Parent s Guide to DreamBox Learning K-3 Math March 2010

Parent s Guide to DreamBox Learning K-3 Math March 2010 KEY QUESTIONS What is DreamBox Learning K-3 Math? What will my child learn? Which math standards are addressed? What happens the first time my student plays? How does DreamBox Learning continuous assessment and placement work? What happens if a parent or sibling helps a child progress in DreamBox Learning? What grades will DreamBox Learning K-3 Math be appropriate for? Is DreamBox Learning for kids who are struggling, at grade level, or advanced in math? How does DreamBox supplement what my child already learns in school? What progress reports will parents receive? Is there a way for a parent to play and understand more about the program? What is the expected time commitment? How do we log in and get started? Is there a 1-click login for my child? What is the best way to provide DreamBox Learning with feedback? What should I do if we have technical issues or support questions? EDUCATIONAL CONTENT Does my child have to know how to use a computer mouse? A keyboard? Does my child have to know how to read? Can my pre-k child experience the kindergarten content? Why are some lessons so similar to others? Who designed the lessons? PRODUCT FEATURES What are the main screens my child will see? What are the motivational / game aspects of DreamBox Learning K-3 Math? SUPPORT What are the requirements for DreamBox Learning to work on our home computer? How do I contact DreamBox Learning? DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 1

KEY QUESTIONS What is DreamBox Learning K-3 Math? DreamBox Learning K-3 Math, the next generation of web-based learning, provides individualized learning for kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade math in an engaging game-like framework. DreamBox Learning K-3 Math automatically adapts to each student, which optimizes his or her learning experience. We do this by customizing the lessons, difficulty, hints, pace, sequence, and much more to match a student s knowledge and learning style -- just as a great tutor would! There are well over a million different paths a child could take through our curriculum. DreamBox Learning s curriculum is based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Curriculum Focal Points and the best state standards. Students personalize their experience by choosing a game character and a theme, such as pirates, dinosaurs, pets or pixies, which will frame their lessons with fun adventures and goals. Rather than simply providing practice for a concept students already know, DreamBox Learning K-3 Math helps a student learn and gain proficiency in a uniquely customized and engaging way. DreamBox Learning K-3 Math helps every child reach his or her potential! Engaging adventures! Move forward with the right lessons! Learn math with powerful DreamBox manipulatives! What will my child learn? Which math standards are addressed? DreamBox Learning K-3 Math has more than 500 base lessons with unlimited variations for kindergarten through 3rd grades. The program s underlying curriculum develops computational fluency, conceptual understanding, and problem-solving ability, which allow students to enrich and deepen their mathematical thinking. Content is aligned with the Number and Operations and Algebra Focal Points for each grade set by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), on which most state standards are based. DreamBox Learning develops and enhances your child s foundational math understanding through a carefully tailored sequence of activities which allow your child both choice and variety in game play. All lessons use our core virtual manipulative tools including dot patterns (Numbergrams ), a ten frame, a mathrack (aka rekenrek), open number lines, Snap Blocks, function machine, our Human Calculator, picture arrays, and many others. One of the first lessons played by each student is a placement lesson, and there are many additional placement lessons throughout the product. Instead of having one overall placement test at the beginning of DreamBox, there are mini placements for every module or concept taught, so DreamBox can constantly assess a student s existing knowledge and place him at the most appropriate places in our curriculum. Students get to skip what they already known and focus on what they are ready to learn. DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 2

Throughout the DreamBox Learning adventure, your child is given the flexibility to move between grades as appropriate, once they have met the prerequisites. We do not show students the grade labels for the lessons, and we don t require, for example, that all kindergarten lesson games are completed before first grade lesson games can begin. This allows your child to explore the math that is most interesting and developmentally appropriate for him/her. Kindergarten: 1st grade: Compare more, less, and equal sets of objects up to 10 Count up to 10 in units of 1,2,3,5, and 10 Demonstrate ability to recognize sets of up to 10 at a quick glance Build number lines and hundreds chart up to 100 Early addition and subtraction up to 10 Recognize doubles Distance and orientation Build, count, and recognize amounts up to 100 Compare and order numbers up to 100 using symbols <,>, and = Count backwards and forwards Addition and subtraction using strategies of using doubles Develop automatic recall of basic math facts Identify number patterns that make 15,20,50, and 100 Understand the open numberline, multiples of 10 (10-100), positive and negative, and distances between numbers Two-dimensional area and three-dimensional volume 2nd grade: 3rd grade: Solve problems with equal expressions Addition and subtraction strategies for two- and three-digit numbers Skip counting in jumps of 3-10 Compare and order numbers from 100 to 1000 Advanced addition and subtraction strategies Place value..? Place value to 10,000: identify, build and manipulate values up to 10,000 Solve multiplication facts to 12 using different representations and strategies, including repeated addition, picture arrays and area models Understand multiplication relationships such as the distributive, commutative, and associative properties Construct multiplication relationships with partial products Using landmark multiplication facts to find products with one group more or less Find factors for numbers to 100 and multiples of numbers 1-12 DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 3

