Teacher Preperation

Software Setup

Step 1: Set up your teacher account by visiting Khan Academy and following the prompts.
Step 2: Create a class.
Step 3: Have students add themselves to your class using your class code (see option 3). Use this handout for students. Check “Your Students” using the username drop down to confirm which students have registered for your class using the code.
- Note: If students have never used Khan Academy they will need to sign up for a new account. Students who are too young for email will need you to create their account. Or you may have them use their google apps accounts if you are a GAFE school.
Step 4: Watch this Video from KIPP Academy to get a feel for how KA is used in class.

Pre-Implementation Considerations

Student will receive small group instruction at least once each week based on Khan data. The teacher will pre-schedule all small group instructional time and give students access to the pull out schedule. See the Small Group Scheduling Template.

Small group instruction can serve as enrichment, remediation, or reinforcement and should be hands-on, incorporating manipulatives when possible as in this fraction lesson with clay.

The teacher should vary small group time based on the needs of students in a group. Teachers should review Khan data prior to working with any small group in order to provide targeted support.

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If students need additional small group instruction beyond what was scheduled, they can request it via a clipboard, which the teacher will review daily.

Exit tickets at the close of small groups can serve as formative quizzes. Matific work-

sheets covering that week’s skills, can be done digitally or printed, see an example.These are cut into fourths for exit tickets. Score for proficiency using the included answer sheet.

For more help, see the complete list of Khan Academy how-to guides.

Note: If students are using tablets, you will need to download the Khan app:
- iOS app
- Android app

Note: If students are using tablets, you will need to download the Matific app:

Step 1: Create your Matific teacher account.
Step 2: Go to Teacher Resources, Tutorials and watch three short videos to get completely set up:
- Class Registration
- Finding Activities
- Assigning Activities

Learn about reports for Khan and Matific in the Metrics section.

Centers and Playlist Setup

Playlists: Teachers will need to create a playlist of center activities for each week of the unit.
- Important Note: Students work through the playlist at their own pace. Teachers should prepare at least two weeks of activities so that students can work ahead as needed.
See the sample playlist. Tip: It may be helpful to create QR Codes for your playlist links.

Playlists will incorporate:

Khan Academy Exercises
Matific Games
Group Performance Activities
Small Group Instruction
Mastery Tasks

Start by creating a list of Khan Academy activities for the current and upcoming math unit. See this suggested playlist format. Go to your Khan account and simply copy and paste the skills from your grade level mission or copy standards-aligned links from this spreadsheet. Select an introductory video. Allow students at similar levels to pair up and complete Khan activities in tandem. Encourage students to add additional exercises to their playlist.

Coach recommendations work well for supplementing playlists with additional remediation and enrichment.

Important: For students to get to coach recommendations, have them login, go to Progress, and Coach Recommendations.

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For Group Performance Activities, provide 1-3 word problems or projects at different levels. You can use your own curriculum or this list to find activities. Insert links to the problems on your playlist and allow students to pick the one they want to complete collaboratively.

Create a visible board where students can post their name when they are ready to work in groups.

Have students use a Collaboration Guide to work together effectively.

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Add games to your playlist from Matific. You can search Matific by grade level, curriculum standards or textbook.

View the Assigning Activities video for help.

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Students should have between 120-180 minutes of self-directed learning time per week to complete a set of 5 learning center activities and assessments on the playlist. All activities on the playlist should be designed to be completed in 25-30 minutes or less.

Resources for Group and Mastery Tasks

North Carolina (NCDPI) Assessment Tasks
Tasks, Units, and Student Work from NYC Schools
Illustrative Mathematics
CORE Performance Tasks
Sonoma County MARS Tasks
Yummy Math Real World Math Problems

Teachers will need to work with grade level teams to define Mastery Tasks. Select one option for your entire class.

Basic Option: Once a student has finished a large portion of the playlist, the teacher will recommend the student completes 5 additional problems in Khan related to the target objectives. See how to make a coach recommendation in Khan.

Note: For students to get to coach recommendations, have them login, go to Progress, and Coach Recommendations.

Intermediate Option: Unlock the worksheets in Matific that go with that week’s skills. They can be done digitally or printed with or without answers; see an example. These worksheets can essentially be used as quizzes. All have 18 problems and 4 different versions with different problems. If completed on paper you can see student work and evaluate their mistakes.

