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  • - Hey, everyone, this is Jeremy Schifeling at Khan Academy.

  • Thanks so much for joining our session on Best Practices

  • for using Khan Academy with ELA.

  • To that end, we are very lucky to have Madelyn,

  • one of our superstar ambassadors on the line today

  • to talk about that very topic.

  • How she uses Khan Academy's ELA content in her own classroom

  • and how you can use it

  • in our new remote learning environment.

  • As a quick refresher, if you're new to these webinars,

  • feel free to ask questions at any time

  • using the questions feature.

  • After Madelyn lays out the key points she wants

  • to share with you about using Khan Academy

  • in your classroom, she'll take your questions live.

  • So share and view the questions format and here we go.

  • So Madelyn, welcome, thank you so much

  • for joining us today.

  • - Absolutely, thank you so much.

  • - We're super excited to have you here.

  • And just to give folks a sense of where you're coming from,

  • tell us about your own journey as an educator.

  • - Absolutely, so this is my eighth year of teaching

  • and I've been really lucky

  • to have very different teaching experiences.

  • I have taught in two different states, in five districts.

  • I've taught in rural, suburban, urban settings

  • and I've taught middle school and elementary.

  • Currently, I teach third grade.

  • - Very cool, and how long have you been using

  • Khan Academy for and what do you typically use it for

  • in your classroom?

  • - So I've used it for a little over two years.

  • And I use it for a lot.

  • So I got started mainly using it for math

  • and that's how I do my math homework actually

  • is through Khan Academy.

  • But over time as I've gotten more comfortable with it,

  • I use so much on it now.

  • I use grammar, I use the ELA beta

  • that just came out recently, I use the computer programming

  • and I also use history.

  • - Very cool, okay,

  • it sounds like you're a Khan Academy super user.

  • So that's perfect.

  • That's what we need.

  • And so for those who wanna aspire for super user status

  • that are just getting started today, especially

  • in this difficult environment we find ourselves in,

  • any beginner tips for just getting started with Khan Academy

  • especially as it pertains to ELA?

  • - You know, I think that some of the easiest ways

  • to get started...

  • Well, if you're elementary, I really recommend

  • adding multiple courses to your classroom,

  • so adding math, grammar and the beta ELA

  • and then just explore what those have to offer.

  • I think the ELA beta is really awesome to be able to use

  • more complete units of study and then the grammar is nice

  • for those little check-ins to reinforce skills you've taught

  • in the classroom.

  • - Very cool, let's actually just pull up some of that

  • so folks can see it on their screen.

  • So basically we just added a new class.

  • And out of curiosity, 'cause I know this always comes up,

  • how do you get your students enrolled?

  • I know it's especially a challenge with elementary students.

  • - Yeah, so if you're middle or high school,

  • I say don't enroll them yourself.

  • Share it, push it out via Google Classroom.

  • It's really easy on Khan Academy to do it that way.

  • But if you're elementary, especially right now,

  • I would just go ahead

  • and create your student's accounts for them.

  • I know that so many parents are overwhelmed.

  • And so that's just one thing that you can do.

  • All you have to do is type in the student's name

  • and then a username and password will be created,

  • then you can just email it out to families

  • and it's really easy.

  • Just download the CSV for sure.

  • Some people skip that, which is really interesting to me.

  • Don't skip it, download it so that you would have that

  • on your computer.

  • I mean, you can access it other ways,

  • but that's gonna be the easiest.

  • - Great, and so once someone has created their class

  • and they've applied all those different courses

  • that you were talking about, how would you even get started?

  • How would you get a student using ELA on Khan Academy

  • for the first time?

  • - So what you're gonna wanna do is first you're gonna wanna

  • assign something so that when the students get

  • into Khan Academy there is something for them to do.

  • And so I teach third grade.

  • So I would go into the third grade beta

  • and then just click on a unit.

  • So right now, I've been doing a lot

  • of actually the vocabulary because we've done so much

  • of that work in the classroom,

  • I think it's nice during this time to first start off

  • with something you have already covered with them in person.

