Assessing Every Student with Ease and a Smartphone
A new resource I discovered to help quickly assess my students are Plickers. Plickers are simple to use and do not require a lot of technology. The only items that are required is a device connected to a projector and a separate smartphone or tablet to gather responses. After entering students into a classroom by uploading my class list, each student is automatically assigned a numbered response “card”. You print out the free cards. Each card has a QR code printed on it that is unique to that student in that class. It takes seconds for them to pull it out and to be ready to answer questions.
Prior to class, I create multiple choice questions and queue them in the app. I like this feature because I can queue an entire week’s or unit’s worth of questions to have ready for when I need them. When it’s time to use Plicker, it takes a few seconds to connect the app on my phone to the website, then I project the questions for the students on the overhead. The students hold up their response card, and then I use my phone or tablet’s camera to scan their responses. Since each student’s card is different, students do not know what answer their peers are holding up. I find it takes the pressure off looking around the room to see what other students answered. Students are no longer worried about getting the answer “right”. As I scan the cards, I see the app blink their names and answers on the screen in either green or red to show me immediately how accurately each student responded. It also creates a chart and highlights each student’s name in red or green so I have multiple forms of data appearing right on my phone.
Prior to class, I create multiple choice questions and queue them in the app. I like this feature because I can queue an entire week’s or unit’s worth of questions to have ready for when I need them. When it’s time to use Plicker, it takes a few seconds to connect the app on my phone to the website, then I project the questions for the students on the overhead. The students hold up their response card, and then I use my phone or tablet’s camera to scan their responses. Since each student’s card is different, students do not know what answer their peers are holding up. I find it takes the pressure off looking around the room to see what other students answered. Students are no longer worried about getting the answer “right”. As I scan the cards, I see the app blink their names and answers on the screen in either green or red to show me immediately how accurately each student responded. It also creates a chart and highlights each student’s name in red or green so I have multiple forms of data appearing right on my phone.
Since feedback is immediate, the results can be used in many ways to guide instruction. The website produces graphs with the results of each question, and after revealing the answer, we can use them to discuss why a particular answer is correct or incorrect. Since Plicker can be set to only show me exactly how each student responded, I can use this information to select students to explain their reasoning without others knowing if that student was correct or not. If large numbers of students continuously get questions wrong, I know I need to stop and reteach to make sure all students are understanding. The website also stores the results of each question if you need to review the data later.
The students really enjoy using Plicker as well. They are excited when they are put their card in the air for me to scan. My students also enjoy the immediate feedback, and some use it as a way to clarify their own understanding by asking follow up questions. Even though there are no points or rewards assigned to getting the question correct, they love using the resulting graphs to see how they answered in comparison to their classmates, yet no one feels bad if they have an incorrect answer because there are no winners or losers. We recently did a review of important terms using questions we had already used, and they loved comparing the graphs to see how the percentage of students that knew the terms had increased from the previous review. Even though we haven’t been using Plicker for long, my students are starting to genuinely appreciate it as a learning tool.
Ms. Rosemarie Leone
St. Mary Interparochial School
Rosemarie has been teaching for thirteen years. She arrived at Saint Mary in 2006. She teaches 5th and 6th grade ELA, along with 5th grade math and religion. When she is not in the classroom Rosemarie enjoys baseball games, reading and going to the movies.
The students really enjoy using Plicker as well. They are excited when they are put their card in the air for me to scan. My students also enjoy the immediate feedback, and some use it as a way to clarify their own understanding by asking follow up questions. Even though there are no points or rewards assigned to getting the question correct, they love using the resulting graphs to see how they answered in comparison to their classmates, yet no one feels bad if they have an incorrect answer because there are no winners or losers. We recently did a review of important terms using questions we had already used, and they loved comparing the graphs to see how the percentage of students that knew the terms had increased from the previous review. Even though we haven’t been using Plicker for long, my students are starting to genuinely appreciate it as a learning tool.
Ms. Rosemarie Leone
St. Mary Interparochial School
Rosemarie has been teaching for thirteen years. She arrived at Saint Mary in 2006. She teaches 5th and 6th grade ELA, along with 5th grade math and religion. When she is not in the classroom Rosemarie enjoys baseball games, reading and going to the movies.
AOPTech would like to thank Ms. Leone for sharing her classroom expertise with us.
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If you know of a teacher that should be featured next month let us know here - Nominate a Teacher