Resources
Below are a few resources for: differentiating content (interest and ability), helping students making sense of their math, and remediation.
Desmos is an online program that I use often as a teacher when I need to create and graph to use within an activity. I also have tried out some of their digital learning activities. In my experience I have found this program more purposeful to use with high school students than middle schooler’s. Student can also perform any functions that require a graphing calculator so is great if resources are tight at your school!
Freckle is an online program that I learned about through a colleague in my Masters in Educational Technology program. It is aligned to the Common Core and has resources for math, ELA, science, and social studies for grades K-12. Freckle has students take an initial diagnostic test for each standard then adapts to each individual students’ specific needs moving forward. Teachers can assign students targeted or fact practice as well as adaptive lessons connected to a specific standard. I have not yet used this with my class, but plan on implementing next year with my 7th graders!
Google Classroom is a free online collaboration tool for students and teachers. Teachers create classrooms that students can join via a class code. Once a class is created teachers can give out assignments to the whole class or individuals. It is great for differentiating content based on ability and interest. The teacher is also able to give students feedback on their assignments through Google Classroom. Students are able to access their classroom from any computer so it is a great resource to use at home as well!
Kahn Academy is a free online resource that can be used to help students make sense of math. I often tell my students to use this tool when they are struggling with homework. Videos of someone going through problems are available for students to watch. I love how my students can pause if they need to go at their own pace. Kahn Academy has resources for students in kindergarten all the way through college level math. They also have support aligned with the EngageNY and Illustrative Math curriculums. My school uses Illustrative so it is a great resource to share with parents as well!
(Check out my screen cast below for a brief introduction!)
*You may need to click download once you click on the link.
Illustrative Math is the curriculum that my school uses so I like to share this website within my family letter at the beginning of the year. Open-Up Resources is a free website organized by unit that includes brief explanations and practice problems with answers provided. The Illustrative curriculum is very discovery based with many great critical thinking activities so I think this would be a useful website to strengthen mathematical skills even if Illustrative is not the curriculum used at your school.
IXL is resource that I have used the past few years with my students for remediation and personalizing instruction. In order to use all features, it does require students to have a subscription. With a subscription teachers can assign their class rosters or specific students skills to work on. Once students reach mastery in a skill they receive awards, which I have found to be a great motivator with my middle schooler’s. All skills are well organized so it is easy as a teacher to find what you would like to assign to your students. IXL also has an analytics feature if you are someone who likes to look at data to inform your instruction.
Wolfram Alpha is a resource I discovered when I was in college taking calculus, but I have suggested it as a resource for my students to use as well when they need to check an answer or are unable to locate a mistake. You can type any problem in the search bar and you will get the answer along with other supporting information such as visuals, etc. If you pay for the Pro version there is a feature that allows you so see a step-by-step explanation of how to solve the problem you are doing.
This is a website created by two real math teachers, Brian Marks and Leslie Lewis. New activities are uploaded weekly that incorporate math into real-world situations. All of the lessons are organized by grade and standard. Yearly memberships are required for editable lessons but otherwise this website is free to use. This is a great resource for finding problems that spark students interest!
*See an example lesson plan that is a sub page of the Resource tab in the menu or click the link below.