  • 'Cause if this is new to them,

  • they're gonna feel more comfortable if,

  • oh, okay, I know what context clues are,

  • okay, and then they can do an assignment

  • that feels a little bit more familiar,

  • even if it's a new website.

  • So that's what I started with.

  • We've been doing so much context clues,

  • so I assigned them something on there,

  • even though my students are comfortable with it.

  • - And here's an example

  • of what some of those questions look like.

  • Now, imagine that someone is going to start Khan Academy

  • for the first time not having that prior experience

  • in the classroom with it.

  • Would you recommend rolling this out

  • over a Zoom conversation or a Google Meeting,

  • or how would you even give students a sense

  • of what they're supposed to be doing

  • and what an assignment looks like?

  • - Yeah, so I would definitely do some sort of live meeting

  • and get them excited about it.

  • Explain why you're gonna be using it.

  • Maybe you want to share.

  • If you're not familiar with Khan Academy,

  • they get mastery points and they get to create avatars

  • for themselves and things like that.

  • And so if you're working with younger kids like I am,

  • or even some of the older kids, they get excited about that.

  • So walking them through it, through a share screen

  • so that they can see what it looks like.

  • The first time I did Khan Academy,

  • or the first time I do Khan Academy with my class

  • at the beginning of the year,

  • we always do an assignment together.

  • And so you can do that in your live Hangout.

  • You could have each of the kids write down the answer

  • they think is the correct one and hold it up.

  • And then they were doing it together

  • and they're getting a tutorial of how to use it.

  • - Very cool, and so when you're ready to go to prime time

  • and say, okay, I wanna make this part

  • of my regular classroom fabric

  • such as our classrooms exist today,

  • how would you?

  • How would you make it easy and regular for your students?

  • - So I think that depends on what your schedule looks like.

  • Right now I know that for some teachers,

  • they are putting an announcement every day on Seesaw.

  • Well, you can put a link into Seesaw.

  • Some people are doing assignments through Google Classrooms.

  • Some people are doing a live check-in every day.

  • So for me, I'm doing mostly live check-ins.

  • And so at the end of my time, I remind them now is the time

  • that you're gonna get onto Khan Academy.

  • I want you to do the assignment that's named such-and-such.

  • And so just building it in that way would be what I suggest.

  • - Very cool and I'll just mention that every piece

  • of content on Khan Academy has a unique URL.

  • So if you ever just need to paste a link to a video

  • or to a specific exercise, you can do that.

  • Or into a Seesaw or a learning management system,

  • in addition to the assignment process that works like this.

  • As far as the reporting goes,

  • I know we're in a very different environment right now,

  • but how much are you looking at those reports,

  • are you translating it into grades, does it matter?

  • - So I am not doing grades.

  • That's not an expectation at the elementary level.

  • However, I am still using those reports.

  • So one of the things that I see as fantastic

  • about Khan Academy is there are great videos

  • that are tutorials for the students to use.

  • So I don't have to spend my time doing that.

  • There's great lessons.

  • I don't have to spend my time doing that.

  • Instead, I can use my time looking at those reports.

  • And so just a quick story of what happened today.

  • I assigned two math assignments and I was looking

  • at the scores from students.

  • One of my top math kiddos scored poorly.

  • And so then I was able to look at a different report

  • which shows student activity.

  • So then it shows me how long students have spent, not just

  • navigating the pages, but actually on the assignments.

  • I mean, he had spend six minutes on two assignments,

  • which is just not enough time for the type of assignments

  • that I had uploaded.

  • And so because I had this extra time, I was able to check in

  • with that family and I just said,

  • hey, how did the assignments go?

  • Oh, it turns out their wi-fi was in and out

  • and he was really stressed about that

  • and tried to get both assignments in

  • before the wi-fi went out again.

  • And so I wouldn't have known that

  • if I didn't have those reports to look back on.

  • I could've just been like,

  • oh, this was a tough skill for him and moved on.

  • But instead, I got to build that relationship

  • and talk to him about it's totally fine.

