Modelling Lessons using Magma Maths

Hi, it’s Jacob here, and in this video we’re going to have a look at how we can use Magma Maths to help us as a teacher in the classroom doing that all-important direct instruction.

I’ve got an assignment made already, all about addition and subtraction. But before I share this with my students in the class, I want to model it on the board first. So, perhaps I’m going to AirPlay to the Apple TV, or the projector - or whatever I’ve got in my situation.

Now, all I’m going to do is tap onto the three dots alongside the name of the assignment I want to use, and then I can tap on Solve. What this will do is open that assignment for me in the exact same view that my students are going to get when they start working on it later. That immediately becomes really familiar to my learners, so it’s going to break down some of those barriers between what I’m doing on the screen and what they’ll be doing on their screen.

Then I can drag and drop the table from the question here and put that on my page. And then, of course, I can use my stylus or my finger, and I can start working through that problem. I’m not going to go through this part in a huge amount of detail, because you’re a teacher - you’ll have your own way of doing this (and you probably don’t want to watch me do it as well). But essentially, all those tools in Magma - the highlighter, the pencil, and the manipulatives - are all there to use.

So, for example, I can go onto Manipulatives here, and I can grab some more ten counters to put into that table to really visualise the learning taking place. Then I can model solving the answer just like the student would. I can show my workings, I can make notes on the side if I need to, and of course, when I’m done, I’m going to handwrite that answer into the answer box at the bottom. Then when I press Submit, the student will have seen that whole workflow, and they can then start doing it on their devices.

I’m going to jump onto another question just quickly, and we’ll have a look at some of the other manipulatives that can really help us out. So on this question here, we’re going to look at the number line to help us find the answer. But actually, we can create our own number lines and our own resources to help.

I’m going to press onto the Toolbox in the top corner here, and then I can browse by category to find the exact resource I want. I can find the timeline and simply drag it onto my page. From here, I can grab the handle that I’ve renamed to make it longer or shorter as well.

These are some quite clever tools because they can adapt to what you’re doing. When I’ve got that place value table on my page, you can see at the moment it goes from ones up to thousands. But you can also grab the little handle on either side to extend it out - either into decimals, or into ten thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions.

This then becomes a really flexible resource. And as a teacher, this is something I always find really tricky - when I’m trying to model some maths learning, I don’t want to have to draw the whole table myself. So, finding the exact right resource that I need saves me time and makes the learning easier for the students.

And as you explore these manipulatives, you’re going to find some really fun and really clever little ways they make your job as a teacher easier. For example, this part-whole model here - if I then grab a second one and put it on top of the original, it kind of magically connects into place for me. I haven’t got to line it up precisely. It just works.

Under that Toolbox, we can also change the page we’re working on as well. So maybe you don’t want the grids - maybe you want the dots like this, or maybe a lined page. Whatever you want, you can customise it here. And a really top tip is: if you want smaller or larger grids or dots or lines, just simply zoom in or zoom out on your screen. Then you can get the exact right page that you want to work on when you’re teaching in front of the class.

But one thing I really love about the modelling tools built into Magma Maths is that you can access them from lots of different places. So, for example, here on the Heat Map, you can see an assignment that our students have been working on - and you can see there are a few questions here they’re getting wrong. Well, if I tap onto the question, I can then simply press Solve straight from this screen - which then brings me into that same workflow, where my students can watch what I’m doing and I can model the correct solution for them.

And so, I know teachers aren’t meant to set other teachers homework… but actually, in this case, I’m going to - and you can’t do anything about it. I’m on the screen. You can’t stop me. (I guess you could press pause. Don’t press pause.)

What I want you to do is just go on and try and solve one of these sets of assignments. Explore those manipulatives in the corner. Have a go with them. Find out what resources are there. Scroll through the menus. That way, when you next teach a class, you’ll know all the tools you have to hand - and you’ll be able to use them as easily as that.

And that’s it. I’ll see you next time.