This extract is from the MathsBook manual. It does not claim to be error-free or complete. Please see the separate ReadMe file for start-up details and how to purchase the complete pack.
INTRODUCTION
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MathsBook is designed to help students with addition and subtraction. It is not a teaching pack, but assumes that you have already introduced students to the concepts and skills required for these operations.
After they have been taught an operation, students generally go through what is often quite a long period of rehearsal while they sort the new ideas out in their minds. This period requires a lot of patience from them and from you, as they repeat the same instructions many times until they are fully learned. Even after that there will usually be a period in which students simply continue to build confidence in their own ability rather than make dramatic moves ahead. MathsBook aims to help with the rehearsal and confidence building parts of this process by presenting students with Ésumsæ in a very similar form to the way they are set out in exercise books. The aim - as in all Topologika software - is to help build transferable skills.
As students work their way through each calculation, MathsBook monitors them and provides the kind of help (talking if required) that you would provide: making sure they don't forget to carry in addition, that they take the bottom number from the top in subtraction - and so on. While this kind of help is quite limited, it is exactly the kind that most students need. They will, of course, continue to make specific kinds of errors due to misunderstandings, and to help you spot these errors, MathsBook records all their attempts so that you can later look for patterns that may require your intervention.
As this part of the learning process can last a long time, MathsBook reacts to the progress by, from session to session, increasing or decreasing the difficulty of the calculations presented - and the level of help it gives - based on performance. This information can be saved on disc for individuals and whole groups of students which makes managing MathsBook in the classroom very straight-forward.
Differentiation
You have control over the level of difficulty and help that MathsBook presents. You can choose studentsæ starting levels and have MathsBook monitor their performance and adjust automatically to their needs. Alternatively you can set it up at an easy level and leave MathsBook to find the correct level for each student. In both cases you have control over the performance required before the difficulty level changes. You don't even have to tell MathsBook the names of your students: it will ask for them and build them into its files when it meets them, tracking and adjusting difficulty levels as appropriate.
As well as keeping track of students' progress, MathsBook can also provide them with a worksheet to take away at the end of each session. This will include calculations they were not able to complete correctly plus a selection of examples from the level they reached during their go.
GETTING STARTED
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MathsBook allows you to prepare files containing data on groups of children. This data is stored in a directory called MFiles_+-. If you double-click on MFiles_+ you will get a menu listing the Édummyæ group name or names currently set up. Click on the group you want - any one will do for now - then click on OK. You will see a list of all the students in that group.
Click on one of the boxes next to the names to select that person, then click on OK. (Alternatively you can click on I'm new and enter your name there.)
MathsBook will present you with your first calculation. Note that the student's name - or the name that you entered - appears at the top of the MathsBook window.
THE MAIN IDEA
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This section gives you a quick insight into how MathsBook works. Please note that from now on weære going to use the word Ésumæ to mean any calculation - be it an addition or subtraction - set for you by MathsBook.
When the main MathsBook screen appears, you are presented with an addition or subtraction Ésumæ to complete, including all carrying or decomposition, with or without help from the program. What sort of Ésumæ is presented depends on how the program has been configured - as does the level of help. If you have speech switched on, then help messages will be read out to you.
When you (think) you have the correct answer, click on the equals sign. MathsBook will tell you whether you are right or wrong and may give you another try or present a new sum. You can rub out numbers you don't want, ask for help, use a calculator, check your score, give up and go onto the next sum - even give up altogether. You can also have any sum saved for printing at the end of your turn. All this happens on the Main Screen.
THE MAIN SCREEN
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Whether you are doing addition or subtraction, MathsBook uses exactly the same methods of entering numbers, altering them and accessing the various other functions of the program. These are described in this section.
The Number Line
The number will attach itself to the pointer and can be placed in the sum by moving the number to the position you require, then clicking.
You can only place numbers in sensible positions (ie those we think are sensible).
If you are using one of the help modes a red square will appear on the sum, showing you where the next number should go. At certain help levels you can only place a number there; double clicking on the number on the answer line will put the number straight into the red box.
When doing subtraction, a strike-through character (for decomposition) is available to the right of the digits. Other tools include:
Equals
Rubber
Help
Calculator
Score
Next
Stop
Print
When you have finished your sums you are presented with the results of your work. There are three options:
New go takes you to the Group Menu screen. A new student can now use MathsBook.
Print (see above and Appendix 2 Page 23)
End closes the Results window and stops the session.
You can continue by clicking on the MathsBook icon to bring up the Group Menu.
NOTEBOOK, HELP AND DIFFICULTY LEVELS
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MathsBook can operate in two modes to provide for the needs of your group.
Notebook Mode
In Notebook mode students can place figures anywhere in the calculation in any order; for example, figures will be accepted in carry positions whether they are needed or not. Clicking on the equals icon while in Notebook mode ends that try and tells them whether or not they were right.
