Excellence in Education: Plickers
In the past I’ve shared several digital
tools (Socrative, PollEverywher, Kahoot) that are great for formative
assessment. But what if the students don’t have a device or if the Internet is
limited?
Enter Plickers.
Before I explain Plickers, one other reason to use it instead of other digital tools: there’s no waiting for students to log-in on a computer or
their device.
Plickers uses a teacher’s device and a
series of QR codes that you print out for your students to create a student response
system. After downloading and printing a series of cards, each student is
assigned one card. Each card can be turned in any of four orientations
(A-B-C-D).
When you have a question for students
to answer, you simply ask each student to hold up his/her card in the correct
orientation (just like using a whiteboard) and quickly scan the cards. A bar
graph of the student responses is instantly created.
Some advantages to Plickers:
- Because each student code is unique, students don’t know who got the answer right or wrong.
- You can create a demo or saved class. Demo classes are quick and easy. A saved class means that you take the time to create a class and assign each student a card. The latter allow you to see how each student responded to the question.
- Only 1 device is needed
- Scanning is easy. Essentially, you can just take your device from one side of the room to the other. You don’t need to scan each individual card.
- It works great with Cooperative Learning Strategies such as Thinking Pairs, Numbered Heads Together, Showdown and more.
- Great for formative assessments and pre-assessments
- Provides students with timely feedback enabling them to gauge their understanding
- Can easily be used for “concept-testing” where students commit to an answer before learning, making the students more engaged and curious about the outcome (the lesson)
Administrative Notes
First marking period was quite
discombobulated, but we made our way through it. I know it was difficult
staying positive and getting into the flow, but your professionalism,
adaptability, and perseverance enabled us to “weather” the storm(s). Hopefully,
the winter weather is behind us. In talking to the students, it became clear
that many teachers made use of BlackBoard and other means to continue teaching
while students were not in school. If you’re interested in creating screencast of lectures, Brian has
installed some software on a couple of computers that enables you to do this.
Additionally, of course, there are several free screencasting programs. If
you’re interested, please let Brian or me know.
As a general reminder, please be sure
to contact families of any students with D’s or F’s. As a whole we’ve received
tremendous feedback from families about how teachers have been phenomenal at
using BlackBoard to update grades, but the sad truth is that for many of our
struggling students, their parents are not as engaged and don’t check
BlackBoard (I think this can also be said of the students themselves). A phone
call goes a long way towards increasing parent engagement.
Positive Referral
Link: http://goo.gl/s0KXRB
Work Order Request
Form: http://goo.gl/H7hFwK
Comment Box: http://goo.gl/forms/KAHNoGf5D2
Some upcoming dates:
April 18:
Prom
April 30:
Honor Breakfast (Top Decile)
May 17:
Scholarship Banquet
May 18:
Senior Picnic
May 26/27:
Senior Exams
May 29 @
6pm: Graduation
New Marking Period Dates:
March
20: End of MP 2
No
½ days or exams
Some upcoming edcamps (opt-out credit can be earned):
Edcamp RVA (Richmond)
April
18: Edcamp Delaware (Wilmington)
Still
waiting for more info about Edcamp MetroDC and Edcamp95 (Virginia/Prince
William maybe)
What I’m Reading
Quote/Visual of the Week
Children learn the most from struggling with complex tasks and making mistakes, not from mastering easy tasks.
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