Discover how teachers are using course mastery

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- When I first arrived
at my school district,

I learned that we had not
yet set a specific curriculum

to use in our math classrooms.

As a result, I spoke with
many of my colleagues

and found Khan academy to
be one of those resources

that they often used in their classroom

to help differentiate instruction.

I decided to explore it on my own

from a learner's perspective

to see how students could
use the videos, articles,

and assignments to help better
learn the academic standards.

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- So at the beginning of the year,

I assigned the fourth grade course mastery

and that really sets the
table for everything.

In order to help me figure
out where the kids are

with their learning process, I
use a lot of different tools.

One that's really easy to use
at the beginning of the year

is just the course challenge.

The kids are gonna come
to me in fourth grade.

They're gonna say, hmm,
what do I already know?

And chances are, they're
gonna start fourth grade.

Chances are, it's not
gonna be a whole lot,

but they can take that course challenge

and say, "Oh, I do know this thing.

I know a little bit
about this content area

and these other things, I have no idea."

And with our classroom community,

one thing I really work on
trying to build the scene

These are things that
you're going to work on.

These are the things
that are coming up next.

So if you don't know what, don't worry.

That's why you're in fourth grade.

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- Another newer addition to Khan academy

that I find really useful is
the course mastery feature.

One part of this feature
is the mastery challenges.

These challenges refresh
every 12 hours or so

and provide a quick snapshot of problems

based upon student's previous assignments.

I love to use these in my
classroom as a little mini quiz.

This is not something I count for a grade,

but I use it to help spiral review.

A lot of times it can be
difficult for students

to remember things throughout the year,

but by using these short little quizzes,

students are able to practice these skills

that they've learned throughout the year

in a way that's not
necessarily intimidating,

but it's short and sweet and
encourages them to do well.

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- I use course mastery to
get ready for the AP exam.

I decided to use chorus
mastery couple of years ago

when I realized that students
can benefit from this

at their own time.

So I decided to assign course
mastery quarterly basis

instead of one big course
mastery annual goal.

So I decided to use it as a quarterly goal

but I assigned the whole course master

at the beginning of the year,

and I expected to complete
about 20% per quarter.

And I would give them a
goal of about 80% per year

before their AP exam.

And I realized that their scores,

their AP scores significantly increased

for those students who
completed their course mastery.

So I think it was
beneficial to my students.

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- In my classroom., I really
like to use data binders,

and in these data binders,

it seems like I have a
chart for everything.

So a couple of the charts that
I use in Khan academy deal

with the grade levels and
then the fourth grade level.

You see the difference between
like the old school grades,

if you got a bad grade and
you got a zero percent,

it's gonna destroy your grade.

But with the bar graph,
it's really showing

that this is learning and progress.

So maybe I took the course challenge

or maybe I took the unit
test and did it horrible,

but it was a pre-test.

And I started at 8%

and then we did some lessons
and we did some learning,

then the student was
getting better with it.

Now it was an 8%.

Now we're at 20%, and now we take a quiz,

and now we do some more learning

and then that continues
to go higher and higher.

But we also have a bulletin
board that keeps track

of our progress as well.

So throughout the class,
we can start to see,

"Oh, we're at 94% class average."

And then a couple of kids who were like,

"Oh, I can finish, I can finish."

And so they'll work really
hard to try to get that done.

And it's like, this community
is trying to come together

and we're trying to strive for 100%.