Teach an online lesson with Lasso on your Mac

Put your lesson on the display you plan to share and mute notifications. If you have a second display, keep your notes and gradebook there.

In Zoom, open Share and pick your display from Screens. In Google Meet, choose Present now and Your entire screen. In Teams, open Share and choose your screen. Grant your meeting app or browser screen sharing access if macOS asks.
With Lasso running, press Option–Shift–A (⌥⇧A). Press H, choose yellow, and drag over one word. Look at the share from a second device or ask someone on the call to check it. Students can see the marks through the call without installing Lasso.
If you can see the highlight and they can’t, check your share source. A browser tab or app window can leave the overlay out. Switch to the entire display where you drew the mark.

Highlight the condition before the answer

Start with the slide above. Ask whether 3/4 and 6/8 could describe the same amount, then highlight “same whole.” Three quarters of a small pizza and six eighths of a large one can be different amounts. Those two words change how students have to read the question.

Try asking, “What has to stay the same before we compare what’s shaded?” Give students a moment to answer in chat. The same move works on a PDF or a reading passage. Highlight the relevant sentence and ask which words support their answer.

Draw two equal bars and split each fourth

Press W while drawing to open a whiteboard. Use R to draw two equal-length rectangles. Line up the ends before you divide either bar. If one outline is longer, redraw it first. The comparison depends on both bars representing the same whole.

Use L to divide the top bar into four pieces and H to shade three. Before filling the second bar, ask what will happen if each fourth gets split in two. Draw eight pieces and shade six, then use A to point to where the shading ends. Ask students to say what changed and what stayed the same.

If you’ve panned or zoomed while drawing, press Shift–1 (⇧1) to fit the board before taking a screenshot. Use the page tabs to go back to your marked slide.

Lasso’s whiteboard shows equal-length bars divided into four and eight pieces. Three pieces in the first bar and six in the second are shaded to the same point. — The arrow points to the end of the shading on both bars. Read that out loud so students can follow without relying on color.

Save the board and give students one more problem

Before you press Escape, press Shift–S (⇧S) and drag around the bars and their labels. Lasso 1.9.1 copies the image as you take it, so you can paste it into your course site after the preview disappears. Add a plain-text note that says what the picture shows. Splitting each fourth in two gives you twice as many pieces without changing the shaded amount.

For an exit ticket, try 2/3 = ?/6. Press C to number the two instructions on the slide below. Ask for a sketch or a sentence explaining how students found the missing number. Look for two shaded thirds becoming four shaded sixths.

An exit ticket asks students to complete 2/3 = ?/6. Lasso’s numbered marks show the two steps: draw equal-length bars, then split each third in two. — Two numbered marks give students a place to start. Leave the numerator blank for them to work out.

Keep a mark visible while you demonstrate

In a spreadsheet demo, put a numbered mark beside the cell students need to edit. Click the pushpin on Lasso’s toolbar so you can type into the spreadsheet while the number stays visible. Clear the mark before you scroll to another row.

Give one next step in office hours

Box the sentence you’re talking about with R and use T to leave a short note, such as “Name the source here.” Ask the student to tell you what they’ll change. If you save the marked draft, check the crop for private information and share it in the student’s private course thread.

What you need to draw, capture, or record

Lasso runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs with macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Drawing works without Screen Recording permission. Give Lasso that permission when you want to capture an image. For a video of the lesson, have your meeting app or recorder capture the display you drew on and play back a short test clip.

The three figures use Lasso 1.9.1’s native drawing code on practice materials made for this walkthrough.