Exploring Quizziz

Formative Assessment, Take II

This week I chose to use Quizziz to make an assessment after hearing that it was easy to use and student friendly. Specifically, my background knowledge of Quizziz came from this blog and listening to her speak about her experiences using this assessment tool and her success with it.

First Impressions

When you first come to Quizziz to make an account, it gives you the option to play around with sample quizzes that have already been made. This was a nice introduction and immediately sets the stage for what you can expect moving forward as well as different options you can include in your assessment. Already, much easier and user friendly than my experience with Nearpod was. 

Getting started

First you will be prompted to create a quiz by naming it. There is also an option to align the quiz to state standards. You will then be directed to the page below where you can start to build your assessment by creating questions, uploading images, or even searching through preexisting questions. 

Adding questions and answer options was pain free; you select whether or not there will be a single or multiple answers, type up your question and possible answers, and then mark which options are correct. 

Once you have entered all your questions that you would like the assessment to include, you can take the assessment your self to see the student's view. The bar at the top is the time left that the student has to answer, which can be edited to have more or less time. 

Along the way students are given little bits of encouragement to break up the test questions and offer some motivation to continue. There is also an option for different internet memes to pop up after each answered question, which can be turned off if you so choose. 

At the end students are given the opportunity to reflect on their scores and even go back and review questions that they missed or may have spent too much time on. Teachers can also access this information and see how each student did and areas they may require additional practice. 

Bottom Line: Quizziz was easy to use (for both teachers and students), did not require additional training and searching to figure out, and offered an enjoyable twist on traditional assessments. I would highly recommend this application to other educators to use in their classrooms as a formative assessment to gauge student understanding and learning. 

My assessment using Quizziz can be found here.

Nearpod Adventures

Nearpod Adventures

This week I chose to use Nearpod to create my assessment. As per my last post, Nearpod is an interactive slide show that promotes collaboration and engagement among students. At its core this is a tool for teachers to present and receive immediate feedback from students within the presentation. Students using the app are able to draw on slides (such as marking locations on a map or adding labels), answer multiple choice questions, create collaboration boards, polls, and so much more. Teachers launch the presentation and then are able to watch and monitor student progress through the slides in real time.

Creative Process

Originally I chose to use Nearpod because it seemed user friendly and easy to develop presentations for students. I was looking to create a primary-friendly assessment to gauge understanding of patterns at the end of a unit. I liked that Nearpod has the option for students to draw directly onto the slides, which in itself is nice for younger students to show what they know.

I really, really struggled with using Nearpod in the beginning. The first hour or so I was using it

was going back and forth between playing with the different choices (field trip was a nice

highlight, but irrelevant for my assessment) and getting frustrated with creating the individual pieces.  I should also note that this was while using an iPad, so I would imagine that the computer would offer an easier experience. That and internet explorer works much better than google chrome, at least with my experiences. 

After my frustrating hour I finally realized the Nearpod works with google slides, and changed

tactics entirely. I was able to create the slide show and then upload it onto Nearpod and add the

Draw It option to the slide so students would be able to draw in their answers directly onto the

slides. It also generates reports for the teacher to see the creative process and find the areas where

students may have struggled more than others.

Teachers and Nearpod

Once I finally understood how to properly use Nearpod, I actually really enjoyed what it has to

offer. While I used it for a math assessment, I could easily see it be used for social studies

(especially the field trip option), science (matching, fill in the blank) and short answer options.

I’m excited to try creating a new slide and becoming more proficient with this app because it has

tons of options and assessment tools that can be utilized in the classroom environment. I

appreciated that the app can easily be tailored from primary students through the upper grades

appropriately. Nearpod also has the potential to be differentiated for student with individualized

education plans and collaboration among teachers.

Click here to see presentation.

Formative Assessment and Student Data

Role of Assessment

Assessment in the classroom is used to gauge student understanding, student learning, and mastery of the skills taught. Formative (informal) assessments are check-ins with students while teaching to poll the class and see who is absorbing the information and who might need additional support. These kinds of assessments can be as simple as a thumbs up or thumbs down, an exit ticket, check-in with a note-card, or even observing your students' expressions. 

Technology and Assessment

Whereas the easy and free assessments are accessible to most classrooms, there is a benefit to using technology as a form of formative assessment. Below are my reviews on Nearpod, Edulastic, and PlayPosit.

1. Nearpod

 

Nearpod is described as an interactive slide show that promotes collaboration and engagement. At its baseline, this is a tool for teachers to present and receive immediate feedback from students within the presentation. Students using the app are able to draw on slides
(such as marking locations on a map), answer multiple choice questions, create collaboration boards, polls, and so much more. Teachers launch the presentation and then are able to watch and monitor student progress through the slides in real time.

Bottom Line: Nearpod would be great for formative assessment near the end of a unit to see what skills students have acquired and what areas they need more practice in. It would also be good to use as a prelesson tool to gauge what students already know about a subject area.

2. Edulastic

Edulastic is a tool that teachers use to assess and monitor student progress and mastery of standards. It is a free, formative assessment web-based platform that teachers can use to create original assessments or use resources already provided. This is a great program that can not only assess learning, but also offers differentiation for students that need additional practice or enrichment. 

Bottom Line: While not as flashy or interactive as Nearpod, Edulastic is a nice tool to gather data on student learning both in and outside of the classroom. It can also be used in conjunction with Google Classroom and Clever. 

3. PlayPosit

PlayPosit (EduCanon as it was formally known as) is an interactive video tool for teacher to assess student learning. Teachers are able to add questions and pauses to videos from sites such as Youtube, Vimeo, TeacherTube, Shmoop, and Google Drive. While students are able to rewind on their own, they are prevented from skipping forward or fast-forwarding through content. 

Bottom Line: This tool would be good in the beginning of a unit to introduce new terms and concepts to students through video resources. Playposit would also be useful to gauge what students might already know going into a new unit.