What is 4mality?
4mality is a web-based tutoring system for 3rd through 6th grade students learning to solve math word problems. It provides preparation and practice for math problem solving and math achievement tests.
4mality is being developed with funding support from the Verizon Foundation and a grant from the US Department of Education, Institute of Education (IES).
Why use 4mality?
4mality has several characteristics that make it a powerful resource for children, teachers, and families:
- It teaches mathematics content and problem solving skills from the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework and the National Common Core State Standards.
- It features four coaches Estella Explainer, Chef Math Bear, How-to Hound, and Visual Vicuna who give language, computation, strategy, and visual hints for solving problems.
- It adapts to levels of knowledge and varied learning styles by using an Artificial Intelligence decision system.
- It is designed with standarized testing in mind, so that every practice question follows a multiple choice or open response style.
- It provides students with continuous feedback about their performance.
- It provides teachers with a dynamic record keeping system that measures student's accomplishments in math learning.
Meet the Coaches!
Estella Explainer rewords the problem to introduce students to the wording of the MCAS. asks,
Chef Math Bear provides students with one potential strategy to solve the problem. asks,
How-to Hound looks at the problem from a different angle. asks,
Visual Vicuna provides pictures and animations to help students understand the strategy. asks,