Quizlet Live: Recent Post on Quizlet

May 2, 2016May 2, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Keeping Students Engaged: A Teacher’s Quick Guide to Quizlet Live

News · Posted by Amalia 3 hours ago

This is a guest blog post by Rachelle Dene Poth, a teacher who uses Quizlet Live with her classes.

As a teacher winding down the school year, it seems we need something extra to keep students motivated and engaged. Fortunately, in today’s learning environment there are a lot of great resources available for use in classrooms that are tremendously beneficial for both teachers and students. The use of digital tools like Quizlet have introduced new methods for teachers to deliver instruction, personalize learning, and engage students in and outside of the classroom.

I frequently use Quizlet with my foreign language students to help them practice vocabulary and verb conjugations. Since Quizlet makes learning more personalized, I typically create study sets related to the chapter we are covering in class, or track their progress through Quizlet by creating sets dedicated to terms that my students are struggling with. What’s most helpful is the variety of activities Quizlet offers students to do at any time, ranging from flashcards, practice tests, audio activities, and playing a game of Scatter or Gravity. With countless ways to use Quizlet, I’m excited to share my experience with Quizlet Live, which I had the opportunity to beta test with my students.

My first game!

With the recent addition of Quizlet Live to my classroom, students have been more engaged and eager to learn new material with this interactive game. When I first tested the game, I let students figure out how to answer questions as a team, which improved their focus on selecting the correct answer. Although students typically sit with their respective teams when playing Quizlet Live, my students decided to remain in their seats and call out their team name, or in Spanish (i.e. “tengo” or “no tengo”), to signify whether or not they had the right answer. I noticed that when students chose not to sit with their team, they were more mindful of their own answers, working through each choice. As the game progressed, they learned the mechanics more quickly and wanted to play over and over again.

Letting students learn on their own

Not only did I enjoy seeing their excitement and desire to keep playing the game, it was rewarding to see them truly learn the material and work through the activity on their own as well as on a team. My foreign language students told the other class about Quizlet Live and it was great to hear them so eager to share their experience. Without much delay, the second class started the game and I shared a few pointers that I learned from the previous group. I knew how to guide students with the second beta test and wanted them to figure out how the game worked on their own. My involvement was briefly as a facilitator, then as an observer. This helped me assess what they could learn on their own and also encouraged students to help each other. I could work with them individually or within the groups, be involved in their thought processes and problem solving, and ultimately use this information to guide my next steps in the lesson.

Since testing Quizlet Live, my students have asked to play Quizlet Live every day and they tell me that it really helps their critical thinking skills since they can retain vocabulary better with the repeat practice.

Key tips for getting the most when using Quizlet Live

Pick a study set with at least 12 terms for the students to practice. Give a brief explanation of how the game works, then let them figure it out on their own and use their experience to guide the next game.
Have at least 6 players since the game will generate 3-4 players on a team. Each team is assigned an animal name and you can see the progress of each team as you go through the 12 questions. The first team to answer 12 questions correctly wins, but if an incorrect answer is selected, the team starts back at zero and has to earn points again to clear their board. As questions appear, each student starts with 4 possible answers on their screen. One member of the team has the right answer, the other members can only see blocks below each team member’s name. As answers are used, the blocks below each member’s name show a checkmark. Players can only see their their answers and the game continues until one team reaches 12.
Shuffle the teams after a few games to provide new opportunities for students to collaborate with each other, and shuffle the card sets to get new terms and practice as much as possible.
Make sure to complete the review with your students, which can be done with Quizlet Live’s feature. Once the game is over you can review the study set to assess and give feedback, and the students also see the correct answers on their screens during the game.
Collaboration is key! Teamwork truly makes learning successful and I’ve seen my students become more engaged with their peers as they work together to master new material. In addition to providing new learning experiences, giving valuable feedback to the students helps them grow.

Quizlet Live is free to all teachers, and just requires signing up for a Quizlet account to start. Inject a new study activity in the classroom and see the positive effect it has on your students!

Rachelle Dene Poth teaches French and Spanish at RIverview Junior-Senior High School in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. She can be reached at rdene915@gmail.com @rdene915 or through her website: www.rdene915.wordpress.com

Integrating Technology: Edutopia discussion

April 25, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

EdutopiaApril19

An updated post from a prior blog I wrote for Edueto Magazine.

