How Teachers Are Using TeachFX Lesson Snapshot Images to Engage Students
The TeachFX lesson snapshot provides teachers with at-a-glance insights into how teaching practices engage students in learning.
It shows you data points like student talk time and the number of questions you asked, provides a summary of what the lesson was about, and even a custom image.
Teachers have shared with the TeachFX team creative ways that they’re finding the Lesson Snapshots are helping them engage students in their learning.
Use TeachFX as a conversation starter to review with students yesterday’s lesson.
Teachers usually rely on do-now activities, conversation warm-ups, and lesson reviews to revisit previously taught content. These are valuable tools that effectively activate prior knowledge, but they can become repetitive over time.
April Ellery, an English teacher at Nathan Hale High School in West Allis, Wisconsin, has taken a unique approach to helping her students review content from the previous class.
During her advisory block, she dedicates time to sit down with her students and review her TeachFX Lesson Snapshots together - allowing students to hear her read back the summary of what the lesson was about and see an image that can visually spark recall.
Invite students to take notice of and wonder about what they’ve learned.
Another way to get students engaged with Snapshots is to have them engage in a ‘What Do You Notice’ activity using the AI-generated image.
This activity encourages students to engage in deeper conversations and reinforces what they've already learned.
If you’re using TeachFX, you can project the image from your Lesson Snapshot for all of your students to see, and ask students what they notice and what they wonder.
These questions are open-ended. There’s no wrong answer. By asking open-ended questions like this, you’re welcoming all students – even if they’ve struggled with the content or missed the lesson – to engage with the material without the added pressure of actively recalling what was taught.
Use TeachFX to explore with students your use of academic vocabulary
When students consistently use academic vocabulary, their learning and ability to apply concepts to real-life situations increase. This study found that the better students understand math vocabulary, the more likely they are to succeed in mathematical applications and problem-solving.
For students to truly grasp the vocabulary they use, they must engage with it beyond knowing the definition.
Teachers who record their lessons using TeachFX can employ a similar technique to the 'Picture Talk' strategy by using AI-generated images from their Lesson Snapshot.
When teachers are ready to review the lesson, project the image from the Lesson Snapshot and ask students:
“Based on this image, what academic vocabulary do you think we used in this lesson?”
“Using the image and reflecting on what we learned before, how would you define the concept of ________________?”
Or, invite students to predict what the image for today’s lesson will look like when the report is ready. Teachers ask students:
“Which vocabulary from today's lesson do you think we’ll see in our Snapshot image?”
“We talked a lot about the concept of _____________. How do you think this will be represented in our Snapshot?”
With these strategies, teachers can get students to become more reflective and build strong academic vocabularies.
Helping students visually see the progression of the unit.
Lesson Snapshots can be used as visual aids for students to remember and reflect on what they have learned during the unit.
Teachers can record each lesson of the unit and string together each image to create a mural that reflects what students learned during that unit.
This way of providing students with an overview of a unit is beneficial for visual learners, allowing them to reinforce their learning by visualizing how the unit progresses.
Making Do-Nows more visual
Do-Nows are great ways for students to review previously taught content. Teachers who record their lessons using TeachFX can visually review content with their students.
Teachers have students focus on a specific part of the lesson where they will engage in conversation. Students focus on what they say, the vocabulary they use, and the content they discuss.
The next day, during the Do-Now, teachers have the students sketch how they think the Lesson Snapshot image will represent the conversation. The teacher then reveals the image and gives students the opportunity to compare their sketches to the actual image.
This creative way of reviewing content allows students to visually recall the material and encourages their participation in class discussions, knowing that their words have an impact.
Snapshots help teachers and students be more reflective
For teachers, the ability to quickly review what they've taught, the number of questions asked, and the frequency of teacher talk makes it easier to become a more reflective educator.
Likewise, these reflective teachers are dedicated to creating classroom environments where both students and teachers continuously reflect on what is being taught.
Why not give TeachFX a try yourself? Discover how reflecting on your Lesson Snapshot can help increase student engagement and create a culture of reflection in your classroom.
