Subscribing users can log on to an opening page that provides specific user statistics and desired reports. To the left of the screen, a menu offers choices including School Stats, Class Manager, Benchmarking (an add-on at an extra cost), Create New Topic (to generate new practice exercises), New Message, My Attributes, and My High Scores. Below the menu is a list of subscription services available to the user’s school. At the top, users can click on on-screen buttons to link to Emailed Report Manager, Printable User List, and Adjust Student Difficulty.
An SAT button takes the user to a page offering three selections: Math, Verbal, and Practice Tests. The Math option leads to a page with nine math lesson areas and more than 50 specific lessons. The Verbal option leads to a page with nine verbal lesson areas that link to a total of 34 specific lessons, a guide to writing SAT essays, and practice prompts. Check boxes offer a direct link to the selected lesson areas. As students work through a subject, their results are recorded on this page as well.
Once users select a lesson, they are taken to a page that lets them select session options including Test Mode, Classroom Response Systems, Printable Worksheet, or Games. In addition, users can select a number of questions for the session, from a range of 1–20.
Each time the Test Mode or Worksheet options are selected, a different result can be generated. The Games selection links to 28 Java games.
The Classroom Response Systems option provides a page that enables the selection of specific clickers for use in study sessions. The Study Island SAT and ACT programs work with eInstruction’s Classroom Performance System, Promethean’s Learner Response Systems, Qwizdom’s Student Response System, Renaissance’s 2Know! Classroom Response System, SMART Response interactive response systems, and the TurningPoint student response system.
A number of Study Island reports can be used to guide future drill work or to drive classroom instruction. Lists of students can be generated with grading options for each subject, topic, or program. A breakdown of class or student usage for a selected lesson area or program can be generated. The reports can break down information on student performance and can compare individuals or classes by school and state.
The program’s Class Manager function allows teachers to create assignments for individual students and to view student progress. Teachers can see class averages, send messages to all students in a class, or make a class page and class assignments.
Teachers can create custom assessments as needed, choosing questions from either the standard Study Island question bank or from a new question bank designed specifically for the Custom Assessment Builder. (The Custom Assessment Builder is currently available for math and reading in grades 3–8; not all subjects and topics have unique question banks available.)
The Live View feature provides a real-time monitoring system that allows teachers to observe the students’ progress as they work. Live View displays the logged-in students in a class, the assignments and the topics they are working on, the number of questions correct out of the number of questions attempted, and more.
The program includes several additional helpful features. A parent notification system automatically notifies parents of student progress by email. A text-to-speech option enables students to select whole questions, parts of questions, or individual words to be read aloud. The message center offers an area for student and teacher communication.
Study Island is an online test preparation tool which incorporates computer games into learning. Since introducing it at Woodglen during the 2007-2008 school year, our students have taken an instant liking to it.
In Study Island, students answer questions which are linked to the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in math and language arts. Science is also included for eighth graders. A variety of computer games are incorporated. As students answer questions correctly, they earn playing time. Student progress, number of questions answered, and high scores are logged, allowing students to challenge themselves and teachers to track their progress. Kim Holloway cheers students on as they work to earn blue ribbons in the Study Island lab. Study Island was purchased for the school by the PTO and Local Sales Network. Pictured, from left, are Anysia Crew, Holloway, Mauricio Cardoso, Jimmy Ramos and Madison Jarrett. Herald-Citizen Photo/Ty Kernea
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PUTNAM COUNTY -- Online learning has taken hold at the high school level and Study Island is helping elementary students in some county schools learn in an online format as well.
"Study Island is an online, standards-based practice program for children," Kim Holloway, Title teacher at Park View Elementary School explained.
The program is designed for students from kindergarten all the way through high school and offers lessons with accompanying games that help students master learning standards set by the state.
"For each grade level, the state gives us standards and skills that we have to teach to every child," Holloway explained. "These games and lessons are based on those standards according to what state you live in."
