ASSISTments is a tool, here are some teachers and their ideas for using the ASSISTments:

Jack Rafferty

Ideas from Jack Rafferty – 8th grade math teacher in an urban school

Overview:

Review the item report from a problem set and find an area of weakness.
Develop an in-class activity that addresses that weakness. In this case the activity involved asking students to compose questions that could be posed from a situation. This was in contrast to what the ASSISTments did which was give a situation and then ask the students to answer questions.

Using ASSISTments to focus on written work and meet independently with students.

Overview:

In class I observed that my students did not do their work on paper the way I wanted them to.
I made a graphic organizer for the ASSISTment lab and had the students show their work.
As students finished the problem on the ASSISTments I met with them individually looking both at their work and at their score on the item report.
I then had the students go back and try again to see if they could improve.
When students were done or while they were waiting I had them work on other problem sets on the ASSISTments.

Overview:

Assign a large problem-set to be done at home over a month long period. Show the students how to show their work.
Encourage students to work on the project by showing them that I have records on the computer that show what they have been doing.
Use the results from their work to write a written test that they will take at home in January.
Give the students the final take home exam and grade their projects.

Overview:

Have students respond in writing when they get a problem wrong on the system.
Explain to students how to fill out the ASSISTments Hints worksheet on any problem they get wrong. Practice this in the computer lab.
Review and respond to their writing.

Ida London

Ideas from Ida London – 7th grade math teacher in an urban school

Students complete a problem set on the computer
Study the Item report from the Problem set to find one problem to deal with
Discuss the problem in class
Retest the students on a similar problem in the computer lab.
Meet individually in the lab with the students who did not do the problem correctly on the retake.

Have students do a quick problem set and immediately print out the item report.
Call students over one at a time to review their work on the problem set. Call on the ones who had the most trouble first.

Recognized a need for something to help organize my students written work.
Instituted a policy of using an ASSISTment worksheet. Each student used one worksheet for each problem set and then put it in a pile on my desk under a cover sheet.
After two days of using the ASSISTment cover sheet I switched to using notebook paper. Most of my students were able to use this method.