Online Practice and Instant Feedback in the Classroom

My school has a subscription to an online based practice resource called IXL. IXL is described as “... an immersive K-12 learning experience that provides comprehensive, standards-aligned content for math, language arts, science, and social studies.” I have only been teaching for two years and have never experienced a classroom without IXL. I hope I never have to! What I love about IXL is the INSTANT feedback, the reteaching provided, the data and statistics for the teacher, and the selection of skills to practice. It is a very user friendly site. In a typical, low-technology math classroom students typically practice on worksheets or in notebooks. IXL provides an online based practice system that gives teachers great data and provides students with great feedback. The most important thing about it is students don’t have to wait for the teacher to grade their work to see if they’re doing something wrong! My students love that. It’s a great way for students to refine their skills. I have found some students practicing on IXL even though it hasn’t been assigned. One of my students from last year, who is now in highschool, even came back to ask me for a log-on so he could practice some of the concepts he’s learning in math now.

Another positive for IXL, or any online math practice, is that state tests are becoming more online-based. So the more practice a student has with going from a computer/ device to paper the better. They are beginning to learn why they need to write the whole problem down before beginning instead of trying to do things in their heads first. This has been beneficial because when it’s time to take a state test, they aren’t thrown off by the fact that it is online.

How I use IXL in my class:

1. As homework after a lesson. I assign an IXL topic instead of giving them book work or a worksheet. Most of my students have access to internet and a device at home, so this hasn’t been a problem for me.
2. As reteaching. After an assessment, if a student did poorly, that student is assigned corresponding IXL topics to practice and master in order to retake the quiz/test.
3. As suggested review before an assessment. I will give my students a list of IXL topics that will be on their upcoming assessment and suggest they practice those in order to prepare for their assessment.
4. As interventions. IXL has math topics ranging from Pre-K skills to Calculus skills. If I notice a student is struggling with something they should know from a previous class (such as integer rules) I suggest practice topics on IXL for them. It’s incredible how much it helps!

A few of the options for topics for 8th grade math

One of the data pages that shows what my kiddos need help on