3rd-5th Grade - Gateway 3

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through 5 provide strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement.

The materials provide some tools that communicate grade-level math content, learning goals, and suggestions for how families support student learning. For example:

• The Grade Landing page, Additional resources, Welcome Letters include a letter for families in English and Spanish. The Family Welcome Letter contains two sections: Understanding your child’s math program and How you can support learning at home, with two sections under that titled Keep the learning going and Understand your child’s performance. In Keep the learning going, “Your child can sign into Takeoff from home using the same username and password they use at school. This allows them to: Practice skills recommended by their teacher; Explore personalized skill recommendations tailored to their needs; Extend learning with video tutorials and games.” In Understand your child’s performance, “As a parent or guardian, you can also sign into your child's account to: See which skills your child has been assigned; Access the same classroom resources your child uses; Get an in-depth look at your child’s achievements; Identify areas for your child to focus on.”

Analytics reports and a learning hub are also available for parents. Parents review Analytics reports when signed into a student account to view student progress. Reports include Usage Details, Trouble Spots, Score Chart, Questions Log, and Progress and Improvement. While many of the Analytics reports have uses beyond Takeoff, when students complete Takeoff skills the reports reflect that activity. For example, the Trouble Spots report analyzes the skills a student has worked on and identifies skills the student should review. The Score Chart report is Takeoff-specific when the Skill Grouping option is set to Takeoff by IXL.

The learning hub on the IXL platform contains resources parents can use to support their children, including the IXL Parent Handout, the IXL Parent Guide Walkthrough Video, and the IXL Blog. Teachers can also email the Student Summary report to parents or caregivers on demand and may choose to include the student’s Diagnostic Action Plan to support communication about student progress.

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through 5 provide varied approaches to learning tasks over time and variety in how students are expected to demonstrate their learning with opportunities for students to monitor their learning.

Materials provide ongoing review, practice, and feedback. The Additional resources section, Unleashing the power of IXL, describes instructional supports for independent practice, including step-by-step examples, video tutorials, instant feedback, and in-skill recommendations. For example:

• Grade 4, Unit 13: Decimals, Lesson 13.1, Warm up, Question 1, “What number do the place value blocks represent? Write it in the chart.” Students view a representation showing three flats, two rods, and five unit cubes, which the lesson later reclassifies to support instruction on the place value of decimals.

Materials include ongoing opportunities for student self-reflection in each unit. In the Additional resources tab for each unit, materials include student self-reflection activities that prompt students to examine their learning. The materials state, “This self-assessment encourages students to reflect on their learning before and after the unit.” For example:

• Grade 5, Unit 11: Divide Decimals, Additional Resources Page, student self-reflection activity directs students to answer the following questions: “What do you know about this topic? What do you wonder about? How can you do your best learning? What did you learn? What was your biggest challenge? How did you overcome it? What do you still wonder about?”

Students share their thinking through a variety of formats over time, including oral discussion and written responses. In Grade-level Additional resources, Instructional design, Meaningful mathematical discourse, Think and Talk activities prompt classroom discussion. The materials state, “Nearly every Takeoff lesson includes ample opportunities for classroom discussion, including designated Think and talk activities,” during which students “share their thinking, brainstorm new approaches, and draw conclusions about math concepts and strategies.”

Materials also include writing activities in which students share their thinking in writing. The materials state, “Takeoff by IXL includes many opportunities for students to share their thinking and approaches in writing,” and in these tasks, students “make claims and justify their reasoning using clear, precise mathematical language.”

Materials include varied tasks that require students to use manipulatives, digital tools, and graphic organizers to show their thinking and make meaning. These tasks engage students in practice within the same context. Examples include:

• Grade 3, Unit 13: Quadrilaterals, Lesson 13.2, students use pictures of quadrilaterals and a Venn diagram to sort and name quadrilaterals by identifying right angles and equal sides. Teacher notes, “For #3, consider having students work in pairs or small groups. Provide each student or group with a set of cut-out shapes from Sort quadrilaterals. Ask students what characteristics all of the shapes have in common. (They each have 4 sides, 4 angles, and 4 vertices; they are quadrilaterals.) Then have students look for characteristics that distinguish the quadrilaterals from one another, such as the number of right angles or equal sides. For #4, students need copies of the Venn diagram from Sort quadrilaterals. Have them find the correct placement for each shape. Next, have students draw one shape in each section of the Venn diagram in their books. Then guide them to write a name for each group of shapes. Students should recognize the shapes in the left circle as rectangles and the shapes in the middle section as squares. Explain that the shapes in the right circle are called rhombuses. Some students may remember calling this shape a diamond in previous grades. Explain that rhombus is the correct math term. Students may realize that all three names apply to the shapes in the middle section. Explain that this is true because squares have the defining attributes of both rectangles and rhombuses. Students will further explore the relationships between the different types of quadrilaterals in the next lesson.” Question 3 states, “Compare and talk: Look at the shape cards. What do all the shapes have in common? What characteristics could you use to sort the shapes into smaller groups.” Question 4, “Use the Venn diagram to sort the shape cards. Then draw one shape in each section of the Venn diagram and fill in the blanks.”