Help is never available in Notebook mode which simply mimics what students do in their own note/workbooks.
Help
Help mode provides an ascending scale of help, ranging from reminders about which column should be filled in next up to the calculation being managed entirely by MathsBook. These help levels are described in Appendix 1, page 21, though various other routine checks are carried out on sums, e.g. adding in a subtraction will generate a warning.
Via the Options menu help levels can be set for each student. Help can be of a fixed type or can change automatically depending on the answers given.
Help can also be spoken. See page 23 for details of how to switch this on.
Difficulty Levels
When doing addition students can work with calculations from two plus one figure numbers with no carrying, up to four plus four figures with carrying in all columns, while in subtraction activities can range from two figures minus one figure with no decomposition to five figures minus five figures with decomposition and multiple zeros in the top line.
MathsBook can monitor difficulty levels and change them automatically: see Options (page 18) for details.
SETTING MATHSBOOK UP FOR YOUR STUDENTS
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The power of MathsBook lies in the way that you can configure it to react to the performance of each child in a group or even the whole class. It is worth spending some time reading this section in order that you get the most out of the program.
Groups and Group Files
MathsBook can track the progress of individual students in groups of up to 40. information on their levels and facilities available to them are saved in Group files.
Loading an Existing Group
Loading groups can be done in three ways:
Immediately after loading the program, double click on MFiles_+-, then select the group you want from the menu. This is the method to use straight after loading the program.
If you already have a group loaded you will get the opportunity to save it before loading the new group.
Creating a New Group
Here you can type in the name of each student in the group (see Saving Time, opposite, if you can't face this). Each student has a set of options attached to their name in the file. There's a large number of these options and they're described separately (page 18). To speed things up you can set default options for the whole group and then make minor adjustments for each student. This is described in the next section.
Setting Defaults
Click the Defaults button and you will see the defaults screen. This opens with the defaults we have set. Note that the defaults and options screens look almost identical as they deal with the same set of choices; defaults are applied to all students, options to an individual student. You will be reminded which you are dealing with in the title bar of the screen. The defaults you set form the basis for each individual student's options. When you have set the defaults you want, click on Apply to all. Each time you create a new student, their options will start at the default settings.
There are two other buttons on the defaults screen that change the way they are applied. Close simply closes the defaults screen without making any changes. Apply to new is more complex and is for you to use if you come back to the group and want to apply a different set of defaults to the students you are adding. Clicking Apply to all after you have started setting up your group will reset all the existing students to that default. This may not be what you want as there may be levels and adjustments that you want kept. Clicking Apply to new sets new defaults for students subsequently added without affecting those that are already there.
Setting Options
Once the defaults are set you can adjust the options for each and any individual student. To do this, select the student's name then click on the Options button. The options screen will open with the student's name at the top and the default values entered. You can make any changes to the options for that student then click Finished. You can reset the student's options back to the defaults by clicking Defaults.
From this point on MathsBook will manage studentsæ work, keeping track of progress and adjusting help and difficulty levels based on your options settings.
Saving Time
If you want to set up a group of students and you want them all to do similar work and to have the same facilities, MathsBook can look after that for you.
1 Set up the defaults so that it has the required settings for display, help and session - using estimates, how much help to give and so on.
2 Now enter the name of the first student in the group and close down the Group Editing screen.
When the MathsBook session is started (by clicking on the MathsBook icon), the Student Menu will appear with the first student's name. The only other option will be ÉI'm newæ. After the first student has finished their session, the next simply clicks on ÉI'm newæ and enters their name. MathsBook will start the new student off at the default level that you set and adjust difficulty and help levels to suit that student, recording name and progress in the Group File. This way you can let the students build up the Group File for you.
Changing Options As You Go
There will come a time when you will want to intervene to change the kind of work that MathsBook is presenting to a particular student. There are two ways to do this:
Via the icon bar menu See options entry, access the studentæs Options screen and make the necessary changes. This can be done while the student is actually working and will apply the changes immediately. Alternatively, you can access the options for any student in a group by loading the group file and clicking on the See/edit group entry on the icon menu. Clicking on this will bring up the whole group. Click on the name of the student you wish to deal with, then click on Options.
Deleting a group member
To delete a member of a group, load that group then click Menu on the MathsBook icon on the icon bar, and click Select on See/edit group. The group editing screen will appear. Select the person you want to delete by clicking on the Options button to the left of his/her name: the personæs name will be highlighted in white. Use the <Delete> key to remove the name. Click on Finished, then, from the Icon Bar Menu, click Select on Save group. Next time you load that group the name will have been removed.
RESULTS AND RESULTS FILES
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MathsBook enables you to keep detailed records of studentsæ performance. Each Results file can hold up to 40 students and 1000 Ésumsæ. Here we explain how Results files work.
