Review by Erin Brereton, Common Sense Education | Updated February 2013
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Shmoop

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Pop culture plus solid content equals legit learning

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • English Language Arts
  • Math
  • Science
  • Social Studies
Skills
  • College & Career Prep
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
6–12
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (7 Reviews)
Price:  Free, Paid Subscriptions exist for students and teachers. Students get access to premium study materials; teachers get access to teaching guides, answer keys, a gradebook, and more. Student and teacher pricing starts at $24.68 per month. All subscriptions come with a 24-hour free trial.
Platforms:  Website

Take a look inside

5 images
Teachers can pay for a subscription to access premium content.
Sections are offered to help teens study for standardized tests such as the SAT.
Learning guides such as the literature guide for students can be viewed for free.
The site's math sections include detailed how-to advice, examples, and well-organized navigation.
The mythology section features humorous profiles of various gods and goddesses.

Pros: Well-written, engaging material that uses humor and teen-friendly lingo to clearly convey concepts.

Cons: Students can't record quiz scores or easily track progress through most of the site -- and teachers can't do much without shelling out some cash, either.

Bottom Line: Cleverly written content divided into digestible sections offers solid educational value.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

The site can be used to supplement classroom instruction –- including assignments and activity ideas to help students tie historical text to modern events and link economic concepts to their own lives. However, the teaching materials involve a fee: Teachers need to pay for an annual subscription. The teacher resource section offers ideas for how teachers can encourage students to use the free sections of the site. The guidance highlights some of Shmoop's more in-depth, analytical features, such as the literature sections that touch on symbols and allegory and study questions that can be used to reinforce learning.

Educators can choose from materials based on literature, U.S. history, economics, civics, digital literacy, and the Common Core subjects. Students have a few more topic options, including biology, pre-algebra and algebra, Shakespeare, and poetry. Each educational section features tabbed pages to help students dig deeper by learning about key concepts, related photos, quotes, analysis, and questions.

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Standards:

Shmoop is a website offering students a variety of study materials written by scholars. The catch? Shmoop's study guides are purposefully written in a conversational tone. Sometimes they're downright hilarious, and the fun language helps students access complex subjects and relax into learning. Teachers have to pay to access site materials designed for educators –- including hundreds of student assignments, quizzes, and activity tips. However, most student content is free (with the exception of a few sections, such as the standardized test-prep guides and most of the calculus section).

The free learning guides available for students cover a variety of topics, including biology, U.S. history, algebra, and calculus. The site's literature section covers classics; users can also access in-depth allegory, character, and theme info on modern reads like The Hunger Games. And the site's learning resources are legit: Ph.D. and master's students from schools such as Stanford and Harvard write much of the conversational content, which is peppered with pop culture references.

Shmoop's real strength is in its presentation. Instead of just offering endless pages of content, the site breaks subjects down in fun ways. Mythological character profiles list zany faux relationship statuses (Agamemnon laments that he "was married to Clytemnestra, but then she killed me ... so yeah"). Virtual flash cards help students memorize AP Spanish terms, and a lengthy DMV section weaves humor into its state-by-state rules of the road. However, the actual learning material doesn't get buried underneath silliness; it's a great blend of pleasure and pedagogy.

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Pretty much every page offers in-depth -- but easy to understand -- info for both teachers and students. Educators will find more than just a few quizzes to hand out (for a fee). Students will laugh while learning, thanks to the lively text.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Teachers can buy subscriptions to add quizzes, activities, and current event and pop culture tie-ins to lesson plans. Students can get info on a variety of school subjects, plus quizzes, text analysis, and help structuring essays.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Students can learn about essay format and viewpoint and save drafts to work on later. But saving quizzes, results tallies, and other items isn't as easy, making it tough to track overall progress.

Common Sense Reviewer
Erin Brereton
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Arithmetic With Polynomials And Rational Expressions

  • HSA.APR.6

    Rewrite simple rational expressions in different forms; write a(x)/b(x) in the form q(x) + r(x)/b(x), where a(x), b(x), q(x), and r(x) are polynomials with the degree of r(x) less than the degree of b(x), using inspection, long division, or, for the more complicated examples, a computer algebra system.

  • HSA.APR.7

    (+) Understand that rational expressions form a system analogous to the rational numbers, closed under addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division by a nonzero rational expression; add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational expressions.

Geometric Measurement And Dimension

  • HSG.GMD.3

    Use volume formulas for cylinders, pyramids, cones, and spheres to solve problems.

Interpreting Categorical And Quantitative Data

  • HSS.ID.7

    Interpret the slope (rate of change) and the intercept (constant term) of a linear model in the context of the data.

Interpreting Functions

  • HSF.IF.7.a

    Graph linear and quadratic functions and show intercepts, maxima, and minima.

  • HSF.IF.7.d

    (+) Graph rational functions, identifying zeros and asymptotes when suitable factorizations are available, and showing end behavior.

  • HSF.IF.8.b

    Use the properties of exponents to interpret expressions for exponential functions. For example, identify percent rate of change in functions such as y = (1.02)t, y = (0.97)t, y = (1.01)12t, y = (1.2)t/10, and classify them as representing exponential growth or decay.

  • HSF.IF.9

    Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions). For example, given a graph of one quadratic function and an algebraic expression for another, say which has the larger maximum.

