How the math works.
Every game asks the same Common Core questions, kindergarten to 5th grade. The level moves up with fluency, or a parent or teacher sets it. Every answer, in any game, goes into one record of what the student knows.
Levels and the Common Core.
The questions are aligned to the Common Core State Standards for math and run from kindergarten through 5th grade. Each grade has 8 levels, in the order schools teach them. A level adds one or two question types to the ones before it, and levels open as the student gets them right. The first level of each grade reviews last year.
A new student's first questions find their level: a short search that starts at their grade and moves down, as far as kindergarten, until the questions fit. The games move the level up when the student is fluent: on every open question type, at least 20 answers, with 85% of the latest answers right, and the newest question types right 80% of the time. A student who is not ready stays on the level. A student who keeps missing moves down one level, and a parent or teacher can undo it.
How the games ask questions.
One question at a time
Play pauses for a math question. In The Long Winter and Pushback a right answer sends more snowmen or powers up the team; in Sumhaven it raises a building; in Bloom it grows the garden. Answering correctly is encouraged, and in some cases required, to succeed at the game.Visual aids for wrong answers
After a wrong answer, the game shows a picture of how to solve it, then asks again a few questions later. A number line can be shown on every question if selected in settings.The same questions in every game
All four games draw from the same levels, so a student can switch games and keep their place. Every answer, from any game and any device, lands in the same record.
What a parent or teacher can set.
Automatic, or chosen by hand
Automatic follows the levels above. Choose the question types yourself to focus on specific areas, like addition and subtraction below 20 or adding tens. Each student is set individually, and a teacher can set a whole class at once.Answer time
From no time limit to a quick pace, per student. Extra time (60 seconds) suits a student who is right when given the time.Number line
Always show a number line for a student who still counts along one.
What the website shows.
A skill map
A chart showing fluency across facts, in the order the levels open. Fluent is 85% or more right, Getting there is 70% or more, Stuck is below 70%.Where a skill breaks down
For skills with no fixed set of facts, like multi-digit multiplication or fractions, a map with a square per kind of problem: no carrying, carry once, carry twice. Wrong answers are sorted by the kind of mistake, like forgetting to carry or adding the denominators.Over time
Right answers and speed by day, week or play session, the facts learned this week, the trouble spots, and three facts to practice tonight.
The fact maps.
The addition map has one square for every fact from 0 + 0 to 10 + 10. That is 11 rows and 11 columns, so 121 squares. 7 + 8 and 8 + 7 are two squares, because a student can know one and miss the other.
Each addition fact has a matching subtraction fact. 7 + 8 = 15 matches 15 − 7 = 8. The subtraction map has its own 121 squares. The times tables and the division facts get the same treatment: 56 ÷ 7 sits across from 7 × 8, so a gap shows in both.
Pip is a made-up example.
How fluency is visualized
KnownShakyStuckNot tried
- Known
- At least 3 right answers, and no more than 1 miss for every 9 right.
- Shaky
- Everything in between: a fact tried once or twice, or right most of the time but not yet reliably.
- Stuck
- Missed lately and not yet right 3 times in a row since, or missed at least twice with at least 1 miss for every 3 right.
A skill is Stuck below 70%. A single fact is Stuck when it was missed lately and is not yet right three times in a row.
A fact the student has not met yet is an empty outline. A square fills up as it moves from stuck to shaky to known, so the map reads even without color.