How to Use Prodigy Effectively Without 1:1 Computer Access

I want to use Prodigy Math but don’t have a computer for every child in my class. How can I effectively implement technology in my classroom?

☝️ Despite technology becoming more ingrained in 21st century classrooms, this is a common concern many teachers share.

However, if you’re in a school with low supply of educational technology — a reality you believe is negatively affecting student learning — there are still ways to use Prodigy Math in your classroom!

Fantastic for classes without one-to-one device use, using Prodigy Math in your learning centres is a powerful strategy to:

• Deliver a range of content. For example, if your class struggles with 2D and 3D shapes, you can assign specific questions targeting how to identify or classify different shapes, how to find missing side lengths, and how to calculate the volume of prisms.
• Give students different ways to process content. Whilst one station may focus on individual worksheets and another on an instructional video, you can use Prodigy Math as a gamified station students must discuss and solve together.

If you want to go deeper, Prodigy Math simplifies math content differentiation in three easy steps. Using the Assessments tool allows you to deliver specific in-game problems to distinct student groups!

Engage students at the start or end of class to preview or reinforce curriculum-aligned content using Prodigy Math’s Assessments feature.

If you don’t have one-to-one device use, consider scheduling a classroom rotation. For example, in a class of 25 students and 5 devices, have five different students complete an entry or exit ticket each day of the week.

Scheduling a special 10 minutes at the start or end of class for each student throughout the week gives them something to look forward to and encourage them to take ownership of their learning.

Interested? Learn how to use Prodigy as a relevant entry or exit ticket!

Some students simply don’t respond to worksheets, textbooks, and other traditional methods of teaching. Prodigy Math is an effective and engaging way to address students’ trouble spots and skill deficits, whilst collecting data.

With these students in mind, the Assignment feature is a powerful way to engage students with math anxiety or low math confidence. What’s more, it helps individuals’ unique trouble spots as a second-tier RTI strategy.

Sound like something you need? Discover how to use Prodigy Math as an RTI tool!

Now that you’ve finished teaching a new math concept, it’s time to reinforce what they’ve learnt. And whilst your class may not have one-to-one device use, they may have access to one at home.

Use the Assessments tool to align your lesson content by creating Assessments. Students will work through the skills within a standard at their own pace and, due to Prodigy Math’s in-built adaptive learning technology, will drop back to pre-requisites when necessary.

Assigning these Assessments for homework will not only help solidify new math concepts, but provide more data about their levels of understanding.

The more you know about how and where your students are struggling, the more effectively you can adjust your teaching strategies to meet individual learning needs.

Homework kids will enjoy doing? Yup — here’s how to use Prodigy Math to reinforce in-class lessons at home.

In classrooms without one-to-one devices, teacher battles are an increasingly popular way to get students excited about math!

Teachers can set up their own Prodigy Math wizard, select the same Year level, and challenge individual students to math battles.

During work or free choice periods, you can challenge a certain number of students to individual math battles. (Trust us, children will chomp at the bit for a chance to outsmart their teacher — it’s happened!)

Though a slower process, student-teacher battles:

• Are a good way to gauge individuals’ knowledge gaps
• Present opportunities to connect and bond with students

You can successfully integrate EdTech in your math lessons!

Compared to a one-to-one device classroom, students in one-computer classrooms have fewer opportunities to benefit from EdTech platforms such as Prodigy Math. This means every chance they have to use technology in the classroom must be high quality.

So, we hope the effective alternatives above help engage you and your students on your math journeys!

JORDAN NISBET

Jordan crafts content for Prodigy — and wishes the game existed when he was in school. He's interested in education and passionate about helping build up the next generation!