Take a look inside 6 images
ScootPad
Pros: A consistent tool for math and reading practice that clearly tracks student progress; plus, individualized, adaptive paths are a huge bonus.
Cons: Kids' experience is drab and repetitive; there's not much to make this feel different from all those standardized tests kids are already taking.
Bottom Line: It's great to be able to track kids' progress in all these subjects in one spot, though using it will mean lots of screen time for your kids.
ScootPad is best used to help kids practice new skills following face-to-face classroom instruction. Start by setting up your kids' accounts, providing them a username and password. If your students already have Google accounts, there's a streamlined method of uploading your class list.
You can set standard learning paths for students or customize for individualized learning plans. This allows you to select the specific standards that kids should be working on; plus, you can assign formative assessments to measure growth. Once kids are using the site consistently, you can make adjustments to their plan, sending them online encouragement and support.
ScootPad is an adaptive learning website (and Chrome app) that attempts to tie together the various tasks and routines of an elementary school classroom into a single online platform. Kids can practice Common Core State Standards-aligned topics in math, ELA (including reading comprehension), and spelling, all while receiving immediate feedback. Questions are straightforward and look like a standardized testing format. Kids can click on a doodle pad to make notes as they work through the problem or click on a "help" button for background explanations; they get two chances to answer correctly.
Teachers can set kids off on an automated adaptive learning path or customize their own, then track and reward kids' progress. Detailed reports pinpoint what kids are doing, where they excel, and where they struggle. A class wall tool lets teachers engage students and build a classroom community through online discussions. Kids can send notes to each other or use coins earned to play games. There are also various connections to offline classroom activities, such as rewards kids can cash in (for example, be the first out to recess) or classroom behavior monitoring.
The first thing that teachers and kids may notice is that navigation through this massive site can be overwhelming. There's a lot of support for teachers through video tutorials and webinars, though kids are left to their own devices. Once everyone is oriented, lots and lots of practice drills clearly show the number of correct and incorrect responses. Kids will initially enjoy the fireworks that go off when they finish their assignments, but the novelty may wear off. Kids also get rewarded with coins that can be used to unlock online games. This system may keep kids on track for a while, but in the long run, these kinds of rewards aren't intrinsically motivating, and kids may lose interest after time.
Additionally, the games, combined with the intense online math and English practice, can really increase a student’s screen time each day. The audio option on each question and in tutorials helps widen access to kids at a variety of reading levels, though the computer-generated voice doesn't do much to help make the content engaging. And with few bells and whistles to excite kids, ScootPad may work better for older kids than younger ones. However, the adaptability of ScootPad's lessons makes it an ultimately worthwhile tool that can reach kids at many levels.
Learning Rating
Community Rating
Promising, but needs to engage early elementary better.
A word of caution - Scootpad released a completely new interface in September, 2014. It is very different and looks to be targeted at an upper elementary/middle school. It has lost a lot of the pop for younger elementary students - my K and 1 students are really struggling with the audio support in the math areas. They added "scoots rials" to provide students with self paced help - some are better than others. I would definitely ask fora trial and pilot with real students.