Step 5: Teach and Launch Work
Nothing appears on a student’s screen until you launch it. That is deliberate, so you can talk the group through what is coming before anyone starts clicking.
Read the Agenda First
The Session Agenda tab is what you land on. It groups students by what they are working on rather than listing them one by one.
- Students on an assessment appear per assessment, tagged Pre, Mid, or Post. A Preview link opens it so you can see what they will be asked.
- Students on the lesson appear together with the lesson name and its materials underneath - the lesson plan, teaching slides, and so on, each opening in a new tab for you.
- A suggested next activity shows on the agenda card labeled Suggested next step. Spark picks it from where the group left off last time. It is a suggestion, so change it if your read of the group says otherwise.
Watch for the Tutor Administered tag. That means you read the questions aloud and record the answers yourself, which changes how you run the session, so it is better noticed here than mid-session.
Launching an Assessment
- Open the assessment’s tab.
- Click Launch for Students.
- Spark shows you exactly who it is launching for, in a list you can edit. Read this list. Anyone left off does not get a screen.
- Click Launch. Every included student’s screen opens to the first question.
Following Along
Once launched, a live results table appears below with a row per student. The columns show Status (Not Started, In Progress, or Complete, with a running count of questions answered on the student’s path), Correct, Incorrect, and Time since last answer.
Time since last answer is the useful one. It ticks live and turns red past 45 seconds, so a student who has stalled is visible without hovering over their shoulder.
Launching an Activity
Activities share one Activities tab. The Select Activity Step dropdown already has Spark’s suggested step chosen, so usually you confirm it and launch. Once launched you get a question-by-question table showing an answer key and what each student picked.
If the Plan Is Wrong
Need to Make Changes to the Above? at the bottom of the agenda reopens the Assign Lesson form without leaving the session. You do not have to end the session to fix the plan.