LearnZillion - Help Students Avoid the Summer Slide

As another school year comes to a close we will soon be sending our students home for a much needed respite. It's time for them to play, focus on developing their nonacademic talents, and enjoy a break from the everyday routine of school. Unfortunately, we know that many of our students will return to school in the fall in need of 4-6 weeks of review to get them back on track. This learning loss is commonly referred to as "the summer slide".




Teachers hope that students will continue to read, write and participate in real world learning experiences that they can bring with them to the classrooms in the fall to help them be successful. Unfortunately, many students do little during the summer months to stay academically stimulated in the area of math, often because parents lack resources and time to help. LearnZillion is a Cool Tool that can provide parents and students with opportunities to retain math skills and perhaps even make gains during the summer months.

LearnZillion is a free resource of Common Core aligned lessons that use narrated video for instruction. The pause button allows students to tackle the learning at their own pace, while built in learning supports make Learnzillion an effective instructional tool that addresses a variety of learning needs. A Coach's Commentary on the side of each playlists provides parents with additional information and support. The math lessons provide guided practice opportunities and they also offer a downloadable form for taking notes. This is a nice tool for independent practice over the summer and one that many parents would appreciate having.

Features at a Glance

• Narrated video lessons for students aligned with Common Core Standards and identified by skill.
• An iPad app.
• Coach's Commentary videos that provide teachers and parents with tips, including identifying common mistakes made
• Guided practice video lessons.
• Discussion protocol for use by parents and teachers
• A notes template for student use.
• Quizzes to check for mastery
• A parent letter
• Quick access codes associated with each lesson.
• Playlists of resources focusing on a particular standard.
• Additional CCSS aligned lessons in English/LA

Uses for Summer Learning

• Teachers can use the handy parent letter to provide students and parents with targeted practice on skills they need to master. Just select the appropriate lessons and click on Quick Code, then copy and paste those into the parent letter.
• Teachers can take it a step further and create a summer class for students and assign a series of lesons and quizzes for individual students.
• Use the calendar to assign lessons and due dates to students for completion over the summer.