• Grade 4, Additional Resources, Instructional Design, Meaningful Mathematical Discourse, Think and Talk Activities, Example 1, “In Lesson 6.4: Divide using area models, students compare two characters’ models for a division equation and discuss which one they’d rather use to divide.” Unit 6: Divide by 1-digit numbers, Lesson 6.4, Question 5, "Think and talk: Camilla and Marie showed 93\div3=31 in two different ways. How does each model show the dividend, divisor, and quotient? Which model would you rather use to divide?”

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through G 5 provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies.

Each lesson includes a variety of grouping strategies across lesson components, including Instruction, Guided practice, Game time, and Independent practice. Lessons include independent work, pairs, small groups, and whole-class discussions. Grade-level Personalization days and teacher notes describe grouping approaches throughout lessons.

Examples include:

• Grade 3, Additional resources, Instructional Design, Differentiation, Solved, Teacher-led Differentiation, describes the use of Group Jams to support instructional grouping decisions. The materials state, “Group Jams provide a way to formally assess students’ understanding of a topic in real time, helping you make informed decisions on the best next steps to take. In a Group Jam, all students answer the same question at the same time from one of IXL’s online skills. Based on how students respond, you can decide whether to keep discussing the concept as a class, break into smaller groups, or move on to an easier or harder question.”

• Grade 4, Unit 15: Geometry, Personalization Day, Personalized Activities list objectives assessed on the Unit 15 Test with linked IXL practice skills. The page also identifies a list of “recommended students” pre-sorted based on assessment results. Teachers use this information to assign skills or start a Group Jam to support targeted instruction. The page states, “For the largest whole-class impact, consider using a Group Jam with these skills: Identify parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting lines (DSU), Classify quadrilaterals (A6V), and Classify triangles (U59). Start a Group Jam.”

• Grade 5, Unit 13: Coordinate Plane and Patterns, Personalization Day, Personalized activities, list objectives assessed on the Unit Test with linked IXL practice skills. The page also identifies “recommended students,” pre-sorted based on performance on the assessment. Teachers assign these skills or initiate a Group Jam to support student learning. At the end of the page, the materials state, “For the largest whole-class impact, consider using a Group Jam with these skills: Graph points on a coordinate plane (AST), Analyze graphed relationships (SMY), and Compare patterns (XPM). Start a Group Jam Here are some additional activities to consider for all students: Students review and correct questions they missed on the quiz. Students review and correct questions they missed on their independent practice pages. Students practice skills from their diagnostic action plan.”

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through 5 partially offer accommodations that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills without changing the content of the assessment. However, the materials do not include guidance for teachers about who can benefit from these accommodations. 

Examples include:

• Materials offer built-in audio support that does not alter the content of the assessment. IXL landing page, User Guides, Complete Guide, Exploring Skills, states, “Audio is automatically available for students working at the 2nd-grade level or below in math… You can extend audio for students to include 3rd–8th grade levels for math (skills and diagnostic questions).” Grade-level landing page, Unit 1, Quiz or Test, Get started with Takeoff unit assessments, Insightful assessments, During the assessment, Audio support, states, “Students with extended audio support enabled can hear the question read aloud.”

• Materials do not include guidance for teachers on the use of the built-in audio within the Takeoff by IXL guidance. The IXL User Guide provides some guidance. IXL landing page, User Guides, Complete Guide, Exploring Skills states, “When signed in, open your account menu in the upper-right corner, and select Profile & settings. Under Settings, from the settings button for Extend audio support, select the students you’d like to include. Click Submit. When the audio is extended, students have access to audio for math (skills and diagnostic questions) at the 8th-grade level and below, as well as language arts and science skills at the 5th-grade level and below.”

• All formal assessments are available in digital and printable formats, allowing teachers to select the most appropriate delivery method for each student. Grade-level landing page, Unit 1, Quiz or Test, Get started with Takeoff unit assessments, Insightful assessments, Get ready for the assessment, Print the assessment states, “If a paper-and-pencil assessment is a better option for some of your students, you can download and print the assessment here.” 

