Google Forms & Flubaroo, Socrative, Kahoot, and Padlet (Things 25-28)

Formative assessment and I have a complicated relationship. On one hand, I love it for the information it provides me and my students and for the fact that it keeps me updated on their progress in a much quicker, more easily accessible way than summative assessments do. On the other hand, I sometimes get overwhelmed by the management of formative assessments and feel guilty that I don't do them often enough or use the information quickly enough after I get it.

I think I need to revisit how and why I use formative assessment, and I also need to expand my definition of what formative assessment actually is. I mentioned on the Padlet response that my definition in practice can be quite narrow: I think of formative assessment as exit slips. Because of that, I end up with hundreds of little slips of paper (Post-its, index cards, scraps of reused paper, or, if I'm really organized, an actual typed and copied handout) that have good information on them but get lost in the shuffle of the rest of the paper in my classroom after I have glanced through them. If I am more deliberate about what I ask for in formative assessments and if I can use some of these tools, I think I will be able to use the information I get much more successfully this year. Here is a clip of one of my favorite educational leaders, Rick Wormeli (@rickwormeli2), talking about formative and summative assessments.

I created a Google Form about sentence types and enabled Flubaroo (@Flubaroo) to grade it for me. I don't think this gives me better or quicker data than using the Schoology (@Schoology) quizzes, which also grade automatically, so I probably won't use Flubaroo too much. I can see that this would be helpful if I were using Google Classroom because then everything would be in one place, but since we already use Schoology as our learning management system, I like everything to be there. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Flubaroo; I love the idea, but I think it would be an extra thing for me to manage. Feel free to take the quiz if you would like to! 

(Please take one moment to appreciate the fact that I had to manually adjust the size of this form in the embed code and I figured it out and IT WORKED. #progress)



I was already familiar with Socrative (@Socrative) since I used it in graduate school (and I also did my Google Hangout On Air about how to use Socrative. That being said, I still struggled with creating an exit slip that wasn't pre-populated and ended up making a quiz instead and saving it as an exit slip - more problem-solving on the fly! (It seems like a long time ago that I said one of my biggest issues would be seeing roadblocks as opportunities; I still struggle with this, but I HAVE learned to look for answers to my questions and try several things before throwing up my hands in disgust. Again...#progress. :) )

I like Socrative a lot because it is easy, quick, and does not require any additional hardware or software since all the kids already have iPads. I think this is formative assessment at its best because it gives you immediate feedback and it is easy to see exactly where your class is on any given concept. I also like the reports that can be generated after students are finished with the quizzes. I will have to do more work to create exit slips or quizzes that are specific to the content of my class, but the pre-populated ones are also useful, which is a rare find for me. My room number is T6DOMEWS if you would like to take my quiz on Things 1-28. 

I know that several of my colleagues use Kahoot (@GetKahoot), and I have actually administered a few of them while subbing for other teachers in the building. My Adventures kids were also really into them! They are super easy to write and I love the fact that there are literally millions of them that are available for immediate use. Not all of them are useful, though, and there are a lot to sort through, but I'd rather have that problem than have too few resources! 

The few times that I've used Kahoot in the classroom while subbing, the students seemed really into it and liked the immediate feedback when each question ended; they also liked that they could see who was winning after each question because they liked the competition. I could see a lot of potential with Kahoot because as the teacher, I could also see how many of the kids got a question right or wrong as well as which kid got the question right or wrong. I was a little worried that they wouldn't want the other kids to see that they were wrong, but the students didn't seem concerned about that. This would be great for literary factual recall questions or a quick check at the end of a lesson to see who got it on the first try and who didn't. The only thing I'm not sure about it whether or not the results save; Flubaroo and Socrative are good for that, and I don't know if Kahoot does it or not.

Finally, Padlet (@padlet). I love you, Padlet! My first experience with Padlet was not good, though, because it was at a district-wide institute day and had literally hundreds of people adding to the same one, which got really overwhelming really quickly. However, now that I have used it on a smaller scale and created one of my own, I am in love with it. I went to the Scholastic Reading Summit (@Scholastic, @ScholasticTeach, #readingsummit) this summer and got so much inspiration about independent reading AND technology, and one of the best things I learned about was using Padlet with students to share independent reading suggestions and responses. 

In the past, I've had students share their independent reading books verbally and I've kept a list of them, which I then added to Schoology and MAYBE three or four kids would refer to when they needed new independent reading books. However, with Padlet, the kids can add to the list whenever they want and access it easily from their iPads or phones. It's available for Apple or Android and free, which is my favorite price. I think I'm going to have the students put it on their iPads and use it as much as possible for brainstorming - we could do it with independent reading books, selecting quotes for essays (which I do on Schoology discussions now), topics for research projects, and so many other things! Another great thing about this is that it's not limited to just one class, so if I wanted to do a cross-curricular exploration with another teacher, that would be really easy.

Please share your favorite books with me!

Created with Padlet

This was one of the only weeks of this course where I felt that each "thing" I did was useful. Although I liked some more than others and felt that some would be easier to implement in my current classroom than others, none of them were overly flashy or difficult to learn, which means that none of them will stand in the way of the skills or practice the kids need to do. It also means that none of them will be difficult for me to teach the kids (if they're not already familiar with them - they usually are!). I will be implementing the use of Padlet on the first day of school - literally - to collect their summer reading titles and get started on the culture of reading in our classroom!

Some of these tools have applicability outside of the classroom and formative assessment. As I mentioned, I've used Padlet in professional development (as a student, not the presenter). It was a good way to get feedback, but I think it needed to be more organized (the grid view would have helped). I can see using Socrative in a department or faculty meeting to collect responses because you can have open-ended questions, but Flubaroo and Kahoot seem like strictly classroom tools. I would love to hear about other uses!

