Using Student Work to Model Problem Solving

As a teacher, one of the big strengths of Magma is that I can use my students’ actual work from a lesson to model in front of the whole class different strategies and approaches to solving problems. We’re not just using abstract questions from a book - we’re using actual student learning from the people in the room.

I’m going to tap onto the Heat Map. Here you’ll see that on Question 7, quite a few of the class are struggling to get the answer correct. So, we can tap onto 7 at the top to see everyone’s workings on the screen immediately. This is a really good tool for me as the teacher to see what’s going on with each of my students, but I wouldn’t necessarily want to put this on the screen at the front of the class because everyone’s name is on there, and you’d see who’s got it wrong. That could be a little bit embarrassing for some students.

At the top of the screen, we’re going to press the Anonymise button. Now, unless the student recognises their own work, no one else is going to know who answered which question.

Next, we’re going to have a look at some of these examples as a whole class. Pupil 6 here has actually had two different attempts at this question. If I tap onto Pupil 6, I can see in the middle all of that student’s workings on Attempt 2. In the bottom left-hand corner, I can go back and see Attempt 1 as well. This is a really good conversation starter, because we can unpick what’s changed and how the student has eventually got the correct answer.

But wouldn’t it be good to actually watch back in real time and find out where that student went wrong? I mean, that sounds like sci-fi level stuff - or we could just press Play in the bottom right-hand corner. Then you’re going to see that student’s work come to life as they were doing it on their device. I can also press Pause at any time and go backwards and forwards one step at a time to really break down this activity.

This isn’t just a really cool-looking feature - it opens up a whole world of conversations, discussions, and questions that we can explore as a class. I can jump between students using the arrows at the top to find another example, perhaps one that reached a different answer, and then we can unpick that as well.

Of course, there are also going to be times when we’re using Magma after the lesson has finished. Perhaps it’s break time or after school, or maybe I’ve taken the iPad home to mark learning. I can actually leave feedback for my learners on this very screen. For example, Pupil 8 has done a really good demonstration of their working and thought process, but they’ve reached the wrong answer because they multiplied rather than added. I can leave some feedback by simply tapping the speech bubble on the right-hand side, and I can type in any comment I want for that student. They’ll see it the next time they open Magma.

Let’s go back to the whole-class overview of Question 7 quickly, because there are a couple more things we can do if we’re using this as a learning exercise. At the moment, we can see green and red showing who’s correct and who’s incorrect. That removes some of the questioning and discussion we can have around this problem.

Well, I can actually hide the answers at the top, which makes every question the same colour. Now it isn’t obvious which ones are correct and which are incorrect. It’s even hidden the solution on the left-hand side. But some students might still notice that the top ones tend to be correct, so we can randomise the order by pressing this button. Now we’ve got a whole wealth of examples we can discuss and work through as a class to identify the best strategies.

And don’t forget, if I want to model it myself, that Solve button is right there - and it will jump me straight into the question on my device.