Subscription Based Websites For Math: Prodigy $

Subscription Based Websites

For the second summer in a row, I attended the GAFE Summit in Calgary. One of the sessions I went to was Emily Fitzpatrick's session: Not Your Momma's Math Class - Elementary. It got me thinking about what subscription based websites I wanted to invest my time in (and sometimes money) and that support the grade two Alberta math curriculum for the upcoming school year. This the second blog post in a series of (number to be determined).

Series

1. Mathletics
2. Prodigy

Prodigy

Emily introduced me to a new math game this summer: Prodigy. Like Mathletics (my previous blog post), Prodigy is solely a math-based program. It is much more gamified than Mathletics. Unlike Mathletics it has a free and premium option. I have not used this with students yet. I did create a teacher account and created a student account so I could explore its potential.

It Is Free... But

When you sign up for the teacher Prodigy account, you have access to all the educational content of the game for yourself and your students for free. The premium features are truly extras and are purchased by parents. However, students will be constantly reminded they are missing out on the premium features throughout game play. 

While I appreciate companies need to make money, it is a negative for me as a teacher making a choice about what to expose my young students to. On the one hand, this is a reality of the many apps that they are probably exposed to on their (or their family's) iPads, tablets and so on. So by having the same experiences in school, it gives me the opportunity to talk about the commerce element of digital citizenship and awareness. On the other hand, it is not something I necessarily want my students exposed to virtually after every task in the game. 

Content Is Read To You ... Sometimes

As a teacher of students who often are struggling readers, I LOVE when a product has reading support. Prodigy does provide players the option to have the question and answers read to students. However, the non-math gameplay also has a lot of reading and most, if not all, of this does not have reading support. While it is not essential to the game play, I can see it being frustrating for students.

It Is Canadian ... If You Are From Ontario

It is Canadian based! Yay! It has a Canadian curriculum you can assign your students. Yay. It has only one Canadian curriculum you can assign your students. Oh. While most Canadian curricula are similar, they are not the same. Initially I thought that might not be a problem. Much like Mathletics, teachers assign a task based on a specific outcome. Great, I can avoid the topics that do not align with the Alberta curriculum. However, once students complete their tasks Prodigy assigns them random questions based on the overarching curriculum you have assigned your class. 

How is this problematic? Well, when playing as a grade one student, I was asked to tell the time on an analog clock. This is not in the Alberta curriculum until grade four. Now students go from independent practice to likely needing direct instruction from a teacher or adult for some of the content. 

Gamification Equals Motivation... And Distraction

All the quests and actions that will level you up are math based. However, there is a whole world to explore. There are shops to look at and other players to check out (you cannot interact with them). Students could easily not do math while in the game. This will require the teacher to be very vigilant in monitoring student activity. As a result, teachers may spend more time monitoring students being on task than assisting students with math.

Digital In-Game Support

When students are answering math questions, they have access to lots of support. They can be given hints by selecting a question mark icon that gives them a tutorial on the topic of their question (there is an option to have this read aloud). Students access to a variety of manipulatives for each question: coloured pens to draw on the question, fraction blocks, base ten blocks, Canadian money and counters.

Diagnostics

Like Mathletics, Prodigy provides teachers with a wealth of data regarding student progress. 

Is It Worth It For Younger Students?

As a teacher with access to Mathletics, Prodigy is not going to be worth me investing a lot of my class time with younger students. They have a great deal of support and resources for teachers. It has great potential and I will continue to keep my eye on it.  I think it could be something I teach my students and then send home or for use in free time. I do not see it being regularly used in my math classes at this time.

Subscription Based Websites For Math: Mathletics $$

Subscription Based Websites

For the second summer in a row, I attended the GAFE Summit in Calgary. One of the sessions I went to was Emily Fitzpatrick's session: Not Your Momma's Math Class - Elementary. It got me thinking about what subscription based websites I wanted to invest my time (and sometimes money) in that support the grade two math curriculum for the upcoming school year. This the first blog post in a series of (number to be determined).

