Mathletics is one of the resources available at our elementary school to help deliver the math curriculum. In this post I want to highlight some of the features of Mathletics so that you can decide whether it might be something you would like to incorporate into your teaching practice.

The first feature is the Assessments section. Mathletics has various online assessments that are both tablet and computer compatible.  You are able to select the appropriate assessments for your country/grade level/area. For example, given that our school is Common Core and I currently teach grade 2, I am able to select from assessments in the areas of operations and algebraic thinking, numbers and operations in base 10, geometry, etc. As each area has two very similar assessments that go along with it, I like to use one assessment as a pre-assessment and the other as a post-assessment. The format of these assessments is multiple choice questions of about 20 questions, fairly similar in presentation to the MAP Math test. On average it takes students anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes to complete one assessment.

The next feature is the Results section.  Think of this section as the “guided practice” or “formative assessment” portion of Mathletics.  Here you can assign specific activities to select students based on whatever needs you might have.  Each activity is based around a more discrete skill linked to a Common Core curricular content area.  For example, one of the Common Core Grade 2 math standards in the area of operations and algebraic thinking is around the concept of solving word problems within 100.  So if you need another data point to know whether your students have mastered this concept you can assign this activity and then go back in to see the results.  Alternatively, sometimes you just need more guided practice (think MathBox pages in Everyday Math journals) so you can assign an activity based on the skill they need to work on further.  In this case one of the teachers during the rotation will introduce the activity, demo the first one or two questions, and then the students will complete the rest independently.

Finally, for the fluency component of mathematics there is LiveMathletics. Students love it! LiveMathletics has different levels ranging from 1 all the way to 10. There are four ways to play LiveMathletics. You can challenge yourself by playing “ghost” players, you can challenge students in your class, you can challenge other students in your school, or you can challenge other students from around the world. Each round has a duration of 60 seconds. Teachers are then able to go into the Mathletics portal to view results based on the accuracy and questions answered correctly per minute. If teachers assign activities or assessments then these have to be completed in order to “unlock” LiveMathletics. I usually assign one or two activities daily based around the critical area we are working on, and then the students are able to play LiveMathletics. See here for a previous post I wrote on how to use Mathletics if you use math rotations in your classroom.

The three features I described are how I mainly use Mathletics in my classroom, however there are many other features that Mathletics offers, from eBooks, printables, and more.  Spend some time navigating around their site to discover other resources you might find useful.

DISCLAIMER: I’m sharing this because I thought others might be interested to know how I am using Mathletics in my classroom.  I do not necessarily advocate the use of Mathletics nor am I being endorsed by them.