• Assessments can be printed in English or Spanish, allowing students to access the assessment in their home language without altering the content being measured.

• Additionally, each Takeoff Unit Quiz and Test is available in more than seventy languages when taken digitally. When language support is enabled for a student, they can click the green icon above the question to view the question text in Spanish. If a student has both language text support and audio support enabled, they can listen to the question text read aloud in that language.

Materials do not include modifications to assessments that change the grade-level expectations or alter the content being measured.

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through Grade 5 provide a range of representation of people; however, the materials do not consistently include detailed instructions and support for educators to effectively incorporate and draw upon students’ different cultural, social, and community backgrounds to enrich learning experiences. While representation of people across cultural, racial, gender, and ability backgrounds is evident, the materials do not consistently position students’ cultural or community knowledge as assets for engaging deeply with the mathematics.

When images of people are used, they depict individuals from different races and ethnicities across problem contexts, with representation not limited to specific outcomes or roles. Names used across lessons reflect a balance of ethnicity, gender, and physical characteristics, and no demographic group is consistently associated with success or failure in the context of problems. For example, Grade 5, Unit 5: Add and subtract fractions, Lesson 5.3, Instruction, Learn to add fractions with unlike denominators, Question 5 depicts a student in a wheelchair explaining her strategy for solving the problem. In Unit 9: Add and Subtract Decimals, Lesson 9.6, Instruction, Learn More Strategies to Add and Subtract Decimals, Question 6 depicts a student named Shivani explaining her method for solving the problem.

Some Takeoff by IXL lessons reference cultures from around the world. For example, in Grade 3, Unit 9: Time, Volume, and Mass, Lesson 9.5, Instruction, Warm Up, Question 1, students solve word problems situated in a Travel the World Fair, which includes booths associated with different countries. The question states, “The Greenberg Community Center is hosting a Travel the World Fair. The fair has booths with activities from different countries. Workers spent 12 minutes setting up tables, 15 minutes arranging chairs, and 8 minutes hanging banners. How many more minutes did the workers spend arranging chairs than hanging banners? How long did the workers spend getting ready?” In the same lesson, Instruction, Learn to Solve Elapsed Time Problems Involving Multiple Events, Question 4 states, “Helen’s mom went to the Ethiopia booth for a coffee tasting, which started at 1:35 p.m. She watched someone prepare Ethiopian coffee. That took 29 minutes. Then she drank the coffee. That took 16 minutes. What time was Helen’s mom done?”

However, the materials do not include specific strategies that guide teachers in leveraging students’ cultural, social, or community backgrounds to ensure that all students have the opportunity to engage deeply with the content.

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through 5 provide supports for different reading levels to ensure accessibility for students.

Materials include vocabulary-building activities that support students in developing an understanding of mathematical terms through oral language and hands-on engagement. For example, in Grade 4, Unit 14: Angles, Lesson 14.1, Instruction, Learn to Identify and Draw Geometric Figures, Question 3, students work with a table of new vocabulary words that requires them to complete sentences, draw representations, and connect terms to related symbols.

Materials include built-in audio supports in assessments. In Grades 3-5, the audio support is enabled for all students by default. For example, in Grade 5, Unit 7: Divide Fractions, Unit 7 Test, all questions display a blue speaker icon next to each piece of text when audio is enabled. Students select the icon to listen to the text read aloud, which provides an entry point for students who struggle with reading.

Materials include Language Tips that guide teachers in supporting vocabulary development and comprehension of mathematical language. For example, in Grade 3, Unit 5: Understand Division, Lesson 5.1, Additional Supports, Language Tips state, “This lesson introduces several new vocabulary terms (dividend, divisor, and quotient) in #2. Consider using these terms to annotate the equation in that problem. This will give language learners a concrete example of each in context. Add these terms to a vocabulary list if you started one earlier in the year, and encourage students to refer to it throughout the unit.”

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through 5 integrate technology such as interactive tools, virtual manipulatives/objects, and/or dynamic software in ways that engage students in the grade-level/series standards, when applicable.

The materials include digital mid-unit check-ins and end-of-unit assessments in which students use interactive tools to respond to questions. In these assessments, students interact with on-screen elements to select responses or complete tasks aligned to grade-level mathematics.

Outside of the core instructional materials, the IXL platform includes online games, instructional video tutorials, and tools that allow teachers to create custom quizzes. Teachers can assign specific games or create quizzes to target particular skills or learning goals. However, the materials do not include evidence that digital tools are customized to reflect student interests or local or community contexts.

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through 5 include digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other, when applicable.

