Using Khan Academy for lesson-aligned practice

Overview

• In this model, teachers use Khan Academy as a regular practice tool to build student’s procedural fluency and concept development.
• Khan Academy is often used as part of the guided and independent practice portions of the lesson cycle.

When is Khan Academy used?

• During class for 15-30 minutes multiple times each week

What content is typically assigned?

• Teachers identify the content that is most useful for their students.
• Exercises are generally aligned with year-long pacing guide

What's the cadence for assignments?

• Many teachers assign work 2-3 times per week before class so it is ready for practice during class.
  Show me an example

  • A teacher might assign one exercise and one video every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
  • The due date for assignments is typically 1-2 days later.
  • Students complete the practice in class, either that same day or the following class.

What does a teacher do with assignment reports?

• Teachers use assignment reports to discuss 1-2 problems that were most challenging for students. Reports are sorted to show most challenging items first.
• Teachers use exercise completion reports to identify students for tutoring or in-class small-group instruction.
• Teachers skim video and article reports for completion during class to see if any students seem to be systematically lacking engagement and motivation.
• Teachers can view the Activity tab to pinpoint how much time is spent and when.

Example teacher routine

• Teacher spends 5-10 minutes browsing content and assigning resources and exercises to students connected to that day’s lesson.

• After overviewing the new concept, teacher has students practice on Khan Academy for approximately 20 minutes.
• During that time, students complete 1 required exercise. Some students complete a 2nd exercise that the teacher has mentioned is recommended. Other students get stuck on the first exercise and decide to view a hint or watch a video to review the concept.
• Teacher monitors the Activity tab for the class to make sure students are staying focused during this practice portion.
• The teacher notices that one student is particularly struggling to complete problems and decides to spend 3-5 minutes working 1-on-1 with him.
• After the 20 minutes is over, the teacher notices that one problem was answered correctly by just 7 out of 20 students. The class spends several minutes discussing that problem, with students discussing the correct solution in groups and also brainstorming why it may have been the most challenging problem.

• Teacher scans the exercise and item report one more time to see if any other trends stand out.
• If students tended to score 70% or higher, they move on to a new concept to practice in the next class.
• If students tended to score below 70%, then the teacher decides to use more time to continue practicing this concept in a subsequent class.