What happens the first time my student plays? The first time a child logs in to DreamBox is different than subsequent sessions. In the first 15-20 minutes a student does not do any actual lesson work. Instead, there are mostly fun activities to get children engaged and familiar with the product (e.g., students are prompted to choose a game character and invited to visit the DreamBox imaginative neighborhood). The next 10-20 minutes (depending on how the student performs) are spent doing placement lessons and tutorials. On the lesson map, you can recognize placement lessons because the lesson icons have a star on them. Note that placement lessons have fewer adaptations in them because they are designed to assess a student s knowledge, not teach. Tutorials are also not lessons (and they do not adapt). On the DreamBox adventure map you can recognize a lesson is a tutorial because the lesson icons have a red bucket on them. A tutorial teaches a student how to use a new DreamBox Learning K-3 virtual math manipulative. In subsequent sessions, your child is provided with a much higher percentage of math lessons, and a only a small percentage of a student s time is spent on engagement activities, placement lessons and tutorials. How does DreamBox Learning continuous assessment and placement work? One of the first lesson games played is a placement lesson, and there are many more placement lessons as a child plays through the program. Students usually won t notice that a lesson is a placement lesson rather than a standard lesson, though the lesson icons are marked with a star on the lesson map. Placement lessons assess a student s existing knowledge and place her at an appropriate place in our curriculum. Students who already know a particular math concept, for example, will pass a placement lesson and then immediately skip over all the lesson games for that concept. In addition, DreamBox assesses every response, and makes immediate small adjustments in the difficulty or scope of a particular problem, the type of hints given, the lesson sequence that follows, and much more. All of these individual adaptations help ensure effective learning for your child. What happens if a parent or sibling helps a child progress in DreamBox Learning? Because DreamBox Learning dynamically adapts its difficulty level to the student, when a parent or sibling provides help to a student to answer the problems the program progresses too quickly for the student. We get many emails from parents asking us to reset a student because he got too much help and now the program is too difficult! Parents or older siblings can certainly provide some hints so a student understands how to play a particular game and what is expected. However, they shouldn t provide hints to answer the problems, or DreamBox will adapt to the helper s level instead of the student s level. What grades will DreamBox Learning K-3 Math be appropriate for? The curriculum covered in DreamBox Learning K-3 Math will be appropriate for most K-3 students. It is also very appropriate for many pre-k students and many 4th graders. Is DreamBox Learning for kids who are struggling, at grade level, or advanced in math? Because of our unique placement lessons and continual assessments, DreamBox is great for math learners of all abilities! Struggling students will get the basic foundational concepts they need, along with appropriate practice for mastery. Students who love math and need additional challenges can move ahead in DreamBox as fast as they want. DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 4

