below uses none of its questions. In the activity, each student reads a short passage about beaver dams and answers main idea, vocabulary and inference questions. Sparky asks for the sentence that proves each answer. An answer key can't tell a student who found the answer in the passage from one who knew it from TV, and Sparky asks every student where in the passage the answer is.

Sparky gets Aiden to prove his answers from the passage

Aiden ends up proving three answers with sentences from the passage, including one where the passage ruled out what he saw on TV. Every student reads the same attached passage and gets the same questions, and Sparky's replies depend on each student's answers.

Sparky works from the attached passageSparky sends Aiden back to a paragraphA right answer with evidence gets a harder question

A

Aiden

Interest: Animals and nature showsStarting point: Answers from what he already knows

Sparky

Read the passage attached below. You'll show me exactly where in the passage each answer comes from.

Aiden

the main idea is beavers are super good swimmers and they can stay under water for like 15 minutes

Sparky

That's interesting beaver knowledge, but I don't see that anywhere in the passage! Go back to paragraph 1 and read it again. What is the whole passage mostly about?

Understanding check

Why do beavers build a dam? The passage doesn't say it all in one sentence. You might need to look at more than one paragraph.

Aiden

easy, they build dams so the fish get stuck in the pond and they can catch them to eat. i saw a beaver eating a fish on a show

Sparky

Check out paragraph 4! It actually tells us what beavers eat, and fish isn't on the menu. Look at paragraphs 3 and 4. What two things does the deep pond help beavers do?

Aiden

paragraph 3 says the doors to the lodge are under the water so wolves and coyotes cannot find a way in. and paragraph 4 says the deep water underneath does not freeze so they can swim out and grab a meal. so the dam makes the pond deep so they are safe and they can get there food in winter

Understanding check

Why do you think beavers hurry to patch a leak in the dam, even working all night? Use paragraph 3 or 4 to explain your thinking.

Answered from TV twice, then proved each answer from the passage

Aiden is an example student, and Sparky's replies are shortened. After rereading paragraph 1, Aiden quoted it to prove the passage is about beavers building dams to make a pond. On the last question, he answered that a leaking dam makes the pond shallow again, so the lodge doors would no longer be under water.

What Flint did for Aiden

• When Aiden gave a fact from TV as the main idea, Sparky sent him back to paragraph 1 instead of giving the answer.
• When Aiden said beavers build dams to catch fish, Sparky pointed him to paragraph 4 of the attached passage, which says beavers eat only plants.
• After Aiden proved his answer with paragraphs 3 and 4, Sparky asked a harder inference question about why beavers patch leaks at night.

A teacher can't do this by hand for 30 students, and Sparky does it in every student's chat.

The activity page shows who is answering from memory

While the class works, Needs attention shows the teacher which student is stuck and on which message. In Aiden's chat, Sparky raised an alert after he answered from outside knowledge a second time. After three or more students submit, activity analytics lists what the class did well, where students went wrong, and a follow-up to practice next.

Set up the activity for free

Open the beaver dam activity in Flint's public library, select Use activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and assign it to a class. The passage is attached to Sparky's greeting, so students open it at the start of the session, and the same passage is attached to Guidelines for Sparky so Sparky reads it. To use your own passage, attach it to both fields in the activity's Settings and update the questions in the guidelines (how to attach files to an activity).

For more test prep activities, see Flint for test prep.