When I was looking around for other examples of formative assessment in the classroom, I came across this blog that included the rubric below (it's bigger on the post). I really like the idea of using basic rubrics like these because they are not content-specific, and they encourage reflection. Since this is supposed to be for formative assessments, the number is not the grade on the assignment because the assignment is not graded. I need to remind myself that I should not be assigning work because I need the numbers in my gradebook. I need to be okay with much more feedback that is not linked to grades because the grades on the summative assessments will come if the feedback on the formative assessments is timely and focused. One of my biggest concerns is that students are far too focused on the grades they get rather than the learning that takes place. Maybe more formative assessments and feedback will help with that.

Google Apps (Thing 4)

Google has done some extraordinary things for education. I may be late to the party, but I didn't realize how much they have that is geared specifically toward teachers and students! I have used Google Docs in several classes that I've taught (both in District 36 and out of it), and this year I started with more spreadsheets and forms. This is the rare case in which I can say that the technology has made my life easier literally every time I've used it. All Google-related apps or programs that I've tried have worked exactly the way that they were supposed to work...the first time! :)

Google Docs has been the best collaborative tool that I've ever come across (no hyperbole!). The ability to read the documents as they come in and make comments in real time has fundamentally changed the way that I run my writing and reading workshops. Instead of having to wait for a paper copy of the essay to be turned in, I can see the minute that students are ready for me to comment, and since I can type much more quickly than I can write (and more legibly!), I can offer much more specific, focused feedback on their writing. They can also write comments back if my suggestions have been unclear or if they don't know how to do what I am suggesting. Here's what I used to have to do when giving feedback on student writing:

All the information is there, but it's super cluttered and probably hard for the students to read which comment goes with which sentence or paragraph. Now, here's what it looks like in Google Docs:

I know it's small, but hopefully you can see that the highlighted words correspond to the comments on the side and how much easier that is to follow than the "track changes" feature in Microsoft Word. I like Word very much, but I don't think it was really designed to collaborate, whereas Google Docs absolutely was, and it shows. I like that the comments are still available but hidden after the student checks "resolved" and that the earlier drafts are still there (which I didn't know before watching this intro video).

 

The second app that has been great for collaboration on a more professional level is Google Sheets (I mostly use the spreadsheet but have also branched out into the schedule when doing conferences or other meetings.) I haven't used the spreadsheet with students yet, but since I am lucky enough to co-teach, that tool has been invaluable for sharing data with each other. Our students work with Wordly Wise 3000 online, which is a great program but was a challenge in terms of managing the transfer of scores from the program into my gradebook. An additional challenge with the program in terms of record-keeping is that since it's self-paced and has different levels, each student could very well be at a different lesson or level at any given time. I have my students complete one lesson per week on average, but since they could be on different lessons and levels, it's not like I can say, "Do lesson seven of level eight for Friday." This was a nightmare for me until I discovered Google Sheets! I can keep each class's scores for each trimester in the same document thanks to the handy tabs at the bottom, and my co-teacher can input grades, adjust scores when students retake lessons, or check in with students about lessons they're missing without me having to be there or hand over a paper copy of the information. Here's what it looks like:

The due date and post-test score are across the top; in each column, I record the lesson that is due on that date and the score each student received on that lesson. The gray boxes are lessons that were submitted late, the blue boxes are lessons that were retaken so I know to average the scores, and the red boxes are scores that were lower than 79%, which means the lesson needs to be retaken. 

The third app that I have started to work with much more this year is Google Forms. I've used this with students as well, mostly for collecting information about projects in which the students have a certain amount of choice. For example, when I taught Shakespeare this year, I offered a choice of either A Midsummer Night's Dream or Macbeth. In the past, I would have taken class time to summarize each play and then ask the students individually which one they would rather read. This year, I created a very simple form that they completed outside of class; it provided a summary of each play and asked them to choose which one they wanted to read.

The REALLY cool thing (at least to me) was that the results of the form were automatically collected into a Google spreadsheet, which made it very easy for me to see who wanted to read what. (The last column is usernames, which I have cut off on purpose, but is obviously really important to this kind of use for the form.)

Another thing I use the forms to collect is information about how they are progressing on a long-term assignment. For this form, I wanted to know which person versus society conflict they had chosen to research from their Civil Rights book group, why they had chosen that one, and what information they already had.

This form will give you either individual or summary responses and can also be exported into a spreadsheet. The individual responses just look like the form filled out, and the summary response view gives you a list of all of the answers to each question. It also provides a quick view list at the top of who has and has not responded - a very important tool for managing assignments, at least for me.

This is just the start of the first question ("What conflict did you choose?"). The pie chart - which updates in real time and is sort of cool to watch if you have time! - is what percentage of each class responded.

One app I would like to get better at using is Google Calendar. I think it would be great for collaborating professionally - then my colleagues and I wouldn't have to call or email each other to schedule all of our meetings - and I probably wouldn't forget things or have to use a dozen post-its stuck to my laptop. David Lee's ed tech blog seems like a good place to start for me, and although I've know about TeacherCal for a while, I haven't really used it, and it seems like this would be cool. Finally, this video brings me full circle: back to the beginning of this entry where I said that Google has done extraordinary things that are applicable for education specifically. I love it. You can attach documents to your calendar! Who knew? (Probably everyone else, but not me. :) ) You can also share the calendar so your co-teacher can edit and view! (I did know that, but I'm excited about it all over again.) 

P.S. This video is from 2014, but I think the basic information is the same. I'll find out when I try!