Very effective for practicing specific Math skills.
Community Review for IXL - Math and English
My Take
I like how it explains what a student did wrong when they get a question incorrect. This allows students to solve their own problems without having to ask for assistance. I like that it strengthens a student's independence. It would be nice if it included more instructional resources instead of being strictly a drill based program. In my opinion, it is a great teaching tool for monitoring a students progress with specific math skills.
How I Use It
My grade team uses IXL as part of our homework package to reinforce lessons taught in class. Each week we go over a specific Math skill; for example, adding and subtracting up to a million. After giving the lesson and modelling how to do some problems, we would assign one of the IXL activities that matches the lessons for homework. In the above example, it would be activity D-1. What's wonderful about IXL is that you can monitor their progress under reports. If I noticed a student repeatedly getting questions wrong, which is easily identified by the increasing number of attempts and misses, I can have a conference with them to see what they need help with. IXL also makes it easy to check for completion. They either have a 100% or not. The points system that IXL uses ensures complete understanding before giving them a completed status.