I originally heard about Front Row after Erin from Kleinspiration did a post about it.
Within the first few times of using it I was in love with it! The best part about it is that my kids love
it too. We use it during our math block
every. single. day. It's a center and it allows kids to work on the math
strand we're working on, but at their level. Essentially, it allows me to
give kids 20-30 minutes of differentiated practice at their level, and it takes
virtually no additional work on my end. That's every teacher's dream.
You can work directly on the website or they have an app available in the
Apple store if you're lucky enough to have iPads at your disposal.
It's a quick and painless process to register yourself
and your students for your class. They
do now have a subscription schoolwide program as an option, as well. Your students log in using their first and
last names as well as the class code that you see on your teacher dashboard.
Once students are signed in, you direct students to
which domain you'd like them to practice in. You can have students
practice in the strand you're currently working on, a strand you want to keep
fresh in their minds, or a skill you're going to be working on soon and you
want to get their background knowledge into their short-term memory. For younger students, the domains available
are Counting & Cardinality, Numbers & Operations in Base 10,
Measurement and Data, Geometry, and Fractions.
The first time students
works in a domain they take the diagnostic test. This assesses where each
student's instructional level is. It finds out where they are, and works on
those specific standards and skills, no matter the grade level the student is
in. The program also has a writing space and manipulatives built into the
program. This allows students to work
out the program as they would in the classroom.
Another awesome tool
is the video. If a student is struggling or not understanding a specific
concept, they can click on the little "play" button on the left
toolbar and a quick teaching video pops up to explain the concept.
Amazing. On-level instruction with relevant on-the-spot
intervention. Have I mentioned how much
I love this program?
If I haven't convinced you to try Front Row out yet,
here are a few things I like from the Teacher Dashboard that will seal the deal
for you.
In the Analysis section, you choose a standard within the
domain you're working on and it shows your students' performance on that standard.
After you select the standard it goes back to kindergarten, so don't be
alarmed if you notice that on the dashboard.
It's still showing you your student performance on that standard.
Another helpful feature is the Report Card.
Here, you select the grade level's standards that you want to see and
everything on the screen is sorted by student.
You can see how each student is performing on each standard for the
grade level (or not working on it yet at all).
One last awesome feature is that each week you get an
email with information on how your students did that week. It lays out
which students are struggling the most and which students are performing the
highest within each strand. I use this
as a quick and easy way to recognize some of my high achievers. They appreciate the simple recognition and
pat on the back.
I truly, truly love this program and love how easy it
allows me to differentiate for my kids! I hope you enjoy using it with
your students!
