Knowledgehook Math PLC Planning Tool

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.001 Featured Image

Have you been using Knowledgehook’s Free Gameshow Tool or the Premium Mission Feature? I was pleased to find out today that Travis, Lambo, James, Arthur and the rest of the team at Knowledgehook have released version 1 of their Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Tool to assist district math leaders, administrators and school math leads to easily and more effectively plan their professional learning sessions.

Here’s a quick overview with some screenshots to give you a heads up on what you can expect from this really valuable resource.

Upon logging into Knowledgehook with your school and/or district login, you’ll arrive at the Administrator Dashboard where you will see a graph showing usage for Gameshows (teacher paced / whole group activities) and Missions (student paced / independent activities).

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.002 District Insights

Underneath, we see the number of student gaps triggered, custom questions created by teachers and Mathalon medals earned thus far as well as the option to view Trending Gaps across the district:

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.003 Student Gaps and Stats

My suggestion to the Knowledgehook team is to also show how many students have remediated the gaps in their learning after reattempting problems in Missions. I have also suggested that the dashboard “auto-magically” suggests which gaps should be on our “short list” to focus on for informing our professional development planning with some sort of confidence scale indicating how confident the algorithm is in their recommendation.

From the dashboard, we can also see the usage from each school as well as gaps triggered in those specific schools.

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.004 School Stats

When we explore Top Student Gaps in the district, we can explore – grade by grade – the top 3 gaps:

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.005 Top Student Gaps

Upon clicking on “View Teacher Support”, we can access instructional guidance including “Math Background” and “Remediation” documents which are downloadable PDF files:

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.006 Teacher Professional Learning Supports

When I clicked on “Math Background”, I got the following document which has a great background around Representing Whole Numbers to 10 000:

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.007 Math Background Guide

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.008 Math Background Guide

The 6-page math background document outlined:

  • Why some schools struggle with representing whole numbers to 10 000

  • A background of the base ten place value system

  • Useful models that can help students develop number sense
  • Strategies for comparing whole numbers (and decimals)

  • Glossary


In the remediation document, you are presented with a 23-page document that highlights:

  • Common misconceptions and what you can do about it


    Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.009 Remediation Guide

  • Remediation questions
 and solutions

    Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.011 Remediation Questions and Solutions

  • A Teacher Guide

    Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.010 Remediation Guide

  • Black Line Masters including blank and scaled number lines, place value charts and more.

Another new option includes the Administrator PLC Tool:

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.012 PLC Planning Tools and Polls

It is listed currently as “PLC Polls” where administrators can choose PLC content with teacher input (hence the poll) and they can optionally use their PLC Guide to organize how the learning will take place.

By Creating a Poll, we are actually creating a PLC Plan.

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.013 Create a PLC Button

Here, we select all the different grades we are working with in the PLC. Let’s say it is a grade 4, grade 5 and grade 6 PLC. After checking those grades and clicking “NEXT”, the administrator can choose as many topics as he/she would like to offer for possible learning during this PLC cycle.

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.014 Select Grades

This school has been focusing primarily on fractions thus far, so the administrator decides to keep only topics related to fractions as options.

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.015 Select Topics

Then, we fill out some details about the PLC including a potential format in order to receive a structured guide for how we might organize the learning, select the date of the first PLC and add a note for teachers.

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.016 Details of PLC

You’ll then get to preview the PLC Poll and CREATE IT!

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.017 Preview PLC Poll

Then, you’re provided with a link you can share with your staff members so they can share their thoughts on topics they would be interested in learning more about.

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.018 Share the PLC Poll

Alternatively, you can opt not to send out the link and just access the PLC content if you are comfortable selecting the topic or if the group has had a verbal conversation and you’ve all agreed on a specific topic.

Then, you can click on “VIEW” to see the poll results as well as access the content for your PLC:

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.019 PLC Planning Dashboard

You’ll be able to see who has voted and finalize which topics you’d like to explore. Note that you don’t need any votes in order to select the topics. Just hit “choose your final topics” to close the poll and select.

If I’d like to focus on comparing fractions visually and numerically, then I would select those topics and hit “Submit your Final Topics (2)”.

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.020 Select Topics for PLC

You are then provided with a sample email with links to content that teachers can access to bring to the PLC or even to read prior to the PLC.

Knowledgehook Professional Learning Tools.021 Share Resources for PLC

On the PLC Polls page, I can click the 3 dots to the far right of the desired Poll and select “PLC Resources” to access the resources for that PLC and the facilitation guide.


Overall, I was really impressed with version 1 of the PLC Tool. It sounds like there will be many more features added as they continue developing it out further.

If you’re interested in trying out the FREE Knowledgehook Gameshow tool, click here.


WANT TO LEARN HOW TO TEACH THROUGH TASK?

Download our Complete Guide to successfully implementing our Make Math Moments 3-Part Framework in your math class!
Make Math Moments 3-Part Framework Guidebook

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About Kyle Pearce

I’m Kyle Pearce and I am a former high school math teacher. I’m now the K-12 Mathematics Consultant with the Greater Essex County District School Board, where I uncover creative ways to spark curiosity and fuel sense making in mathematics. Read more.


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