Series

1. Mathletics
2. Prodigy
3. EDpuzzle coming soon

Mathletics

I have used Mathletics for the past seven years or so. The subscriptions have been school-wide. It has been a well used resource in my class. I like it because you can differentiate and assign tasks. Most students like it because of the "Live Math" feature. 

How I Use It

In September, I have (ask the staff member who administers Mathletics) the assigned passwords changed to be the same as the district passwords students have. The usernames are not changeable. I hide all content (under Courses) from students. These will be the assigned tasks that I will use, so I do not want some students completing them ahead of time. I also initially turn off Times Tables (these are songs). 

At the beginning of the year, I do a few whole class lessons to teach how to use Mathletics. Students are prompted when they first log in to customize an avatar. I give them about five minutes and then explain this will now be an "at home" task. I then show them how to access Live Math and allow them time to play a few games. I show them the games in the Problem Solving area, again I allow them some exploration time. As well, I show them Rainforest Maths and allow them to play a few games.

The second time we do Mathletics as a whole class, students are assigned a task. I demonstrate how students can have the words read to them. This is when they learn that all other activities (Live Math, Rainforest Maths, etc) are locked to them until they complete their assigned tasks. Once they have completed their assignment, students are then free to go onto other parts of Mathletics.

In the Results section, I get to see how each student did on the various assigned tasks. The majority of the time, students truly try their best on a task. Occasionally I have a student who I know is capable score 0 or something similar on repeated tasks. They typically click through the assignment to get to Live Math. After a conversation and continued monitoring this promptly stops.

Once I feel students are independent, Mathletics becomes a regular centre in math. It also is something I can easily leave for supply teachers. Students get to take their username and password home and are free to use Mathletics at anytime. I have learned that as a result of this practice, I need to set assignments in the morning of the day I want to use them. As I mentioned above, you can differentiate. Students can receive different assignments at different levels.

Once a unit is complete, I show (turn on) access to the topic under the Courses setting. Typically many of the activities have been completed during centre time, but not all of them. Students are now free to redo activities and/or complete any activities that were not assigned. Near the end of the year I turn on the Times Table Tunes for students (and provide them time to listen to them) to get them excited about what they will learn in grade three.

What I Did Before Mathletics

Before my school had Mathletics, I would use a wide variety of free game-based math websites for centres. What I like about Mathletics is that it saves me time and it holds students accountable (they know I can see their progress). I no longer have to spend time finding math websites (I actually still do, but to a lesser extent) that relate to the current topic for centre work. I also do not have to spend time teaching students how to use new websites each time we do centres because they are already familiar with Mathletics. As well, I have found students are less likely to be off-task.

So, Is It Worth It?

I started with the question is Mathletics a website I want to invest my time and my school's money? Yes, as a division one teacher, this has been a great resource. 

Yes, You can Show Your Students' Faces on YouTube

There are a lot of misconceptions about the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. It is often used as an excuse as to why we shouldn’t post videos of student learning or start a class twitter account. It is good to understand your jurisdiction’s FOIP Consent form in order to know what parents are permitting you to do with their child’s information. This is all the more relevant in today’s digitally connected society where the internet is a ubiquitous public space that we frequently utilize for teaching and learning.

Before we look at the FOIP form, it is important to note that the form is only the one step in the process. You must inform parents on how you are using their child's information on the internet. You don’t need a new form every time, but if you decide halfway through the year to do a project that will go on YouTube, you need to let the parents know. Nobody likes surprises, and informing them gives them the option to back out, which is their prerogative.

Here are the elements of the FOIP form from Edmonton Public School that deal with posting information online:

“[School] is requesting your permission to use your child’s personal information (i.e., image, grade and/or name, etc.) in public venues or on the internet where the general public may have access to the information in order to communicate with parents, the community and the general public.”

