Providing Feedback on Cool-downs and Exercise Sets

As students complete their work in their Math Units, they will submit it for feedback. This article will cover how to provide feedback on Cool-downs and Exercise Sets.

• How do Cool-downs work in Math Units?
• How can I view my students' work before they submit it?
• How do I give students feedback on Cool-downs?
• How do I give students feedback on Exercise Sets? 

How do Cool-downs work in Math Units?

Throughout a Math Unit, students need formal and informal opportunities to have their mathematical thinking understood by an expert, who responds in ways that will lead to greater learning. Cool-downs are these formal opportunities; formative assessments for learning. Cool-downs typically take place after each Illustrative Mathematics lesson and should be used to gauge students’ conceptual learning that has occurred as a result of that instruction. In other words, Cool-downs are defined the same in Math Units as they are in Projects; however, in Math Units, they are often used more like short checks for understanding, similar to exit tickets.

Once Cool-downs have occurred, teachers should use them to decide the highest-leverage next steps for individual students, groups of students, and/or an entire class of students. The appropriate next steps may vary widely, but could include any of the following: giving individual written feedback to students on their cool-down responses, giving formative scores on concept rubrics, making groupings for the next lesson, deviating from the unit plan to select an appropriate task that will highlight a common misconception, planning brief 1:1 check-ins with students to follow up on misconceptions, and so on. The teacher is best positioned to take all relevant factors into account and know which next steps are appropriate.

For more information on the Math curriculum, please look through this FAQ page!

How can I view my students' work before they submit it?

Teachers can monitor and access student work before students submit their work.

For Cool-downs and Exercise Sets, teachers can view student work under the Feedback tab. On the Feedback Overview page, student Cool-down work appears as circles to the right of their name. End-of-Unit Assessments are indicated with stars. Clicking one of these icons will bring up that student's work.

To see the work status of students’ Cool-down or Exercise Set before they submit their work, you can check under the Status column.

• Unopened: the student has not opened the Cool-down or Exercise Set.
• Opened [time/date] ago: the student has opened the Cool-down or Exercise Set.
• Updated [time/date] ago: the student has updated the Cool-down or Exercise Set.
• Editing…: the student is currently editing the Cool-down or Exercise Set.

*The status will change from “Editing…” to “Updated” after a student has paused editing for longer than 5 minutes.

Viewing Exercise Sets

1. Select the Feedback tab from the Math Unit
2. Select the title of the Exercise Set on the left-hand side

Viewing assigned Activities and Resources

Teachers can also see all activities and resources for a Cool-down or Exercise Set under the in the upper right after opening the Notebook.

Teachers can drag Activities and Resources into Notebooks to provide a link to the relevant item, making it easier for students to find. 

1. After opening a student's Notebook, click the assignment  icon in the upper right
2. A list of Activities and Resources assigned to the student under this Cool-down will appear
3. Click the Activity name to see the student's progress on the Activity
4. Drag titles in order to link to them in Notebooks

Please note: teachers can only give comment feedback on Activity Notebooks. The feedback icons used for Cool-downs (Finish, Continue Working, etc...) or Exercise Sets ( Incomplete, Complete) are not available.

How do I give students feedback on Cool-downs?

1. From the Math Unit Feedback tab, click on a Cooldown. 
2. You’ll see 🔔 “Needs Feedback” for students who requested feedback.
3. To start providing feedback, click on a student’s name.
   • Select a colored icon: 
     • Green represents that the student has met the objectives as assessed by the Cool-down.
     • Yellow represents that a student shows some errors or misconceptions on the Cool-down.
     • Red represents that a student shows significant errors or misconceptions on the Cool-down.
     • Gray represents that a student has not yet completed work on the Cool-down. 
   • You can additionally leave comments on student work using the Give Feedback On icon.  
4. The student will automatically receive your feedback. You’ll see a confirmation message: “Feedback sent to [the action you selected].”
   • If multiple students requested feedback, you’ll automatically move onto the next student as soon as you select a feedback icon. 
5. At the top left, click the "back" arrow to return to the Feedback tab.

Providing Bulk Feedback

1. To provide bulk feedback for a Cool-down, click on the Cool-down.
2. Next, click “Bulk Feedback” on the right.
   
   
   
   
3. Begin scoring students using the feedback icons. Students will automatically receive your feedback.

Currently, the ability to mark Notebooks as incomplete with the 'Finish' icon is only available for Cool-downs to alert students when they have not completed their work and cannot be used on End-of-Unit Assessments.

• Use of this icon will turn the Math Unit red on the Year page if the student has not yet received any End-of-Unit Assessment feedback.

For End-of-Unit Assessments such as Portfolio Problems, we recommend using the Return for Revisions option, since it will mark the Math Unit as red on the student's Year page, alerting them to the fact that they need to show mastery for the associated Math Concepts to remain on track. 

How do I give students feedback on Exercise Sets?

In Math Units, students complete Exercise Sets to develop their procedural fluency from the conceptual understandings that they build in their math courses. Teachers can track the Exercise Set's completion in the Platform. Completion of these exercises is determined by students putting forth a genuine effort to learn from the exercises. It is not necessary for all questions to be answered correctly for a student to demonstrate the completion of an Exercise Set. 

How do students turn in Exercise Sets?

Students are able to submit an Exercise Set in the Platform by clicking on “Turn this in” in the upper right-hand corner of their Exercise Set. 

To mark exercise set completion individually:

1. Select the Feedback tab from the Math Unit
2. Select the title of the Exercise Set on the left-hand side

1. Click on a student's name and select Incomplete or Complete on the top right. Your selection will be sent to the student. 

To mark exercise set completion in bulk:

1. Select the Feedback tab from the Math Unit.
2. Select the title of the Exercise Set on the left-hand side.
3. Click Mark Completion on the right.
   
   
   
4. To mark student feedback one by one, use the checkmark to indicate complete work and the x to indicate incomplete work.
   
   
   To mark feedback in bulk, click Select Unmarked.  Select students, click Incomplete or Complete, and then click Apply.