Web 2.0 Wednesday: Study Ladder

Today's Web 2.0 tool, Study Ladder, has interactive games, worksheets, books, and activities in every subject, with resources labeled for use with preschool through 7th grade. As a teacher, you sign up for a free account and enter a class name and a list of students. You can create unlimited classes and students. Then, take a look at the resources for your grade level and assign them either to the whole class or to individuals. You set how you'd like your students to login--either by entering their username and password, entering just the password, or for very young students, just clicking the GO button next to the correct avatar. The site provides you with a class login page as a start page, showing all of the students in the class.

Once your students login and play, your dashboard shows results individually for each student, including which activities students attempted, which were completed, and which were mastered. You can also generate certificates in PDF form to print for your students when they achieve certain levels. Students have your assigned activities highlighted at the top, but they have access to all of the activities if they navigate further.

Students have unlimited access during school hours (which the site has designated as 9:00-3:00 for your own time zone), and after hours they can play a certain amount per day at home. For unlimited home play either the school or the parents need to purchase an upgrade.

I had my daughter test drive the activities and she found them fun and engaging. There were several on her level (4th grade) that she found challenging, and I was able to check her progress when she was finished. I also took a look at the preschool and kindergarten activities and found many of them useful, although there were not as many activities for preschool as for the other grades. Subjects include math, literacy, science, music, art, language & culture, numeracy, health/safety/citizenship, and financial literacy. See below for a sampling of the types of resources available and some of the ways you can search for activities. This page is the main math resources page.

Could you see yourself using Study Ladder in your classroom? Are you using it already? Do you use something else that is similar? Let us know in the comments!