We are in(to) Kahoots, are you?

     The other day Leslie Fisher posted on Facebook about Kahoot, a "game-based classroom response system."  I had never heard of it so I immediately checked it out.  Now I am hooked.

     On the website you can create a quiz, survey, or post a discussion question.  You can create questions that include images and video.  The questions are projected on a big screen and students can answer the questions on individual devices that are connected to the Internet. This may sound a lot like other websites out there that do the same thing like Socrative; however, Kahoot has some features that sets it apart.

     The first thing that sticks out to me is that students can have accounts where they can make their own Kahoot, resulting in students being in charge of forming their own assessments.  In order to accomplish this, students need to do careful research and develop thought-provoking questions that include wrong answers.  Another difference is that Kahoot can keep points for correct and timely answers (you can create questions that are not point-based).  It is very engaging for everyone because the students are competing against each other and get immediate feedback. After answering a question the site reveals the correct answer with the number of how many people chose each answer.  Students' individual devices show them if they were correct or not and provide a rank among the other players.  A major bonus is that any device works with Kahoot because it is completely web-based... no app necessary.

    This week I tried it out with my third graders who are using Chromebooks.  We are working on CCSS standards regarding Geometry, specifically polygons, and I saw that others had posted quizzes on the topic.  A Kahoot can be shared and made public for others to use or copied of so that the quiz can be modified.  It was a roaring success! My kids asked to do the quiz twice and I have a spreadsheet of their responses from both times.  There is a breakdown by student and there are tabs for each question.

Ready, set, go!

   Last night I decided to give Kahoot creation a try.  I made my own polygon formative assessment with images.  It was so easy!  We used it today and the kids cheered. This is a miracle because at this point in the year they are so burned out from testing and their brains are focused more on summer escapades.

Victory and Defeat

Here is a video of what Kahoot looks like.

Student-generated Assessments Using Google Forms and Scratch

     Last school year was my first year of teaching third grade after teaching first grade for 11 years.  Let's just say that there are not many similarities to teaching emergent readers and readers in the intermediate grades.   I admittedly was a little unsure about how guided reading works in third grade when I first started.  Now that I am fully immersed in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), I am very aware of what skills and strategies I should be imparting and I am learning every day how to accomplish this feat.
     As a teacher interested in educational research, I have been looking at books and articles dealing with motivation.  No matter what grade I teach, there are always reluctant readers and I am striving to find out how I can motivate them to take risks and develop an interest in reading.  As I incorporate technology into my classroom, I notice how interested some students get in my lessons, and in particular some of the reluctant readers mentioned previously.
     The way I look at it, incorporating technology can allow a chance for innovative thinking, ownership of the work, and above all choices.  Students love choices!
     So when six of my third-grade boys were done reading The Most Beautiful Place in the World by Ann Cameron, I asked them what are they going to do now that they have read this book? Some other students wrote a commercial for why you should read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (see video here), so what were they going to do now that they completed the book.  Some decided to make a "test" of the book using Scratch and the other group decided to make a multiple choice test using Google Forms.  This "project" was a great window into the minds of my students and how they understand and perceive assessment.  Future lessons in book clubs later focused on moving beyond asking and answering questions that can be found explicitly in the text (CCSS RL.3.1).
     The first group that read The Most Beautiful Place in the World wanted to make a test using Scratch.  We have some avid coders in the class and they jump at any opportunity to use Scratch. They had to figure out how people would respond. The test (available on the class website) was the stepping stone for future "tests" and really illustrated the progression of learning and problem-solving. Later on, one of the students shown below made a test about our research on China.  He used a different format and other students collaborated to figure out how to program in the progression of points.

    The second group that read The Most Beautiful Place in the World started their final project by writing questions in their reading notebooks. Next, they wrote incorrect answers that may trick their test takers with distractors.  Once this was accomplished, I gave them a quick tutorial on using Google forms and they went to work creating their online assessment.

    The multiple choice group had to come up with the post on the class blog letting others know their test is available.  Now do we have any takers to read the book and take the test?


