Here are the highlights from this article!
- Meet goals with IXL’s plans: Ready-made sets of skills show what to work on [jump to section]
- Get a custom plan for your child: Grow fast with a plan tailored to your child [jump to section]
- Explore the Recommendations wall: Discover relevant skills to practice right now [jump to section]
IXL opens up a whole world of learning! With thousands of skills across math, English, science, and social studies, your child can dive into almost any topic they want. So many skills to practice comes with a big question, though: Just what should your IXL-er work on?
Whether your child is making progress toward a particular goal, or you just want some enriching activities for healthy screen time, here are three ways you can find the best skills to help your child shine!
Meet goals with IXL’s plans
IXL’s skill plans neatly package skills into programs that show your child exactly what to work on. Some of them are guides to a specific goal—like learning to read or scoring high on a standardized test—while others match education standards or specific textbooks.
An excellent all-purpose skill plan to start with is Weekly Boost for math and English. It’s a super simple way to give your child some added practice in the kinds of topics they’re learning in class. By penciling in a little work in Weekly Boost a few times a week, like before school or on weekends, you’ll be amazed at the progress your IXL-er can make!
For high schoolers with college ambitions, our SAT and ACT study plans are like roadmaps that get your teen closer to their dream school. These plans are extra special because you can customize them to your teen’s test performance. Just enter their scores from a previous test or practice test, and the plan will show them the precise skills they should focus on.
IXL has skill plans for all sorts of other purposes, from helping your child learn over school breaks to getting them prepared for the big jump to the next grade level. Learn all about the different plans you can use with our family skill plans guide.
Here’s a tip: When you see a plan you want your child to work on, put a pin in it by selecting the pin icon. It’ll pin the plan to the top of the skill plans page, giving you and your IXL-er easy access to the plans you like most!
Get a custom plan for your child
What if you could peer into your child’s mind to see what they know and what they’re ready to learn next? With IXL’s Diagnostic Action Plan, you don’t have to imagine! This plan shows you the math and English skills your IXL-er should practice to make more progress, faster.
It’s a great first step for your child’s learning journey, since you’ll both be able to see what they’re good at, what they need to work on, and the skills they should practice to improve. Imagine how motivated your child will be to boost their knowledge with skills picked just for them!
To get a Diagnostic Action Plan, have your child step into the Diagnostic arena and answer questions. It takes about an hour per subject to pinpoint your child’s knowledge levels, but they don’t need to do it all in one sitting. The Diagnostic constantly saves progress, so your child can come back to it later after a break or a snack (maybe a cookie for your smart cookie).
When your child is done, select the “Print Diagnostic Action Plan” button at the bottom of the Diagnostic tab. This is where you’ll get to see the big reveal: your child’s knowledge levels and their personal path to progress!
The Diagnostic Action Plan shows your IXL-er’s overall level of knowledge for math and English, as well as scores for specific topics in each subject and recommended skills to help them grow the most.
Reading the Diagnostic is simple—all the numbers match up with grade levels. For example, a level of 600 means that your IXL-er is ready to start working on 6th-grade skills, while a level of 650 means that they are about halfway through 6th-grade topics.
Once you have your child’s plan, you can keep it up to date with some regular work in the Diagnostic arena. Just 10 to 15 questions a week should do the trick!
Explore the Recommendations wall
When you want a skill for your child to practice right now, look no further than the Recommendations wall. The wall shows a feed of math, English, science, and social studies skills based on what your learner has already worked on.
Is your IXL-er a bold explorer who likes to investigate on their own? Even better! The Recommendations wall doubles as one of the best ways on IXL for learners to discover new topics independently. Your child can hunt around until a skill catches their eye and then see where their curiosity takes them.
If there’s something you want your child to focus on, it’s also easy to narrow down the skills the wall shows them. You can filter recommendations by subject, as well as by how the skills will help your IXL-er. Here are the recommendation types:
- Try something new: Introduce them to brand new topics
- Work it out: Build their knowledge to help them on a skill they’re struggling with
- Keep at it: Encourage them to make more progress in a skill they’ve started
- Go for gold: Inspire them to totally master a skill
- Next up: Show them the next steps to something they’ve already learned
The Recommendations wall works its magic best when your child has already practiced a bit on IXL. If your child is brand new to IXL, we recommend you start them off with a skill plan or the Diagnostic Action Plan. It’ll make their exploration all the better.
Want to discover other ways your child can learn on IXL? Head over to our Get Started page.
The post How to find IXL skills for your child to work on appeared first on IXL Official Blog.