Before joining IXL as an Implementation Specialist, Tammy Huizing taught elementary school for 7 years, and spent 10 years in school leadership.
While most of your older students are intrinsically motivated to learn, there are times where they need an extra boost to kick it in gear. That’s why it’s a good idea to always have a few motivation tactics in your teacher toolbox.
Luckily, IXL’s built-in engagement tools can help you easily motivate students and keep them learning without adding any extra prep work to your plate.
Below are five tried-and-true strategies to add to your routines if you want to drive motivation and increase student engagement across the board.
And if you want to hyperboost achievement, read until the end for our list of incentive ideas!
IXL Leaderboards
It’s amazing how motivated students can be when they’re competing to show off their knowledge. That’s why IXL Leaderboards are the perfect way to get students excited about learning!
With IXL Leaderboards, teachers can set up custom competitions to have students compete over total questions answered, number of skills mastered, time spent on IXL, and more.
Here are some ways to incorporate Leaderboards in your classroom:
- Core instruction: Set up a week-long competition to see who can reach proficiency in the most skills aligned to your core curriculum.
- End of unit review: Before a unit assessment, hold a 20-minute review session—disguised as a contest—to see who can answer the most questions correctly.
- Scale it up: Create the same Leaderboard for each class you teach and have them compete against one another. You can even consider involving other teachers or turning it into a school-wide competition!
- Celebrate success: IXL offers printable certificates for the top three students in a Leaderboard. Print their certificates to let winners show off their achievements and motivate other students to join the certificate wall.
IXL Group Jams
Group Jam is a great way to cognitively engage your entire class or small groups of students. During a Group Jam, all students will see the same IXL skill at the same time, allowing for friendly competition or student collaboration!
It’s not only fun for students, but it’s also insightful for teachers: You can see students’ answers as they submit them and get instant feedback on which topics need to be revisited.
Here are ways to use Group Jam as a contest to motivate your students:
- Group competition: Create groups of students and designate a team captain that will sign in to IXL to submit the group’s response. The team with the most correct answers wins!
- Individual competition: Have each student sign in to IXL and join the Group Jam individually. The student who answers the most questions correctly wins.
Color by IXL Skills
To help students focus on specific skills for a short time frame, you can create a fun “Color by IXL Skills” activity!
Here’s how:
- First, find a skill plan that matches your state standards, a textbook, or a standardized test.
- Choose the skills you want students to prioritize and add the permanent IXL skill ID for each of the selected skills onto the coloring sheet.
- As students reach proficiency (SmartScore of 80) on a skill, they can color in that section of the picture!
Get inspired by these coloring worksheets created by IXL users:
Progress charts
Sometimes, allowing students to visualize their own progress can be more motivating than competitions or prizes.
Each week, set a goal for the amount of skills you want your students to practice or reach proficiency in. Research shows reaching proficiency in two skills per week can accelerate achievement!
As the week progresses, track your students’ progress and publicly recognize those who have achieved this goal.
Pro tip: The Progress & Growth report shows you the number of skills students have practiced, reached proficiency in, and mastered. Set the date range filter to view a specific time frame.
Board games
It’s no secret that kids love to play games. When your learners need an extra push, adding an element of fun and creativity into your lessons can make a world of difference!
DIY board game
Take your favorite board game and put an IXL twist on it! For example, one IXL teacher created a game based on The Oregon Trail.
IXL BINGO
For a fun and easily customizable game idea, try making your own BINGO boards! Customize your board to cover the exact skills you want students to work on or include fun challenges and activities.
For even further differentiating, you can consider personalizing each student’s board based on their learning needs.
Incentive ideas
If you’re already implementing a positive reinforcement system in your classroom or want to sweeten the deal for your learners by offering prizes for competitions, try some of the following ideas!
For individual students:
- IXL practice coupons
- Free ticket to a school event (sports game, dance, etc.)
- Pass to skip one homework assignment
- Class DJ for the day: Pick the (teacher-approved, of course!) playlist for independent work time
- Chair of choice for the day (bean bag, couch, teacher’s desk, etc.)
- Bonus points on a quiz
- Free snack item (juice box, chips, candy, etc.)
For the class:
- Pizza (or ice cream, cookies, etc.) party
- Card or board game time
- No homework day
- 15-minute free time
- Movie day
- Push a test back a day