Manage Student Assignments

Each student has an assignment queue. Think of it like a music playlist—the assignment at the top is what students are working on now, and the rest are lined up next.

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How the assignment queue works

• Students work on one assignment at a time.
• Additional assignments wait in the queue.
• When a student finishes an assignment, the next one unlocks the next time they log in.

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Assigning new work

You have two options when creating an assignment: release it immediately or schedule it for a future date.

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Assign right away

Choosing Right Away moves the new assignment to the front of the queue. Everything else shifts back one spot. If the student was already working on another assignment, their progress is saved. They’ll pick up where they left off once that assignment returns to the top of their queue.

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Schedule for later

Choose Schedule for Later to release an assignment on a future date.

• Students won’t see the assignment before its release date.
• Scheduled assignments must be set for tomorrow or later.
• On the release date, the assignment is automatically added to the front of the student’s queue.

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Editing an assignment

From the Assignments tab, stay on the By assignment toggle, then click Edit on the assignment card you want to change. The edit panel lets you update:

• Reading mode — switch between Silent Reading (students read silently, with an option for audio support) and Read Aloud (progress monitoring with real-time feedback and automatic AI fluency analysis).
• Release timing — choose Release now or Schedule for a future date.
• Assigned students — add or remove students from the assignment.
• Stories — add or remove stories from the assignment.

Click Save changes to apply your updates, or Cancel to discard them.

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Managing one student’s queue

Every change above applies at the class level. To adjust what happens for a single student without touching anyone else’s queue, open the Assignments tab on the teacher dashboard and switch to the By student view. Each student’s queue is broken into three sections:

• Reading now — the assignment they’re currently on.
• Up next in queue — assignments waiting their turn.
• Scheduled for later — assignments not yet released.

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Removing an assignment from one student

Open the ⋯ menu on an assignment card and choose Remove from queue, then confirm in the dialog. This only removes the assignment for that student — everyone else in the class keeps it.

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Reordering a student’s queue

Assignments in Reading now and Up next in queue can be reordered by dragging them, or via Move up / Move down in the ⋯ menu.

• Dragging or moving a queued assignment into the top slot makes it the student’s active assignment.
• In the Scheduled for later section, change the release date or remove the assignment.

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When students see their next assignment

After finishing every story in their current assignment, students can keep browsing and creating on LitLab for the rest of that session. The next assignment in their queue becomes available the next time they log in.

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Unlocking story creation

Finishing all stories in an assignment unlocks a student’s ability to create their own stories (up to 3 per day). Students must complete every story in an assignment before Create a Story and Find a Story unlock. Once complete, these buttons unlock immediately—no refresh required.

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Deleting an assignment for an entire class

To delete an assignment for the whole class, on the Assignments tab on the teacher dashboard, click Delete assignment. If you only want to change what one student sees—remove it, reorder it, or reassign something different—use the By student view described in Managing one student’s queue instead of deleting for the whole class.

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Frequently asked questions