Integrating Technology: Getting Started with the First Steps
RELATED TAGS: Technology Integration,Classroom Technology,All Grades,All Subjects
More Related Discussions

Rachelle Dene Poth
Posted 04/19/2016 9:36PM | Last Commented 04/19/2016 9:36PM

Every day, there are tons of discussions to be found through social media, online resources, conversations with colleagues and more. Becoming involved in Twitter chats or being a member in a Google Community or other Learning Network, are ways to access some of the resources that describe the best ways, the best tools, and the best ideas for integrating technology in the classroom. Educating oneself about the tools available and best strategies for integrating technology into the classroom is never a bad idea. But the most important thing is that there has to be a first step. Teachers have to take a chance and find some way to integrate technology into the classroom. Not all teachers may feel comfortable with the idea of technology integration, and may find themselves on varying ends of the spectrum of what I will refer to as being technology savvy.

Teachers who have taught around 20 years or were 80s children like myself, have seen many changes in the world of technology from the entrance of Apple computers and programming in the early 1980s to the start of the Internet in the nineties to cloud computing and other emerging technologies today. There will continue to be more tremendous and innovative changes in technology available.

I was an 80s child and I have grown up in the age of computing, fascinated at the opportunity to program computers in 7th grade. Because of this fascination and continued interest in learning about the tools available, incorporating technology into my classroom was not something I was afraid to do nor would I consider that it has been a seamless process either. Risks are always involved when trying something new such as integrating technology. With any new venture comes many questions such as where to begin, how to begin and what is the best way to use the new tech so it does not interfere with the learning process.

Getting Started

So where to begin? This is the most difficult question when first starting. There are some things that you have to ask yourself. How comfortable are you with computers and web 2.0 tools? For several years, I had been using technology with my students in the form of some online language learning games and activities, or occasionally had students’ complete projects using word processing or some other presentation software. Besides these occasional activities, other than audio and video resources for my course, the technology use in my classroom was limited. Although at the time, I thought that I was really providing a variety of technology opportunities for my students.

The Changing Point

I had attended a national conference and realized that there were so many possibilities out there for enhancing learning experiences and new ways to engage students, so I reflected a bit to figure out what I could add to my classroom that would benefit my students and bring about positive changes.

I also asked myself, what is it that I am not offering my students, and also, what is something that the students could do as well, to enhance their experiences.

For my classroom, it came down to what I have referred to as a “disconnect” between my students, our class and their access to the vital resources. I focused on finding something that could make a difference. I decided to start with finding a way to facilitate communication.

Communication Resources: Why We Need Them

We have all experienced this in our classrooms. How many times have your students come in to class after a long weekend, with questions about the homework, that they did not complete because they did not understand it? And then there are the times when students missed class and appeared the start of class, wondering what they missed in their absence. These situations led me to find Celly. Celly is a messaging tool that can be used in many ways. When I started, it was simply a way for me to send reminders to students, to be accessible for their questions, to provide helpful resources and to be available when the students needed, which often was later in the evening or during the weekend when they were working on their assignments and had the questions appear.

So how did this impact my classroom? It quickly helped to solve the problem of the “disconnect”. Integrating Celly into my classroom was the first step in a series of changes that I made to my classroom procedures that has brought about many positive changes in the educational experiences I provide for my students. Most importantly for me, it provides the students with a way to get help when they need it. If this sounds like something that could benefit your classroom, try one of the many great messaging tools available. There are many choices and it simply takes starting with one, working with it and seeing how it can impact your classroom and students. Once you feel comfortable with your choice, then start thinking about another way that you can add to the learning experience in your classroom. Just remember to find what works best for YOU and your students, that is an important aspect to keep in mind. Integrating technology is great when it adds to the experience and provides new opportunities and extends learning and communication. But the important thing to remember is that it has to be beneficial for your classroom.

Another Step for Communication and Collaboration.

After some time had passed and new ways for using Celly had been found, I started looking for something else that I could improve in my classroom. This would be the next step for you as well. It might be finding a way to keep your class materials organized and accessible for students or find the requirements for a project that’s due the next day. Or maybe you post some many web tools and review activities that you have shared with them. If these sound like some areas that may be beneficial, then what you need is a Learning Management System or a classroom website. For myself, this was the next step and after some research I found Edmodo.

