Practice makes perfect, and IXL makes math practice fun!

Discovery School takes pride in having subscribed all our Elementary Students to  IXL. 

IXL is a Web-based educational tool that makes practicing math fun. Students can take on challenges that help them master the skills necessary to perform up to their grade level curriculum standards.

IXL motivates students using interactive games and exercises. It keeps teachers and parents informed and involved. IXL offers more than 2,500 math skills (from pre-school through high school) in a dynamic and enjoyable environment suitable for any learning style. Students who use IXL are succeeding like never before. 

Just like the MAP assessments our students take three times a year, IXL questions automatically adapt to a student’s level as he works, becoming more or less challenging depending how well he is doing. The system tracks progress, and provides “awards” (pictures) after a certain number of questions are answered.

If a student misses a problem, a popup screen gives the correct answer and displays an “explanation” button. Clicking the button brings up a simple explanation of the skill. In some cases this is enough to explain a new skill with which the student is not familiar, but not always. Therefore, IXL Math is sued by our teachers as a supplement to math instruction, and not as a primary source of instruction.

The system is designed to present quite a few questions of a single type each time. Students can end at any time by clicking “submit and finish,” but they won’t earn awards until spending a certain amount of time and completing a minimal number of problems. Some students prefer completing all problems on a topic in one sitting (demonstrating mastery). For others answering the same type of problem over and over again can become boring. For example, a student who gets easily bored might solve ten multiplication problems, ten division problems, and ten fraction problems one day, and then either continue in those same topics the next day or shift to others. Parents will probably want to direct topic selection if students are not completing the topics in order, or are nor following the teacher directed skills for that week.

Once of the features that are greatly enjoyed by students is that once the student types in or clicks an answer, the response is immediate. A large “Correct!” appears to show they answered correctly.  The system tracks progress, and provides “awards” (pictures) after a certain number of questions are answered, and the skill is mastered. Student and class reports are emailed regularly to the classroom teacher.

Each student has been issued a user name and password, which should be used to practice at home. We encourage our Discovery parents to look for the IXL skills that the elementary students should be practicing every week in the grade blog. Parental support in using this amazing tool is greatly appreciated!