How does DreamBox supplement what my child already learns in school? Research shows that early math proficiency is one of the most important skills we can give our children, and school alone is not enough! Just as you help your children with literacy skills to supplement their school work (e.g. sounding out words, reading signs, rhyming games, reading books, writing notes), its equally valuable to provide your child additional support to learn the essential math concepts and skills. DreamBox is a great complement to school, and kids love to play it! What progress reports will parents receive? Parents can review detailed progress reports any time they want using the Parent Dashboard link when they log in. The progress reports show which math concepts the student has skipped in placement (i.e. already knew and therefore successfully passed in our placement lessons), which lessons they have successfully completed, and which lessons they are currently working on. In addition, parents receive an email whenever their child has successfully completed a group of lessons that demonstrates understanding of a significant concept in mathematics. We will explain what your child has learned, and provide some tips for further honing that knowledge, including quick games that can be played together any time you have a few minutes together. We will also send an email when your child has completed an adventure story and there is a Certificate to print out. Is there a way for a parent to play and understand more about the program? Many parents want to experience DreamBox Learning K-3 Math themselves so they can better understand what their child is learning. We have created an account for a parent, accessible from the Parent Dashboard, so that parents can play DreamBox without accidently modifying their child s account (and changing their assessments). We have also added a number of explanations in the Parent User account to highlight the various features in the product. Below is an example introducing our placement lessons: What is the expected time commitment? Students will get the most out of DreamBox when they play at least two to four times a week, for sessions of 15 to 30 minutes each. As students progress, they will continually be served appropriate new challenges. Some students will want to play more and longer, and others will play less. It is completely up to the student and family s schedule, though consistent play is best for optimizing how each student will learn and progress. How do we log in and get started? Is there a 1-click login for my child? To first sign up for DreamBox, go to www.dreambox.com and create an account. Once you have an account, you can log in to play by going to http://play.dreambox.com. If you forget this URL, there is also a Home login link in the upper right-hand corner of the main DreamBox Learning website at www.dreambox.com. DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 5

After you re signed up, or any time when you log in, you can check the option Keep me logged in, which will allow your child to play without retyping your login information. You should also save the website URL to your favorites or bookmarks, or save a shortcut on your desktop. Note that for the security of your account and the reporting information, even if you enable your child to play without logging in, you will still need to log in with your password to view the Parent Dashboard. What is the best way to provide DreamBox Learning with feedback? There is a link for feedback at the bottom of every screen in the program. If you would like to comment on something specific on a screen or in a lesson, you can simply provide immediate feedback by clicking the link, choosing the category of feedback (comment, bug, etc.) and writing as detailed a message as possible in the feedback form. We also welcome your feedback on your child s overall experience that day. We greatly appreciate your comments, and read every email carefully. Your feedback helps us to improve our product! What should I do if we have technical issues or support questions? We want to answer your questions, provide you with support, and hear what you have to say. Please email us at support@dreambox.com. You can also call us at 1-877-451-7845 (weekdays, 8 am-5 pm, Pacific Time) EDUCATIONAL CONTENT Does my child have to know how to use a computer mouse? A keyboard? Students must use a mouse in our program, and the ability to enter numbers via the keyboard is required for the 2nd and 3rd grade content. Students do not need to know how to use the keyboard for the K or 1st grade curriculum. We have created three fun Mouse Tutorials that will help all users learn and/or improve their mouse skills. The first time a student plays, we introduce them to the Mouse Tutorials right away as a warm up. If your child needs extra practice, please encourage your child to play them again as often as needed. You can find the balloon-popping Mouse Tutorials in the Carnival Arcade. Does my child have to know how to read? No, children do not need to be readers to play DreamBox Learning. In nearly every case, labels in the game are repeated in the audio, and often when your child rolls the mouse over objects. Can my pre-k child experience the kindergarten content? There are many 4 year olds who are ready to learn the kindergarten content, have the dexterity and knowledge to use a computer mouse, and the attention span to use our program. Many 4 year olds will do best, however, if a parent sits with them, at least to get them started on each new type of activity. If you re interested in signing up your pre-k child for the kindergarten content, please do so and let us know how it goes! Why are some lessons so similar to others? The lessons have been thoughtfully designed to help students learn new concepts and develop strong knowledge of math fundamentals. To achieve this, professional educators have found that students must address concepts from several different perspectives. Therefore, for example, there might be a lesson teaching a concept first with numbers 1 to 10 and no symbols, and then later the same concept with numbers and symbols. Or there might be one lesson focusing on the landmark numbers 5, 10, and 20 with our mathrack tool, and then another lesson focusing on the same concept DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 6

with our Numbergram tool. These lessons may appear similar, but are different in important ways that help students successfully progress. Who designed the lessons? DreamBox lessons are first designed for their educational content by our Academic Team of teachers, who are Nationally Board Certified and experienced elementary school teachers. They carefully create the detailed framework of adaptations in hints, difficulty, pace, etc. that will help each student individually learn the material. Our Academic Team is also helped by our Advisory Board of nationally renowned experts in math education research and teaching. Then the teachers, our creative team, and our software developers work closely together to add a motivational framework to fully engage and encourage the students to progress through the lessons and have fun while learning. DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 7