  • If you have to wait until later to get it done, that's fine.

  • There's no stress to get this done right away.

  • - Very cool,

  • so I love how you closed the feedback loop there.

  • I feel like as teachers in our normal classrooms,

  • we're constantly having that feedback loop all day every day

  • where a student does some work,

  • we're giving them a response,

  • they're getting that needed feedback versus it's so hard

  • in this remote learning environment,

  • but you're still closing that loop using Khan Academy

  • to generate the data, super cool.

  • So the questions are starting to pour in.

  • If you're good Madelyn, I'd love to bring up a question

  • from Don and Herb and Kelly, which is what is an ELA beta?

  • What does that even mean?

  • How should we be thinking about that?

  • - So basically Khan Academy,

  • and you can talk to this probably much better,

  • but they are adding English language arts as part

  • of their lessons and they're just in beta right now.

  • So that means that they're testing them out, they're seeing

  • what's working well, what's not, getting feedback

  • from people so that they can improve them.

  • - Absolutely.

  • - But so right now, there's multiple topics

  • that you can choose from.

  • So there's reading passages.

  • There's non-fiction and fiction

  • and then there's also just specific skills

  • like I talked about with the vocabulary

  • like using glossaries and dictionaries and things like that.

  • So I'm super excited about it.

  • - Cool, and I just shared the link with everyone.

  • If you wanna use it and give us feedback, please just use

  • that link and let us know 'cause our content developers

  • are really eager for that kind of information,

  • speaking of feedback loops.

  • Let's see here.

  • Okay, so Ramona says I'm a fifth grade ELA

  • and social studies teacher looking for ways

  • to integrate Khan Academy

  • into my remote learning instruction.

  • I already have my students working through Google Classroom.

  • Are there any special tips you would offer

  • for Google Classroom users given that you use it?

  • - Awesome, so I use Google Classroom, too, and there's a lot

  • of compatibility between Khan Academy and Google Classroom,

  • which is fantastic.

  • And you can actually in your Khan Academy account

  • even sync your Google Classroom to your Khan Academy class.

  • And yeah, perfect.

  • - And then explain a little bit more

  • about what does syncing look like?

  • What does that actually do for the teacher

  • or for the students?

  • - So then it just makes it...

  • I wish that I could...

  • - I don't think you have to share your screen

  • 'cause I know you've got

  • your students' personal information on there.

  • We've got our fabricated data here.

  • - Yeah, so then it just shares the information.

  • - Yeah, I thought the easiest way to explain it is

  • if you've already done the hard work of getting students

  • onto Google Classroom and everyone's all set up there,

  • if you have to add a student

  • or change a student in Google classroom,

  • those changes are automatically populated

  • in your Khan Academy class.

  • So that way you don't have to double work

  • because it's all being fed over.

  • - And I know there's been a lot of concern

  • about too much information going out to families.

  • And so this is a way that you can cut down on that.

  • And there's less for the students to click.

  • - Oh, I got a really juicy question for you from Kathleen.

  • I love this question.

  • I know it's very tempting in the middle of this crisis

  • to be totally focused on just getting through the day.

  • I am certainly that way most days.

  • But if we're already thinking about next year

  • and setting our students up for success,

  • if a student starts Khan Academy this year,

  • will their data go with them to their next year's teacher

  • so they can benefit from understanding

  • what they've done so far?

  • - Oh, that's an awesome question.

  • Well, it depends on hopefully your students are signing up

  • with their school email

  • or just using the same login,

  • then my understanding is that it should.

  • I haven't followed the same group of students

  • and I was teaching at an older grade,

  • but from what my students have told me, it follows them.

  • Do you have more on that?

  • - Absolutely, no, you nailed it.

  • So basically as long as they're logging in

  • with their school account

  • and that school account stays the same,

  • they'll carry all that good information with them

  • and future teachers can benefit.

  • Lots of questions from high school educators like Nancy

  • and Jennifer saying, hey, I love all this stuff

  • for third through eighth grade ELA,

  • what about us high school teachers?

