Start here if you are brand new to teaching with Stile.
Stile is an interactive, collaborative, and highly engaging science resource used by teachers around the world. It is a blended combination of textbooks, workbooks, assessments, practical activities, videos, and content creation tools that teachers can use to customize their own tasks. Stile Classroom is a fully digital environment that enables engaging and immersive science lessons for students and teachers, and Stile X is the physical notebook and revision guide that accompanies nearly every unit in the Stile Science library.
Note: This article is part of a 4-part series designed to help you use Stile Classroom for the very first time. You'll find links to other articles peppered throughout. These links will open in new tabs so you can explore more of Stile without losing your place in this series. If you're familiar with what Stile is and you're ready to get going, continue on to Getting Started Pt 2.
If you're a student, go here instead.
Here's what you can do with Stile:
- Elicit prior knowledge;
- Engage students interactively;
- Get input from even the quietest students;
- Discuss answers & model answers anonymously;
- Use the Markbook and class controls for learning management;
- Empower independent revision with Stile X;
- Learn more about how to use Stile Classroom.
Elicit prior knowledge
At the start of each unit is an introduction, which connects the topic to a relevant, real-world and contemporary application. Students are then prompted to share what they know about that application and/or what they know about the unit's main topic. This can help you gain a quick understanding of where each student is starting from, and how your Class as a whole will respond to the topic. You'll be able to better anticipate misconceptions in upcoming activities and adjust your teaching strategy. You can also use the Pause button to stop the activity and focus discussion on key concepts, preventing students from getting distracted or jumping ahead.
Engage students interactively
Stile Classroom works best as a blended learning tool; it's not intended as a "set and forget" task manager. To help facilitate this, Stile has a number of built-in tools that you can use to get your students actively involved. We'll cover this in more detail in Part 3 of this series.
Get input from even the quietest students
There are students in every Class that would prefer to avoid the spotlight, and that's okay. Student names are hidden by default when using collaborative tools in Stile Classroom. This keeps the responses anonymous so you can discuss the results without calling anyone out. Let your students know about this before answering the question and you'll be more likely to hear from everyone!
Discuss answers & model answers anonymously
Similar to polls and brainstorms, student names are hidden by default when you want to discuss responses and model answers with the Class. This can save a little embarrassment if a student's response misses the mark, and it also removes any bias that might come from students if they know whose answer they're critiquing.
Use the Markbook and class controls for learning management
The Markbook is the place to be when you're marking or reviewing student progress. This organizes all of your students' work in a quick and easy-to-read grid. You can drill down for more info with just a few clicks, and use the Markbook filters to focus on exactly what you want to see. You can also manage marks individually from the Markbook or on a class-wide scale. We'll cover this in Part 4!
Empower independent revision with Stile X
Stile X is the ultimate student notebook and revision guide. Each Stile X book is paired to a unit in Stile Classroom and focuses on the key learning goals. Scaffolded study tips help students learn how to effectively revise, while they revise. The physical notebooks are accompanied by a mobile app with access to short explainer videos, flashcard-style quizes, and model answers for the Stile X questions. You can learn more about Stile X and how to incorporate it into your teaching strategy here.
Learn more about how to use Stile
This series is broken into 3 more parts to get you set up and delivering incredible science resources to your students on day one.
Part 2 will take you through logging in, organizing Lessons, and adding students.
Part 3 will guide you through leading an interactive and engaging activity in Stile Classroom.
Part 4 will show you how to quickly review and mark your students' work, as well as provide targeted feedback to help your students get the most from every Lesson, exam, and prac.
Each part takes about 15-20 minutes and includes links to more tutorials in case you want to dive deeper down the rabbit hole. For a more thorough tour including pedagogical best practices, you can register for one of our Professional Learning workshops. Another way to learn is by downloading our Stile Guide PDF. You can also contact the Stile Support team for tips, tutorials, and hands-on help.
Continue on to Part 2: Log in, organize Lessons, and add students