At Prodigy, we believe all students should have an enjoyable math experience. With this in mind, Prodigy Math Game has been designed to support variation among learners.
This includes features, experiences, and tools like characters, video lessons, and questions help to support this. Check out how Prodigy can support variable learners below!
Discover how Prodigy Math Game features support all your learners.
Character selection is started as soon as students log in to Prodigy Math Game. They are able to have their character reflect themselves or anyone they choose to be in-game. Selections include gender, hair, skin and eye color, hairstyle, name, etc. Throughout the game, students are able to update or change their character to reflect themselves including additional items such as outfits, shoes, wands, hats, and pets.
As students immerse themselves in their role they not only engage more deeply in math, but Turkle (2005) also speaks to virtual environments allowing users to experiment in safe, non-threatening environments. It allows players to explore and reflect on themselves through this play.
Prodigy Education’s mission is to help every student in the world to love learning. Therefore, every student - regardless of background, socioeconomic status, or ability - should feel safe when on our platform to be able to learn and love learning.
A study by Tukachinsky, Mastro, & Yarchi (2017) showed that a lack of representation in media can lead to negative psychological outcomes for students who are underrepresented or negatively portrayed. Therefore, within the game, students are able to encounter characters with various genders, backgrounds, and abilities that help to guide them along their adventure.
Prodigy also features characters in our math question interface that are diverse. In addition, Prodigy Education has developed a roadmap of additional characters that will be introduced over time as new features and areas of play appear in the game.
Video lessons are embedded in Prodigy Math Game. When in-game, students have the option of viewing video lessons to support their learning. The lessons appear in the question interface when students are answering math questions as a button they can click on.
These video lessons match the content of the question the student is currently answering. The video lessons also include closed captioning to support learners who struggle with auditory challenges.
Text-to-speech features are embedded in Prodigy Math Game. Students are able to access the text-to-speech button at any time when answering a question in-game. This allows students to be able to have the question and responses read aloud to them.
Having questions read aloud benefits reluctant readers, students with visual impairments, English Language Learners, students with IEPs, and students with some behavioral needs.
Virtual manipulatives are embedded in Prodigy Math Game via the question interface. Students can access virtual manipulatives at any time while answering math questions by selecting them from a tab on the right side of their screen. Students can choose from various options that suit their purpose best such as two-sided counters, base-ten blocks, fraction strips, rulers, coins, etc.
Embedded within Prodigy Math Game, any time a teacher does not align content in Prodigy Math Game, students will engage with Prodigy’s adaptive algorithm. This keeps students in their Zone of Proximal Development, moving students up to more challenging skills or taking them to prerequisite skills along the way as needed.
Prodigy Math Game prioritizes positive interactions with other students within the game. This includes limiting what students can say to each other to a list of pre-determined sayings or speech that students can choose from a drop-down menu in-game.
This also helps students to build trusting relationships in-game with their peers instead of fostering a negative learning environment. Students are able to use speech bubbles to communicate with others inside the game when they are navigating around the various worlds within the platform.
With Prodigy Math Game, students can express themselves and what they are feeling at the moment through their ability to change the facial expression of their character. Prodigy offers ten different facial expressions to choose from.
References:
Tukachinsky, R., Mastro, D., & Yarchi, M. (2017). The Effect of Prime Time Television Ethnic/Racial Stereotypes on Latino and Black Americans: A Longitudinal National Level Study. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61(3), 538–556. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2017.1344669
Turkle, S. (2005). The second self: Computers and the human spirit. MIT Press.
