Plickers

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) 

http://youtu.be/bejiz2HzUz8:  For more info on Plickers 

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):

March 21: Edcamp Arlington http://edcamparlington.org/

                    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

10 Tips for Increasing Student Engagement

Talk A Mile A Minute: A Great Vocabulary Learning Strategy that Engages Students

Classroom Strategies for Helping Depressed Teens

Quote/Visual of the Week

Children learn the most from struggling with complex tasks and making mistakes, not from mastering easy tasks.

It's OK (Beneficial Actually) for Students to Struggle and Vocabulary Instruction

Excellence in Education: Causing a Student to Struggle

“Causing a student to struggle,” sounds counter-intuitive to our mission as educators, doesn’t it?

It’s not.

So when I saw a math teacher challenge students to solve a problem without telling them how, I was excited. Research shows that when you’re asked to solve a problem before being shown  how to solve it, the subsequent solution is better learned and more  likely to be remembered.

So whether it’s solving a math problem, or asking students, “How do you think (insert historical figure/event and a scenario?” or having students make corrections to something they haven’t yet learned, you’re actually priming their brain for learning. It’s perfectly acceptable for them   to struggle—learning shouldn’t be easy and learning is actually made more permanent when it is difficult.

For more information see Daniel  Willingham’s Why Students Don’t Like School or Make it Stick by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and  Mark  McDaniel. 

Ideas for the Classroom: Vocabulary Instruction

Vocabulary is a vital part of all learning, so important that it cannot be ignored because the correlation between vocabulary knowledge and learning and comprehension is undeniable.

Effective vocabulary instruction takes time and research shows that having students look up the definitions is perhaps the least effective means to improving student vocabulary. Robert Marzano has developed the following 6-step program to teach vocabulary.

Use direct instruction to provide students with a description, explanation, and an example (and a non-example) of the word. You can also provide a visual.

Have students restate the description, the explanation or an example in their OWN words.

Students should construct their own visual (graphic, picture, symbol, etc.) for the word.

Allow students to use the words in different settings and in different ways (interact with each other by sharing their visualizations, working together on graphic organizers, etc.)

Use periodic games or other high-interest strategies to learn the terms (Bingo, tech games, Pictionary, etc.)

Administrative Notes

Positive Referral Link: http://goo.gl/s0KXRB So far only 2 students have been nominated for positive referrals. Let’s make it a goal for each of us to nominate at least one student by next Wednesday.

Work Order Request Form: http://goo.gl/H7hFwK

We’ll have one more fire drill this week. We’ll have a school-wide lockdown drill on Wednesday. Thanks to all of you who practiced lockdowns on Thursday.

What I’m Reading

Seven Ways to Engage Students In Class : Simple strategies to ensure every student is part of the learning process

Five Research-Based Tips for Providing Feedback : Testing is an effective means of monitoring student progress and providing meaningful feedback 

NY Times: Liking Work Really Matters : A lot of good stuff in this article which includes talk of interest, how to gain interest, and cognitive psychology

Lectures Aren’t Just Boring, They’re Ineffective Too : This is a scientific article, but also includes suggestions for how to enhance learning while not disbanding lectures 

Is a Degree Still Worth It? : Statistics show that a bachelor’s degree is near an all-time high.