IXL author Molly Means comes to her role as an IXL Professional Learning Specialist with 14 years of experience in education. She’s dedicated to ensuring all learners, from the youngest students to veteran teachers, can be given the right tools to grow.
IXL is the ideal learning platform for before-school and after-school care programs as it allows teachers to balance low-maintenance instruction while personalizing learning for students.
IXL’s personalized K-12 curriculum allows students to learn at their own pace, whether that’s exploring new topics or reviewing material from previous grade levels. And as students learn on IXL, educators can get valuable insights to monitor progress.
With IXL, you can ensure that every minute is productive and helpful! Let’s look at the ways you can use IXL to support your before-school or after-school programs.
Getting started with IXL
Set a goal
Before students start diving into skill practice on IXL, help them set a goal. For example, you might want students to practice until they reach a SmartScore of 80 or until they answer 20 questions correctly.
Giving students a goal ensures that they build a deep understanding of the topics while providing them with a reference point of when they can stop and move on to something else.
IXL Real-Time Diagnostic
IXL’s Real-Time Diagnostic is a great place to start to get an understanding of students’ grade-level proficiency in math and English language arts. It takes 45 minutes or less to complete, and students can take the diagnostic in multiple sittings.
Once students complete the diagnostic, IXL provides each learner with a personalized action plan showing them the exact skills they need to practice. These skill recommendations are unique to each individual based on their diagnostic results. Instructors can use each student’s personalized action plan to assign skills easily.
Skill practice
Weekly Boost skill plans
If you want students to dive right into skill practice or work on grade-level content, IXL’s Weekly Boost skill plans are perfect for before-school and after-school programs. IXL Weekly Boost skill plans guide students through a year’s worth of curriculum. They’re carefully designed to ensure learners are on track week to week.
With IXL’s pre-made skill plans, all the skills your students need to practice are always at your fingertips! They allow you to easily reinforce grade-level learning, without spending time planning lessons or finding the perfect skill to match your curriculum.
Instructional resources
IXL also provides students with thousands of instructional resources while they’re practicing skills. Learners can access built-in video tutorials and detailed step-by-step explanations of incorrect answers. This allows students to access expert help when they’re working independently or if before-school and after-school program instructors aren’t familiar with the subject matter.
Keep it interesting
Games
IXL has over 120 engaging math and ELA games for pre-K through 5th grade. Learning games can be used to motivate students, reward students, or reinforce concepts in a fun and engaging way!
IXL Leaderboards
IXL Leaderboards are customizable competitions that get students excited to learn. You can set up a friendly competition to see who reaches proficiency on the most skills throughout the week or who can answer the most questions correctly in one afternoon.
Mix it up
Give students specific things to focus on for different days. Here is a sample schedule you can follow to keep students engaged throughout the week:
- Monday and Wednesday: Have students practice math skills from their Diagnostic Action Plan.
- Tuesday and Thursday: Have students practice ELA skills from their Diagnostic Action Plan.
- Fun Friday: Allow students to play IXL games or practice any skill of their choice.
Monitor students
Live Classroom
Live Classroom allows teachers to see what every student in their classroom is working on in IXL in real time—no more walking from computer to computer to ensure students are on task. You can see the specific skill each learner is practicing, what their current SmartScore is, and even get alerts when students are struggling with a skill.
And if students are off-task or need help, you can also send them a Live Message to provide immediate support!
Students Quickview Report
The Students Quickview Report provides an overview of what skills students have practiced recently. Use this report to ensure students are working on the appropriate skills and are reaching your communicated SmartScore goal.
Learn more
As you can see, IXL is flexible and can support a variety of classroom models and teaching routines! IXL reinforces student learning through personalized guidance, instructional tools, and engaging games while increasing teacher capacity.
Learn more about how IXL’s resources are designed to support your unique classroom here!