What are Student Tools?
Students fully express their thoughts in Kiddom through a range of student response tools. These tools provide students with the ability to draw a picture, write text, share a photo, or record an audio or video explanation for a question. The Student Tools feature emphasizes student voice and choice!
What is the student experience?
When students encounter a question with Student Tools, they will see 5 response type options to demonstrate their mathematical thinking:
- Drawing an illustration
- Writing an explanation
- Taking a photo of their work
- Creating an audio recording
- Creating a video recording
Note: The audio and video recordings are limited to 2 minutes in length.
Students will select their response type and will explain or demonstrate their work using the chosen response tool. Note: If you want your students to use a specific tool, you can create a personalized version of the assignment and add that to the prompt or change the question type. For more information about personalizing assignments, check out this article.
In the example below, this student chose to demonstrate their thinking using the Drawing tool.
What do teachers see?
Teachers can enable students to utilize the Student Tools by personalizing an activity, although many questions have the tools already enabled. Questions with the tools enabled will be labeled with "Show Work enabled."
When personalizing, below each question, there is a "Show Work" toggle. When the toggle is blue, it means Student Tools will be available for students on that question. When it is grey, it indicates that it will not be available for that question. Use the Toolset dropdown to select Student Tools. Click here to learn more about our Math Manipulatives for K-5 math courses. Students will still be able to provide an answer to a question if Student Tools are disabled, but will not have the tools available to supplement their responses.
What does grading look like?
Teachers can grade student work as usual. They will see the response tool that students chose for each question and will review their work. The work demonstrated with Student Tools will not need additional grading, but it does provide valuable insight into how students arrived at their answer. Teachers can use their discretion when adjusting scores based on work or explanations.
What happens if students don’t show their work or complete an explanation?
As long as students have provided an answer to the main question, their grade will not be automatically affected. It is at the teacher’s discretion to deduct points for missing work or explanations.