Using ClassFlow to build a better maths classroom

Maths has always been a subject children have a love/hate relationship with. A study by RAND Corporation, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, found that tailoring lessons to each child could increase engagement.

Student achievement in maths and reading improved faster than the national average since these [personalised education] programs began. Early Progress: Interim Report on Personalized Learning (RAND)

However, with teachers challenged to do more with less – to meet this increasing demand for engagement and personalisation – edtech is now critical. Helping to create adaptive classrooms, ClassFlow is at the forefront of this change.

The Challenge

The State of Technology in Education, 2016 reports that many maths teachers have already experienced the many benefits of using tech in their classrooms. However, using tech as a means of support in the delivery of modern learning in the classroom has yet to reach its full potential.

The Solution

Supporting maths teachers as they strive to deliver educational improvements, ClassFlows sophisticated (and free) learning platform is designed to increase pupil engagement; and deliver a more one-to-one teaching and learning experience.

With ClassFlow you can:

• Deliver interactive, collaborative lessons with the dynamic flow of information between teacher and student devices (e.g. Interactive Whiteboards, ActivPanel, tablets, notebooks laptops, Chromebooks, etc.)
• Access quality teacher-authored resources; saving you time while providing up-to-date maths lesson plans and other content
• Integrate activities into your maths lessons
• Facilitate inquiry-based learning
• Access a plethora of digital tools
• Create graphs and plot data with ClassFlows graphic calculator – powered by Desmos
• Boost formative assessment
• Improve student engagement with increased levels of interaction
• Use polling to keep students interested
• Customise content, tasks, lessons and assignments depending on the ability of each pupil/groups of pupils
• Build more collaborative classrooms
• Share learning in real-time with the whole classroom, increasing class discussion and participation
• Introduce flipped learning.

How it Works

1. Use ClassFlow to access teacher-authored content

Using ClassFlows Marketplace, you have the ability to access resources created and shared by teachers from classrooms all over the world. Finding content in Marketplace is easy; simply filter by subject (e.g. mathematics) or by a programme of study (e.g. shape, division, algebra, etc.).

Save time by copying and editing someone else’s trusted content, and using it in your classroom. Content is reviewed by fellow teachers, with these scores linking back to the teachers profile, so it’s easy to see who is creating quality resources.

2. ClassFlow activities in the maths classroom

Creating maths activities is easy with ClassFlow Activity Builder. You can choose from a range of different activity types, and, once done, use your front-of-class display for whole-class collaboration, or send the activity to connected student devices to allow for independent work.

Activity types:

• Categorise
• Crossword
• Flashcards
• Labelled Diagram
• Matching
• Memory Game
• Sequencing
• Timeline
• Venn Diagram
• Word search.

Once an activity is complete, students can undertake activities and share their experiences, outcomes, and reasoning with their classmates. Find out more about how to create an activity in ClassFlow here.

As well as having access to a plethora of activities within ClassFlow, you can also use Marketplace to access pre-created maths activities. These can be tackled independently by pupils, or added to a lesson and shared with individual student devices.

3. Support inquiry-based learning in the maths classroom

Inquiry-based learning is similar to project-based learning. Students don’t wait for the teacher to provide answers; instead, they are encouraged to seek solutions, think, and problem solve. Supporting inquiry-based learning in the maths classroom, ClassFlow provides teachers with a sound grasp of what each student knows and understands, and what they don’t.

With ClassFlow, you can access a range of virtual tools commonly used in the maths classroom. These tools help pupils to solve maths problems using graphs and diagrams. So, when you ask a question, students can give you an answer that demonstrates their thought process and understanding.

With ClassFlow’s Graphics Calculator powered by Desmos, maths teachers and students can add graph functions, plot tables of data, evaluate equations, explore transformations, and more. The calculator can be sent to pupils during the delivery of a lesson.

Find out more about how to use these tools here.

4. Use Polling to keep pupils interested

Teachers can add a new level of interaction to lessons with ClassFlow Polls. Facilitating active participation by students and instant assessment by teachers, Polls allow you to collate whole class responses to questions, at the moment of learning.

Polls can be conducted at any point. For example, a poll at the beginning of a class allows you to determine how familiar students are with relevant terms, facts or concepts, while an assessment at the end of a lesson can reveal how well students have understood the material taught. Questions can also be asked at strategic points during a lesson.

You can choose from a range of poll types in ClassFlow.

• Creative. This allows pupils to interact with teacher created cards. The teacher can then view all student contributions in results viewer
• Word Seed. This allows pupils to respond to questions with words or phrases to create idea clusters, associations, knowledge maps, thought-showers, etc.
• Text. Students can use text polls to reflect on processes, results, etc. Students simply enter text and select submit
• Multiple Choice. You choose how many options to present in a multiple choice question. Once students select an option, their response is sent automatically
• Scale. You can use this tool to gauge student opinions on a topic. You start a scale poll by selecting Agreement, Confidence or Generic 1-5. You then verbally ask a question or present an issue to your class, and explain the answer options. To respond, students simply select an option and submit their answer to you
• True/False. Students select True or False. Their response is sent automatically
• Yes/No/Dont know. Students select an option. Their response is sent automatically
• Number. Students enter a number and select submit.

