How I Use It
I use the app to reinforce skills that we have learned in class and to differentiate learning. If I see that a student is struggling with a specific skill, I assign a skill in IXL to help them with more practice on that specific skill. If students get it wrong, feedback is provided that shows students how to complete the work. The skills are easy to find and locate by grade and topic. Therefore, I can tell a student to work on a particular topic while I work with other students on something else.
It is difficult for some students because IXL is very picky about the way the answer is typed in. If students do not type it exactly as IXL has the answer registered, they will get the problem wrong. For example, if students write a fraction instead of a decimal or vice versa.
My Take
I like using this to help reinforce skills that have been taught in class. It is helpful because it can be differentiated to meet the learning needs of various individuals. Students can work independently and read the feedback and try to self-correct their own errors. It keeps track of their scores and provides me with a great amount of data related to the student and the class that can help me plan future lessons.
Some of my students do become frustrated because their score becomes lower when they answer problems wrong, and the feedback is not always helpful, especially if it is different than I had explained. However, I still find this a very useful app for differentiating and providing more practice in specific skills for students who need it.
