#mobymax

Hey parents! Have you been home-shcooling kids? Well, if yes, have you wanted a fun shcool program? Just search Mobymax! Just sign your child in, and let them learn! They can get:

1. Game time!

2. Moby friends!

3. Badges!

4. Cerifecets.

@windycityteacher here’s the link to a long post of mine from a couple years ago when I was more actively using MobyMax in my classroom.

I used it regularly for the two years I taught fourth grade in Indiana, since that school had a license and used it as one of our primary sources of data, especially for IEPs. 

In general, I trust its results as long as the kids take it seriously. I trust the math placement test for grade level a bit more than their reading assessment (for reading levels I put more trust in a software called Lexia that we used as well). Everything is attached to standards and shows missed skills. The lessons are also tied to the standards and you can easily print out practice sets for homework or just assign the online lessons for homework as well (depends on your tech situation).

The stories are pretty comparable to the kind I’ve seen on standardized assessments in my experience and there is a heavy emphasis on non-fiction and higher-level questions that require evidence from the text to support your answer. For an RTI I did for a while, I would sit with a small group of students and monitor these so that I could make them show me in the story where they got their answer, etc.

The language is also pretty solid - comparable to standardized testing as well in terms of question type. My students tended to like this better than the stories.

The vocabulary I was not a big of a fan of, since it was pretty rote. However, we did keep it as a part of our rotation. 

In general, MobyMax is good if you use it with some purpose. Some of the teachers at my old school would put the kids on it when they didn’t have a solid plan for the day or needed to kill time OR they would have kids who finished early work on it and those same kids would get super bored of it and see it was meaningless since it was a space filler. If you make it part of your routine (for me it was part of our task lists/rotations for our literacy and math blocks every day) or assign it for homework, kids can make a lot of progress and take it seriously. 

You also have to decide how you want to tow the line of policing their minutes/lessons. I tried a few different incentives and never felt like I totally got the hang of it and tended to change it up. There always seemed to be extenuating circumstances or loopholes for my kids in terms of meeting the goals, but you can be realistic and even if half the class is regularly meeting their minute goals (you can even do competitions where they can see each other’s minutes/lessons) that’s half the class that is getting some benefit.

I don’t have a ton of experience with some of the newer features (science in particular that we were excited about coming out!) since I haven’t used it this current school year, BUT let me know if you have any further questions. Overall, I found it was an effective tool when used properly and with a grain of salt. It also helped to establish clear guidelines of the purpose and use of it with students early on. It can make a big difference for kids who are far behind or want to get ahead in particular since it’s a self-guided independent activity.

MobyMax, formerly MobyMath, is a web-based computer program that provides students with targeted, differentiated instruction that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards. To get started, students complete a pre-assessment and are then leveled according to their individual needs. Through the pre-assessment, MobyMax determines the gaps or holes in the student's learning and provides lessons and independent practice surrounding that specific skill. Currently, MobyMax offers the following programs:

Reading

Language

Math

Math Facts

Vocabulary