I have been discussing data quite a bit with some colleagues these past few months. We were discussing ways to target individual student's areas of weakness and I brought up IXL to target ELA and Math skills. Some of my colleagues did not know about this site, so I thought I would share it with you all here because it can be of great value for differentiating and individualizing instruction without an excessive amount of prep because students can work on it at their own pace!
So, IXL covers all four core areas, but my main experience is with Math and ELA. A high school Math teacher introduced me to the site a few years ago, she used it at the end of class when students had five or so extra minutes before the bell rang. Students would come to my class and discuss how they wanted to beat their own times and scores, so I thought, "These high school students seem pretty interested in IXL, I better check this out!"
The site is organized by grade, subject area, then focuses on specific skill sets. It covers all grade levels and many subject areas. I have found that my students like it because it keeps time and score, my students liked to beat their own scores and times- it was motivating for them to do. I have always used it informally for students to work with, but I believe you can set up classes and the site will give you diagnostic reports to show how your students are doing (Although, I think this feature comes at a cost :(). It can be another useful resource for data! (www.ixl.com)
