Planning and Assessment

Using Knowledgehook for Planning and Assessment

The Knowledgehook platform has the ability to provide efficient methods of collecting data to know where are students are, to help plan how to construct their learning, to assess their understanding, and to address learning gaps.  We know that teacher time is limited and efficiency is key.  Learn more about the Knowledgehook Learning-Teaching Cycle and how you can use it to support your planning and assessment.

Activating Prior Knowledge

Determining what prior knowledge your students bring to the strand you are working on is essential to knowing where to start.  

The Ontario Math Curriculum Resource area has detailed charts for each strand of the math curriculum that show the expectations and how they build upon each other for each grade.    You can access these charts here, and then scrolling down the page for the appropriate strand chart.  These strand charts help teachers understand not only what the expectations are for their grade, but what prior knowledge students need to have to build upon.

Knowledgehook has built in "Warm Ups" for each grade that are based on the expectation from the prior grade.  Using these Warm Ups can quickly tell teachers if their students have the prior knowledge needed to be successful at the current grade and expectation.  Teachers can use the reports from these Warm Ups to then plan "where to next" for their students.  

Constructing Learning

Knowledgehook does not construct learning directly for students.  This portion of the Learning-Teaching cycle is teacher directed and led.  This can be done in  a variety of ways.

Teachers are encouraged to utilize the Ontario Math Curriculum, specifically, the Teacher Supports located under each Specific Expectation in the 2020 Mathematics curriculum website.  These teacher supports include examples, key concepts and sample tasks that can help educators better understand the expectation and help students construct their understanding of the topic.

We also encourage teachers to utilize Knowledgehook as an additional  teacher resource to better understand the expectations and how to support students.  Teacher resources  in Knowledgehook  include the Math Background document, Misconception Chart, and Intervention Questions, all accessible whenever you see a lightbulb icon within Knowledgehook.  Learn more about these resources here.

Many of our schools and classrooms have other great resources (Nelson Math, SuperSource, etc.) that have engaging activities that teachers can also use to help students construct their learning.  We get many requests for old printed copies of  past ministry resources such as the Guides to Effective Instruction in Math, and the Paying Attention to... series.  We no longer have these printed copies and many digital versions are no longer on ministry websites.  A group of educators developed a website to house these old documents, this website is not associated with the ministry of education and in many cases are based on old curriculum. However, there are good items for building teacher knowledge and for using within the new 2020 Math Curriculum.  Please ensure that planning is completed using new curriculum when exploring and utilizing ideas found in the  archived documents found in the math section of this website.

Consolidating Learning

We encourage a variety of high-impact instructional practices, including  tools and representations, math conversations, real life problem solving, explicit teaching, and deliberate practice that  help students solidify their learning.  It is during the consolidation phase that teachers are making observations and having conversations with students to grasp the level of understanding they are demonstrating.

Knowledgehook can be used during the consolidation phase to gather data quickly, that can be analyzed and used to determine "where to next".  When you use practice questions, exit tickets, or custom activities with students, Knowledgehook creates a report that helps teachers quickly and efficiently determine what gaps or misunderstandings may exist, both as a whole class, and individually.  Learn more about the reports in Knowledgehook here.

Demonstrating Learning

Teachers can use the conversations, observation and completion of products into consideration for assessment purposes.  Opportunities for these can occur during in class activities, problem solving, deliberate practice or summative assessments.

Within Knowledgehook, teachers can use missions to independently assess student understanding of learning.  Data gathered in these missions can be analyzed and used to determine "where to next".  As noted in the consolidation phase, reports in Knowledgehook can help teachers do this efficiently. 

Addressing Gaps

One of the big benefits of using Knowledgehook missions for student demonstrations of learning are the great features the reports provide.  Teachers can use this information to direct intervention and where to next.  Also helpful is the opportunity to Measure Growth, once intervention or additional learning has occured.  Learn more about the Measure Growth option after post assessment learning has occured here.