Have you ever heard of Kahoot? For the love of Pete (whoever Pete happens to be), I have never seen as much excitement and student engagement in all of my life! If you are searching for ways to conduct an engaging, informal assessment at the conclusion of a lesson or a particular skill, LOOK NO MORE! Just take a peek at the photograph below, and tell me what you think!!
Kahoot! is a FREE online resource that allows teachers to create, play, and share fun learning games for any skill, grade, or age. A classroom without Kahoot! is like macaroni without the cheese! FYI…it’s rather difficult to contain the excitement and volume, notice I didn’t say NOISE; however, whoever said LOUD LEARNING was a bad thing!!
As the teacher, you will want to first create yourself an account
Ideally, you want each student to have his/her own personal electronic device.
Any device that is capable of connecting to your school’s wifi will work.
I even sent a Remind 101 message to my parents letting them
know that I would gladly take any old smartphones that are
just laying around the house off of their hands!
I first sent a message to all of my parents letting them know (straight from the horse’s mouth) that it was okay for their child to bring a Smartphone, Kindle, iPad, iPod, etc. from home. I would strongly encourage you to create a document for your parents to sign before their child brings an electronic device which states that you, your school, or your district will not be responsible for any damages or theft. I also encouraged my parents to place the “Find my iPhone” or “Find my iPad” app on their device if it was an Apple product. Heaven forbid one of your students would use a “FIVE FINGER DISCOUNT” and steal one, but you never know! I’m sure other brands have something similar! The first day was amazing….all but about 7 of my 23 students brought their personal device, and I was able to supply the others with my Google Chromebooks or an old iPhone of mine.
Because we had completed our first Pearson Reading Street Benchmark
test this week and we had some time, I decided to introduce my
students to their first Kahoot! The grammar skills that are
drilled in the 2nd Grade, Unit 1 series is TYPES OF SENTENCES!
Therefore, I chose a “Public Kahoot” (one created by someone else)
on types of sentences. As you watch the video, listen carefully to
the exhilarating music as the timer counts down.
BEWARE: YOUR STUDENTS ARE LIKELY TO SELECT
AN INCORRECT ANSWER SIMPLY BECAUSE OF
FEELING THAT PRESSURE FROM THE MUSIC!
However, if you feel that it creates too much anxiety and
your students are getting frustrated with selecting incorrect answers
haphazardly, you can adjust the settings which will take away the time and/or music.
As you can see in this video, the students are anxiously
awaiting for the results on the ActivBoard which will
provide the students’ score and class placement which is
based on accuracy and the amount of time it takes them
to respond to each question. As mentioned above,
the game can cause an increase of volume,
but I’m quite okay with that!!!
I’ve just created my first Kahoot! and uploaded it!!
It was super easy and the website is so user-friendly!
You have the options of including your personal clipart
you have on your computer as well as videos.
Once you select a Kahoot! to play, your students will be
provided a Game PIN that is specific for that Kahoot!. If for
any reason during the game your students lose connection,
they can always rejoin the game because the
Game PIN number stays visible on the screen.
After your students log in with the Game PIN, they are then
asked for a “Nickname”; however, I require my students to use their first
name only so that I can assess the data upon completion
of the game. I also remind my students that we are only
in competition with ourselves, and always trying to improve
our score from the game before. If I run into a student demonstrating
poor sportsmanship, they know they will lose their device for the next round.
It truly squashes the poutiness and disrespect towards other students.
The game begins and the students are given time to read and
respond to each question. I remind them that “Slow and steady is the
pace, slow and steady wins the race.” This cuts down making careless
mistakes, but as you know we all have THAT student!!
Game on and as you can see from below, just because a
student’s name is in first place, doesn’t mean they will stay there!
It keeps the game exciting and students from giving up!
The best part is the teacher has data that is able to be
downloaded into Excel if they choose to evaluate!
No doubt your kids will be BEGGING daily to play Kahoot!
We love this game(s) too! Thanks for sharing! By the way your blog is coming along great!
Jamie
Teaching Tidbits and More with Jamie