    These experiences later influenced how the class ended our online research of China.  Seeing the level of motivation, collaboration, and focus that these students demonstrated had me rethinking how the class' knowledge would be assessed.  Stay tuned to find out the results of my next experiment.

Those Who CAN Teach

Those who CAN, teach and well... those who cannot, reveal their misconceptions in a tutorial... 
Allow me to explain that statement below.

This post was inspired after I had the class create tutorials with the ShowMe app on the iPads and what I learned was a quite a surprise!  Here is how it all started.For the past several weeks my class has been on a journey to understand fractions.  It is has been a rocky road where according to the CCSS, expectations have been (along with other indicators) that my students will be able to:

Compare two fractions with the same numerator or the same denominator by reasoning about their size. Recognize that comparisons are valid only when the two fractions refer to the same whole. Record the results of comparisons with the symbols >, =, or <, and justify the conclusions, e.g., by using a visual fraction model.

Now we are at the "end of the unit" and I will assess the class in the coming week with a paper and pencil test.  Before we move on to a formal review of the concepts learned thus far, I thought why not have the class create tutorials so that we have them to use while studying.  Next year's kids would greatly benefit!

Friday morning the scene was set for a collection of awesome tutorials that explained comparing fractions. I had eager students and enough iPads equipped with the ShowMe app for them all to create their tutorials. After showing the students a tutorial I made for teachers wanting to use the app (shown below), the students were off in different parts of the room writing scripts.  Once finished, each child was encouraged to create a tutorial.  Enthusiasm about fractions was at an all-time high as I walked around helping students who were "stuck."

Later on, I started to watch the videos to see how they did.  Initially my reaction was a lot groaning and wincing as I watched student after student cheerfully explain the opposite of the concepts we had been discussing (I won't say teaching, because there clearly was not a whole lot of understanding).  I started to beat myself up and think, "What have I been doing wrong!"

Instead of drowning in my fraction sorrows, I thought about the situation in a new light.  Perhaps these tutorials were an opportunity, and not a failure.  These tutorials did what paper and pencil tasks or class discussions did not always reveal... the actual thought processes of my students while they were working through the mathematical problem.  After watching them, I created a spreadsheet of observations that will help me strengthen my instruction this week.  I plan on sharing some of the most accurate ones and then ask the students to be self-reflective of their tutorials.  Perhaps they will see the errors themselves... and perhaps I will have to be more direct.  They will have another opportunity to develop a second tutorial after they recognize possible improvements.  

This made me think about how we assess.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, kids are asked to explain their mathematical thinking in "numbers, words, and pictures."  When you look at that paper, what you see is what you get. The teacher still has to interpret what the child was thinking.  The students still could write an explanation down but have absolutely no idea what the strategy works.  

When creating the tutorials, my students' understanding was front and center. There is less room for interpretation if they themselves have to do the explaining.  Think-aloud protocols are nothing new to the educational research community, but I think it is more foreign to the general teaching community.  Recording our students thinking, I believe is a valuable tool (I did use this as a data collection method for my dissertation).  Even better is asking our students to teach someone else.  We all know to truly explain a topic to someone else, one has to understand it themselves.

Those who CAN, teach!

The Road Less Traveled: Using the End Product to Fuel Learning

    Every school year is another opportunity.  Another opportunity to learn and grow as a professional as I read more professional literature, talk with talented educators, and meet extraordinary students.  Meeting the diverse needs of my students can be a daunting task when you throw in high-stakes testing and more rigorous standards that have just been implemented one year prior.  In light of this situation, I am constantly trying to figure out new and interesting ways to engage my students- and honestly myself.  How can we find the road less traveled?  There are no blatant road signs showing the way, or that I have found at least.