The materials reference collaboration tools within the IXL platform. In Grade-level Additional resources under Unleashing the power of IXL, Easy-to-Use Engagement Tools, the materials describe Live Classroom and Group Jam. The materials state that Live Classroom “provides live insights into student activity and progress” and allows teachers to “message a student to provide guidance and encouragement,” which supports teacher-to-student collaboration.

The materials also describe Group Jam and state, “All students in a Group Jam will see the same question at the same time,” which supports whole-class and small-group collaboration. The materials explain that Group Jam allows teachers to “gauge students’ understanding of the topic in real time.” The materials reference Group Jam and Live Classroom within Personalization Days.

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through 5 have a visual design that supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject, and is neither distracting nor chaotic.

The materials have consistent organizational features that support navigation across lessons and units. Each grade level landing page includes links to each unit and additional resources. The unit outline for each grade level lists the mathematical content, unit objectives, instructional context, and math practices. Materials use consistent headings, tables, and captions. Each lesson follows a consistent structure: Instruction, Guided Practice, and Independent Practice. Lessons include Sample Student Responses throughout, which illustrate expected student work. Images and graphics within the text directly communicate mathematical information and representations. 

Examples include:

• Grade 3, Unit 12: Data, Lesson 12.5, Guided practice, Make Line Plots Representing Measurement Data, Questions 6 and 7, students use a data table and a line plot to represent data. Students view visual models of the crafts referenced in the task to identify the context of the data. The Teacher Notes state, “For #6–7, have students make a line plot using the data. They should start by labeling and naming the axis and giving the line plot a title.” Question 6 states, “Ms. Newton’s students also launched cotton balls using craft stick catapults. The tally chart shows how far each cotton ball went past the goal line.” Question 7 states, “Finally students made balloon-powered cars. Mrs. Newton wrote down the 10 greatest distances traveled by the cars. The list shows how many inches past the goal they went.” Each question includes an image showing the data and a partitioned number line that students complete to create a line plot.

• Grade 4, Unit 4: Multiply by 2-digit Numbers, Lesson 4.3, Instruction, Learn to Use Partial Products to Multiply, Question 3 states, “Mrs. Bell is ordering school supplies for the bookstore at Skycrest Elementary School. She orders 16 packs of rulers with 32 rulers in each pack. How many rulers does she order? Solve in two ways.” Students solve the task using two provided sections, each aligned to a different method. One section includes an area model, and the other section includes a vertical equation to support written computation.

• Grade 5, Unit 9: Add and subtract decimals, Lesson 9.7, Instruction, Use Expressions to Solve Multi-step Problems Involving Money, Questions 2 and 3, students use an image of a menu to identify numerical information needed to write and evaluate expressions. Question 2 states, “Anna can’t wait to spend the day with her big brother, Nico. To start, they go to a café for breakfast. Nico orders a latte and a muffin and he uses a coupon for $2.75 off. Write and evaluate an expression to find how much Nico spends.” Question 3 states, “Anna orders a croissant and a cup of hot cocoa. She pays with a $10 bill and leaves the change as a tip. Write and evaluate an expression to find how much the tip is.”

The materials reviewed for Takeoff by IXL Grades 3 through 5 provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.

Unit One, Unit Outline at each grade level includes a link to Get started with Takeoff units. This document explains how teachers navigate the Takeoff by IXL platform. The Materials section of each lesson includes links to the Student books and instructional slides. The Independent practice section includes links to IXL skills practice. The Additional Resources section of each unit includes links to New and Spiral Review activities, online games, Spiral Review skills in IXL, and a Daily Planner.

The Additional Resources section at each grade level contains a link to Welcome to Takeoff by IXL. This document explains each curriculum component and how the resources support instruction. In Additional Resources under Instructional Design: Differentiation, the materials describe automatic differentiation. The materials state, “After students take one of Takeoff’s built-in assessments, the Personalization day will suggest the just right skills to provide differentiated support for students based on their assessment performance. For students who struggle with a particular objective on the assessment, IXL will suggest targeted skills for intervention. And for students who excelled across objectives on the assessment, IXL will suggest challenge or extension skills for enrichment.”

The materials describe how teachers assign and facilitate technology-based instruction during Personalization Days. The materials state, “Teachers can click the (star) icon to assign personalized skill recommendations to each student,” and “by clicking the (person) icon, teachers can easily start a Group Jam…to deliver targeted small-group reteaching.” Personalization Days include links to IXL skills practice organized by unit objectives.

In Additional Resources, Unleashing the Power of IXL, the materials include QR codes that link teachers to additional digital resources. The materials also provide guidance on using data through Actionable Analytics and state, “Watch IXL Minis for quick, teacher-tested tips to make the most of your IXL Analytics data.”