I started using Khan Academy in mid-March of this year (2011). This was just about the beginning of our last trimester. As I described in a previous post, I was not real sure how best to use it, so I just dove right in.
I based 90% of the student's grade for the last trimester on their progress in Khan. I assigned about 25 concepts for each class to successfully complete. The students had only the deadline of May 27th to complete the assignments. However, if I saw a student lagging behind and not working on Khan, then we had a discussion. I also monitored how much time students that were lagging spent on KA outside of class and "encouraged" them to put more time in.
Having this discussion and reminding students that their learning is their responsibility worked pretty well. Most put in more time and/or caught up with the rest of the class.
I did not assign any videos to watch, but rather just told the students to use the videos when they got stuck or wanted help. During class I walked around and helped students. Often, students helped each other as well. My classes this year, because of how I graded them, had higher averages than in most years.
Even though most students were able to get their streak of 10 on most assignments I question how well they learned the material. I believe most did learn the material, but I know others really didn't get it. So, next year I want to assess their learning better.
I think first I'll actually assign the videos related to the exercises. They will be assigned these to watch outside of class. I might create a short form in Google Docs for students to complete to summarize what they watched. I may require them to watch the video and complete the form before they are allowed to start an exercise.
I would also like to have some type of assessment for after they complete an exercise or exercises. Over the summer I want to correlate my curriculum with KA so I can have the the KA exercises paced for the school year.
Lastly, I'll have my 7th grade state scores back to see how my students did. This might help me decide exactly how I'll use KA next year.
Next year, I want to work with KA and design some project-based assignments to work on. We'll see how the summer goes.
I based 90% of the student's grade for the last trimester on their progress in Khan. I assigned about 25 concepts for each class to successfully complete. The students had only the deadline of May 27th to complete the assignments. However, if I saw a student lagging behind and not working on Khan, then we had a discussion. I also monitored how much time students that were lagging spent on KA outside of class and "encouraged" them to put more time in.
Having this discussion and reminding students that their learning is their responsibility worked pretty well. Most put in more time and/or caught up with the rest of the class.
I did not assign any videos to watch, but rather just told the students to use the videos when they got stuck or wanted help. During class I walked around and helped students. Often, students helped each other as well. My classes this year, because of how I graded them, had higher averages than in most years.
Even though most students were able to get their streak of 10 on most assignments I question how well they learned the material. I believe most did learn the material, but I know others really didn't get it. So, next year I want to assess their learning better.
I think first I'll actually assign the videos related to the exercises. They will be assigned these to watch outside of class. I might create a short form in Google Docs for students to complete to summarize what they watched. I may require them to watch the video and complete the form before they are allowed to start an exercise.
I would also like to have some type of assessment for after they complete an exercise or exercises. Over the summer I want to correlate my curriculum with KA so I can have the the KA exercises paced for the school year.
Lastly, I'll have my 7th grade state scores back to see how my students did. This might help me decide exactly how I'll use KA next year.
Next year, I want to work with KA and design some project-based assignments to work on. We'll see how the summer goes.
Thanks for keeping us informed. You and Harsh Patel (Chicago TFA) are really helping us out. Anyway...my own daughter is 7th grade (other one 9th) and pretty high order math which means a site like www.betterexplained.com will really help leverage the great stuff she will get a khan academy this summer. Good luck working it all out.
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