Core and extended content

Select any slide and look for Make it work for everyone in the settings panel. It has two rows:

• Support adds help on top of the core slide, such as key word definitions and sentence starters. Students switch it on themselves.
• Challenge adds a harder version. Students who tap Challenge me see it instead of the core slide.

What each row offers depends on the slide. An exam question gets sentence starters and extra practice questions, and a recap gets harder recall activities. Each row shows a summary, such as 3 starters or 2 practice questions, so you can see what's set up at a glance.

In the slides list, an Aa badge marks slides with support, and a green ↑ marks slides with challenge.

Key words appear with a dotted underline on the student's screen. Tapping one shows its picture and meaning.

1. Bold the important words in your slide text (⌘ B or Ctrl B).
2. Click Support. Your bold words appear under From your bold words. Click one to add it.
3. Add a short definition, and a picture if it helps. Paste an image address or upload one.

⤵ Import from deck reuses a key word you've already set up on another slide, so you only write each definition once.

On Exam Question slides, Support also offers sentence starters: the opening words of an answer, for students who know what they want to say but can't get started.

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Click + Add sentence starter for each one. Three is usually plenty. The starters also print on the worksheet (see Generating a student worksheet).

1. Select the slide and click Challenge.
2. OctoDecks copies the slide and labels it Challenge version on the canvas.
3. Edit the text on the canvas. Ask for explanation instead of recall, add a condition, or remove the scaffolding.
4. Click Back to core when you're done.

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We turned "Thermoplastics soften when heated" into "Why can thermoplastics be recycled but thermosets cannot?", and asked students to use three technical terms.

While you're editing a challenge version, Further resources appears below the controls. Click + Add link and give it a heading, a web address and a short note. Students on the challenge version see these links as a bar they can open, which is useful for a video, an article or a stretch task.

Click Compare with core to see both versions one above the other. It's the quickest way to check that the challenge version is a real step up and not just more words.

On an Exam Question slide, Challenge opens a panel for up to two practice questions. Students who choose Challenge work through these on their own after you've gone through the modelled example with the class.

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You can still add a harder version of the whole slide too. Challenge version of this slide is just below the practice questions.

On a Recap slide, the whole class does the Recall activities, such as a crossword built from your key words. Challenge adds harder recall activities that only students who chose Challenge get afterwards.

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Click + Add activity in either list to choose Multiple choice, True / False, Crossword, Match Up, Card Sort or Retrieval Grid. Activities built from key words fill themselves in from the slide's Key Words card.

During a live lesson, students tap a dotted word to see its definition, and tap Challenge me at the top of the screen to switch to the challenge version. The button stays on, so they keep getting challenge versions until they tap it again.

For a full walkthrough of the live lesson, see Running a live lesson.

• Start small. Add support and challenge to the two or three slides that matter most. You don't need them on every slide.
• Make challenge deeper, not longer. Ask why or how, add a condition, or ask students to compare. Don't just ask for more of the same.
• Talk about the choice. Tell students they can switch between core and challenge whenever they like. It works best when choosing Challenge is normal.
• Reuse your key words. The same words can support slides, build a recap crossword and print on the worksheet.