I love being introduced to products that immediately spark excitement in both teachers and students. Kahoot! is one of those products that hooked me the moment Holly Clark had us play it at a recent GAFE Summit. Any device with a browser and internet connection can access this free, game based website which allows users to create quizzes, polls and surveys or search through a plethora of ready-made Kahoots in the public database.
Kahoot! can be used as a formative assessment tool by creating quizzes that give students options to demonstrate their understanding of a concept. Once the quiz is complete, teachers have the ability to download results to a computer and even save to Google Drive to analyze when time allows. The quizzes have the option to create multiple choice or true/false questions, while discussions and surveys only allow for multiple choice options. Students can even create a free, under 16 account and build quizzes as a way to review, demonstrate understanding, etc.
Student created Kahoot to review for a science test.
What I love most about Kahoot is that once the activity starts, the site controls the students’ screens as the game progresses. Students are able to easily follow along with the game as they work to be the fastest to respond with the correct answer. The height of excitement reaches near breaking point as students are shown the leaderboard between questions and their true competitive spirit comes out. This is also true of adults when they participate during PD days. We are what we teach, right?
One of my favorite student created questions and picture clues 🙂
One topic that has been fresh on the mind lately is the idea of engaging students to write through a blog platform. I realize that blogging isn’t exactly innovative in this day and age, but to a lot of kids it’s just enough motivation to begin to express themselves in front of an authentic digital audience, while choosing what they want to write about to add to their digital footprint.
Though blogging could and should be used for a number of different reasons, below are a few ideas to get started. A lot of our students are using KidBlog and Blogger, but with the abundant number of options to choose from, there’s no reason not to get your class blogging, today!
This 3rd Grade Class Blogging Connections from Novels
5th Grade Students Practicing Poetry
For those unfamiliar with DOGO News , let me be the first to introduce you to this wonderful resource. After discovering this website, which is now available in the App Store, I immediately introduced it to my students. It didn’t take long for them to fall in love with it as much as I had. Over the years, I’ve used it for many different purposes and noticed such an increase in non-fiction comprehension. Once students had a choice of what article they were going to read about, they were hooked. They also loved the many features that DOGO News has to offer, such as videos, vocabulary, geography link and more. The website is constantly making improvements including adding Common Core connected lessons to most of the articles. One of the best parts about this website is that it is FREE! Teachers can use as many or as little of the resources that they want, though I recommend creating a free account and getting your class signed up as well. Below are a few quick ideas for how to take this resource and run with it.
- Give students choice! Let them choose an article and do whatever you would have had them do with an article that you were going to give them anyway.
- Incorporate Padlet to create an interactive wall for students to share ideas. Students can pick an article and then…
- Post link and construct a quick summary
- Argumentative writing – debate the main idea of the article
- Persuasion – convince classmates to read the article or be swayed towards the author’s point of view
- Practice commenting skills – Students can choose an article and post a comment focusing on some aspect of the article.
- Focus on current events – Kids love to read about what’s happening in the world. The best part about current event articles on DOGO News is that they can use the geography link to see where in the world the event is taking place.
- Write Reviews – Jazz up writing and show students how to construct and publish critical reviews of books and movies!
- Science Connection – Not only can kids read articles about inventions, phenomenons and more, but often they can watch videos of scientists being interviewed or the giant, undiscovered species that the article was focusing on.
If you’d like more ideas, just leave me a comment or message me on Twitter!
Pam Lewis EDU 