EmseB Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 We really love Prodigy Math, but I've run into a question and I'm not sure if I'm using the program correctly. My 8yo (I entered him as 2nd grade in the game) has come upon a lot of concepts in problems that are from the 5th and 6th grade levels and it doesn't seem the game teaches these concepts (like, for example, Khan Academy would provide a video to learn it). Is the intention that I would teach the concepts as he encounters them in the game and then he would be able to answer the questions? I'm asking because my intention was for my kiddos to use Prodigy over the summer independently, but maybe it's not made to work that way? Part of this is related to personality. DS8 is willing to sit and work out the problems, but he also doesn't know what he doesn't know, so he gets very frustrated by concepts that are completely new without much instruction and then getting "hit" by the enemies in the game. The little light bulb gives some ideas, but is often not enough if he's never seen, for example, percentages or negative numbers or something like that. Should he be more accepting of getting questions wrong so that the game can better figure out his level? I tried using the override option to keep it at 2nd or 3rd grade, but then there seems to be no progression to harder concepts at all, which is not what I'm necessarily looking for either. My kids do love playing it, so I will find a way to make it work, just wondering what others have experienced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 I deal with this in one of two ways, depending on the overall circumstances: 1) sit and work through the problems with the child, teaching relevant concepts or 2) create a series of assignments so that the program isn't in charge of determining what problems the child gets. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDL Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 We love prodigy, but it does not teach new concepts. It's designed for review only, I believe. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 The easiest workaround is to create a series of assignments, as Maize suggested. Otherwise, the game will continue to progress on the topics of its choosing, assuming that if the child could answer the easier questions then they are going to be ready for the harder ones. The game isn't designed to teach, only as practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmseB Posted May 26, 2017 Author Share Posted May 26, 2017 The easiest workaround is to create a series of assignments, as Maize suggested. Otherwise, the game will continue to progress on the topics of its choosing, assuming that if the child could answer the easier questions then they are going to be ready for the harder ones. The game isn't designed to teach, only as practice. Okay this makes sense to me. I guess it confused me because I thought it was for practice and inputted my child's grade level as if I was going to have him practice that level with some variation up or down. But then it just kept moving on to concepts that were in much later grades. So then I thought maybe I was missing something. Actually, I still think I'm missing something because I'm not sure how it is for practice but continues to move on automatically, many grade levels beyond what I've inputted. I guess that's what override is for! Honestly, I probably just didn't read closely enough when we signed up. I'm bad about that sort of thing. So now I'm probably just displaying my ignorance and just need to go read more. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 It shouldn't continue to give him problems at such a higher grade...unless he consistently answers, say...grade 3 and 4, correctly. Then the game's algorithm might assume the student is capable of harder problems. It should self-adjust. Should being the key-word here though. If it continues to be a problem, I'd reach out to customer service and see if there's a glitch in his profile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmseB Posted May 26, 2017 Author Share Posted May 26, 2017 I don't think it's a glitch in his profile. It was him being able to do some of the higher level stuff and then quickly getting out of his depth and then him getting extremely frustrated that he was "losing" the game and getting killed, and me not understanding that there wasn't a place in the program for him to go to keep learning the more advanced problems it was presenting. Whew. Does that make sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 Do you know how to create assignments for him? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 I've run into the same problem. It was giving my 4th grader topics from what it stated was 7th and 8th grade math. My kid is ahead in math, but not that far ahead. I had to teach the Pythagorean theorem for the problems Prodigy kept giving. And then it gives problems that require a calculator to boot (problems that require taking the square root of 1849, for example)--when we don't use a calculator for arithmetic during school. Part of the problem is that with a new account, Prodigy tries to guess where the student is in math by giving them a few problems per grade level and continuing to go up. It, unfortunately, doesn't seem to have a wide enough sampling at each grade before progressing and the student has to get several wrong in a row (losing battles in the process) to be moved back down. I get around it with a grade override for my older and assignments for my younger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted May 27, 2017 Share Posted May 27, 2017 Yeah, waiting for it to regulate back down is very frustrating for players. Especially if your kiddo is a bit on the competitive side and hates losing. (Which kid doesn't, kwim). I haven't had time to do so over the past school year, but last year it worked really well for me to go in and assign specific topics for spiral review. I'd just go right down a list of topics the kids had covered and set assignments. Unfortunately, that was a bit time consuming with four kids to assign, and the interface is still not the most intuitive. A search feature would go a long way. (Then again, I haven't logged into the dashboard in some time...they may have updated that by now). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmseB Posted May 27, 2017 Author Share Posted May 27, 2017 Do I need to be a member to do assignments? They've just been playing for free (maybe that is some of our issue?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted May 27, 2017 Share Posted May 27, 2017 You log in with your account and you should be able to do it that way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted May 27, 2017 Share Posted May 27, 2017 (edited) Do I need to be a member to do assignments? They've just been playing for free (maybe that is some of our issue?).No you don't need a membership. You should have either a parent or teacher account (both free, and you can actually have one of each if you want) that your child's account is linked to. When you log into that account you have options to create assignments. Here is a how-to: https://prodigygame.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204983729-Creating-an-Assignment?mobile_site=true Edited May 27, 2017 by maize Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmseB Posted May 27, 2017 Author Share Posted May 27, 2017 Ah ha, I don't have a teacher account, so I see no place to do assignments. Mystery solved! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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