Having an award-winning math platform at your fingertips is a teacher’s dream.

Yet, we understand that digital resources can also feel intimidating. How will you make the most of the platform? How long will it take to learn? Does it suit your teaching style?

At Matific, we are in constant communication with classroom teachers across the globe, listening to their stories of classroom success and learning how they achieve it.

Whether you’re new to Matific or are a seasoned user, we’re sure you’ll learn something from hearing about these three effective ways to use Matific in your classroom.

Use case 1: Superstar demonstrator

Matific’s library of activities is an amazing tool for demonstrating new math concepts. Featuring fun and exciting manipulatives, these activities and episodes help teachers bring their classrooms to life.

So, how might you use a Matific activity to demonstrate a new topic in maths

• First, play through the episode as a class. You can do this with our “Play with Class” option or by projecting your screen onto your smartboard.
• Encourage the participation of as many students as possible. Coach students to collaborate and think through answers together.
• Discuss the episode and talk through any questions.

Matific teacher, Chad, loves to use Spaceship Factory to introduce addition equations. Students are faced with a variety of scenarios in which they must solve for missing addends. At the same time, the episode is fun and engaging - students are helping a scientist build a spaceship!

By presenting the episode to the class for discussion, Chad can highlight different student approaches to questions. Some students are confident enough to use equations, a few may even be familiar with subtraction, but most use a “counting up” strategy. Since the activity allows for a variety of approaches, it allows Chad to emphasize each approach as valid, and concentrate class effort on verbalising thinking and understanding the explanations of others.

Use case 2: Small group instruction

Matific’s activities are rich and deep, and available at multiple levels. Teachers can assign activities to small groups and easily monitor their progress using Matific’s to-the-minute reports. These reports allow teachers to intervene at just the right time, or allow students to explore with confidence. Additionally, the reports give teachers detailed knowledge about each students’ strengths and struggles, making their guidance more effective.

With this strategy, instruction is differentiated, aiming to meet students where they are. The activities also create great opportunities for discussion and problem-solving. Working in a group together, students can discuss possible solutions and strategies they might use when solving the problem.

Some episodes that are suitable for group work are the Pouring Riddles episodes (like this one). This episode involves subtraction, addition, strategizing and thinking ahead. Stacy assigns different levels of the Pouring Riddles to small groups in her classroom. Students can talk through the problems and experiment with the materials before submitting each answer. Plus, students can take turns manipulating the jugs while other students perform math operations on scratch paper. Then, Stacy asks students to present the strategies they discovered while solving the riddles to the rest of the class. This way, all groups connect on strategies and ideas while each working at their own differentiated levels.

Use case 3: An independent learning tool

Students need plenty of time to practice math skills independently. Yet, it can be a challenge to make sure that every student is working at the right level. Matific’s smart algorithm always ensures appropriate work is ready for every student, for both learning new skills and revising learned skills.

As students progress through automatic recommendations, students receive feedback and support as they work. For example, if a student struggles with a new concept, Matific will provide clues and hints to help them through. If necessary, Matific will even help the student review prerequisite content, reinforcing their knowledge before attempting new skills again.

Matific guides students through grade-level content, advancing them at their own pace and level. This means students are never bored and always challenged appropriately.

Beatrice knows that all she has to do is help her students play 30 minutes of Matific’s Adventure Island every week. Every day her students get new activities within their personalized zone of proximal development. What’s more, Beatrice is kept up to date with performance reports that cover everything her students have worked on. These reports help her intervene at opportune moments when students could use extra support.

If you don’t have enough devices for all of the students in your class to use Matific at once, consider using it as a center. Students can cycle through various maths centers or small group instruction sessions during maths time. Add Matific as one of the centers and watch your students excel and grow to love math! Alternatively, you can even assign Matific as homework.

Matific is a versatile, engaging, and useful maths platform proven to boost student performance by up to 34%. No matter how you use it, we’re sure you’ll love it.

Are you ready to get started? Try Matific today for free!