  • Would you recommend that the vocabulary and grammar lessons

  • are relevant for those students as well?

  • - I think it really depends on those students.

  • I mean, you are the experts on your students.

  • You're gonna know that the best.

  • I've used the grammar with middle school

  • and I'm sure high school teachers, you would agree

  • that there are some holes in grammar.

  • And so I would certainly use it for high school.

  • And what you might just wanna change what that looks like

  • and you might want to...

  • There's unit tests for each thing.

  • So if we go to sentence and clauses or if we go to nouns,

  • then there's gonna be a unit test.

  • So it might just look different

  • where you would find that at the beginning.

  • And see how they do on that and then figure out

  • what individual skills you wanna go over,

  • instead of assigning every single assignment.

  • - I love that and actually you echoed exactly

  • what Tim Vandenberg, your fellow ambassador had shared

  • a couple weeks ago, which is even for his sixth graders,

  • he has them go back and actually master each of these things

  • because if they didn't learn about nouns in the first grade,

  • if they didn't learn about adverbs in third grade,

  • he can actually fill in those gaps

  • and make sure they're ready for sixth grade work

  • or even ninth grade work.

  • - Yep. Okay, let's see here.

  • Okay, here's an important question.

  • I think this really speaks probably

  • to the elementary population that you're most familiar with.

  • Marta wants to know if I've already created

  • the students' usernames and passwords via the process

  • that you just outlined, what should I send

  • to the parents and the students themselves?

  • Should I just send them that information directly

  • or is there any preferred way

  • to go about that communication?

  • - So I've never had to do it with distance learning,

  • so that's a great question.

  • What I would do is...

  • Again, each school looks different right now.

  • We're having to send out a weekly email to parents

  • and so you could input it within that.

  • And then so that's probably what I would do

  • is just screenshot the user,

  • each individual username and you could do that.

  • Oh, perfect.

  • - Yeah, I was gonna add, I think you're absolutely right.

  • Totally the best way to do it or whatever's natural

  • for your communication style, if you're using Seesaw

  • or screen capture tools.

  • Khan Academy does have a formal letter to parents

  • where you can list it that's in a bunch

  • of different languages, which I'll share in the chat here.

  • And you can always take advantage of these

  • if you just need some language to get started with.

  • But I think that your point is totally valid, Madelyn.

  • Okay, hopefully that gets you started, Marta.

  • I know it's a tough thing to do midstream, especially given

  • that the stream we're wading in right now is very deep.

  • Ooh, here's a really interesting question.

  • This is gonna challenge you a little bit.

  • But Shelly who's actually working with students

  • that are focused on GED wants to know if there are parts

  • of Khan Academy that are actually even appropriate

  • for self-directed learning.

  • So less about assignment, assignment, assignment,

  • more about I'm empowered to go forth and learn as a student.

  • - Yeah, actually I think that something that

  • the more comfortable you can get any student

  • with Khan Academy, the more that will naturally happen,

  • even for an older learner, it's gonna happen very naturally.

  • It can definitely be self-paced.

  • Some of my third graders, in the time that they were waiting

  • for me to get up and running with online education,

  • assigned themselves computer programming and biology

  • and started going through those lessons.

  • And so absolutely, this would be great

  • for self-paced instruction.

  • - Very cool and just to make that really lucid,

  • any single user of Khan Academy whether you're a teacher

  • or a student can always click this courses button

  • in the upper left-hand corner

  • and really can start digging in

  • on whatever they're curious about.

  • So if you do have adult learners, older learners

  • who are ready to just dominate grammar or whatever it is

  • that they need to learn,

  • they can get started even without assignments.

  • Always available to you.

  • Okay, great question, Shelly.

  • Great response, Madelyn.

  • Ooh, here's a tough one.

  • So Krista says when setting this up

  • for an autistic eighth grade girl, what do you think

  • is the best approach and if the student had ADHD,

  • would you think about it differently in terms of engagement?

  • So basically just thinking about all your different kinds

  • of learners, I need advice for making sure

  • that they're all served really well

  • using a tool like Khan Academy.