  • HSF.IF.4

    For a function that models a relationship between two quantities, interpret key features of graphs and tables in terms of the quantities, and sketch graphs showing key features given a verbal description of the relationship. Key features include: intercepts; intervals where the function is increasing, decreasing, positive, or negative; relative maximums and minimums; symmetries; end behavior; and periodicity.

  • HSF.IF.2

    Use function notation, evaluate functions for inputs in their domains, and interpret statements that use function notation in terms of a context.

  • HSF.IF.3

    Recognize that sequences are functions, sometimes defined recursively, whose domain is a subset of the integers. For example, the Fibonacci sequence is defined recursively by f(0) = f(1) = 1, f(n+1) = f(n) + f(n-1) for n ≥ 1.

Linear, Quadratic, And Exponential Models

  • HSF.LE.3

    Observe using graphs and tables that a quantity increasing exponentially eventually exceeds a quantity increasing linearly, quadratically, or (more generally) as a polynomial function.

Quantities

  • HSN.Q .1

    Use units as a way to understand problems and to guide the solution of multi-step problems; choose and interpret units consistently in formulas; choose and interpret the scale and the origin in graphs and data displays.

Reasoning With Equations And Inequalities

  • HSA.REI.10

    Understand that the graph of an equation in two variables is the set of all its solutions plotted in the coordinate plane, often forming a curve (which could be a line).

  • HSA.REI.3

    Solve linear equations and inequalities in one variable, including equations with coefficients represented by letters.

  • HSA.REI.4

    Solve quadratic equations in one variable.

  • HSA.REI.4.b

    Solve quadratic equations by inspection (e.g., for x2 = 49), taking square roots, completing the square, the quadratic formula and factoring, as appropriate to the initial form of the equation. Recognize when the quadratic formula gives complex solutions and write them as a ± bi for real numbers a and b.

  • HSA.REI.6

    Solve systems of linear equations exactly and approximately (e.g., with graphs), focusing on pairs of linear equations in two variables.

  • HSA.REI.1

    Explain each step in solving a simple equation as following from the equality of numbers asserted at the previous step, starting from the assumption that the original equation has a solution. Construct a viable argument to justify a solution method.

  • HSA.REI.2

    Solve simple rational and radical equations in one variable, and give examples showing how extraneous solutions may arise.

Seeing Structure In Expressions

  • HSA.SSE.2

    Use the structure of an expression to identify ways to rewrite it. For example, see x4 – y4 as (x2)2 – (y2)2, thus recognizing it as a difference of squares that can be factored as (x2 – y2)(x2 + y2).

  • HSA.SSE.3.a

    Factor a quadratic expression to reveal the zeros of the function it defines.

  • HSA.SSE.3.c

    Use the properties of exponents to transform expressions for exponential functions. For example the expression 1.15t can be rewritten as (1.151/12)12t ≈ 1.01212t to reveal the approximate equivalent monthly interest rate if the annual rate is 15%.

The Complex Number System

  • HSN.CN.1

    Know there is a complex number i such that i2 = –1, and every complex number has the form a + bi with a and b real.

  • HSN.CN.7

    Solve quadratic equations with real coefficients that have complex solutions.

  • HSN.CN.9

    (+) Know the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra; show that it is true for quadratic polynomials.

The Real Number System

  • HSN.RN.1

    Explain how the definition of the meaning of rational exponents follows from extending the properties of integer exponents to those values, allowing for a notation for radicals in terms of rational exponents. For example, we define 51/3 to be the cube root of 5 because we want (51/3)3 = 5(1/3)3 to hold, so (51/3)3 must equal 5.

  • HSN.RN.2

    Rewrite expressions involving radicals and rational exponents using the properties of exponents.

  • HSN.RN.3

    Explain why the sum or product of two rational numbers is rational; that the sum of a rational number and an irrational number is irrational; and that the product of a nonzero rational number and an irrational number is irrational.

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Key Standards Supported

Language

  • L.9-10.3

    Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

  • L.9-10.5b

    Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.

  • L.11-12.3

    Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

Reading History/Social Studies

  • RH.9-10.5

    Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.

  • RH.9-10.1

    Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

  • RH.9-10.2

    Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

  • RH.9-10.3

    Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

  • RH.9-10.10

    By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

  • RH.11-12.2

    Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

  • RH.11-12.10

    By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Reading Informational Text

  • RI.9-10.2

    Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

  • RI.9-10.3

    Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

  • RI.9-10.10

    By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

  • RI.11-12.9

    Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.

Reading Literature

  • RL.9-10.5

    Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

  • RL.9-10.6

    Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

  • RL.9-10.9

    Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).

  • RL.9-10.2

    Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

  • RL.9-10.10

    By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

  • RL.11-12.10

    By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Writing

  • W.9-10.4

    Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

  • W.9-10.9

    Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

  • W.9-10.1

    Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

  • W.9-10.2

    Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Writing HS/S/T

  • WHST.11-12.9

    Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 7 reviews) (7 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Cynthia C. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
McSwain Elementary School
Merced, United States
Videos are engaging and hook students immediately!
My overall opinion of Shmoop is favorable. Using their videos to introduce or wrap up a topic or concept helps me switch up the way I teach and deliver my lessons. The Shmoop videos seem to get me in a more creative mood when designing my lessons. I want the rest of the unit of study to hold their attention the way the video did. A draw back of Shmoop is not always finding a video suitable to what you will be teaching.
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