SAT Prep And Khan Academy

On Monday I spoke on the phone with Kitt Hirasaki and Anju Khetan from Khan Academy to discuss my "story" of my use of Khan Academy with my students.  It was refreshing to talk with them as they asked questions and gathered information that they can now take back to their "think tanks" when considering product revisions and development.

I actually started my journey with Khan Academy last Fall at an SAT informational conference I attended in Princeton, Illinois with two of my colleagues - Anne Bohnsack and Angie DeKeyrel.  Anne is our guidance counselor and Angie is a math teacher in our building, and the three of us drove Princeton to learn a little more about the SAT.  With the SAT new to the State of Illinois, we attended the conference to start our work on gaining a better understanding of the assessment that we could then pass along to our students.

Part of the SAT training included information from the College Board representative about the relationship between College Board and Khan Academy.  We learned there at the Princeton training that our students could link the PSAT NMSQT scores to Khan Academy and receive an individualized improvement program - FOR FREE.  The free component definitely caught our attention, so after arriving back to school I dove into learning more about Khan Academy.

I am honestly only a novice, but I've learned at least enough by this point of the school year to utilize Khan in two different ways.  First, the English III and Advanced English III students completed all of the grammar units in Khan Academy to "brush up" on their grammar skills.  The students were required to play the videos and complete the practice items for each of the skills in all of the grammar units.  I created a spreadsheet for students to enter their results and give me a score that I then entered into our grade calculation system to give students credit for their work.  Next, we used Khan Academy's SAT Prep Units in class as "bell-ringer" opportunities to view brief video tutorials and practice SAT formatted questions.

As I mentioned to Mr. Hirasaki and Ms. Khetan, I felt like students genuinely appreciated the information and practice.  The students appeared to be attentive and on-task, and several students expressed how they appreciated the opportunity to review the skills they will be tested on through the SAT.

I know I am just in the beginning stages of using Khan Academy in my instruction, but I'm looking forward to seeing the future.  For example, I suggested how I could envision reading a student essay, recognizing that the student has inadequate skills in capitalization, and assigning a Khan Academy tutorial and practice on capitalization as a remedial activity that could serve as a separate grade or perhaps as an extra credit opportunity.


If you aren't familiar with Khan Academy, find it and check it out. https://www.khanacademy.org  And if you have a unique way you are using this resource in your classroom, please share.  I'd enjoy hearing about it!