Series Edutopia Tech2Learn: Using Khan Academy as a Math Engagement Strategy

Using Khan Academy as a Math Engagement Strategy

Lesson Objective: Practice math concepts using Khan Academy
Grades 9-12 / Math / Technology
5 MIN

PLEASE CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT OR LOG IN TO ACCESS THIS CONTENT

Enjoy your first video for free. Subscribe for unlimited access.


Have questions about subscribing?

Click Here to learn more about individual subscriptions.
Click Here to learn more about School and Institution access.

Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

  1. Through Khan Academy, students have opportunities to get help before asking a teacher. How does this allow for effective differentiation?
  2. What elements of Khan Academy are responsible for student engagement?
  3. How does Mr. McIntosh use Khan Academy as an assessment tool?

52 Comments

  • Private message to Constance Wright
  1. Through Khan Academy, students have opportunties to get help before asking a teacher. How does this allow for effective differentiation? Through Khan Academy, students have the opportunity to get help before asking the teacher. The program allows the students a chance to work through the problem using videos, hint tool, and their peers.  The hint tool gives different options before asking for assistance.
  2. What elements of Khan Academy are responsible for student engagement?  One element responsible for student engagement is, that are students not able to copy other students' answers.  Students must take ownership so that they can figure it out.  The program is designed to meet the needs of each student.
  3. How does Mr. McIntosh use Khan Academy as an assessment tool? Mr. McIntosh uses several tools that are built into the program. He uses the coach mode. This tool enlightens him on the class/students' progress. He can see where the students are working, their weaknesses, and progress in his/her assignments.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Teresa Clark
  1. Through Khan Academy, students have opportunities to get help before asking a teacher. How does this allow for effective differentiation? Khan Academy allows each student the chance to work through the different problems and use the hint tool. The hint tool allows them utilize different options before asking the teacher to assist them.

 

  1. What elements of Khan Academy are responsible for student engagement? The elements of the Khan Academy the students have to engage in the assignments. They are taking ownership that they can figure it out (solve it) and do the work (they can’t just guess at it).  Some of the elements that are responsible for student engagement are students cannot just guess or copy other students answers because the program is designed to meet the needs of that  individual student based their on performance level, it also makes the student take ownership for their own learning. The hint feature allows for practice, assessments, and you

 

  1. How does Mr. McIntosh use Khan Academy as an assessment tool?  Mr. McIntosh uses the coach mode. This tools enlightens him on the class/student’s progression. The teacher knows exactly what you are working, areas were you are struggling, and the areas you need more help working on.

 

 

Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Michael Daigre

The Khan Academy appears to be a helpful math tool for students. When the students are having difficulty solving math problems the program provides assistance in different ways before the student ask for her from the teacher. The Khan Academy program can provide hints, videos, and/or assistance from a peer. Providing different methods of help is good because students learn better using different methods.

Mr. McIntosh uses the Khan Academy to obtain analysis on the problems and students. He can analyze each student or the class as a whole to determine areas of weakness and how often help is needed. These tools can guide the teacher, and perhaps focus his lesson in weaker areas. 

Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Avinus Calloway

1. Through Khan- Academy, students have the opporturity to get help before asking a teacher.   How does this allow for effective differenation? The students have the opportunity through several accommadations to help before asking the teacher, for example depening on the students type of learning stlyle he or she may ask a peer for support, the program also gives hint to assure the student that they are on the  correct path to solving the problem, finally it allows them to watch a video as many times as they like  until they feel that they are comfortable trying to solve the problem  before asking for help from the teacher.

2. What elements of Khan-Acadamey are responsible for student engagement?  Some of the elements that are responsible for student engagement are students cannot just guess or copy other students answers because the program is designed to meet the needs of that  individual student based their on performance level, it also makes the student take ownership for their own learning.

3. How does Mr. McIntosh use Khan-Academy as an assessment tool?  Mr. McIntosh uses several assessment tools that are already built into the program which includes; being able to see how the class is preforming on a skill both individually and as a class, also he can pull up the class rooster and see those students who are struggling with a skill and then assign additional problems of the same type for additional help.

 

 

Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Nakeisha Gardner
  1. Students havinng the opportunity to get help before asking a teacher will allow effective differentiation because they have the ability to ask for hints, peer support, or watch videos of the necessary steps to problem solve.

2. The elements of Khan Academy are responsible for student engagement would be analyzing their progress, monitor their engagement with the system, and what are the problem areas that they need to practice more on.

3. Mr. McIntosh uses Khan Academy as an assessment tool by being able to locate their problem areas and use the data to assist with each individual student.

Recommended (0)

Transcripts

  • Using Khan Academy as a Math Engagement Strategy Transcript

    [00:00:04]
    McIntosh: For whatever reason, kids come to us with some significant

    Using Khan Academy as a Math Engagement Strategy Transcript

    [00:00:04]
    McIntosh: For whatever reason, kids come to us with some significant gaps in their math. But more importantly, they come to us with some poor math habits. What we're using KHAN for basically is, it's a way of reengaging them in the math.

