My students really enjoyed playing Prodigy & I was able to individualize instruction for my students by assigning the skills each student needed to practice in a timely and efficient manner using the planner tool.

Submitted 3 years ago
Shannon H.
Shannon H.
Russell Middle School
Russell KY, US
My Rating
Pedagogy
Supports

My Take

I used Prodigy to motivate my students to finish assignments in a timely manner. If all their work was complete, they could play Prodigy in their spare class time. Students worked hard to finish classroom assignments because they wanted to have time in class to play Prodigy. As they were playing Prodigy I was looking at reports and finding gaps or weaknesses that I needed to address. It was difficult for students to realize that I could not see what level they were on in the game. What I was observing was their accuracy on certain math skills and standards, and I could not see that they were on level 78. However, I used their excitement about being on level 78 to motivate them to do more math problems to achieve higher levels in their game. The gaming side of Prodigy motivated my students to practice math more than any other tools I had used prior to using Prodigy.

How I Use It

When students first begin in Prodigy, it gives them a placement test as they play the game. This is great because they have fun while taking a test. They do not realize it is a test and it places them very accurately. I would then make assignments through the planner for students based on the skills we were working on in class, or based on skills they needed to improve or review. At the end of the year, the test prep was fantastic. Students completed 135 math questions in a week's time and didn't even realize that they had answered so many questions. They were enjoying the game and I was able to pinpoint areas that we needed to improve or review before our state testing window opened.