IXL: Language arts -- Fifth-grade skills

IXL's fifth-grade offering is thorough in its grammar instruction, engaging students in typically not-so-fun grammar concepts. Nevertheless, there are limits to the lasting impact of this type of learning alone. While the exercises are interactive, they won't by themselves replace the value in learning these skills in the context of actual writing. As such, pair these lessons and exercises with related, and meaningful, writing activities already in your curriculum. Or, for each skill IXL covers, you can build in a corresponding writing assignment. Once students finish writing, have them collaborate to identify some of the specific structures and conventions they've picked up and mastered (or missed!). 

In looking toward middle school, fifth-graders will need as much experience as possible with writing -- in multiple forms -- while demonstrating proper conventions and grammar. Leverage these interactive lessons (via the website or Chrome app) to help reinforce these easy-to-forget key concepts. And beyond learning and reinforcing new concepts, the adaptive lessons here are a great way for teachers to gauge students' skills.