Khan Academy Facilitator Guidelines Goal of the Khan Facilitator The goal of Khan Academy is to allow learners to do maths at their own pace. As a facilitator, your job is to provide learners with concrete and achievable goals, and then provide them with the material (videos/exercises) they need to achieve these goals, and the support they need when they get stuck. Curriculum Structure The curriculum contained here is targeted at learners in Grade 8 and Grade 9. It is broken down into logical units that build upon one another along Khan Academy lines. Each unit is split into two columns. On the left hand side, we have the videos listed in sequential order. On the right hand side, the exercises also listed in sequential order. Each unit contains 10-­‐20 videos and 5-­‐10 exercises. Those videos and exercises shadowed in grey are part of the Numeric curriculum. Those in white are optional. For example: At the beginning of each term, it is useful to set a target for the number of units you’d like to cover. Your goal as a facilitator is to get the maximum number of learners in your class proficient in the selected exercises, while covering all of the material you set out to cover. It is important to note that not every learner will gain proficiency in every exercise. To do so would limit the number of units you can cover in a term. It is thus a careful balance between reaching your target number of units per term, and achieving class proficiency in the given exercises. Setting a Pace The suggested pace is 1 – 1 ¼ hour of class time per exercise module. Thus if a unit has 8 exercises, you might budget 8-­‐10 Khan Academy sessions to cover that unit. Exercises vary in their level of difficulty. As such a difficult exercise module might take two full class sessions, an easy one only half a session. A good rule of thumb is that you are ready to move onto the next unit when 80% of the learners have gained proficiency in 80% of the exercise modules. 1 Any easy way to see how many learners have gained proficiency in a given exercise is to use the Khan Coach tools. Login to your coach account, click on Coach, and select from the drop down list on the top right the class you are working with (if you only have one class, you needn’t do this). Then, on the left hand menu, click on Progress Summary. By scrolling your mouse onto the exercise of interest (in the example below, Systems of Equations) and clicking, you will be able to see which learners have finished the exercise (in dark blue and orange), which learners have not started the exercise (in grey) and which learners have started but not completed the exercise (in light blue), and which learners are struggling (in red). Approaching a Unit There are many different ways to approach a unit. The simplest, and possibly most effective method, is to show the learners the list of videos and exercises for the unit and let them work at their own pace through them. If you use this method, it is important to set targets, for example, three exercise proficiencies each week. If you find this too unstructured for your class, you may elect to prescribe a video and an exercise for each class, thereby working through the unit at a prescribed pace. Motivation There are a few key ways to motivate learners in your class, though every facilitator will be different and will have their own methods for creating energy in the class 2 i.
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Make the goals of the Unit clear to them – what topic we are going to be mastering, which videos need to be watched, which exercises need to be complete, and by when. A key part of being a Khan Academy facilitator is motivating learners. A simple word of praise can do a learner immeasurable good, so be sure to recognise them when they do well. After each Unit, set the learners a test. This helps to give them a sense of how far they have come. It also gives them something to work towards. Occasionally put what we are doing in Khan Academy into context. Working hard at Khan Academy helps us to do better at school. With better school marks, we give ourselves a better chance of studying after we complete school. Studying is fun, social, and rewarding, and gives us the opportunity to pursue the jobs of our dreams. Fast Learners Fast learners are typically fairly easy to handle. They are enthusiastic, work through exercises rapidly, tend to compete with themselves to see how far and how fast they can go. They often finish a unit well within the prescribed time. This presents no particular problem as you can set them working on optional modules (those exercises not shaded in grey), and if these are finished, they can continue working on more advance modules. A good idea is to ask your fast learners who have completed the unit exercises to sit with slower learners in the class and help them through modules. It is important that they do not do the exercise module for the other learners. I ask them to sit with the slower learners, and have the slower learners describe to the faster learners how to solve the problem at hand. This is excellent practise for the slower learners, and helps them to verbalise the concept they are working on. At the same time, the faster learners act as tutors and help to pick up any mistakes in logic and help to rectify them. It is important to show fast learners recognition for doing this. I give them as much if not more praise for helping their fellow learners as I do when they complete and advanced/optional exercise. Slower Learners In a traditional teaching environment, slow learners are a sizeable challenge as the teacher must move at the pace of the average learner. This often results in slower learners learning little or nothing and feeling demotivated in class. The advantage of the Khan Academy structure is that they can move at their own, albeit slow, pace. At the bare minimum, this means that the material they do cover, they understand. A satisfying feeling indeed! There are several strategies to help slower learners to complete exercises. i.
Pair slow learners with faster learners. Have slow learners explain to faster learners how they do the problem at hand, and allow the fast 3 ii.
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learners to do your teaching for you (much as we might not like to admit it, kids are sometimes more effective teachers than us!) Provide learners with worksheets they can take home with them to practise on Provide learners with take-­‐home DVDs so that they can watch the videos before they come to class, giving them more time to complete exercises in class. Medium Pace Learners This group forms the bulk of most classes. They tend to exhibit moderate levels of motivation and have enough of a foundation that they finish, on average, one module per session. This is a key group of learners, which is often overlooked as the fast learners and slow learners take up facilitator's time/attention. There are several strategies I like to use to motivate this group: i.
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Give them praise when they are working hard, particularly when they complete a challenging module. Pair them up with slower learners and give them the opportunity to tutor as well. Help them to set targets and make sure to recognise them when they are meeting them. Games Toward the end of a busy term, or after a particularly taxing module, it is a good idea to have a fun session where you play math games like Math 24 or challenge the learners with puzzles. Maths is not all about hard work. Games are a nice way to reward your learners for their efforts. 4