  • - So again it's gonna depend on your individual student

  • and what works best for them.

  • So for one of my students who has autism,

  • she actually really prefers the videos on Khan Academy

  • to anything else.

  • The use of color is really calming to her and she loves it.

  • And so when I posted a video of my online instruction,

  • her mom emailed me and said,

  • is there actually a Khan Academy version?

  • So for her, it worked really well and so much better.

  • For another one of my students, this student has autism,

  • he did not like the Khan Academy videos,

  • but he loved the activity and doing the assignment on there.

  • He just prefers getting the instruction from me.

  • So there's gonna be give and take

  • and just I guess having that conversation with them

  • about what's working with us and what's not

  • and teachers were really flexible.

  • So just keeping that flexibility with this as well.

  • - Very cool, great feedback.

  • Actually very similar, Caesar wants to know

  • do you have any students who are English language learners

  • and if so, how do you address that

  • given that so much of this is text based?

  • - So I do have some students

  • that are English language learners.

  • So you can actually turn on captions.

  • And so I will do that with the videos

  • because sometimes they'll miss something

  • or they will think that two words is one

  • and so it just helps with clarity.

  • So far, it has not been a huge issue

  • for my students to navigate it.

  • But there have been times where with some of the ELA,

  • I've been moving down to some second grade,

  • not because they aren't able to do the academics,

  • but I can't put the same supports in

  • with this distance learning.

  • Or at least I haven't figured out a perfect way

  • to do that yet.

  • And so there are sometimes

  • where I might use just a little bit simpler level

  • so that they can access it easier.

  • - Great advice, Madelyn.

  • That leads to a bigger question.

  • Can you speak to the idea of differentiation

  • on Khan Academy a bit more broadly?

  • When we did our initial demo, we were mostly talking

  • about lock step, everyone gets the same assignment.

  • If you wanted to serve each student where they are,

  • how would you go about doing that?

  • - There's so many different ways to do that.

  • And it might even actually be easier for you

  • because you've been working with your students in person

  • up to this point, so you probably have a pretty good idea

  • of where they're at, so you can assign from there.

  • If you don't, if it's a new concept,

  • then you can see how they're doing on the assignments

  • and then you can scale back.

  • There's actually if you're doing math,

  • there's very clear cut if you need remediation

  • in third grade, click here,

  • if you need supports for this, click here.

  • And then with ELA, it's not there yet because it's in beta,

  • but you can just yourself look through the different levels

  • and you can make it more challenging

  • for your students that need that.

  • Assign them a fourth grade or a fifth grade

  • or go the other way.

  • - Cool, and just to operationalize that,

  • anywhere you can make assignments on the site,

  • whether it's on the lesson itself

  • or in the teacher classroom, you always have the chance

  • to do all students or just some of the students.

  • So you can really make sure

  • that every student is getting what they need,

  • not just whatever the class is getting.

  • Speaking of getting what you need,

  • Nathan, a parent, actually asks a really important question,

  • which is I'm a parent of a second grader and I'm trying

  • to make sure that my daughter has what she needs

  • to get ready for third grade, but I don't wanna just skip

  • to third grade and start her on that ELA beta.

  • Do you recommend anything to get started

  • at that second grade level?

  • - Well, so I would suggest doing some

  • of the grammar lessons.

  • That would be really good.

  • There's some pretty basic things in there like nouns,

  • singular nouns, things like that.

  • So I would do that I would think.

  • And then I don't think there's any harm

  • with doing what beta is available for second grade

  • and fill in the time with that for now.

  • - Yeah, have you ever used Khan Kids

  • with your students at all, Madelyn?

  • - Well, not with my students, but I have two little ones

  • and with my three-year-old, he uses Khan Academy.

  • He's not going to preschool anymore

  • which was pretty devastating for him

  • and so he uses Khan Academy Kids and he loves it.

  • And he was really excited because that is continuing

  • to develop and so recently there was assignments

  • for first grade that came up

  • and he was so excited about new videos.

  • So it's a great tool.

