Online Math Practice with Simple Differentiation

When thinking about online math activities for students to take advantage of, one of the obvious choices is Khan Academy.  After all, it includes excellent short videos for teaching necessary math concepts.  

While online math practice can be considered a substitution activity, as you are substituting a worksheet for an device screen, I believe it has value in a student’s learning due to its ease of use and differentiation for students .  There are two particular online math tools that I’ve found to be especially useful in promoting with students and their families.  They are Xtramath and Front Row Math.

It is amazing how something so simple can be devastatingly troublesome for young math learners.  However, I see this all too often in math education with basic math facts, which has brought me to the realization that mastery is a necessity for consistent success in math education.  Enter Xtramath.

Xtramath is truly a substitution activity, where students are practicing their basic math facts in short and simple sessions.  This web application has no glitz and no glamour, which is perfectly fitting for a skill that has no glitz and no glamour.  Xtramath simply provides that quick and easy platform that is necessary for practicing math facts without adding unnecessary and unrewarding work for the student or the teacher.  

Once a teacher has loaded their class into xtramath.org and provided students with their unique pin numbers, students can begin.  There is an initial diagnostic test to determine which facts the student needs practice with before setting him/her free to practice routinely.  These practices only require 3 or 4 minutes a day and students see their progress with a simple color coded chart indicating student progress with each fact.

There are reporting options for teachers and parents as well, so everyone involved can easily stay current with progress.  Teachers can easily differentiate by changing the operation and/or the amount of time given for each fact in a session, in order to provide each student with the most meaningful basic fact learning experience.

Basic math fact mastery is an important skill to gain, but let’s be honest, it is a skill that can only take a student so far and won’t be continuously pushing a student’s math knowledge and abilities.  However, if you are looking for an online application that might push your student’s math abilities, I suggest Front Row Math.

Front Row Math provides a platform for adaptive math practice, meaning that the math a student practices will become more challenging or more simple depending on the student’s results.  After taking an initial diagnostic test for an area of math, which determines the student starting point, students can practice independently at their appropriate level.  Therefore, the differentiation is automatically built in!

A teacher simply needs to sign up, enter their class roster, then share student sign-in and class code with each student.  As students practice on Front Row, teachers have access to reports that identify standards that students are strong or weak in.

Added benefits are a whiteboard for showing work, videos to assist students with understanding concepts when stuck on a problem, and an electronic currency that accumulates for the student as they improve (not real money, just a fake currency that can be used to outfit a character on Front Row).

Online Assessment Applications That Teachers Should Be Using

Assessments are most ideal when they can provide quick results that allow a teacher to then do something productive with the data.  Two free web applications that I feel do an excellent job of achieving this goal are www.socrative.com and www.goformative.com.  Keep in mind that there are some differences between the two that may cause one to be more effective depending on the task at hand.

Socrative is almost the definition of immediate assessment results.  Once you provide students with a class code, you need to decide if you want it to be True/False, Multiple Choice, or Short Answer.  Next, you can pose a question to students verbally or in written form and they can enter their response using their device.   As soon as students submit their response, it will populate on the teacher’s device.

You can also create quizzes, find and share quizzes in the Socrative Shared Quiz List, or have students compete on quizzes with the Space Race option.

Goformative is the next assessment tool that teachers should be taking advantage of.  While this web application has features similar to other online assessment tools, there are two distinct features that set Goformative apart.  

The “Upload/Transform” feature allows you to upload a document, such as a PDF or Word document, and then customize it with interactive content.  The interactive content can be images, text, youtube videos, and more!  I particularly like that you can add interactive answer choices.  For example, if you have a multiple choice question, you can add a button next to the question.  

When students click on the button, the answer letters appear for them to choose.  If you mark the correct answers when setting up the questions, then Goformative will do the grading for you.  Plus, with live results, you can see the answers and scores populate as students are working on the assignment.

The second feature I am going to mention is Whiteboard Content.  This allows your students to create a drawing or insert an image to complete a task.  Again, with the Live Results ability, you can see all of your students’ entries as they are submitted.

The video tutorials for this website are fantastic, so check www.goformative.com out for more detail!

Two Creation Tools for Students To Use

One of the best methods for students to provide evidence of understanding for a learning target is to create a tutorial.  In the past, a digital camera was ideal for this task.  However, today there are a number of web tools that can be used to accomplish the same task, but in a more user friendly way.  Two of these tools that I especially like are Powtoon, and Snagit, because they are web applications, meaning they can be used by any device capable of accessing the internet.

Powtoon (www.powtoon.com) is a presentation tool that has similarities to Powerpoint and Google Sheets in the sense that you edit a series of slides.  The two major differences are the editing options available and the final product that plays more like a video, than a slideshow.  While some options require a paid account, there are many images, characters, backgrounds, and music that are part of the standard creation options. More recently, a voiceover option was added which brings a new and welcome element to the presentation process.  Visit www.powtoon.com to set up an account and start creating.  Oh, and right now, teachers can set up a classroom account for FREE!



Snagit is a screen capture tool that will take a snapshot or record screen material for a period of time. You have a variety of options regarding how much of your screen to capture and you can turn audio recording on or off. While Snagit might seem limited due to it ONLY being a screen capture tool, think a bit more about it and ideas will come out of nowhere. For example, combine this with a whiteboard web application such as www.awwapp.com or Smart Technology's web based Smart Notebook Express and you have a quick and simple way to create a tutorial. Turn on your webcam and now you can capture video of yourself and/or what is around you for a reflection. Head to your Chrome Web Store now and add the Snagit extension for the Chrome browser!