Blog Post 5: Exploring Two In-Class Platforms

There are so many platforms/apps that are used throughout the week in my classroom. Just to name a few, Blooket, IXL, Epic!, Typing.com, and many more, depending on the assignment. The two that I have decided to focus on, as they have helped me and my students tremendously are Epic! and IXL. 

Epic! is an online library source for books, audiobooks, and educational videos. I currently have my students utilizing this platform four days a week for roughly 15 minutes a day, and they could use so much more time on it! Epic! allows students to have hundreds of book choices at their reading level. There is a mix of books that can be read to the students and ones that more confident readers can read on their own. This not only helps students to hear what books sound like with proper emotion and pauses. 

     

Epic! is mostly used at school, as there are two versions. Teachers/schools can receive daytime access for free, but they can purchase an unlimited version that allows students to use the platform at home and at school. Parents can access Epic! for free; however, students can only read for an extra two hours a week outside of school. I currently have the school version, and that gives me a class code that I have written on the board in the front of the room all year long! Students are able to get right on and enter this class code with minimal help. 

Within the school account, teachers can upload their roster and assign grade levels so that those students are shown books that are age and grade-appropriate (Edwards, 2023). Once this is set up, teachers can check and see how their students are doing and how many books they are reading in each sitting. The part that I enjoy is that it tells me how long my student took to read a book, so I know if I need to monitor their computer more or have them start taking the quizzes that are offered at the end of most books. "The quiz feature uses multiple-choice questions to help students further integrate what they've read" (Edwards, 2023). While this is not direct communication, this dashboard allows teachers to access how their students are doing and make future adjustments to teaching. If it is noticed that a student has only browsed several books, I will have a quick conference with them to see if there is a reason. Epic! has also helped me to understand the type of books specific students enjoy, and then I can communicate that to their families.  

 IXL is an online resource for students to practice Math and ELA skills. There is the option for students to choose whatever they want across all grade levels, teachers to assign specific recommendations that align with goals, and for students to take a diagnostic that updates their scores in various math and ELA topics. Currently, I have my students work on IXL for about 35 minutes once a week. I will look at their diagnostic scores and let them know if they are working on the diagnostic or teacher recommendations for that time. At the beginning of the school year, I went through all of the IXL skills and assigned ones to specific students that pertained to their IEP goals. I am now finalizing progress notes, and I am happy to see that most of my students have been able to achieve their math and ELA goals. 

While there is no direct communication between teachers and students, the following images show what a teacher can see from an admin account, and they show what a student sees. The diagnostic overview allows teachers to see if scores are updated with the student's most recent knowledge (the longer the line, the more outdated the information). The given scores equate to grade levels; for example, a 420 would be a beginning fourth-grade level, and a 190 would be an ending first-grade level. On the right, you see that it automatically shows the student the recommendations assigned to them by their teacher. A student can have multiple teachers assigning work, and it will state which teacher gave them the skill to work on. The screen will also prompt students to take their important diagnostic, but if they have updated scores, I prefer them to work on what I gave them. Depending on how outdated their diagnostic is, the longer it will take them. For my classroom, these scores are pretty accurate as we implement student testing accommodations and do not help them find an answer because there is an 'I don't know this yet' button if they are truly stuck. 

 Students typically need help logging onto this platform, as it does require them to know part of their school email and ID number. Some of my students are capable of filling this information in, but as my students do not have access to an email, they are not utilizing it daily.  Many of my students also struggle to type on a computer, or they use one finger to type everything, which takes a lot of time.

Both of these platforms have been beneficial for increased student engagement; however, when it comes to Epic! there is always a concern that students can become too reliant on having books read to them. I try to combat this by having my students read from a tangible book for about the same amount of time each week. It is also important to look at student data to ensure they are doing what they say they are, as it can be difficult to monitor multiple laptop screens at one time. IXL and Epic! have a read-aloud option, but it is not for everything within the platform. Maybe in the future, at least with IXL, teachers will be able to choose whether questions read is on or off for specific students. 

             Edwards, Luke. “What Is Epic! For Education? Best Tips and Tricks.” TechLearningMagazine, 10 Nov.

                     2023, www.techlearning.com/how-to/what-is-epic-for-education-best-tips-and-tricks.

                            TeachThoughtStaff. “How to Use IXL: 8 Tips for Using the K-12 Adaptive Learning Platform.” 

                                      TeachThought, 24 May 2019, www.teachthought.com/technology/how-to-use-ixl/.