  • It's an app that it'll go through short lessons

  • and you can either select the lessons yourself

  • or you can just press play

  • and it will lead you through lessons.

  • - Absolutely, as all three, all along the bottom,

  • these app stores as you can see on the screen.

  • And in some ways, it's easier to get started with especially

  • in this remote learning environment, 'cause like you said,

  • Madelyn, you just start it and it just goes

  • and you don't have to worry about all these assignments

  • and everything else.

  • So could be a nice way

  • for the early elementary educators out there

  • to get their students started.

  • - And you can still get reports.

  • - Right, Sara from Guilford County, North Carolina asks

  • and this is a very important question,

  • can you actually preview the lesson and videos

  • before you assign them

  • or are you basically just shooting in the dark

  • and hoping for the best?

  • - No, you can absolutely preview anything.

  • I typically do the assignment myself.

  • Now, there's sometimes with some of the assignments,

  • there's lots of different possible questions

  • that could be asked

  • and I'll just run through one possibility,

  • but just so I have a good idea

  • of what I'm actually asking students to do.

  • So yes, you can preview everything, which is really nice.

  • You can preview because the students

  • when they're doing the assignment can have access to hints.

  • And so I like to see what those are going to look like

  • for the students.

  • - Very cool, and a little pro tip just to go along with that

  • is if you're ever curious

  • what your students are experiencing, I'm sure you are,

  • add yourself as a student to your own classroom.

  • And that way, you actually have the ability

  • to see every email, every notification, everything

  • that your students are about to get.

  • And all you have to do is come in here

  • to your classroom dashboard, go to the class code

  • in the upper right-hand corner and then under your name,

  • go to learner home.

  • And from there, you can actually add yourself as a student

  • and see everything that the student sees through their eyes.

  • Have you ever done that, Madelyn?

  • Has that ever-- - Mm-hmm.

  • Okay, cool, cool.

  • - And then also I just add courses that I'm interested in.

  • So I think I have astronomy in there right now.

  • And so I show the kids this is something I'm excited about,

  • I'm gonna be learning.

  • And so then they feel like you're using this, too.

  • You're a learner, too and it builds that connection, too.

  • - I love that.

  • Any tips, speaking of that, about just growth mindset,

  • especially this moment when we feel like so deflated

  • and we're like I don't even wanna think about tomorrow.

  • How do you keep your students feeling really strong

  • and persistent right now?

  • - That's a good question.

  • Just keeping things light.

  • At the beginning of each academic year,

  • I do gross mindset lessons with them through Khan Academy,

  • a course that they have available that's nice

  • to help kids get into that mindset.

  • But I think just continuing the connection with your kids

  • is so important in whatever way you can.

  • - Very cool, and then two final questions for you.

  • Number one, where do you typically go to get support

  • if you run into challenges with Khan Academy

  • or just wanna learn from other educators?

  • - So there are some Facebook groups

  • for Khan Academy educators and that's really nice

  • because you get feedback really quickly.

  • You can just type in your question,

  • hey, who's run into this?

  • Or hey, I'm running into this issue,

  • how have you motivated students?

  • And you get responses really quickly.

  • So I highly recommend joining that.

  • It is a private group, so just have to ask for access.

  • - Very cool, and then lastly,

  • as we face the tough month ahead of us

  • and maybe even a little more, any words of wisdom

  • that you wanna share with ELA educators out there

  • just as far as how to stay strong in this moment

  • and how to serve their students the best way possible?

  • - I think take a deep breath and less is more.

  • You're doing the best that you can for your students

  • just by being there and by trying

  • and it's just gonna be a steep learning curve.

  • So try to have as much fun with it as you can.

  • - Cool, I think those are great words to end on.

  • So Madelyn, thank you so much for being with us today.

  • You learn from your own children, your own students

  • to serve other educators.

  • And thank you all for joining us and we wish you well

  • on your journey in the next couple months ahead.

  • - Absolutely, thank you so much for having me.

  • - Have a great day, all.

- Hey, everyone, this is Jeremy Schifeling at Khan Academy.

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