Get Insights From Paper Cool Downs With Coteach

By Riz Malik & Alexis Dekel · 3 min read

We're excited to share a new way to work with Coteach: turning the paper Cool Downs your students already complete into real, student-by-student insight.

Until now, Coteach has understood your curriculum — the units, lessons, and standards you're teaching — but not how your students are performing day to day. Now you can download and print any IM® v.360 Cool Down directly from Coteach, collect the completed work the way you already do, and scan it back in. Coteach reads the responses and shows you where each student stands, so you can plan your next move.

Here's how it works.

1. Create a class and assign a Cool Down

Set up a class in Coteach in a few minutes. From there, pick any IM v.360 Cool Down, download it, and print it. Students work on pencil and paper — the same routine your class already knows.

2. Scan the completed work

When students finish, photograph or scan the stack and upload it to Coteach. Coteach takes the first pass — reading each response and suggesting a score — then hands it to you to review and approve. You see every piece of student work; Coteach just saves you the sorting and setup.

3. See how your students did, and plan what's next

Coteach starts with a snapshot of how the whole class did, then helps you drill into the specific misconceptions coming through in students' work.

You can ask it directly: "Which students are approaching the standard, and what's getting in their way?" or "Show me the different strategies students used on this Cool Down."

From there, Coteach helps you plan specific next steps — a small-group pull-aside, a targeted warm-up, or a quick reteach — and can build the intervention resources or lesson activities to match, grounded in the work your students just turned in.

4. Track student progress from day one

Every Cool Down you scan adds to a running picture of how each student's understanding of a standard develops over time. Unit assessments still play their role — this gives you another way to track progress between them, continuously, starting with the very first Cool Down of the year.

Built for the classroom you already have

Paper Cool Downs work exactly as they are: no new devices, no new routines for students, no extra work beyond what you're already doing. Coteach handles the reading and organizing so the information in every Cool Down actually gets used.

FAQs

Why pen and paper?

Because that's where so much student work happens today — and for good reason: there’s real value in students working things out by hand. We're excited about the potential for technology to support handwritten, offline work rather than replace it.

Does this mean teachers don't have to review student work?

No! Coteach suggests scores, but you review and approve every one. Looking closely at student work remains one of the most important things a teacher does. Coteach supports the process — organizing responses, saving work against each student, and helping you plan next steps — but you're in the driver's seat, steering the entire process.

How accurate is Coteach?

On our internal benchmark, Coteach accurately scores Cool Downs more than 90% of the time. You should still review carefully and make sure Coteach's suggestions align with your own thinking.

Does the cool down need to be printed from Coteach?

Yes — print the cool down directly from Coteach so the page is formatted for scanning. The Coteach version includes what is needed for Coteach to recognize the lesson and match each page to the right student.

Ready to try it?

Create a class, assign your first Cool Down, print it, and scan the completed work back in. You'll have a clear, individual picture of where every student stands.

[Try it now →]

Coteach is an IM Certified® partner.