MathsBook keeps a record of all the information you need to make judgements about studentsæ progress. This is available via the Results entry in the icon bar menu - slide right over the arrow to see the Results menu.
See Results
This displays in a scrollable window all the results currently held. The information presented looks like this:
Group file name: Class4 Date: 17 Jul 1995
The first line of the results file gives the name of your group file and the date. Each student is then recorded:
Name Timothy Thompson Start levels: add:2 sub:4 Help level:2
The first line details the levels they started at. (If Auto Help is Éonæ, the Help level refers to the minimum help level.) Following that each calculation is detailed:
Finally you are shown the student's finishing levels:
End levels: add:3 sub:1 100%
This records how the difficulty levels changed during the last session, ie how the student did. The percentage is the percentage of calculations completed correctly. This is calculated on the number of sums actually completed, if the student pressed Stop this will be less than the number you set.
Print Results
Clicking on this menu entry will print out the results.
If a printer driver has not been loaded or the printer has been switched off via the icon menu, this option is not available.
Print Summary
Clicking this will print out just the start and end information for each member of the group. Again, a printer driver must have been loaded.
Save Results
Moving right over the arrow here brings up a standard RISC OS save dialogue box. The file can be re-named and dragged into any directory.
You will notice that the results are saved as a text file so that they can be used with any text editor (like Edit), word processor (like PenDown), or desktop publisher (like Ovation). Once in one of these packages, the results can be edited and presented in whatever form you like.
Auto-save Results
Selecting this puts a tick by it to let you know it's on. When it's on, the Results file is automatically saved into the Results directory that's inside the Mfiles_+- directory. The advantage of this is that you donæt have to drag it anywhere. However, the file is saved under the group name, meaning that each new session overwrites the old file. This feature is there in order to stop floppy disc users filling up discs with Results files, but it does mean that they need to transfer, or print out, results before the next session. RISC OS experts can, of course, show off by changing the file name and leaving it in the directory.
Wipe results
This clears out the current Results file in memory (not on disc), and starts again.
OTHER BITS
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There are four more entries on the icon bar menu:
Save group
Save group leads to a RISC OS save dialogue box with the current group file in it. This is automatically set to be saved in the Mfiles_+- directory. There's no need to save it there as it's been constantly up-dated by MathsBook. However, this option allows you to drag the group file to anywhere on the filing system, for what ever reason you see fit.
Enable Printer
MathsBook takes account of the settings in Options and Defaults when offering students the Print option. It also checks to see if a printer driver is loaded. When the printer is enabled, students with the printer option switched on in their options will be able to print, but those with it off will not. With Enable Printer not ticked no printing will be allowed.
Whole Screen
When Whole screen is switched on, the main screen will fill the entire screen with no scroll bars etc. This means that the students do not have access to the desktop while they are working (quite possibly a Good Thing).
To get to the icon bar so that you can quit, change options etc. press <Shift> and <F12> at the same time.
The whole screen setting is saved as part of your group file.
Quit
Here is the official way to leave MathsBook:
Select Quit from the icon menu. If you have not saved the Results and/or Group files you will be warned. (It is likely that you will not want to save the results as you will have seen them or printed them out, but we thought we would just remind you.)
THE OPTIONS MENU
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This is where you can set up MathsBook to work in the best way to suit any given user. Because there will be so many different needs within any group, MathsBook is able to have different options for up to 40 users saved as part of a group - and you can create as many groups as you like. You can change an individual's options from the icon bar menu while they are working. To access the icon bar while you are in Whole Screen mode press <Shift> and <F12> at the same time.
Operators
You can choose addition or subtraction or both. The levels refer to the difficulty levels described in Appendix 1. If you have both subtraction and addition selected, MathsBook keeps track of both levels separately.
Automatic Level, when selected, automatically raises or lowers the difficulty level.
You can switch between different operators without losing the level you have currently reached. For example if you have a student who has reached level 4 in addition and level 2 in subtraction and you decide, for one session, to have them only do subtraction, MathsBook will remember their addition level and go back to that when you next switch addition back on.
You can set the number of right or wrong answers after which the level is changed. (See also Force right answer, page 20).
The Use decimals option sets MathsBook up to produce sums with two decimal places. With decimals Éonæ MathsBook will automatically set the difficulty levels to 6, in both addition and subtraction, since this is the lowest difficulty level at which decimals can be used. All sums will then be presented with decimals to two places, with trailing positions filled with zeros (eg 2.3 is always shown as 2.30) for work on money.
MathsBook does not go beyond two decimal places.
With Own sum selected, Automatic level is, of course, automatically switched off, but help is available, if it is turned on for that student.
Session
You can set the number of questions in each session and the number of tries that will be given. An answer is only considered wrong if it was still wrong at the last try. (But see Force right answer) A time limit in minutes can be set for each studentæs go.