Notice that this statement says that images and/or names can be used on the internet to communicate to the general public. Further to this point, it also states on the form:

“Examples might include, but not limited to:
-posting pictures, videos, podcasts or presentations online
-accessing and posting information to public websites or social media applications (e.g., Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and other emerging technologies)”

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It is imperative that you know the purpose for posting online. You could have students make videos of themselves reading stories and post it on YouTube. But why use YouTube? If the video’s intended audience is just you and the parent, it may be better to upload it to a Drive folder. If your class has a message for the community, then YouTube may be the best medium.

And this has to be stated again. You need to let parents know if you are using web apps or posting anything will use the student’s information. This can be done through a newsletter, class blog, Schoolzone (in EPSB) or any other medium that you use to communicate with parents.

Here is a great video to recap (and the acting is fantastic):

The FOIP Consent form ensures that we are abiding by Alberta’s FOIP Act. The Act isn’t preventative legislation. It instructs us on what we need to do when we need to use personal information in order to do our duties as teachers in today's connected, online world. The Act and our FOIP Consent form ensure that we, as a public institution, are being responsible with the information parents are giving us.

If you really want some good reading, check out the full Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Super Sentences Centre

A few months ago I had the need to expand my reading centres to be more literacy centres. So I needed reading, write and word work activities. I wanted the writing activities to be skill development as well as skill application centres. When doing some internet searches I came across "super sentences" activities. In general, most of the super sentence lessons I came across provided students with a simple sentence. Then they needed to make it more interesting by adding adjectives and adverbs. 

I took this idea an tried it while my educational assistance was away. As I did not have an EA, I made the activity a Google Document so that students could use Read and Write for Google for support (this is an extension that will read the text on a Google Document, among other things).

This centre worked really well, and I have kept it in high rotation for reading centres. 

Skills Students Need

Students do need some skills before this centre should be used. Students should:

1. Know how to navigate their Google Drive and find documents in Shared With Me.
2. Know how to highlight text.
3. Know how to use Read and Write for Google.*
4. Know how to resolve a comment.
5. How to use the Spell Check function.

* This is why this activity works so well with technology rather than pencil and paper. By using Read and Write for Google (RW4G), students who struggle with reading and writing are supported. As this is a revision and editing task, even students who are strong readers are supported with RW4G as typically they read what they meant to write and not always what is actually there. When it is read aloud for them, they hear the errors. 

Skills Teachers Need

1. An understanding of how Read and Write for Google works.
2. A way to share Documents with students (using the Share function, Doctopus or Classroom, whatever works for you).
3. How to leave a comment and how to find resolved comments.
4. How to use and model highlighting and the spell check functions in Document.

How I Taught These Centres

Typically I follow the format below: 

1. On Monday introduce the centre and demonstrate it on the Smartboard. 
2. Have chart paper "reminders" for the centre for the rest of the week.
3. At the end of centres each day, read one or all of the super sentences created.
• I did not do this for the voice activity as these were longer pieces of writing and each student got a star and a wish. As such, I usually picked one student to share their work at the end of centre time.
• I did not do this for the editing activity as it would have given away all the edits.

One of the reasons I would read student work at the end is to keep students accountable. It also was a quick way to check for understanding. It also is a good review of the expectations throughout the week for students who might have the centre on Thursday or Friday.

Super Sentence Centre Ideas

Here are a few of the Super Sentence Centres I have tried. Initially I had students work on the skill of revising.

To make this multi-level you could take away the highlighted nouns for a challenge. I did not require one of my groups to write an ending sentence.

This is an example of what I modelled for the students. I usually do the first two sentences. We talk about how there might be more than one choice that makes sense and review how to highlight. The words were current or recent spelling words. 

We had a spring concert. So I chose that theme to have students edit for both adjectives and adverbs. 

For the fourth centre, I had students focus on revising for voice. I made two versions to differentiate the activity. As they had practised the super sentences centre three times, I did a formative assessment piece with the fourth centre. At the end of the week I gave each student two stars and a wish. The next week, they had the same activity for a centre. But this time they had to "grant" my wish. 

For students with more skill and confidence in writing.

----------------

For students who have less skill or confidence with writing.

