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How to use math challenges
Math challenges are a fun way to focus your students to work on a particular Math skill that you have chosen. Challenges can be set for a class, classes or particular students.
Students earn coins as a reward for participating in challenges.
How to create a math challenge
These instructions explain how to create a math challenge for a class or group of students.
Step 1
Click ‘Set Work’
Step 2
Click ‘SET PRACTICE WORK’ in the ‘Math challenges’ box
Step 3
Click on the ‘Choose’ button next to the box that says ‘Students’ to choose which students to create the challenge for
Step 4
Use the arrows to the left of ‘My classes’, ‘My groups’ or ‘Other classes’ to expand them into a list of classes or groups.
Check the box next to a class to select all students in that class OR use the arrow next to a class to expand it, and select individual student names.
Click ‘DONE’ when you’ve selected the students you want to include in the challenge.
Step 5
Click ‘Choose’ next to the ‘Skills’ box.
Step 6
Select the skills you would like the students to work on.
Use the arrows next to teach grade to expand into skill categories for that grade. You can use the arrows next to those categories to expand into further subcategories.
Check the box to select a skill or group of skills.
The skills you’ve selected will appear on the right. We recommend that you select 1 or 2 skills at most. This is because of the progression system, whereby pupils will need to get 80% accuracy in each step before they can move onto the next step or skill.
*Note* Checking a box next to a skill category will select ALL skills in that category.
Click ‘DONE’
Step 7
*Optional* Click ‘Add another group’ to create another challenge for different students.
Adjust the settings of your challenge
Title – Give your challenge a title. Your students will see this title on their account and it will help them identify the activity in their Tasks list.
Current answer target – Set a target for the number of questions you want your students to get correct. They will earn bonus coins for answering this number of questions correctly.
Available from and available until – This will be the period during which the challenge will be visible on the student’s account.
Once you’ve adjusted all the settings, click ‘SET CHALLENGE’.
How to view and edit a Math challenge
These instructions will explain how to view and edit a Math challenge that you have already created.
Step 1
Go into Set Work and then into the the Maths Challenges box (Steps 1 and 2 of ‘How to Create a Challenge’)
Click ‘View All Challenges’
Step 2
Click ‘view’ next to the challenge you would like to view the results for. If you would instead like to edit a challenge, skip to Step 5.
Step 3
Click ‘Show results’
Step 4
A summary of the challenge will be displayed.
Below that, a pie chart will be displayed detailing how many children have:
- Started
- Completed
- Not started
Scroll down to view the leaderboards. Below the leaderboard, you will be able to view each individual student’s score, including:
- Questions attempted
- Questions correct
- Accuracy
- Score
Click ‘Done’ to return to the dashboard
Step 5
From the ‘View All Challenges’ page, click ‘edit’ next to the challenge you would like to edit
Step 6
Click ‘Next’. This will scroll through the set up pages. Keep clicking until you find the page including details you would like to edit.
You can add or remove a student from the activity on the ‘Choose students’ page. Either select or deselect a student to include or remove them in the activity and click ‘Next’
You can edit the skills your students will be working on, on the ‘Challenge skills’ page. Click on ‘Set skills’ to either add skills or remove a skill. To add a skill, select the skill you would like to include. To remove a previously selected skill, click on the X next to the skill
Step 7
Click ‘Save’ to save your changes.
How to restrict your students so they can only work on a math challenge
If your students have not been set any other activities, the challenge you created will automatically appear on their dashboard.
If you have set multiple activities for them, they can click on Tasks to view their list of available activities.
These instructions explain how to restrict your students so that they can only work on the challenge you have set.
Step 1
Click ‘Set Work’
Step 2
Select ‘Live Controls’.
Ensure you have selected your desired class. You can choose which class you have selected using the drop down box at the top left corner
Step 3
Click ‘RESTRICT’ in the ‘Focus Work’ box
Step 4
To restrict your students to a challenge, tick the ‘Challenges and Competitions’ option. You can select multiple activities.
Your students will be restricted to the selected activity or activities for one hour
Step 5
Click ‘Restrict’ to confirm
How to answer math challenge questions as a student
If your students have not been set any other activities, the challenge you created will automatically appear on their dashboard and they should just click ‘Start’.
If you have set multiple activities for them, they should follow the instructions below which explain how to answer challenge questions.
Step 1
Click ‘Tasks’
Step 2
Select the challenge from the tasks list
Step 3
On their dashboard, they can see their current score.
They can also see when the challenge will end.
Step 4
Click ‘Start’
Step 5
Select a Sumdog game to play.
The questions asked in the game will be based on the skills you had selected
Frequently asked questions - Math challenges
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