TenMarks and FrontRowEd: Personalized Learning

Personalized Learning

I thought a lot about personalized learning the last week before Christmas Break, I figured now would be the time to pilot a few things. I've tried out TenMarks, and am blown away at the program's capabilities. I think my first big "aha" came when none of my students were taking the hints, watching the tutorials, and were getting very low scores on the assignments. I thought it was interesting that these students had the resources available to them, yet didn't even bother to use them. Then it hit me, fourth graders don't know how to learn using a personalized instruction system any better than I know how to fully utilize it. Duh.

Once I realized that I needed to show them how to learn using a system like this, I focused on motivating students to click on the helps available. Now that they're using it as a learning opportunity, not an assessment, they've altered their patterns. Now they click on tutorials and take hints. Learning from a computer is different than things they've done before, and will take time to learn. They haven't mastered it in a week, and I don't expect them to. But with personalized learning, another one of my jobs is to teach kids how to learn.

TenMarks

TenMarks is a pretty robust and impressive system. The free version allows me to give students assignments according to a CCSS Standard. The assignments come in the form of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and haptic responses where students click or drag manipulative to answer a question. The questions are decent enough, although they look similar to other math programs. Each question gives students a video tutorial and hints. Students started out treating the assignment like a test. They would just cruise through to get their score and move on. It took some training to convince the students to slow down and use the tutorials and hints. They did not naturally expect the computer to teach them. They expected the computer to just ask them questions and give them a color, red, green, or yellow.

I have not played with the paid version of TenMarks, but it looks like it provides Ender's Game style personalization. After students complete an assessment, the teacher may give a number of activities to the student in their playlist. The playlist is designed to give students support for the concepts they struggled with, and extend for students that cruised through.

FrontRowEd

Frontrow is a pretty neat system too. FrontRow gives students a diagnostic assessment for each CCSS domain. Each diagnostic takes students between 20-30 minutes. Once they've finished the diagnostic they are given a grade level, and given a recommendation. The data is clean, color coded and easy to read. The questions are tough, but not as difficult as TenMarks. Students can collect coins and redeem them in a store.

As a teacher I can look at each student and find out what holes they have in their learning up to this point. For example, even though the concept of "rounding" isn't focused on in the fourth grade core, FrontRow helped me identify that this was a major hole in these students' knowledge. So I spent a mini-lesson on rounding, and they mostly got it. They haven't mastered it yet, but I know to expect that hole.

Big Difference

There is a difference between these two systems. FrontRow seems to start at the beginning of math knowledge in Kindergarten, and lead the student through first, second and third grade until they reach fourth grade. In some domains, such as fractions, they start in third grade because NF doesn't show up in k-2 CCSS. The grade level the system gives students can be a little misleading because of this.

Tenmarks, on the other hand seems to work backwards to find where students holes are. The system knows the students should be in fourth grade, and so it starts the diagnostic 

there and works forwards or backwards depending on the students' needs.

Whether you're an old pro at personalized learning, or just stepping out into the void like me, these are two fancy and free programs you should give a look.