Marty Cryer
Sumdog
Project Description:
Math fact fluency is essential for continued success in math. Unfortunately, practicing math facts can be incredibly dull and repetitious, which means students frequently do not do it or do it very little. Finding resources that make this somewhat monotonous practice exciting is a challenge to every teacher. For the last four years I have used Sumdog with great success.
Each student has his or her own account set up under a teacher account. They access their own dashboard, have their own avatar and can view their own statistics about their success. After logging in students can choose to play any of about 20 engaging games, each with great graphics. Most are designed for both boys and girls, but
some tend to be slightly geared toward one sex or the other. For example, in one game students choose clothing for their avatar for every correct answer, which tends to be chosen more frequently by the girls. Students may compete against the computer, students within the class or students around the world.
The teachers select the skills based on Common Core Standards, students will practice. This is easily done from the teacher’s dashboard. Skills can be limited to just one or multiple and can be adjusted for individual students. This allows teachers to level the playing field so students at all levels can compete against each other and be equally successful. As students master a skill, the games will automatically adjust.
While the games themselves are engaging enough to make students want to play regularly, another factor is their avatar and the coins they win while playing. For each correct answer students earn a virtual coin that is deposited into their virtual bank account. When teachers open the virtual store students can “purchase” new clothing and accessories for their avatars. Items have different values, so students may need to save their coins and play more to earn enough for certain things. Additionally, they can save their virtual money to buy access to new games.
A final motivation for students are the different animal levels. All students begin at the brown rat level. As they correctly answer questions, they can move up to different animal levels. What is really neat about these levels is there are interesting facts about the animals located on the level description. A link that brings students to a Wikipedia article about the animal also is included. Most of the animals featured are endangered, so it becomes a lesson on nature as well.
This is the student dashboard showing a perennial favorite game, Junk Pile. In this game, students receive a piece of junk for each correct answer. They have to pile the items as high as they can without them falling. Click the image to go to the Sumdog website.
Objectives:
My objective for using this site originally was to motivate students to practice their multiplication/division and addition/subtraction facts. It certainly did that, but as it has evolved, so have my objectives. Clearly it is primarily for skill practice, but since beginning to use it four years ago, the website designers have added additional math concepts such as measurement and word problems.
Last summer I helped convince our principal to purchase a subscription for all of the 3rd and 4th grade students. This allows teachers to create class and school challenges and contests, but more importantly we can use the report feature of the program. As an assessment tool it became more valuable being able to see what skills have been mastered, the speed at which questions are being answered, the percentage of correct responses for each skill and which are a student’s weakest skills.
Future changes and improvements:
The enthusiasm generated by this program was far more than I had expected when I began using it, which makes it a valuable resource. It is not uncommon for students to answer more than a thousand questions in a single week and ask to play during indoor recess. I even had one student ask if the class could have time playing Sumdog for a class birthday celebration!
Still, there were a number of students who did not access the game expect when they were required to by me. I never followed up on that to determine why, which is something I wish I had done each year. Is it because they don’t like to play computer games or are they lacking the confidence to give it a try? Maybe it is something completely different. This is definitely something to consider and look at in more depth.
Connection to ISTE Standard 2C: Customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
Clearly this game gives students a unique opportunity to practice the math skills they are learning. It can be used in a variety of situations, from classroom centers, practice at home, to differentiation for students who need extra practice with specific skills or opportunities to solve higher- level problems. Additionally, students can choose to work on a specific skills they feel needs practice. On their dashboard, they can see a graph o their progress on each skill.