How to Use Guzinta Math

Adults and students work together to complete modules—at school, at home, or both.
Students check in regularly. When their Practice Meter for a lesson is in the red, they should complete one or more modules in that lesson to get their Practice Meter to blue (or at least out of red).
Adults check in 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month after first going through a lesson module and require that all practice levels be out of the red or in the blue on that day. End-of-module certficates are stamped at time of completion with the date and the Practice Meter level, if e-mailing certificates is something in the works in your class.
PLEASE read the recommendations for adults at the end of this post.

After you have completed at least one module in one of the lessons, this will activate your Practice Meter (explained below) for that lesson, and you will see a meter level to the right of the lesson on the homepage. This will allow you to, at a glance, see what concepts need your attention. Above, you can see that I've completed at least one module in the Ratio Names lesson (a green bar is shown to the right of the lesson). The Instructor Notes link at the bottom right allows you the ability to download the complete PDF of all the Instructor Notes for the grade level(s).

Click on one of the lessons to be taken to the lesson homepage. Every lesson (with the exception of Plotting Ratios) in Grade 6 contains five modules. At the right, the lesson homepage for Ratio Names is shown. Notice the green Practice Meter level in the center icon. This mirrors the level shown on the main home page. Hover over this icon to see the numeric Practice Meter level (the one shown is at 36 currently).

To use Guzinta Math at home, a teacher may assign a module for homework or practice. Parent and student then discuss and complete the module together and, if it is requested, return the student to school the next day with the completion certificate or email it. (Parents can follow the Instructor Notes for each module as well.) The material can be used also at school or solely at school. In that case, different modules can be completed as a class and others may be assigned for homework. It is not the case that adults should be doing all or even most of the work during these interactions, but they should attend to them, rather than plop students down in front of a monitor to complete these activities alone.

At 25 and below, the Practice Meter color is red. Between 26 and 79, the color is green. And, a level of 80 or above makes the color blue. Once a module has been completed—either at school with a teacher or at home with a parent or caregiver, the time is recorded for that lesson, along with the Practice Meter level. As time passes, the Practice Meter level decreases to represent a forgetting of the content.

In the first 7 days, the meter decreases at a rate of about 54% each day. That is, it loses a little more than half its value each day. The Practice Meter level of 36 (green) mentioned above would be about 16 or 17 (red) a day later, if no work is done in the lesson. From 7 days to 28 days, the meter only loses about 17% of its value each day. From 28 to 90 days, only 6% is lost each day. And from 90 days on, only 1% is lost each day.

The purpose of the Practice Meter is to provide a visual indication of forgetting and to alert students, teachers, and parents when it is time to revisit a lesson. Forgetting is very useful for learning, so it is important to allow time for the Practice Meter level to decrease before recharging it. A good schedule to keep would be to use a module together as a class or with parents and students as homework and then check in 1 day, then 1 week, and then each month after this first start. Have students get their meters out of the red or in the blue, at least for these check-ins. The goal is to keep this content alive throughout the year—yes, even if students are repeating the same questions. Repetition is excellent for novice learners!

Because the application timestamps the beginning of a student's work in a lesson, this allows it to reveal new practice questions over time. The table below shows the number of questions (excluding Module 0) asked in each lesson of Grade 6, starting on Day 1 and then the extra questions revealed on Days 4, 9, and 22. These days are measured separately for each lesson, and the timer doesn't start until after adults and students together complete at least one module in the lesson.

Lesson	Day 1	Day 4+	Day 9+	Day 22+
Ratio Names	31	+5	+8	+6
Ratio Tables	28	+10	+7	+5
Comparing Ratios	45	+0	+0	+0
Plotting Ratios	12	+0	+0	+0
Measurement Conversions	26	+6	+12	+6
Fraction by Fraction Division	28	+6	+12	+4
Long Division	22	+6	+10	+6
GCF and LCM	33	+6	+6	+5
Negative Numbers	31	+0	+0	+0
Quadrants in the Plane	31	+7	+6	+6
Order and Absolute Value	34	+7	+6	+3
Numeric Expressions	28	+8	+8	+6
Algebraic Expressions	46	+0	+0	+0
Equations and Inequalities	29	+0	+0	+0

There are a few reasons for time-releasing new questions: (1) This ratchets up the challenge level for a lesson. The answers for questions revealed on and after Day 4 are not included in the Instructor's Notes. And, more questions in a lesson means that it becomes slightly more difficult to raise one's practice meter up to any given level (though the difficulty increase is very minor in most cases). (2) It helps break the repetition a little. (3) Transfer is facilitated when students revisit a previously learned topic in a slightly new context.

Ideally, provide guidance in one form or another on EVERY module the first time students go through it. The Instructor Notes provide the answers and some guiding questions for adults for the original practice questions (not the time-released ones). Use those notes to help you guide students. Guidance doesn't mean you are perched on top of their shoulder, making sure they don't get anything wrong.
Take. Your. Time. Students should live with this content—revisiting it regularly to maintain their Practice Meter levels—throughout the entire year. They don't need to "get through" the content fast.
It's possible to revisit the same module of a lesson every time to raise one's Practice Meter level. That's okay! But encourage students to complete other modules over time as well.
Forget whatever label you've assigned to your student. "Quick learner"? They still need to work through and revisit this material throughout the year, just like everyone else. Revisiting deepens their understanding and often reveals patches of misunderstanding—where they learned to play the game well but don't really get it. "Slow learner"? They should be challenged and given high expectations like other students. Again, revisiting over the entire year is key.
If your student has memorized the answers to questions, that's fine, at least once. That's a good cue to let that module sit and allow forgetting to set in for a while and do other things. Also, if you suspect that a student is moving through stuff without thinking, that's a clue to SIT DOWN WITH THEM AGAIN and work together. Watch the videos again and discuss. Have them explain things to you. Read the Notes. Have them generalize. Work through the exploratory module even when it doesn't have questions to answer. In short, make them think and elaborate when otherwise they wouldn't.
After a while, the bulk of a student's time with the app will be revisiting already completed lessons. This is the reason for the time-released questions—to help keep students on their toes a little. But, a great idea for revisiting lessons is to have students teach you the content that they're going over. Take notes and ask questions, and make them explain the worked examples and videos and questions!