4th Grade - Khan

This school year I was looking forward to introducing Khan Academy to my fourth grade students, as well as implementing it in such a way that it would supplement direct instruction.  Technology is still new ground for many elementary students and I carefully thought out how the students might react/ respond to using online resources as well as how the parents might react/ respond.

I decided to start the implementation, by assigning Khan videos and practice as our Morning Warm-Up on a given day.  The way I would be able to troubleshoot any logging in problems, ensure that all of my students actually completed the activity, and also to get my students to become familiar with my expectation for use.  I, too, created a wikispaces page that my students go to.  From there are the links for the activities for a particular day.  I do not post things in advance because 1) I want to avoid confusion or accidentally doing the wrong assignment and 2) I don't want my overly eager child to go ahead, I want the info fresh in the student's mind for class that day.  After I felt as though my students had mastered the art of going to my webpage, finding their way to the assignment(s) for the day and completing them in their composition books, I felt that they were ready to do this completely independently as homework.

This week, I assigned one Khan homework assignment (video and practice).  I told my students that in addition to solving the problems, I wanted them to write a question or a comment for me about the assignment.  What did you like? What didn't you like? I don't understand why he did _______. I like how he explained _____.

All of my students were successful in getting that night's homework done and the next morning after reading comments, we had a discussion about the video and practice set.  My class seemed to enjoy that he switched out colors frequently and notes that it helped with clarity.  This is something that I can easily incorporate into my own lessons I realized.  Many noted that they thought he did a great job of providing them a review of something they had learned the year before, but didn't think there was enough explanation if this was the first time they were learning it.  I loved the discussion component because it allowed me to probe why they felt one way or another.  

Going forward I intend to assign a Khan homework assignment when appropriate to preview or supplement a concept we will be learning.  I will most likely be using it a homework assignment, but also think that I may occasionally use it as a Warm-Up still.  I look forward to getting into concepts that are newer to my students and not so much review, so that I can really see and pull from what they are learning from the Khan activity.

**On a side note, some of my students are so excited about Khan, they've been going ahead at home and watching videos on various topics, including advanced skills, and really pushing themselves and driving their own learning.  I love their excitement and enthusiasm!!