Product Overview: Seesaw
Seesaw is a comprehensive digital learning platform designed to enhance the educational experience for students, teachers, and families. Here’s a detailed look at what Seesaw does and its key features:
What Seesaw Does
Seesaw is an all-in-one platform that integrates instructional tools, curriculum resources, communication features, and progress monitoring to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment. It is widely adopted by elementary schools and supported by extensive educational research, ensuring it meets high standards such as the ISTE Seal of Alignment and qualifies as a Tier IV ESSA federal funding option.
Key Features and Functionality
Multimodal Learning Tools
Seesaw offers a range of multimodal tools that allow students to express themselves in various ways, including audio recordings, video creation, drawing, typing, and more. These tools put student voice and choice at the forefront, enabling students to demonstrate their knowledge in the most comfortable and effective manner for them.
The Learning Journal
The platform features a digital learning journal where students can document their learning and classwork. This journal serves as a portfolio that showcases student proficiency and growth over time, providing an authentic audience for their work, including teachers, peers, family members, and administrators.
Supplemental Curriculum and Activities
Seesaw includes a library of ready-to-teach lessons that are aligned with standards and curriculum. These activities are designed to accelerate skills through gradual release and engaging practice, reinforcing the core curriculum. Teachers can browse, select, and assign these activities to meet academic benchmarks and support skill mastery.
Progress Monitoring and Assessment
Seesaw provides robust tools for progress monitoring, including formative assessment scores, activity completion, and proficiency ratings. The platform integrates auto-graded questions and assessments, saving teachers time and providing immediate data on student responses. This enables teachers to analyze learning trends over time and adapt their teaching strategies accordingly.
Communication and Family Engagement
The platform offers flexible messaging tools and the Seesaw Family app, which allows families to stay connected with their children’s learning. Parents can view, comment on, and like their child’s work, fostering a collaborative and supportive learning environment.
Differentiation and Personalization
Seesaw supports Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and provides tools for differentiation. Teachers can create small groups for targeted practice activities and implement evidence-based intervention tasks. The platform also meets WCAG standards, ensuring accessibility for all students.
Instructional Tools and Flexibility
Seesaw is designed for whole class, small group, and individual instruction. It includes features like Focus Mode to minimize distractions, Flexcards for customizable activities, and tools for front-of-class modeling and asynchronous learning. The platform also supports reading fluency assessments and free response assessment types, adding flexibility to formative assessments.
Administrative and Analytical Tools
For administrators, Seesaw offers an Admin Learning Insights Dashboard and an Admin Engagement Dashboard, providing deep learning insights and visibility into student performance on standards. The platform also allows schools and districts to localize their standard sets and customize their use of Seesaw to align with their initiatives.
Additional Enhancements
- Real-time Updates: Seesaw provides real-time views of classwork and student progress, enabling teachers to respond promptly to student needs.
- Reflective Learning: Students can review their own submissions, listen back to recorded explanations, and revisit their projects, fostering a cycle of reflection and iteration that promotes deep learning insights.
- Customization: The platform offers regular updates, such as Activity Templates, Quarterly Digital Portfolio Activity Templates, and Sitewide Standards, which help teachers manage their classrooms more efficiently.
In summary, Seesaw is a powerful educational platform that empowers teachers to deliver high-quality, engaging instruction while providing students with multiple pathways to express their learning and families with real-time insights into their children’s educational journey.