In the classroom it is often difficult to ensure that ALL of your students are engaged and taking part in the class discussion. Our goal should be for all students to take part in the class discussion at some point during the class period. The larger issue is how to do that. Equity Maps is an iPad app that can help every teacher to do just that.

It is very easy to get started. You simply create a seating chart in the app and tap on each student as they take part in the class discussion or activity. Equity Maps keeps track of the number of times and for how long each student takes part in class for that period of time. At the end of the period you can view a report that breaks all this information down for you in several ways. Not only can you see how many times and for how long each student took part, you can also break it down by gender to make sure that you are not showing any gender bias in the class.

There are several other features that can break the information collected down even further to help guide your classroom management and planning. For example, you can track periods of complete silence, pair-share times, small group interactions, and something the developer calls “chaos” to keep track of periods when the class discussion or activity devolved and went off track with your plans. Equity Maps also included a voice recorder so that you can record the entire period of time and listen to it later when viewing the map and information collected.

Equity Maps is available in the iOS App Store for $2.99 allowing you to map up to 20 participants at once. There is a premium version for an additional $6.99 In-App Purchase allowing you to map up to 40 participants at once as well as the Checknotes feature for tracking characteristics of what group members share.