Extreme Test Prep: Training Students Like Athletes with Knowre Math

Two months before the school year ended, Riviera Middle School teachers and students clamored to use Knowre Math to prepare for standardized testing. With just a few weeks to go until testing, teachers stopped using the math software they had used all school year and switched to using Knowre Math every day in their classrooms to get ready for end-of-year testing.

Use Case

Just like a coach, training athletes leading up to a big competitive event, Vivian and her co-teacher made sure to set students up for success in year-end math testing in the grades of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, and algebra 1. In the weeks leading up to the standardized test, all the classroom lessons had already been presented, and it was time to put that learning into practice. Vivian and her students already had experience using Knowre Math, and she was confident that Knowre Math was the right tool to get students ready for year-end standardized testing.

Vivian and her co-teacher assigned work focused on grade-level standards and the skills that were most often tested. Using Knowre Math’s Teacher Dashboard, Vivian trained her students like athletes. She looked at each student's data and reviewed how long it took them to complete a problem. Students were encouraged to work toward independent mastery of a skill by using the support in Knowre Math and challenged to solve questions faster than they had previously.

Reviewing lessons with Knowre Math allowed the teachers to find and target individual student learning gaps. This meant they could provide their students with incredibly personalized reviews to meet their specific needs.

What are the stand-out features that make Knowre useful at Riviera Middle School?

• The Teacher Dashboard provides vital data on student math practice. All math teachers are on the Teacher Dashboard daily. They are constantly scanning the data to review how long students take to solve a problem, how much total time students spend using Knowre Math, and how students are progressing toward mastery on Florida State standards.
  
  
• The Walk Me Through supports student independence. Knowre Math’s Walk Me Through (WMT) support provides step-by-step guidance that students love. Throughout a WMT, students always have the option to exit problem-solving support on their own and aren’t forced to sit through an entire demonstration. Students appreciate that they can use as much help as they need, then close the supports and get right back to the skill at hand. Other math resources place students on an impersonal and repetitive learning track, but Knowre Math keeps things interesting and engaging. In fact, some of Yudenia’s students prefer to use Knowre Math’s Walk Me Through rather than raising their hand to get help from her individually.
  
  
• Students can move on to new skills while reinforcing skills previously taught. The Walk Me Through support assists students with the sub-skills needed to progress through a topic. Students appreciate that the assistance addresses the exact part of the problem they need help with. The Walk Me Through helps students through the specific problem they’re attempting.

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How would you implement Knowre Math next year, if you had more time, other than these last two months for test prep?

Yudenia would want to use the Ready? Check. Go! diagnostic to better understand students' knowledge and skills gaps. That way, she could be more productive with class time and more efficient in assigning work on Knowre Math.