My Take
Illuminations is a wonderful tool for teaching and reviewing math skills. I love having the options to pinpoint the specific skills I want to review, while also having access to an endless amount of resources. This website has allowed me to access and provide more engaging review activities that target the specific skills I need to address. My students and I both have benefitted from this wonderful website and have found it to be a highly effective review tool. I love the fact that all of the lessons are already laid out for me, with options to provide tailored instruction for my students. The only suggestions for improvement are the inability to narrow the resources down to a grade specific content. Resources are grouped by grade ranges, which required me to continue narrowing my search until I was finally able to locate more grade specific material. I would like to have the option to specifically choose the grade I am addressing, and have immediate access to that material. I like having the range of resources provided, but would like to have that feature as an additional option if needed. Overall, I would highly recommend this website due to the fact that the benefits far outweigh the few minor inconveniences I discovered.
How I Use It
Illuminations is a wonderful, free website that allows teachers to target and address math skills aligned to NCTM and CCSS. I found this website to be particularly helpful for providing a review of the math skills learned every nine weeks. In second grade, my students are required to complete Interactive Achievement benchmarks at the end of every nine week term. In the past, I have struggled with providing and collecting resources to effectively address nine weeks worth of information. This process can become time-consuming and overwhelming. After discovering Illuminations, I now have access to lessons and interactives for every math skill I wish to review. Each lesson provides me with an instructional plan highlighted specifically for each target skill. Materials are outlined and include additional printable sheets for recording data if needed. Assessments and extensions are also provided for each lesson, allowing me to pinpoint areas of weakness and enhance or remediate accordingly. There is also a section that allows me to wrap up the lesson with follow-up questions. Finally, at the end of the lesson there is the option to access related topic resources. Besides having access to a pre-made lesson, there are interactives for all devices to further support the content being reviewed. The interactives provide a more engaging way to review the skills being taught, and work great as small group and individual activities. My students have truly enjoyed using this platform and I have found that it is an effective tool for math review. I plan to continue using this website for skill review and remediation/enhancement activities.