Creating an Engaged and Productive MATHia Classroom

MATHia’s progress monitoring and formative assessment capability captures student growth as they learn, giving you insight in real time so you have more time to do what you do best--work 1:1 with your students. Below are some ideas for seamlessly integrating MATHia into your lesson plans.

Preparing the Learning Environment

• Set up seats to allow teacher access to support and monitor student learning.
• Set up seats to allow access for peer support.
• Create and maintain routines/procedures to maximize time students are actively working on MATHia.
• Establish class norms for what productive student conduct looks and sounds like during a MATHia lesson day.

Preparing to Facilitate a MATHia Day

Have a plan for how you will promote the benefits of MATHia to your students.

• Your voice and choice of words are crucial to student buy-in.
• Introduce MATHia by focusing on what it is going to do for your students.
• MATHia empowers students to set their own pace to take ownership of their learning.
• MATHia provides your students with the right amount of practice they need to master each skill.
• MATHia tracks student progress against fine-grained skills to deliver the right content at the right time.
• The work students are doing in MATHia continually supports their work in MATHbook.
• MATHia mirrors a human tutor (step-by-step problems, hints) providing students with support in the moment they need it.
• MATHia workspaces are aligned to the lessons in MATHbook, providing additional support for students working to master the lesson standards.

Have a plan for how you will monitor and celebrate student success in MATHia.

• What do you want to see from students as they work through MATHia?
• Will you monitor individual goals? How will you celebrate when students obtain their goals?
• Will you monitor class or school goals? How will you celebrate when those goals are achieved?
• Is there a district goal? How will your district celebrate success?

Set students up for success.

• When you plan class time to work in MATHia, make sure your routines reflect a normal lesson day (opening activity, closing activity, time for reflection, etc).
• Keep learning focused on mastery learning by keeping student learning in MATHia individualized and self-paced.
• Assist students in using the progress bar/Skillometer to self-monitor their progress.
• Support learning by interacting with students as they are working in MATHia.
• Redirect students to use the assistance features in MATHia prior to providing them with direct teacher support.
• Share data from the MATHia reports with individual students to help them evaluate their progress.
• Connect MATHia problems to classroom experiences, prior knowledge, real-world experiences, tools, and/or technology.

Utilize LiveLab to instantly identify students in need of additional support. 

• Using LiveLab on the first class day students work in MATHia helps them see you value their progress.
• Check LiveLab for working vs idle students.
• Check LiveLab for productive vs unproductive students.
• Monitor LiveLab for at-risk students.
• Use the “group by workspace” feature to partner students so they can lean on each other for support.

Facilitation and Time Management

• If you plan to teach part of a lesson as well as work in MATHia during the same class period, consider starting with MATHia rather than ending with MATHia. It is easier to stop MATHia to begin another activity than it is to stop in the middle of your lesson.
• Plan for at least 20 minutes of MATHia work time and no more than 25-30 minutes in one class period. An entire 45 minute (or longer) class period of MATHia work time can be overwhelming and discouraging for struggling students.
• Convey to students that MATHia isn’t just computer time. MATHia is a lesson in itself, providing examples, animations, exploration opportunities, and individualized practice.
• Individual practice does not mean independent practice. As students work in MATHia, allow them to collaborate with other students on a problem by problem basis. Even when receiving support from others, students will still receive individualized prompts within their MATHia profile.
• Knowledge builds upon knowledge. As students work through MATHia at their own pace, you are providing time for spaced review. It is completely acceptable for students to be working in different workspaces. Use this time to place students in small groups that you can support during MATHia lesson days.
• When planning time for MATHia during a multiple day lesson, consider moving class time for MATHia to the second day of the lesson. This allows you time to introduce the new material prior to students encountering it in MATHia, and, then, identify and work with struggling students prior to completing the lesson on the third day.
  
  
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