Photo by Ann Douglas downloaded from Flickr

    Last year was an "interesting" year spent teaching a new grade level while trying to find the materials and resources that would help me instruct within the Common Core State Standards framework.  Google became my friend as I scoured the Web to find information, advice, and printables and thankfully people out there are very willing to share.  New York decided to support modules created by Expeditionary Learning (EL) for English Language Arts and modules for Mathematics on their website Engageny.org and this year I have been exploring the use of some of the modules in both subject areas.  
    To be honest, at first I really disliked the modules.  My reasons are not what you are probably thinking. I had no issue with the texts for the EL units and although I balked at some of the tasks my students were asked to do in the beginning of the school year, I see how my students have grown and developed since participating.  My real issue was that these modules are highly scripted.  So much so, that I felt that I had no real voice in my classroom anymore.  Since it was my first time implementing the modules, I did not feel comfortable "putting my own stamp" on the lessons.  As this year progresses, I am slowly changing this thinking.
    Here is where craftiness comes to the fore.  Instead of conducting teacher-directed lessons, I began to think of how we can infuse more student ownership into these lessons. I have been influenced by books such as Catching Up or Leading the Way by Yong Zhao, Creativity in the Classroom (4th edition) by Alane Jordan, and now the Passion-Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers and Amy Sandvold.  How do I get my students to be more engaged, motivated, and learning?

Photo by CircumerroStock

    What would appear to be a passion for using technology "gone wild" is actually the source of my craftiness, my "lure for learning" as it would seem.  My students are my fish and my use of technology is the bait. I admit this and I am not ashamed.  
    Some examples of Math craftiness include:

• Arranging 24 Yoga Mats- Talking a friend into manipulating reality a little in order to teach my students about creating arrays for a more concrete representation of multiplication was one of the first lures used this year.  She is a yoga instructor so it was not out of the realm of possibility that she would need the help of my students to figure out how to arrange her yoga mats into equal groups if she had 24 students. (CCSS Math 3.OA.A.1; 3.OA.B.5) 

• Mondrian Art- Many of students love participating in anything that is outwardly "artsy" so why not learn about a famous contemporary artist while calculating the area of squares and rectangles? (CCSS Math 3.MD.C.5)

    Some examples of ELA craftiness include:

• Kidblog for Publishing- Since the beginning of the year I have had my students use Kidblog as a place for them to digitally publish their writing.  Knowing you have an audience, proved very motivating for my third-grade writers and they took more care to edit and revise for an audience.  They love being able to read each other's posts and comment on them.  We have read articles from Time for Kids and then written paragraphs summarizing key information.  These paragraphs were posted on Kidblog for everyone to see.  In September, we also used the Blogger (see our class blog) app to publish our personal narratives. (CCSS RI.3.2; RI.3.5; W.3.2; W.3.3; W.3.6)

• Aurasma Book Recommendations- After reading a book of the students' choice, they had to write a persuasive paragraph explaining why people should read their selection.  We ran into some memory issues when creating our videos using the Aurasma app; however, this led to an important lesson on summarization and finding the main idea.  The reviews my students had to come up with were quite concise but we still have the entire paragraph to refer back to once we work out some of the initial issues. (CCSS RL.3.2; RL.3.3; W.3.1; W.3.4; W.3.5; W.3.6)

• Northeast Travel Bureau Videos- The EL units we completed so far this year focused only on fiction texts so we have been reading informational texts at other points of the school day.  Instead of telling my students were were going to develop our comprehension strategies for reading informational texts, I told them that they were in charge of collecting information about the Northeast region of the US centered on the categories of economy/natural resources, geography, climate, and culture.  Lessons focused on finding main ideas and searching informational texts and then turning their information into persuasive writing pieces that would finally be turned into scripts for commercials for the "Northeast Travel Bureau."  They were in charge of collaborating with peers to develop the scripts and direct themselves.  If you click on the link above you will see that some groups created Google Presentations as a backdrop to their commercials (which also lent itself to a lesson on how to select images from a Google search that are earmarked as "labeled for reuse"). (CCSS RI.3.1; RI.3.2; RI.3.5; W.3.1; W.3.2; W.3.4, W.3.5; W.3.6; W.3.7; W.3.8)

    It makes me feel so good to look around the room (I can do this because they are in charge, not me) and see the animated faces and the furious writing, turning of pages, or clicking of keys.  In giving up control, I feel we all win.  I feel like I am an important piece to instruction by not being an important piece... if that makes any sense.