I have made presentations at conferences and my message is the same, which is this: There are many wonderful learning management systems available and options for creating websites, and depending on where and what you teach, Edmodo may or may not be the best choice for you. But I believe that each classroom should have a common site. For my classroom Edmodo has been a great choice. I have worked with many of the other options and I can tell you what you might want to know about them. I have continued to use Edmodo because my students stay with me throughout their Spanish studies, and it makes sense to keep them in the system, so they can see their growth, so I can track their progress and have access to the materials which then become a part of their digital portfolio. Maybe an LMS is not what you want but instead you choose to create a website, for example through Google sites, Google Classroom, Weebly or even use Wikispaces as a way to post resources and links. No matter what you choose you can’t go wrong. Creating a space online for your class materials and to communicate with your students is a great idea and you will see the benefits of this.

Making the Decision

In my experiences, referring back to that feeling of “disconnect”, I hope it is clearer now how these two tools really helped to solve that problem. By choosing a messaging tool or creating a class websites or using an LMS, either would serve to promote the communication and collaboration with the students, have class materials and resources readily available, but in my classroom, having both of these in place enhances the learning experiences and support I provide for my students. I have new options for ways to communicate with students, different ways to assess their learning, and students have more support available through these communication and collaboration tools.

So now it is your turn. Think about your students and your classroom. Ask yourself, what is something that could help make the learning experience better? Is there something that you would like to change? Think about it and when you figure out what that one thing is, do a bit of research, find a tool, start small and build. Try it within your classroom and give it some time. You may decide that it is not working as you had hoped, and that is part of the learning process. Give it some time. It is a risk to try something new and different, but well worth it. Sometimes we are successful and other times we are not, and this is something that as educators we need to experience as well. We have to model challenges and struggles for our students, to show it is okay to try something new, to set goals, and that there will be challenges along the way. It is part of learning, reflecting and continuing to grow.

If you have wanted to integrate more technology into your classroom, now is the time to start. Find something, work with it and keep going. It is an ongoing learning process and well worth it for you and your students.

So keep wondering, taking risks, and be persistent.

But more than that, be patient. Learning has no time limit.

Retelling the Story: Kidblog post

April 19, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thank you Kidblog, my recent post published April 14, 2016

Retelling the Story: What Comes Next?

APRIL 14, 2016 • RACHELLE DENE POTH •

My prior blog posts have focused on the benefits of blogging for students and teachers in the classroom. Some of these posts included using blogs as a way to encourage students to write freely without fear of mistakes, as a way to build relationships with classmates and the teacher, and as a way to create with a new language and build their vital language skills. In addition to these, there are many ways to use blogs in place of a traditionally used assignment or assessment. It is simple to set up a loose prompt for students and use their blog as a way to assess their learning in relation to topics covered in class, while welcoming creativity.

Retelling the story:

Recently, I have used blogging as a means for students to retell portions of a story that we have been reading in class in a way that helps them better understand the meaning of the book. In my Spanish class, we use leveled readers throughout the year to build our language skills. Sometimes we will discuss the readers in class and other times students may complete a worksheet with comprehension questions. While, these are both great methods to determine what students have learned, they do not allow for student creativity or differentiation. To assure all students have the opportunity to be involved in the discussion, expressing their creative views and offering insights, I have the students blog.

What happens next?

Recently, I assigned the students the task of reading a chapter in the Spanish reader “Amigos Detectives” and asked them to write about what they read. I gave some guiding questions to provide ideas and spark their creativity. In addition to answering some of my questions, I asked the students to either predict what may come next in the story or to create a new title for the current or next chapter. Later, I asked them to create their own chapter and give some of the highlights of what might happen to the main characters. This encourages deeper thinking and creativity, while the blogging medium gives the students an opportunity to share their ideas and opinions on a higher level.

Student example

The benefit:

Giving blog assignments related to a reading has increased the levels of comprehensive reading being done by my students. The requirements given, a summarization, retelling the story, or creating a next chapter, lead to more student involvement in the reading process and makes it more interesting and personal process. Students are able to choose how they demonstrate comprehension of the language, which increases student motivation. Additionally, it provides a great prompt for classroom discussion. Using blogs as the medium enables students to narrate in their own personal way and hopefully have fun in the process.

Blogging provides a more engaging way to have students show what they have learned, to express what interested them, and to create with the language. Students truly enjoy sharing story predictions and choosing our favorites from the newly created titles.