PRODUCT FEATURES What are the main screens my child will see? Home Screen Go to My House to see all your rewards! Click on the Adventure Park to go to the Lesson Map and move forward on your adventure! Go to the Carnival to play games! Mouse Tutorial Students warm up before their first math lessons with some games to practice mouse skills. These games are available for playing again and again from the Carnival Arcade. This is the first level of the mouse tutorial. Pop as many balloons as you can! DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 8

Theme Chooser In the Adventure Park, students choose one of four themes to play: Pixies, Dinosaurs, Pirates, or Pets. Choose a theme, and even play multiple adventure stories at the same time. Lesson Map Students play lessons on the Lesson Map to find the missing items for their adventure story. As a student completes a lesson, additional lessons appropriate for that student will appear on the path. Open the backpack to see what reward has been earned! Lessons successfully completed get a checkmark. This student has already found 2 of the 6 missing items to help the Pirates. Students have several appropriately selected lessons to choose from. DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 9

Math Games There are more than 500 different math lessons. Here is a screen showing one, using the Snap Blocks virtual manipulative, that help students visualize equal expressions. Click the Help button to hear instructions and tips This is a lesson progress meter. Something fun happens when the student completes each lesson. This is the reset button Click the Done button when the problem is solved My Completed Stories From My Room, students can view the certificates they earn for each completed adventure story. Print them out and proudly hang them on the wall! This student has finished all 8 stories in the Dinosaur theme, and 1 or 2 stories in each of the other themes. DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 10

What are the motivational / game aspects of DreamBox Learning K-3 Math? Game Characters: Each student gets to select a game character from among more than two dozen different characters. This game character will represent the student on screen as he/she goes through the adventures. Themes: Students can chose from four themes, Pirates, Pixies, Dinosaurs, and Pets. The student is introduced via colorful animations to a collection of fun and silly characters, and invited to come along on their adventures. There are more fun animations to reward kids when they complete the adventure, as well as at steps along the way. Each theme has 8 adventure stories; a student can switch themes (at interim milestones such as finding an item or finishing a story) to experience all of the themes. Lesson Motivators: As a good teacher or tutor would do, we encourage and cheer on the student with audio prompts. In addition, lessons have fun animated progress bars to help students reach for the goal. Rewards: As students progress, they periodically find a reward on their lesson map. Sometimes it s a goal for the adventure story, other times its an Adventure Friend card to collect in their house, and still other times it s a token they can save and use when they want to play games in the Carnival. Rewards are awarded for a combination of academic progress, overall effort, and time spent. Certificate of Achievement: After a student successfully completes an adventure story (e.g., helped fix the pirate ship), we will send the parent a congratulations email with a link to a fun personalized Certificate of Achievement for the student. You can print out the Certificate and give it to your child to proudly hang at home! SUPPORT What are the requirements for DreamBox Learning to work on our home computer? DreamBox Learning should work easily on most computers. Here are the requirements: 1. The computer must have a mouse (touch pads do work, but are more difficult for most students). 2. The computer's display must have a minimum resolution of 1024x768. 3. The computer must have sound capability. 4. The computer must have a web browser. Windows supported web browsers are Internet Explorer 6 or 7, Firefox 1.x-3.x and Safari 3.x. Mac OS X (v 10.4, 10.5) supported web browsers are Firefox 2.x or 3.x and Safari 3.x. 5. The web browser must allow session cookies (these are cookies that do not persist when the browser is shut down). 6. The computer must have a current version of flash installed. Version 10 is required. See: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewcontent.do?externalid=tn_15507 to check your version number and http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?p1_prod_version=shockwaveflash to install a newer version. 7. The computer must have high-speed internet access with a connection speed equivalent to a residential DSL line (1.5Mbps down/640kbps up). 8. Any firewall or filtering software must allow HTTP/HTTPS access to http://dreambox.com and subdomains of dreambox.com 9. Any firewall or filtering software must allow HTTP POST requests to http://dreambox.com and subdomains of dreambox.com. DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 11

How do I contact DreamBox Learning? There are 3 ways to contact us: o o o Use the Feedback form in the program, via the button at the bottom of every screen. If you want us to contact you about your feedback, simply click that option. Email us at support@dreambox.com Call 425.646.8080 or toll-free 877.451.7845 (weekdays, 8 am to 5 pm, Pacific time). DreamBox Learning Parent s Guide March 2010 Page 12 2010 DreamBox Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.