Start Lesson gives you a guided way to teach a full lesson using an assignment in Magma.

Instead of moving between different parts of Magma on your own, Start Lesson brings key instructional tools together in a purposeful sequence. You can introduce the lesson, review important vocabulary, model examples, give students time to solve, and wrap up by discussing student thinking.

The lesson moves through five stages:

Welcome → Key Vocabulary → Example Problems → Start Solving → Wrap-Up

You can move through the lesson at your own pace and switch between the student-facing Classroom View and Teacher View whenever you need more information.

You can start a lesson from any assignment.

💡 Tip: Start Lesson is designed to guide your instruction, not control it. Spend as much or as little time as your class needs at each stage.

Start by bringing the class together and introducing what students will be working on.

The Welcome screen gives students a clear starting point before you move into the instructional content.

Review important mathematical language connected to the assignment before students begin solving.

Magma automatically generates key vocabulary based on the content of your assignment, including student-friendly definitions and examples.

Use this part of the lesson to:

Magma's existing Launch tools already generate four vocabulary cards aligned to assignment content.

Before students work independently, use Example Problems to model and discuss the mathematics together.

Magma automatically generates three example problems based on the content and difficulty of the assignment.

You might use this time to:

The goal isn't necessarily to tell students exactly how to solve every problem. Use the examples to prepare them to think independently when solving begins.

When students are ready to work, choose a timer and select Start solving. Students can now begin working on the assignment while you monitor their progress.

During this part of the lesson, you can respond to common error notifications as they appear and use student work to decide what the class may need next.

You can switch to Teacher View at any point to see the full Heatmap and take a closer look at student work.

When you're ready, switch back to Classroom View and continue the lesson where you left off. When solving time is finished, or you're ready to bring students back together, select End to move into the Wrap-Up.

Bring the class back together to make sense of what happened during the assignment.

Instead of ending the lesson as soon as students finish solving, Wrap-Up gives you an opportunity to discuss the mathematics based on students' actual work.

Use this time to:

You can also continue the learning by sending students a Follow-Up Assignment when appropriate.

Start Lesson separates what students need to see from what teachers need to see.

Classroom View is designed to be projected for students.

It keeps the screen focused on the current part of the lesson so students have one clear next step at a time.

Use Classroom View while you're:

Teacher View gives you access to the information you need to make instructional decisions, including the full Heatmap.

Switch to Teacher View whenever you want to take a closer look at how students are doing.

You can toggle between Classroom View and Teacher View throughout the lesson without losing your place.

Here's one way Start Lesson might look in your classroom:

Launch the lesson: Welcome students and introduce the day's focus.

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Build understanding: Review Key Vocabulary and discuss important mathematical language.

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Model together: Use Example Problems to explore strategies and prepare students for independent work.

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Students solve: Set a timer, let students begin the assignment, and monitor their thinking.

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Discuss what happened: Bring students back together and use the Wrap-Up to discuss strategies, misconceptions, and important takeaways.

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Decide what's next: End the lesson or provide differentiated follow-up practice based on student results.

Start Lesson helps turn an assignment into a complete instructional experience.

Rather than simply giving students problems to complete, you can use the assignment to support the entire lesson cycle:

Prepare → Model → Solve → Analyze → Discuss → Follow Up

And because Start Lesson brings together tools already available in Magma, such as Key Vocabulary, Example Problems, Heatmap insights, and Follow-Up Assignments, you can spend less time navigating between features and more time responding to what your students are doing.