Snapshots: Select and Sequence Student Work

Updated April 11, 2023 16:07

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The Desmos teacher dashboard collects a lot of student ideas. So what's the best way to make use of those ideas during an activity? Peg Smith and Mary Kay Stein’s 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions offers a clear and useful framework for facilitating class discussions around student thinking. We added a Snapshot tool to make it even easier to select and sequence student work for those discussions. Get started with the video on the right, then try your hand at selecting and sequencing student work for discussion during your next Desmos activity.

Snapshot Student Screens

image of snapshot tool from teacher dashboard when looking at a student response. Screenshot.

To select a response for discussion, simply click the camera icon.

Image of an arrangement of 3 student samples in a snapshot collection. Screenshot.

Then, in the Snapshots View, you can organize your snapshots into albums. Each album can hold 1–4 snapshots.

Image of a collection of snapshots to display to students from the teacher dashboard. Screenshot.

Present your albums to facilitate class discussions. Consider entering a title or question, or simply share your discussion prompt aloud! (note: Teacher must present the album of snapshots to students. The album will not show on student devices yet.)

Snapshot in Teacher View

Teacher selecting multiple student screens from the Teacher View in the dashboard. GIF.

To select a response for discussion in the Teacher View, click the response’s checkbox to bring up the snapshots and the feedback sidebar.

Teacher presenting student work. GIF.

You can select up to four pieces of work and present them to students right from the Teacher View, or save them as an album in Snapshots.

Picture Snapshots

There is lots of mathematical creativity that is best expressed off computers, on paper, on whiteboards, and with concrete manipulatives. We want to promote that kind of mathematical creativity as well and we want to help teachers share those creations with the class. As a teacher you will be able to take a picture of your students' work to showcase from the teacher dashboard.

1.) In the teacher dashboard under the ‘Snapshots’ tab, send yourself a link from a teacher dashboard.

2.) Take a picture of your student’s fantastic, non-digital mathematical creation.

3.) Display it to the class using your teacher dashboard.

Image of add snapshot through an email link. Screenshot.