Derivita Power User Stories: An Online Homework Solution

At the end of the 23-24 School Year, our Marketing Director, Arianna Irwin, sat down with Middle School Math Teacher and Derivita Power User - Kalynn Viramontes. 

Kalynn teaches grades six through eight at RCMA Wimauma Community Academy. She has been teaching for fourteen (14) years, with thirteen (13) of those years at RCMA. RCMA serves about 340 students from Kindergarten through eighth grade. Kalynn and the second math teacher at the academy both utilize Derivita within Google Classroom for all of their courses including; sixth-grade math concepts, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra II.

Watch her full video interview on YouTube here.

Kalynn uses Derivita in three instances in her math classrooms:

• SpotCheck to identify and address misconceptions and increase participationon
• Math homework assignments to offer multiple attempts and ensure concept mastery
• Math tests designed similarly to the homework with fewer attempts allowed

“I use it [Derivita] for three different purposes and I love all of them!”

SpotCheck to increase participation

Kalynn discovered Derivita at an Impact Florida Summit. She remembers participating in a short demo of the platform and being particularly interested in SpotCheck. “I was drawn to being able to put all their responses up on the board and not put their name with it. So it could be kind of anonymous. Kids could look at everybody else’s response and see either what they did right or what they did wrong”. 

Kalynn conducts daily “Problem of the Day”, where she pulls a problem from an existing assignment and throws it on the board for review. Her overall goal was “to get more participation for the Problem of the Day” and wanted to utilize SpotCheck to achieve that goal. 

“I think kids learn from making mistakes and I don’t want to point out who made the mistake. I just want them to learn from, either their own mistake or somebody else’s mistake. So I put it up on the board and we talk about what that one [student] did wrong…I think that's a good learning tool for them”. 

Derivita for math homework

Kalynn uses the Derivita Math Item Bank to craft the homework assignment of about twenty questions or so to ensure her students are practicing exactly what she needs them to. She configures the settings on the assignment to allow the students to have multiple opportunities to retry a problem. She then lets Derivita automatically grade the assignments. 

Kalynn explains, “So each module that I go over I make a Derivita [assignment] using all of those questions that you guys [Derivita] have. Since it [Derivita] has unlimited questions, if they [students] get it wrong, they can read the explanation, and try again… They can try as many times as they need to get it right”. 

She also comments on the ease of finding what she needs in the Derivita Math Item Bank; “I love as a teacher that I can go in and search what I need. If I'm looking specifically for parabolas or quadratics, I just put it in the search bar and I can find questions. You can also search it [The Derivita Math Item Bank] with just a subject. I can go right to Algebra 2 and see what's there”.

Derivita for math assessments

Kalynn customizes her tests to be similar to the math homework she has already assigned and the students have already had practice with. In her math exams, her students “only get two shots” to get a question right. She limits the number of attempts on a test item purposefully as a way to increase her students’ confidence. 

Kalynn says, “They'll get one problem if they get it wrong, they get one more shot at a problem. So they can't keep trying it over and over again for the test. But this way it gives them a little confidence - they can see that 100% pop up or they can see an explanation if they need it”.

That extra chance to get the problem right or the ability to see a fully worked-out solution if and when they get the question wrong has made a difference for Kalynn’s students. She says, “I mean the kids sometimes they'll get it wrong and have an option to try again and they may not even know what they did wrong. This gives them at least one extra option to fix whatever they did…My scores overall have been higher on the tests because they get this extra chance”. 

Ready to start your own Derivita user journey?

Request a demo in your preferred LMS with a Derivita expert today!