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How to Assign Activities and Assessments (Teacher) 

Access the Create New Assignment Wizard to easily step you through creating an assignment to assign to class(es) or group(s). This article provides further details of each screen.

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Access the Create New Assignment Wizard

1. Go to the Teacher tab in the left navigation bar.

2. Click Assignments in the menu.

3. Click the New Assignment icon to open the Create New Assignment Wizard, and complete:

   1. Select Settings - Name the assignment and set the start and due dates

   2. Add Students - Assign to class(es) or group(s)

   3. Add Activities - Select activities and manage mastery required (80%+ Score) 

   4. Confirm and Assign

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Detailed instructions for the New Assignment Wizard:

Step 1: Select Settings

NAME

• Enter a clear and recognizable name.

• This name appears on students’ dashboards and in teacher/admin reports.

• Pro Tip: Include the standard number for quick reference.

TYPE

Select the type of experience you want your students to have:

Feature	Standard Assignment	Assessment Assignment
Purpose	Practice, homework, or mini-quizzes.	Formal summative assessments.
Retries	Students can review and retry activities.	Students cannot review or retry.
Settings	Fully customizable. Toggle permissions on/off	Locked (simulates a high-stakes test).
Goal	Mastery-based learning.	Point-in-time data collection.

Customize settings by disabling/enabling Allow Students To: 

• Retry Activities
• Review Own Work
• Access the Assignment After It's Due
• Use Immersive Reader

AVAILABILITY

Set the availability dates for your assignment.

• Start Date: Choose to assign immediately (Schedule Now) or use the date picker to schedule for a future date. Click OK after selecting the start date.
• Due Date: Set the deadline for assignment completion. Click OK after selecting the due date.

Default Time Limit Settings:

• Standard Assignments: Due two weeks from start date.
• Assessments: 2-hour time limit.

⚠️ Important: Once the Assessment due date and time have passed, students can no longer access it. Assessments cannot be reopened or extended after they close. If students do not complete the assessment within the scheduled window, teachers will only see the work that was submitted before the deadline. Several schools have noted this when trying to gather baseline or starting-point data, so be sure to set an appropriate testing window to allow all students enough time to complete the assessment.

OPTIONS

• By default, AI-generated grading is enabled for all subjective questions. You can toggle it off if preferred. If you disagree with the auto-generated scores, you can manually adjust them as needed.
• Click Continue.

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Step 2: Add Students

• Choose the class(es) or group(s) receiving the assignment.
• Assigning to multiple classes creates a super assignment (aggregates student scores into one assignment report).
  • Super assignment: is a container that holds assignments for multiple classes.

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Step 3: Add Activities

There are three primary ways to find content tailored to your lesson plan:

1. Search Bar : Enter a specific benchmark, standard number, or Keyword  (e.g., SC.5.P.8.1) to find aligned activities instantly.

   1. Filters

      • Click the Globe icon to search across all content available in your Penda subscription, including other grade levels. This is useful for remediation or enrichment.

      • Click the Paper icon to restrict your search to the specific product currently selected in your dropdown menu.

   2. Product Folder :

      • Limit results to a specific product. Folders update automatically when products change.

2. My Favorites : Locate activities you have previously marked as favorite. How to Search, Preview, and Favorite Activities

3. Manual Browse : Use the folder hierarchy to navigate by Grade-Band (e.g., Elementary), Grade Level, and Body of Knowledge.

Additional resource: How to Use the Updated Search Feature in the Assignment Wizard

Manage your activities:

• Add Activities: Click the Add icon to add activities to the assignment.
• Reorder: Drag activities using the hash marks icon to rearrange the order.
• Require Mastery: Toggle off  if you do not want students to achieve 80% or better to unlock the next activity.
• Preview: Use the Preview Activity icon to view the content. 
• Remove: Click the Remove icon to delete an activity from the selected activities list.

When finished, click Continue

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Step 4: Confirm & Assign

• Review assignment details.
• Click Finish.
• The assignment appears in the Assignments tab.

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Managing Assignments

View the Assignments page - Select the Teacher tab in the left-hand navigation bar, then select Assignments from the sub-menu. 

• View Assignment Audience - under the assignment name is who the assignment is issued to:
  • Individual Assignment - individually selected student(s) from a class.
  • Group - selected group(s)
  • Class name - issued to a particular class
  • Classes - issued to multiple classes (Super Assignment)
    • Indicated by grey shading and the Super Assignment icon
    • Click on the expand icon to view classes included in the assignment
       
• View, edit, or delete assignments.
  • Note: Once a student starts an assignment, you can only extend the due date—other changes are locked.

Additional Rules

• Out of sync with the super assignment - this message appears if an assignment for a particular class is edited at the class level and not at the super assignment (container) level causing that particular class details not to match/sync with the super assignment. 

Pro-Tips for Teachers

•  Assignments can be created from various locations from within Penda, however we recommend following the path above, unless assigning to individual students in a particular class. See this link:  Assign Activities to an Individual Student 

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