By sharing the results of a poll with the whole class, teachers can further stimulate ideas and opinions; eliciting student participation and engagement to prompt deeper thinking. Responses can also be collated anonymously, so pupils dont get embarrassed. You can call on individuals who got it correct to explain their reasoning – helping students to compare, justify and modify their answers. By immediately identifying and addressing any gaps in knowledge – both at an individual and class level – ClassFlow polls also allow you to tailor your lessons to the real needs of each pupil.

How to use a creative poll in your classroom

Send four groups of students a card with a number on them. Each number is different, and students don’t reveal their figure to the rest of the class. You will display a card with all four numbers on it. Each group of students will then give the rest of the class a clue to their figure (e.g., “ours has exactly 600 hundreds in it”).

You then send a creative poll asking the class to guess which group has which number. Once all the answers are in the results can be viewed, and you can call on each group to explain their answers.

5. Use ClassFlow cards to boost student engagement

As well as being able to build and share standard lesson content, with ClassFlow you can add a full range of supporting resources, such as pictures, videos, websites, etc. to your lessons.

For example, teachers can use ClassFlow to help pupils to compare unit fractions. To start, a completed pictorial representation could be displayed on a teacher card and shared via a whiteboard. Once the entire class is comfortable with what they are seeing, a student card could be sent to the class with distinct, moveable elements of the pictorial representation. With the teacher card still displayed, pupils are able to visualise why 1/10 is smaller than 1/5 by comparing the different lengths of the parts of the diagram.

There are also some handy widgets you can embed into ClassFlow cards to make lessons more fun. For example, with a spinner you could create a mathematics lesson on probability, with students asked to explore how the likeliness of outcomes can be changed, as well as different ways of recording and describing probabilities.

Find out more about how to use lesson content to increase engagement with ClassFlow

6. Boost formative assessment with ClassFlow

The ClassFlow Assessment Builder tool can be used to aid formative assessment; letting you create differentiated assessments that can be tailored and delivered to each student. You can drill down into why and what your students dont understand. You can also set up tests to highlight misconceptions, find out instantly what those misconceptions are, and deal with them directly.

• Lesson-based assessments. The type of questions you can add to a lesson dont stop at multiple choice or short answer. In fact, there are currently 13 different question types that can be used to gather student understanding, knowledge or thoughts – including number and maths formula
• Stand-alone assessments. You can use ClassFlow to deliver independent assessments that are not associated with a lesson. These can be useful when providing individualised revision assessments for students.

ClassFlow also lets you create creative-response questions, where you can add diagrams, charts, graphs or other pictures to help with the question. Ultimately, ClassFlow helps to boost engagement, identify knowledge gaps, and support further/deeper learning.

Using the maths formula tool

Complete with numbers, symbols, functions, fractions, greek symbols, and more, you can use this tool to add correct answers or allocate a score to each answer.

Find out more about how to use Math Formula here.

Find out more about using ClassFlow to aid learning and assessment.

7. Introduce flipped learning methods

ClassFlow allows learning to take place beyond the classroom, delivering content that students can access anytime, anywhere. For example, you can create assignments for students to complete away from the classroom. You can do this to provide information for students to view in preparation for a class lesson or topic, so that everyone is coming in with the same basic knowledge and understanding.

By logging into ClassFlow pupils can:

• Access lessons and assignments outside the classroom
• Complete assignments or assessments at their own pace
• Save assignments or tasks to be resumed where they left off
• Add comments to assignments and communicate with their teacher and fellow pupils
• Access homework support, with teachers able to provide differentiated learning materials
• Access support materials and assignments for students that are absent from class.

Find out more about why Flipped Learning is so popular in schools.

8. Use ClassFlow to facilitate collaborative learning

ClassFlow can help you to create a more collaborative learning environment by setting projects that require a group of learners to work together to complete. Submission is made with group approval and a group mark is provided by the teacher.

Find out more about how to create groups and foster collaboration with ClassFlow

Likewise, Instant Whiteboards can also be used to foster student collaboration with ClassFlow. Giving you a blank canvas to write on, you can turn ClassFlows Instant Whiteboard into an interactive digital canvas, promoting deeper learning and engagement.

Find out more about running an Instant Whiteboard session with ClassFlow

Results

Easy to use for both teachers and pupils alike, ClassFlow is the comprehensive go-to platform for building a better maths classroom. ClassFlow increases the depth of student engagement, makes teaching more interactive, and lessons more fun – ultimately – helping maths teachers to deliver a more personalised learning experience.

Sign-up to try out ClassFlow today and uncover the benefits for yourself – its free!