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How to Use Woot Math to Prep Students for PARCC and CMAS

Of all topics in mathematics, students struggle the most with making sense of fractions and operating with them flexibly. Woot Math’s Adaptive Learning Content provides instructional (grades 3-7) and remediation support to help students conceptually understand and master key mathematics ideas. Students learn how to make connections among the various representations of rational numbers and use this thinking to solve problems involving fractions, decimals, rates, ratios, proportional thinking, as well as operations involving integers.

PRACTICE + VISIBILITY INTO STUDENT WORK

Woot Math provides full practice tests that are aligned to PARCC and CMAS. These interactive modules are designed to mimic the testing environments students will experience. If you want to use this resource as a practice exam, we recommend assigning it as self-paced so you can formatively assess your students’ knowledge.

Click below to demo a practice test as a student. From Woot Math’s gallery of content, search for PARCC and CMAS to view a complete list of modules available.

PARCC/CMAS 3rd Grade Practice Quiz 1
PARCC/CMAS Grade 4 Practice Quiz 1
PARCC/CMAS Grade 6 Practice 1
PARCC/CMAS Grade 7 Practice 1

Alternatively, you can use this content in a teacher-led mode to monitor the strategies used by all of your students and use this information to facilitate a classroom discussion. If you want to make changes or additions to the tasks, Woot Math makes it easy for teachers to edit the content directly.

These tools are available on Woot Math at no cost, and are designed to support authentic formative assessment and give visibility into student’s understanding.

For an overview on the positive impact that authentic formative assessment has on student learning, see this article by Dr. David C. Webb, an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Executive Director of the Freudenthal Institute USA.

ADAPTIVE PREP + FOUNDATION MATH SKILLS

For your elementary and middle school students who struggle with fractions, rational numbers and rate and proportion, Woot Math’s adaptive learning modules can help increase their confidence, improve conceptual understanding, and procedural fluency. 

Click on the Number Line Demo to experience a sample adaptive unit about number lines as a student.

Number Line Demo

To learn more about how Woot Math is being effectively used in the classroom, here are two helpful guest posts that were written by teachers:

Woot Math in a 6th Grade Class Blog Post
How to Use Woot Math to Help with Final Preparation Blog Post

RESEARCH & EFFICACY

Woot Math is a research-backed platform; our research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This funding has enabled us to develop a program that has demonstrated efficacy and effectiveness in many different schools from across the country, including schools in Colorado. Our research and development work has resulted in a product that is proven to help students develop confidence and fluency with rational numbers.

In addition to our own research, Woot Math leverages decades of research and synthesis about how students learn mathematics and how certain topics (like rational numbers) might best be taught. We work closely with the Rational Number Project (a multi-university, 30+ year effort that has thoroughly studied how students might best learn rational numbers), other leading researchers, and a bevy of classroom teachers. Our tools help to bring the best available practices to every classroom and do so with a unique focus on hands-on modeling.

Questions? Comments? We would value hearing from you.

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How to Use Woot Math to Help with Final Preparation

How to Use Woot Math to Help with Final Preparation

Students are constantly struggling with study skills, especially in 9th grade as we start to think about end of year testing. It is difficult to “know where to start,” which is fair, considering there is a lot of material to cover! They are overwhelmed by the information and are still learning how to manage their time.

I was hoping to relieve some of this stress by creating personalized study plans for each student. I know, I know, a lot of you are rolling your eyes thinking, “How will I have time to do this?!” Using Woot Math and a quick worksheet, I was able to make study plans for all three sections of Algebra 1, on the spot, during a 45 minute class period. I know, it is very hard to believe.

In my Algebra 1 classroom, I start preparation by gauging students knowledge. What do my students need to know to be successful? Where are they struggling? What have they mastered? I answer all of these questions with a pre-test using Woot Math! If you want to check it out right away, click the link below. Continue reading to see how I use the poll.

algebra-review-quiz

My final is separated into four distinctive units: number patterns, graphing, writing equations, and systems of equations. I took five key questions from each unit and created a set of twenty questions. In class, I had all of the students work on the poll using the “self-pace” feature with automatic feedback turned on. You can see my student’s results below.

woot-math-alg1-review

Once students have completed their poll, they sit with me and we analyze their results using the results page shown above. I quickly count how many they got correct out of the five questions per unit and calculate their scores. Then, working together with me we create their own personalized study plan. I made this very quickly using a word processor.

alg-1-test-plan

I have used study plans in the past and students respond very well to them, and they continually request them. Parents are thankful that their students have a plan of attack to be successful during finals. Special education teachers are grateful for the guidance, not only for the students but for themselves! This allows students to clearly understand where their skills are lacking and where they shine. Also, meeting with students one-on-one to check in before finals is a great way to instill confidence in your students.

This structure knows no limits! Whether you are teaching math, history, science, you could use this as a tool for your classroom! You can add reflective questions to the study plans to encourage students to think about their goals and not just memorize formulas.

How do you prepare your students for finals? Do you let them run free and learn study skills on their own? Or do you have an awesome game that you play? Whatever it is, we at Woot Math would love to hear about it! Good luck studying! Woot! Woot!

About Diana:
Diana Rapp is a full-time math teacher at Fairview High School. She has been a mathematics teacher for two years. Growing up, Diana struggled in mathematics. She learned quickly at a young age that she would have to work hard and productively struggle constantly in order to be successful. Along her journey as a student she was lucky enough to have incredible teachers and tutors that gave her the tools to succeed and instill confidence in herself. Diana became a teacher because she believes she can be that mentor for her struggling students. Diana has a BA in Mathematics and is currently working on her Masters in Mathematics Education Curriculum and Instruction.

Diana Rapp
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