Check out IXL Math- Leas

I have used many of the tools mentioned in chapter 12. One that I have heard about but never used is IXL Math. It is a personalized learning program that covers many subjects. For this I am focusing on the math part since that is what I teach.
Here is a fact sheet I found on their site.

It is broken down by grade level. One down here is that it is not Math 1, 2, and 3 but rather has Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Precalculus, and calculus. However, if you click under membership on NC Standards...

BAM! There they are. This is cumbersome though. You have to scroll through the standards but you can pin-point exactly want to focus on and have the students work on that. I like that they have the NC standards here so we can easily access them and see what our kids in NC really need.



There are many pros to this site. I like that you can click on the recommendations and it will give you an overview with actual questions of skills for that grade level. As a teacher, I appreciate the easy visual when looking for questions.
IXL Math has a built in diagnostic tool and here is a video of the tool as well. This allows teachers to see what the kids know and what they don't. IXL then gives recommendations for which skills the students should practice. I love the individualization of the program. Students who are excelling can move on, and those who need extra direct help we can target and help them.
The analytics information is great data for teachers as well.
For each questions, at the bottom there is help and there is a learn with an example at the top. This gives the students access to help while working if you are not able to get to them right away to help. I love this feature! Sometimes kids do not want to ask for help because they are embarrassed so this gives them a way to get help on the question.


One con, and it's a BIG one, is that it is not free. However, without a membership, you can practice 10 free questions per day per subject. I was able to practice 10 questions and then I got this message

So while we can use it for practice, without the paid membership we can not do all the cool tracking and such. I do not even think we can assign which questions we want them to do daily. But if you are looking at the standards and put your mouse over the standard, sample questions pop up.

These could be used as whole group warm-ups. This could also be helpful for new teachers to see example questions associated with the standard without clicking through a bunch of things.

Teachers or schools can purchase classroom license for the subjects they want. One thing I noticed was that for any one subject the cost is $299. Then it increases as you add other subjects. However, adding Spanish as the second subject is the same cost as having the other four together. I think this is interesting and a can if a school would like to add Spanish if they use this program.
There are district options but I had to email to get a quote. When I hear back, I'll post the cost.




In the classroom:
This could be used in the classroom in many ways. I mentioned using the sample questions as warm-ups. If your district purchases the licenses, this could be used as a way to drive instruction. If a school does not have a textbook, this could help teachers ensure they are covering everything the students needs as far as standards. It can be used for subject other than math, so if the whole school used it, the students would be used to the platform and would not have to learn 4 or 5 different sites.
I am going to use this now as a tool to get more questions for my students. I figured out that if you find a standard that you want them to practice, you can copy the web address and email it to the students. They can then click on it and it takes them right to those questions. This is one way to "assign" the questions you want for the free ten per day. I would post the link on our Canvas page instead of emailing it. That is just how I tested it out.

Overall, I really like this tool. It has a ton of useful features with the paid subscription. My district just bought us new textbooks so I am not sure if they would purchase this for us. However, the use of ten free questions a day is nice.
There is a parent version for $10 a month per child, so I would recommend this to the parents that ask for ways to help their child get extra practice.