I decided students needed practice with editing as well. So for my next centre I had them become editors. Again this became a two week centre. After the first week they were given two stars and a wish. The activity for the second week was to find the corrections they missed in week one.

To support students, I used the highlighting function to help them locate the edits they missed. For both weeks I included an early finisher link(s) in the Documents themselves. For previous activities I often had an early finisher activity on my website. 

Sharing Ideas

Most of these activities can be found on the website Division One Collaboration Site For Educational Technology. Just open and make a copy. If you have an super sentence idea, please share it in the comments!

Jump In and See What Happens!

In early April, inspired by this Div1Edtech in EPSB blog post we, Caroline and Marge, decided to jump in and try Kidblog with our respective grade 1 and 3 students.

Our setting is unique, as all of our division one students are distance learners, online.  Our students are spread across Alberta and around the globe. We connect in real time with our class each week through an online collaboration tool called, Blackboard Collaborate and instruct our students asynchronously  through a learning platform called Moodle.

Getting Started with Kidblog - Things We Learned

We  purchased a premium membership as this enabled our students to use their Schoolzone and Google account passwords to log on. No need to worry about another password. Simplicity is the goal.

1. Enrolling students: Once we set up our Kidblog account we received an individual class code. Students go to the  Kidblog webpage one time only to enter their display name and the class code to create their own individual blog within our class blog. Several students thought they needed to use the class code each time resulting in several pages under that student's name. We corrected this by creating a video demonstrating how to log on to the class blog once the students had enrolled.
2. Finding the our Kidblog web page and creating a post: Once our students had enrolled themselves they needed to easily find the blog, know how to log in on the page, and most importantly learn how to write a post.  Once again we created a video for our distance learners to view.
3. Use the Blogroll Widget: We added each other’s class  to our blogroll.  This allowed the grade threes to see the grade one blog and visa versa - each class could comment on each other’s posts.  Consider the potential benefit to students as they connect with other  grades within our district, across the province, country or internationally.

Grade One - Engaging with Learning

Grade ones were beginning to explore and investigate Needs of Plants and Animals so to model for the kids how we are actively engaged in research everyday I took them through a mini-lesson on what Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels in their book, Comprehension and Collaboration Revised Edition call parallel annotation.  

Using a simple piece of nonfiction text projected on our online whiteboard, I showed students how I left tracks of my new learning that come right from the text on the left side of the page, and then how I recorded any new questions or connections on the right side.  For grade ones, I used colored Post-its as suggested in the book;  pink for the new learning and yellow for the I wonder questions.  

Here’s my parallel annotation:

I then told the students that we engage in research every day when new learning prompts us to ask questions and find answers. When I find the answer to my new question, ‘What food can I see for animals in the wetland habitat that I run in tomorrow morning?’ I will blog about it.  

This got students really excited!  It was time to have them practice. Students were now provided with their own piece of text to make a mini - inquiry.  

Here’s an example of what one student came up with:

Once this activity was completed, students were ready and eager to track their thinking as they asked questions, found some answers and satisfied their curiosity through mini-inquiries of their own as they related to plants and animals. The motivation was high because of the opportunity to share their discoveries with others through our class blog.

Students were asked to complete the following for a blog entry:

• Take a photo of your plant or animal.
• Write at least one sentence about what you learned or observed.
• Write one I wonder question that came up for you.

Here’s an example:

Students were not done yet!  They were then asked to practice collaboration with others by making specific comments on a classmate’s blog.  Grade ones have learned that they practice collaboration when they use considerate language and listen carefully to what another student is saying.  

Students were asked to include the following in two comment entries:

• Write at least one sentence about what you learned from a classmate.
• Write one I wonder question that came up for you.

Here’s an example:

I am so excited to report that grade ones are off and running with their mini-inquiries. The comments from peers are motivating them to dig deeper and uncover new learning as they keep the conversation going. The strongest part of the learning is that they are demonstrating that research can be 

F-U-N!

