ILA Newsletter Weekly Project: Effective Literacy Website #2

-

Balmeo, Shirley    
ED 638







ILA Newsletter Weekly Project: Effective Literacy Website #2 

IXL  (https://www.ixl.com/)

Practice Makes Permanent

    I wanted to review this learning platform as the Guam DOE recently purchased classroom usage.  I had heard great things about it from other teachers so I wanted to see firsthand what it was like. Initially, I thought it was primarily for elementary level students.  However, after further review of the site, I realized it was for students K-12, offering a variety of practice skills, based on grade level and standards.  I wanted to see how it would help my students improve on some of the skills for the semester. 

    Founded by Paul Mishin in 1998, the IXL is a subscription-based learning site for K-12. The IXL is a personalized learning platform used by over 400,000 teachers worldwide. What is great about this site is that it covers over 7000 skills of all core content.  This platform combines the curriculum, diagnostic assessments, analytical data, and teacher intervention to support and provide students the needed differentiated instructions.  The site also allows teachers to either find specific skills and standards or grade levels for students to complete. 


 



 



    Students who are consistently utilizing IXL daily for interactive activities and questions, master the content quicker, with the guided support of the teacher. This is an excellent practice website for students who may need the added drill to be at proficient level for a specific skill. Students also earn ‘smart points.’ The more questions students answer correctly, the more smart points they earn per skill. This helps student develop confidence and track their progress. The detailed report added provides a list of missed or attempted answered questions and tracks how long it took the student to answer the question.  This also helps teachers identify skills student lack.

    The number of practice questions are vast, scaffolded, and provide the rigor needed to advance to the next level.  For example, in Math, students may begin with basic addition and subtraction as skill builders for first grade. However as the grade level progresses, the skill levels becomes more difficult, aligning to specific grade level standards. 

    In conclusion, students are able to improve on targeted skills through the practice modules provided by IXL.  Observing my students directly has shown that they are very receptive to IXL. According to my class awards since December 16, my students have spent over 100 hours of practice and have received ‘excellence’ in 50 skills in IXL.

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Effective Literacy Website #2

-
BUsyTeacher BusyTeacher https://busyteacher.org is another great, great resource site. It has 17,300 free printable worksheets and lesson plans for Language Arts teachers. It’s been said that Busy Teacher is a favorite for many ESL teachers on the go. No matter if you teach kids or adults, beginners or advanced students; BusyTeacher will have what you need. It was so easy to me to go through the website and I know using this resource will save me hours in preparation time. Best of all, no registration required. It has many worksheets and lesson plans for the busy teacher. Because the site is well organized, it is easy to explore all the grammar, vocabulary, speaking, reading, listening, writing and pronunciation worksheets available to print or download. In addition to being able to download materials, users can upload their worksheets to the website and share them with thousands of other English teachers by clicking the “submit a worksheet” link at the bottom of every page. Any b...
Read more

Farewell...for now.

-
Image
     Thank you, Dr. Rivera and to my classmates for making the learning experience in class enjoyable and worthwhile. I appreciate all the information shared online, email, and on text.  This class has made teaching with technology less daunting and challenging as we face a new level of technology-literate learners.  Even old dogs (like myself) are still able to learn new tricks.      Good luck to everyone as we continue to move forward with the Program. We’ve got this!      I know this isn’t necessarily good-bye, just see you later. In the meantime...
Read more

International Literacy Association (ILA) Newsletter Weekly Project: Effective Literacy Website #3 - ABCYa!

-
Image
  https://www.abcya.com/ ABCYa! is an effective literacy website, where students can practice skills while playing computer games and doing activities. The website is free. However, parents and teachers can sign up for free accounts to monitor the progress of their child or students. Parents can sign up for a 6 month subscription of $44.99 for the Premium Family account, which gives parents complete mobile access, access to link up to 5 devices, ad free experience, ability to save favorite games, set a timer, control game category, and access to worksheets, activity pages and teacher resources. The Premium Teacher account gives teachers the same features, but up to 30 devices can be linked for an annual subscription of $69.99. ABCYa! ranges from Kindergarten to 6th grade. The games were carefully created and approved by certified educators and parents. They are aligned with the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. The games are categorized by gra...
Read more