    [TITLE - "TECH 2 LEARN"]

    [00:00:27]
    McIntosh: [TO STUDENTS] Leave that up there. Use that as your model if you need it. Go into KAHN ... System ... Elimination 0.5. If you can do that one easily, if you finish that, move on to Elimination 1.0 ...
    [00:00:41]
    McIntosh: [TO CAMERA] These are primarily sophomores who have taken algebra before and did not pass. We started out with some relatively easy problems, systems of elimination, so it's 0.5. There's a model on the board for them to sort of follow; talk to each other if they need a little bit of help; ask me if they need a little bit of help.
    [00:01:00] When they're in KHAN, basically a problem is presented, and they can choose to watch a video or, more often what they'll do is choose to see Hints. Hints are basically the steps of ... It's not uncommon for a problem to be broken down into five or seven or eight steps, with some brief explanations about what each step is.
    [00:01:21]
    M: So, what I do is take a Hint. So, it basically says, "Beginning by moving the Y term in the second equation to the right side of the equation ..."
    [00:01:29]
    Castillo: You can ask for a Hint. You can watch a video. You can ask a peer. So, you have three opportunities to try and help yourself. And then after that, you raise your hands. The teacher's working with the students that he or she needs to be working with at that time, and other kids for the most part are engaged in doing what they're doing. So, it really changes the dynamic between the teacher and students in the classroom.
    [00:01:56]
    McIntosh: And I can see where they're proficient, where they're not.
    [00:01:59]
    McIntosh: The teacher has access to something called "Coach Mode," and it allows us to go in and see a variety of things. At a glance, I can see for the whole class how many exercise they've completed; who's progressed; who hasn't. And there's a variety of other ways I can go in and get a quick assessment of where our students are.
    [00:02:16] If I want to pick a particular exercise, I can go in here and see this student has some difficulty; watched a video; took a number of Hints.
    [00:02:28] When I work with a student one-on-one, you can go even deeper and see the specific problems they've tried. I can see the steps that they took. I get some sense of where they went wrong.
    [00:02:38]
    McIntosh: [TO STUDENT] So, write down the problem ...
    [00:02:40]
    McIntosh: [TO CAMERA] Historically, it was really hard to get the kids engaged. They couldn't get the help right where they wanted it. There was no immediate feedback if it was right or wrong. It was easy for them to sort of get lost and just sort of drift in class. But now, they have to keep moving because they know we're keeping track of the problems they're finishing, and they want to see the progress bar move; they want to see themselves become proficient in the exercises.
    [00:03:00]
    F: I'll plug it into X.
    McIntosh: Yeah, you plug it into ...
    F: [sounds like:] Right now (??).
    McIntosh: [INAUDIBLE (??)] You got it.
    [00:03:05]
    McIntosh: [TO CAMERA] Previously, we had a hard time getting the kids to do homework. But now, with KHAN, it's a little bit easier to get them to do that work. There's less wiggle room for them to sort of back out 'cause they've got Hints they can take, or videos they can watch, and you're measuring the work they're doing, and they're doing many, many more problems this year than they did last year.
    [00:03:24] And there's no substitute for practice.
    [00:03:27]
    M: The good thing about it is that it tells us when we need to review it. We could go back and take Hints again, or you could just keep on going.
    [00:03:36]
    McIntosh: Their behavior, their habits were changing. We started to notice as kids were staying engaged. We'd look at screens of our coaching data and see kids repeatedly trying; watch the video here; he's taking some Hints; they're taking ownership and they're developing more of an attitude of, "I'm going to figure this out."
    [00:03:54]
    McIntosh: [TO CLASS] ... move on to Adding Segments. I'll have one of those shortly too, okay?
    [00:03:57]
    McIntosh: [TO CAMERA] But then, what we started to notice, too, was a real difference in their test scores. The average score is up about 30-40 percentage points. And many, many more students in the Advanced range.
    [00:04:07]
    McIntosh: [TO CAMERA] Everything's multiplied by -2.
    [00:04:09]
    McIntosh: [TO CAMERA] What is it about KHAN that works? Part of it is the fact that it simply ... it's a computer and there's something engaging about anything on computers. I think there's an important part of it that it's one-on-one; the fact that they can get help right now on this problem at this step, so that immediacy, that individuality, is a big part of it.
    [00:04:32] But I think something about the design in KHAN in particular. You know, it's not multiple choice, so you can't guess your way through. The problems are randomly generated, so you can't copy from another student. You have to do the work.
    [00:04:43]
    M: I was doing the top line, but ...
    McIntosh: Okay.
    M: ... I did the final one right there.
    [00:04:46]
    Castillo: It shows us that every single student, when given the chance, wants to learn; they want to be successful. We're seeing students [sounds like:] just turn on (??) left and right.
    [00:04:55]
    McIntosh: We see more focus. We see more attentiveness. We see more engagement. We see the kids this year less apt to give up in the first couple seconds. And the basic skills are also better because they've been engaged, they've done the work. And that's the real magic.

    [END OF VIDEO]

School Details

Oakland Unity High School
6038 Brann Street
Oakland CA 94605
Population: 359

Data Provided By:

greatschools

Teachers

teachers
Peter McIntosh