Grade Three - Students Sharing Excitement

Grade threes were beginning a study of Animal Life Cycles. Our purpose for blogging was to keep a journal to record observations of, and learning about, the growth and development of a living animal. Students followed individual interests under this common topic. They found tadpoles to observe, studied sow bugs, learned about chickens, observed caterpillar larvae, and one student who was unable to obtain any of the typical life cycle creatures to observe, focused her studies on Triops.  For these students who live across the province and around the world, our class blog was an opportunity for meaningful sharing and learning from each other.This wider audience made kids eager to share! 

I asked another class to respond to our posts and a grade 8 class wholeheartedly jumped in.  It was an opportunity for these junior high's to practice digital citizenship by giving constructive and encouraging comments to grade 3 students. Suddenly I had an avalanche of comments to approve! (Beware of this, it is a good problem to have.) Grade threes were intrigued and asked the next day in our online class, just who these commentators were. They were delighted! 

Grade threes are also focused on inquiry using two column notes to track their thinking, another strategy from Harvey and Daniels book, Comprehension and Collaboration .

The engagement and enthusiasm took off as curiosity extended beyond the original topics. Students began to notice and wonder as you will see in the following posts.

There you have it,  we jumped in and used Kidblog with delightful results for our students. We discovered that it is ideal for kids at a distance, as it gives them the opportunity to see what others are doing and to learn from each other.  We encourage you to jump in as well. It’s never too late!

Next, we are considering using Kidblog for student math journals and we're very interested to hear your ideas for math journals using a blogging format.

And by the way, if you wish to encourage young scientists, feel free to leave a guest comment on our student’s blogs.

 Wonder Share Grow Explore Learn Share

Caroline Schollaardt Marge Kobewka

A Spring Blogging Activity With KidBlog

I wanted my students to do more meaningful writing during literacy centres, so I added a blogging centre.

Needed:

• students who already know how to blog (I wouldn't recommend this as a first blogging activity)
• another class/people who will comment
• three to four lessons/centres

Activity One: Blog About Spring

Students were assigned to blog about spring for one of their literacy centres. Each week I review any new centres at the beginning of the week. So I reviewed what was needed for a blog post and then modeled it by composing one myself. We reviewed:

• titles have capitals
• you start with an introduction
• you should aim for at least three middle sentences
• end with a conclusion (I encouraged students to ask a question to encourage comments)

I usually chose one student's post to read at the end of centres each day to check for understanding and reinforce expectations (as well it holds them accountable to finish their task as they never know who I will pick). Students then blogged throughout the week and I grabbed students for quick edits during quiet reading time, if needed, each day before I approved posts. Doing this in chunks made it easy to manage and keep on top of the edits. 

I also found it helpful to have the task written on chart paper that I could put up during centres so students could be reminded of the expectations.

Activity Two: Commenting

The following week I changed the blogging centre. This time they had to comment on another person's blog. By this time, each student had one or two comments from people who I occasionally ask to help provide an audience to my students. So the task this week was to:

1. Re-read your own blog.
2. Read the comments others have left you.
3. Select the name under yours on the blog list and read their blog. Then comment.
4. Continue down the list until time is up (We reviewed when you get to the bottom, you start at the top of the list next).

Again, I reviewed and modeled the task at the beginning of the week. I chose a student's blog and read it aloud. I reminded students how to access the comment box and modeled making a comment. I explained that commenting needed fewer sentences. My expectation was they had one sentence that showed they had read the blog post. Then they needed a question.

Like the week before, I usually chose one student's comments to read at the end of centres. Also like before, I grabbed students for quick edits if needed each day before I approved comments. 

Just as before, I had the task written on chart paper so students could be reminded of the expectations and format.

Activity Two: Replying

I put out over social media a suggestion that people could reply to our blog posts as a writing activity. And as luck would have it, someone did! We had another KidBlog class read our blogs and comment. The teacher said that, " They're hoping that the kids will comment back."

As we never had gone over replying to a comment in class, I decided NOT to do this as a centre. Instead I did it as a whole class activity.

