Formative Assessment Resources - Socrative and Plickers

Teachers use formative assessment strategies through out the day to assess his/her class's understanding of the concept being discussed. You can find multiple articles, websites, presentations, etc on different formative assessment resources and strategies.

There are online tools out there for teachers to use, including KaHoot, NearPod, Socrative, The Answer Pad, and Plickers.  Even though each one can be used to assess students throughout a lesson, they each have a uniqueness about them.

Last week, we explored KaHoot and NearPod. You can find that post here. This week, we are going to dive into Socrative and Plickers.

www.plickers.com

Plickers is unlike the other formative assessments tools, because the students do not need a piece of technology to participate. They only need a piece of paper!

To start off, teachers go to the Plickers website, create a free account, and create classes. You only need the student's first and last name to create the student accounts. Once the classes are made, you can print off the cards. These are how the students will answer the multiple choice or true/false questions you ask through out the lesson.

The cards look like QR codes (but they aren't) with a number on each corner. This number matches each student in the class you set up. There is also an A, B, C, D on each side.  When a student wants to select an answer, they hold the card with the answer pointing upward. The teacher uses the app to capture the cards.  As you scan each card, you can see if the students answered correctly or not.  You can scan multiple cards at one time, so it is not as time consuming as it might sound. The Plickers app is an iPhone app, but you can download it onto your iPad too.

Plickers does have support materials available for teachers here. You can access my Plickers Quick Guide here.

www.socrative.com

Socrative is a formative assessment resource that could also be used for summative and even diagnostic. Teachers can create a free account on Socrative and start using the resource within minutes!

When the teacher account is created, you are assigned a "room number". This is the number the students will use to join the quizzes and activities you create. The students can join using any device with Internet access on the website or using the downloadable student app.  Teachers can create "on-the-fly" questions or prepare a quiz for future use.  The created quizzes can be teacher-led or student-led. This is where the summative and diagnostic connections come in.  Student-led quizzes allow the students to work at their own pace. Questions can be in various formats, including multiple choice, true/false, and short answer.  Reports can be accessed in multiple formats as well.

Socrative does have support materials available for teachers here. You can access my Socrative Quick Guide here.  

Do you use either one of these resources in your classroom? Share your thoughts with us!

Formative Assessment Resources - KaHoot and NearPod

Teachers use formative assessment strategies through out the day to assess his/her class's understanding of the concept being discussed. You can find multiple articles, websites, presentations, etc on different formative assessment resources and strategies.

There are online tools out there for teachers to use, including KaHoot, NearPod, Socrative, The Answer Pad, and Plickers.  Even though each one can be used to assess students throughout a lesson, they each have a uniqueness about them.

Today, I'm going to talk about two of those resources - KaHoot and NearPod.

www.getkahoot.com

KaHoot has taken the edtech world by storm!  Were you one of the participants in largest KaHoot game at FETC 2015?

KaHoot is one of those resources that pull you in from the get-go and I think it has something to do with the competitive nature in all of us.

KaHoot is a free resource that students can participate with on any web accessible device. Teachers can create multiple choice quizzes, two answer discussions, and two answer surveys.  The quizzes are most popular with students. Students earn points for answering correctly and the quickest.  After each question, the top 5 point earners is displayed along with a graph of how many people answered A, B, C, or D. The students love the points, but the teachers love the graph. You can see immediately if the class understands the question being asked or not.

After each KaHoot game, teachers can dive deeper into the reports, looking at how each student did on each question.  The reports can be downloaded or saved to your Google Drive account.

KaHoot does have support materials available for teachers here. You can also check out my blog post about KaHoot here. You can access my KaHoot Quick Guide here.

www.nearpod.com

NearPod is a resource I first saw in action a few years ago in a gifted classroom.  The teacher was reviewing information about their theme and wanted to make sure the students understood before they started their projects.  NearPod was the perfect resource!

NearPod is available for free and subscription.  NearPod is web-based, but you can also download their app on an iOS device and through Google Play.

Teachers created a lesson on NearPod using either content screens or activity screens.  On the free account, the content screens include a single slide, a video, or a slide show and the activity screens include open response, poll, quiz, or draw it.

To start the lesson, the students use the session code provided by the teacher.  Once in the session, the teacher can control which screen the students see.  When an activity screen appears, the teacher can see how each student responds. This information lets the teacher know if she/he can move forward or needs to reteach. After the session ends, the teacher can review the data further within the reports area of NearPod.

NearPod does have support materials available for teachers here. You can access my NearPod Quick Guide here.

What are your thoughts on Kahoot and NearPod? Do you use them in the classroom?  Tell us about your experience!

personalized learning - #edtechchat thoughts

#edtechchat happens every Monday night from 7-8CST on Twitter.  I thoroughly enjoy this hour! Sometimes I just lurk and sometimes I participate.  This last week I was an active participant.  The guest moderator was @bhwilkoff (Ben Wilkoff) and the topic was on personalized learning (PL) and how school districts can support PL.
Because of my job, I have had to rely on personalized learning to stay current and informed. I can't just go to what you would consider "normal" CEU course and get what I need. Joining #edtechchat, for example, is just one way I learn and grow in my profession.

So, the questions we discussed made all of us ponder personalized learning for ourselves and our teachers within the district.

So, lets go back to the questions:

Q1: What does personalized PD mean to you?
Q2: Is it up to the individual to personalize their own PD or should districts play a role? Why?
Q3: How are districts/schools currently helping to personalize pd?
Q4: What should districts/schools do to improve the way they personalize pd and how can teachers better advocate for change?
Q5: What types of tools work well (or could work well) to personalize pd?
Q6: What role should technology play to help districts (or individuals) personalize pd? When should we put the tech away? 



For me, personalized learning should be just that - personalized.  What I need in terms of educational growth will not be the same as the person next to me. This is one big reason why experts say one-size-fits-all PD just doesn't work. If all you offer is workshops on math, how will this help your music, PE, and ELA teachers? 

Some districts play a big role when is comes to offering PD or PL opportunities, but this shouldn't be the only way educators grow and learn.  There is so much out there!  Unfortunately, the first question asked is "Will I get CEUs for this??". This question makes me, personally, say UGH! CEUs should not be the reason why you want to attend something, the reason should be what new information you will get from the session. CEUs are my soapbox topic, but I won't jump on it today! I think this is one reason why teachers shy away from things not offered by a district or educational group. Twitter is a great example!  I learn more during a one hour Twitter Chat than I do in a one hour conference session sometimes. I don't earn CEUs for Twitter though! I don't earn them for reading edtech books, either but that doesn't stop me! I use Twitter and edtech books to grow in my profession!

Creating a PL session takes time to put together, I know, I am working on two right now! (one on digital tools and one on Twitter use - YAY!!) There are other ways to offer and provide PL for teachers.  A book study is a great idea!  Teachers are able to read a book of interest, on their own time, and talk with others about it through the reading process.  How great is this!  Schools do book studies often, but why not do district-wide book studies or better yet, find (or start) a book study via social media. Google Hangouts and Skype also provide great avenues for PL. Bring experts to you for an hour. There are several edtech minds I would love to question from Twitter, and GHO/Skype give me the opportunity to do just that! You can't get more personalized than that!

Is technology always the answer -- NOPE! Technology is there to enhance the PL. Think about edcamps -- These are a PERFECT way to talk and share ideas with other educators.

Last week's Twitter chat topic goes perfectly with the book I am currently reading - Leading Professional Learning: Tools to Connect and Empower Teachers by Thomas C. Murray and Jeff J. Zoul. You can also read the archive from last week's chat here.

So what do you do for PL?