Schools can buy a site license and set up accounts for their students, allowing student access to Study Island learning tools from home, in the classroom computer labs or in after school programs.
"You can play in two different modes," Holloway explained.
In test mode, students are given a question to answer.
"If you are working on addition facts in the math program it will give you some math problems and you have to choose which ones is the right answer," Holloway said.
If they answer the question correctly, a game pops up for the student to play.
"Then after you get to play the game you go back and it asks you another question," Holloway said.
There are about 50 different games for the students to play.
"The way that we use it in the lab is, there are 10 questions. If you get at least seven of those 10 questions correct, you get a blue ribbon," Holloway said. "When you get a blue ribbon, you can play for the rest of the class time in game mode. Meaning, you can answer the questions and play the fun games.
"I use the blue ribbons to get them to focus on the questions and the information that the questions are asking."
Although the program is not being used by all elementary schools in the county yet, a several schools have implemented the program, Holloway said.
Park View began using the program last spring.
With the help of the Park View Parent Teacher Organization, Park View purchased the rights to use the program for math and reading first.
"Our third grade teachers were worried about science and social studies because their kids were low in that so we went to Local Sales Network and asked them to purchase another component, science and social studies, for the third graders and they did that," Holloway said.
In one of the games, students chase an animal through a maze, they must follow the animal with the right letter of the correct answer.
Read more: Herald Citizen - Study Island gives students interactive learning experience
Affordable Online Graphic Novel Reading Intervention Program for K-12 Students
Using rich, visual illustrations in conjunction with the written word, the Study Island Reading: Revisited and Reconsidered program is designed to actively engage and assist struggling readers, reluctant readers, avoidance readers, and English language learners. Our primary aim is to help students revisit what reading means and reconsider what they think literature can be.
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Parents often have to convince their kids to stop playing video games and do their homework. But now some schools are using video games in their curriculum to teach students some very important lessons.
Not only do students at IS 123 get to play educational video games, they have a choice of games to play.
"I played the home run derby game," student Desiree Rojas said. "It's fun because you have to get the answer as soon as possible before the ball passes you."
The games are generated by a Web-based program called Study Island, which is an important part of the curriculum at IS 123.
"It actually taught me how to divide and how to multiply," student Nyla Jones said.
Study Island is more than just fun and games. It is designed to help students study materials that meet the academic requirements in each subject, for each state where the program is used.
The games are similar to those kids already like to play. They earn the privilege of playing by scoring high on Study Island tests, which help educators keep track of student progress.
"It's material that's tested on the state test, so it's not that they're throwing in just basic level stuff," teacher Christina Varghese said. "They're actually giving them stuff that they need to know for the test, so because it's standards based, I really love it."
"It gives you more chances to make up what you got wrong," student Krizya Gutierrez said. "And if you got something wrong, it offers you an explanation."
IS 123 principal Virginia Connelly considers Study Island to be a successful part of the school's overall strategy.
"We've used it very extensively in math," she said. "And we've had tremendous growth in our math scores over the past three years, the same amount of time that we've been using it."
Study Island costs between $2,500 and $3,500 per year for each school. There are other ways of supplementing school curriculums, but educators at IS 123 feel it is worth the investment.
Back to school isn’t just for kids. Thanks to programs like Parent University, hundreds of adult learners are tackling new subjects this fall. On Sept. 15, dozens of CMS parents attended a Study Island workshop at Bailey Middle School.
Study Island is a web-based tool designed to prepare students for their End-of-Grade (EOG) tests. Students are tested on objectives based on the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Parents were invited to learn more about Study Island to help their children master coursework.
“It's a pretty good way for them to get that extra practice, specifically in reading and math, the two things they're tested on in the End-of-Grade tests,” said Cathy Bell, who is a Study Island consultant. “It’s also great for when there is a snow day because this gives them something to work on.”
The program features traditional assessments and interactive games where students answer questions that provide immediate feedback. If an answer is wrong, the program explains why.