Advanced Option: Assign students another performance task, similar to the one completed in the group activity. If there were multiple group activity options, students can pick from the remaining options for their mastery task. See this sample playlist.

mastery tasks

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Student Performace Expectations

Khan Academy
- Students should be at the Practiced level or above for each assigned learning objective before proceeding to a Mastery Task. They must complete five problems in a row correctly in order to get the Practiced designation. See Metrics for an explanation of these levels.
- Students are encouraged to complete Challenges to level up in Khan Academy.

Matific
- Students must earn at least 4 of 5 stars on any game or activity before proceeding to a Mastery Task. Games may be played more than once to level up their scores, but if students continue to struggle after two tries on a game, they should request teacher or peer tutoring.

Mastery Tasks
- Students must complete a single Mastery Task with 80% proficiency prior to moving to the next set of learning objectives in the unit.

Pre-Implementation Considerations

Set-up: As you set up your playlist learning centers, consider your physical space. You will need:
- A table for the teacher to work with a small group of 4-6 students
- A group performance task area where students can collaborate on projects, word problems, or make use of manipulatives
- An area for students to work independently on their devices and use online software
- A system for distributing, charging, and sharing devices, if not one-to-one.

Notebook: Students will need a paper notebook to work out their Khan and Matific activities, solve problems, and take notes during small group instruction. Set clear expectations for how notebooks should be organized and maintained. Here is an example from a 6th grade teacher.

Videos and Hints: It is helpful to explicitly teach students how to use the videos and hints. They may not understand that the power of online instruction is that they can pause, play and replay videos and use hints to best meet their learning needs. Also, in any Khan video, select Options to select the playback speed or an interactive transcript.

Create a Poster: to show how many mission-level skills each student has mastered. Each week, let students give a shout-out for accomplishments. When the whole class has completed 50% of the mission, celebrate. Use your Student Progress report in Khan weekly to keep the poster up to date. Download a poster here.

The First Day or Week

Review the week’s playlist and explain how to navigate and search for content in Khan Academy and Matific. The first time, you may want to have students write down their Khan Academy and Matific logins.
Introduce students to Khan Academy with this helpful 2 minute video about the student experience.

The first time students login, Khan will give them a Mission Warm-up with six problems, to get a sense of what they already know. Be sure to have them complete this.
- Note: If they’ve already been using Khan, they won’t receive a warm-up. They can complete a mastery challenge or the next exercise up so that they will have additional data in their reports.
Now that there is data in their account, teach students how to evaluate their progress each week.
Pair students up as “Learning Partners” to work side by side on their playlist for the entire unit. While students can work at their own pace, the learning partner is there to check-in and answer quick clarifying questions along the way.
As students are working, the teacher should begin the small group instructional schedule.
In between or during small group time, use Khan Academy and Matific reports to identify struggling students, check-in with students informally and adjust the Small Group Scheduling Template.
Walk students through how to use the Math Collaboration Guide for Group Performance Tasks.
At the end of class, discuss how well the class has progressed and share reminders and tips on how students can be more successful the next time. Update any progress monitoring boards or posters for all students to see.
Clearly communicate Student Performance Expectations.

Level Up Your Implementation

Kidblog.org

Consider adding blogging to your math instruction. Have students create math journals in Kidblog to communicate their math understanding and receive peer and teacher feedback, creating a classroom learning community. Hands-on activities can be photoed and uploaded as a post.

Google Docs and Forms

Consider using google forms for students to submit weekly goals and request teacher assistance as in this Goal Submission Form. To get started with google forms, see this helpful google forms cheat sheet from Shake Up Learning.

Badges

Badges and gamification can be motivating for students. Badges and energy points are built into Khan Academy, and it’s simple to create a classroom poster to track and celebrate weekly energy points, badges or percentages. See Using Badges. Additional teacher-created badges could be incorporated for other activities, like Mastery Tasks and collaboration skills using the Makebadges website.

The First Day

Growth Mindset

Use this lesson plan to set the tone in your classroom, with the idea that intelligence is not just something you are born with but something you can build (20-35 minutes).