Komodo Math and Language Arts

The curriculum incorporates regular practice sessions and varied problem types within topics, supporting retention through repeated exposure.

The program is designed for 'short, regular practice' sessions and 'exercises stay on topic but do not always present the same type of problem,' requiring students to pay attention and recall concepts

The program uses an adaptive mastery-based approach where students must demonstrate proficiency before advancing, with shortcuts available for quick mastery.

Students earn 'A star grades' for three exercises in a row to get shortcuts to next level, and the program provides 'progressively more difficult lessons to develop a topic when needed'

The program includes initial diagnostic assessments and ongoing progress tracking, with qualified teachers customizing learning plans based on results.

Students 'begin with a short assessment to set the beginning point' and 'Komodo's U.S. staff then customizes the learning plan to suit each student' with detailed progress reports for parents

The curriculum lacks teacher training materials since it's designed as a direct-to-consumer platform with built-in instruction.

The platform is designed for independent student use with 'qualified teachers' customizing learning plans remotely, but no teacher training materials are mentioned for classroom implementation

The platform provides video instruction but lacks the interactive, teacher-led explicit instruction that research supports for optimal learning.

The program uses 'instructional videos' with 'voice-over instruction' rather than live or interactive teaching, which limits the direct instruction component

The curriculum heavily emphasizes procedural fluency, particularly math facts, with limited conceptual development beyond basic visual representations like number lines.

Cathy Duffy notes that 'Komodo concentrates heavily on developing fluency with math facts' and that geometry, measurement, and other conceptual areas 'are under development,' indicating a strong procedural focus

The curriculum provides instructional videos before practice exercises, though students can skip them, which may reduce their effectiveness for building understanding.

Duffy reports that 'instructional videos are followed by practice exercises' and 'students can watch one or both before beginning the exercises, or they can skip the videos'

The program incorporates some visual models like number lines for specific topics, but visual representations appear limited in scope.

Duffy notes that 'math lessons often include visual representations within the exercises' and specifically mentions 'number lines provide visual clues' for rounding problems

Word problems are included as one topic area, but there's insufficient evidence of systematic instruction in problem-solving strategies or schemas.

Duffy mentions that the program covers 'word problems' as one of the arithmetic topics, but provides no detail about systematic word problem instruction methods