First I explained and then modeled the task:

1. Find your spring blog post.
2. Read the comments people made.
3. Reply to the comments (most had at least three, many had more).
4. Finished early? Read comments on other classmates' posts.

The expectation for the reply was much the same as the commenting task. I wanted students to write two sentences. This time the first one should be a personalized thank you. The second sentence needed to reflect they had read the comment.

Reflections

I loved this task. It was authentic and motivating. By making it a centre, it was easy to monitor. The biggest challenge is finding  people to comment on the blogs, but a work around for that is having the students become the audience for their classmates. By having students comment in a structured way (comment on the person's blog who is below you), you ensure that all students get at least one comment. I write a few comments on blog posts that only initially had one or two comments.

Students enjoyed the task as well. They really were excited during the last activity when they saw how many comments they had.

The first time I had tried having students comment on blog posts I made it way too complicated for grade twos. I like the simple format I used this time: a sentence that shows you have read the post and a question to the author.

Next Steps

I'd like to do something similar before the end of the year as an assessment task.

Reading Response and Forms Revisited

Last May I used and blogged about Google Forms as a reading centre for reading response. Last year I ended my post with thoughts on my next steps: I am going to be teaching an integrated science (about insects and the like) and language arts unit soon. I've been working on creating a number of forms to go with animal book sets. A year later I am revising and refining the integrated science-language arts unit. 

Reading Centres

As a Balanced Literacy trained teacher, I use reading centres in my class most weeks. When creating centres, I look for activities that are engaging and independent tasks that have an element of accountability built in. The combination of Google Forms with Flubaroo provides me engagement, independence (for most students) and accountability.

The Book Tubs Centre

I set up the activity to be two centres. First they go to the "Book Tubs" centre. There students have a range of books to choose from. This year I decided to create three tubs (one, two and three). The books in tub one are easier, the books in tub two are an average grade two level and the books in tub three are more challenging. This way the task is multi-level as I often have multi-level groupings. Each tub has about four different books. I have five to six copies of each book (I use guided reading book sets).

At this centre students read multiple books during centre time. I encouraged students to be responsible for selecting their own books. Whenever I introduce a new centre, I always model it. For this centre I reviewed that students need to make the best choice for themselves. I encouraged them to select books that they can read independently as they need to be able answer questions on what they read. Some student needed some guidance on their choices initially. 

The Google Forms Centre

The next centre is when they select one book that they read at the Book Tubs centre to do a comprehension activity on a Google Form. I use a class website as a portal for most online work, so I created a page on my site dedicated to reading responses (SchoolZone and Classroom are good other alternatives).

Last year, I had required students to login prior to doing the Form but this caused some problems. This year I have NOT selected the "require EPS login to view this form" but have simply made typing their name a required question. This has allowed me to post the Forms on my class website and avoid the need for logging into Google Drive (we do not have Chromebooks you see).

I tested each quiz once I posted them on the class website. This gave me a chance to check for errors as well as to make a key for marking later.

Quick Accountability: Flubaroo

After each centre, I use Flubaroo to quickly grade the quizzes. Students who did not do well on a quiz are given that book to do again (sometimes later that week, sometimes the next time they go to that centre). 

What I Learned From Flubaroo

Last year, I used many text and paragraph answer type questions in the quizzes. When it came time to use Flubaroo to mark the activity, it became too time consuming. Flubaroo can mark some text answers but does not mark paragraphs. So last year I ended up with many long answers to read in the spreadsheet, which was difficult to assess in that format. I think long answers are important for reading comprehension, but it did not work for this particular activity.

Remembering what I learned last year, I decided that this time I would only use questions that Flubaroo could mark to make it easier and quicker to track student work and therefore to hold students accountable. 

Year Two, Less Work

As I did this last year, I had most of the Forms already created. However, as I decided to not use long answer questions, I did have to re-vamp many of the questions but this was not too time consuming. As with last year, I've posted all the forms I've made for books on the Division One Collaboration Site For Educational Technology.