Help
Here you choose either Notebook mode (where there is no help and total freedom to place numbers anywhere), or Active mode (in which MathsBook can help with completion of calculations). The Level of help is the current help level MathsBook is using.
Note that if Automatic level is switched on, the level of help could change with each calculation.
Switching on Automatic level means that MathsBook will increase the level of help for each incorrect try and reduce it for each correct try. Once a student reaches help level 5 - where they cannot get the answer wrong - the level will always move back down to 4. The minimum level of help you want MathsBook to present must always be set in order to prevent students getting into situations where they are getting less help than you think they need.
When Force right answer is on, each time the last try on a calculation is incorrect an additional try will be given at help level 5. This level only allows the correct figures to be entered and the extra try is not counted for scoring purposes. This feature works independently of the current level of help. When the calculation is finished MathsBook will return to the previous level of help.
Display
This allows you to control what is seen and what is available while MathsBook is running. You can switch off the Calculator, Score, Next and Stop buttons. You can have the columns titled and have the Estimate request on or off (see below). The Print option will be greyed out unless a printer driver has been loaded or if printing has been turned off. Speech is also switched on and off from here.
This box will be superimposed on top of the main MathsBook work screen when Allow estimate is configured Éonæ in the Options menu. The estimate is entered using the usual number line, and completed by clicking on the equals sign in the estimate box. The estimated answer is not checked by the program, but is displayed as soon as the student finishes the main calculation.
Allow speech switches on the speech. When this is done all the messages to the student are read out. If you select this and don't have speech installed (see Release Notes) MathsBook will simply de-select it when it finds no speech files.
Keep results records studentsæ work in the Results file. As the Results file can hold a huge amount of data for a session it may be that you only want to keep the results of those you think might be having particular problems.
APPENDIX 1 - HELP AND DIFFICULTY LEVELS
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Note that the number of figures is the maximum possible in a calculation.
Numbers used in Ésumsæ are chosen randomly by the computer. The levels actually represent the hardest calculations that will be presented at a particular level. However, the choice of calculation is purposely skewed to give a high chance of the most difficult calculations being presented.
Addition DIFFICULTY LEVELS
Level 1 Two figures plus one figure with no carrying.
Level 2 Two figures plus two figures with no carrying.
Level 3 Two figures plus one figure with carrying.
Level 4 Two figures plus two figures with carrying on units.
Level 5 Two figures plus two figures with carrying on units and tens.
Level 6 Three figures plus three figures, carrying throughout.
Level 7 Four figures plus four figures, carrying throughout.
HELP LEVELS
Level 0 The red square shows which column should be dealt with next.
Level 1 The red square shows columns. Clicking on Help reinforces
this with a message about the column. Columns must be
completed in correct order.
Level 2 As level 1 but a reminder is given about carrying if relevant when
? is clicked.
Level 3 As level 2 but the red square moves to the carry position forcing
carries to be dealt with.
Level 4 As level 3 but the figures to be added are explicitly shown from
the ? button.
Level 5 The red square shows columns and carries. All messages are
always shown and only the correct figures are accepted in the
red square thus forcing the right answer.
Subtraction DIFFICULTY LEVELS
Level 1 Two figures minus one figure, no decomposition.
Level 2 Two figures minus two figures, no decomposition.
Level 3 Three figures minus three figures, no decomposition.
Level 4 Three figures minus three figures, decomposition 10s only, no
upper zeros except units.
Level 5 Three figures minus three figures, decomposition 10s, 100s, no
upper zeros except units.
Level 6 Four figures minus four figures, decomposition 10s, 100s, 1000s, no
upper zeros except units.
Level 7 Four figures minus four figures, decomposition 10s, 100s, 1000s,
one upper zero plus units.
Level 8 Four figures minus four figures, decomposition 10s, 100s, 1000s,
two upper zeros plus units.
Level 9 Five figures minus five figures, decomposition 10s, 100s, 1000s,
10000s, three upper zeros plus units.
Help Levels
Level 0 Red square marks column to be done.
Level 1 As level 0 but clicking ? gives a reminder about the column.
Level 2 As level 1 but clicking ? will give a reminder about
decomposition if needed.
Level 3 As level 2 but the red square moves to the location of
decomposition if necessary and ? gives instructions on how it
should be handled.
Level 4 As level 3 but the figures to be subtracted are explicitly shown
when ? is clicked.
Level 5 All steps are shown and messages given without using ?. Only
correct figures are accepted so the answer is forced to be right.
In complex situations, for instance when a student is correcting a large subtraction sum with several decomposition errors, MathsBook does not offer help beyond indicating errors in the answer line, ie. wrong digits in the answer given. This is because there are so many possible sequences available and we don't want the program to force any particular way of working.