How I Got Started Using Technology To Assess Student Learning

March 30, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thank you Terry Heick for publishing this post today in TeachThought.

How I Got Started Using Technology To Assess Student Learning

by Rachelle Dene Poth

If you are looking for another way to integrate technology into your classroom, why not start with assessment?

In order to learn what our students need and how we can better design our lessons to prepare them, we use formative and summative assessments. Assessments are vital in for determining what learning has occurred, what areas need to be reinforced, and what our next steps must be. This kind of information helps to guide our instruction and provide additional opportunities for our students. Assessments give us the information we need to provide feedback to them, to guide their learning, and to set new goals.

(See ‘The Most Important Question Every Question Should Answer.’)

Providing timely, relevant learning feedback is essential to personal growth and reflection for student learning. So how can we make assessments more effective, informative and engaging too?

Why use technology for assessments?

Depending on the number of classes and students in each class, creating assessments in a variety of forms, grading them and providing feedback in a timely manner, can become quite time consuming. However, with the numerous digital tools available, teachers have many choices available for assessing students.

Options exist for using quick entrance and exit slips, surveys, having students interact in discussions both in and outside of the classroom, just for a few examples. There are so many possibilities, and what’s even better is how quickly results are obtained, can be evaluated and feedback provided to the students.

Teachers have choices in the types of feedback they receive. In addition to live results, teachers can save data in downloadable spreadsheets, receive emails with the results and some tools offer other formats as well. These all enhance the ability of teachers to further their understanding of where the students are in terms of their learning and what areas need a bit more focus and instruction.

What changes will you notice in your classroom?

As a foreign language teacher, I need to assess my students regularly because learning a foreign language, especially at the lower levels, requires an ongoing evaluation of the students’ understanding and ability to use the language. Providing regular feedback is critical for students to learn structure, build their vocabulary and enhance the four language skills.

Teachers with larger classes find that providing assessments and giving feedback to the students in a timely manner can be challenging and need a way to make this process easier. However, sometimes due to other time constraints, or the length of assessments, grading student work and returning it the next day, in spite of one’s best efforts, is not always possible, and for this there are solutions.

With the variety of digital tools available, many of these concerns have disappeared and make a tremendous difference in the efficiency of classrooms and teaching procedures, and the types of assessments that teachers can create for students to meet the diverse learning styles.

Where to begin: What are some tools to start with?

Using tools such as GoFormative, Kahoot!, Quizizz, Riddle, SurveyMonkey, and others like these, I have quickly created discussion questions, quizzes, reflection surveys, or combination of all of these. There are so many options for creating formative assessments by using any of these and other tools available today. As the students finish, teachers can see the live results or download the results directly to their computer, and can analyze the data in a variety of ways. It is a great way to focus on the needs of each individual student, but also for the class as a whole, to address what the areas are that the students need some help with.

Integrating tools for assessment such as these, makes the use of entrance and exit slips easier and quicker to use. Having students complete an entrance slip for example, using one of these tools at the beginning of a period, enables you to have the results within a few minutes and use this valuable feedback to help guide the lesson for the day and make changes as needed based on the data. The results can then provide valuable feedback to the students, one on one, and help them to work on their personal growth and reflection.

Teachers can refer back to the results to track student growth, to note patterns in certain classes or students, and to work with students on determining strengths and weaknesses. I have found it very beneficial to my professional growth and use these results to reflect on my instructional methods. Paper assessments get lost but assessments created using one of these tools are stored and can be referred to as often as needed.

Benefits of using digital tools for assessment

So many options are available for assessing students, giving them a way to express thoughts, learning and be involved in the classroom. These tools enable teachers to conduct this type of evaluative work faster, decreases the paperwork, and provides more time for working with the students using the data. Students benefit because they have this feedback when they need it most and also learn additional vital technology skills in the process.

Some quick examples: Use GoFormative to have students complete assessments in class, respond to them with feedback instantly and track their progress. They can draw, write, watch a video and much more. Kahoot! and Quizizz can be used in class as an engaging way to assess students and then use the information to focus on areas which need review. Quizizz can even be assigned as homework, which students actually ask for.

And taking it a step further, students can create their own games with either of these, further enhancing their learning and involvement in the course. Riddle and SurveyMonkey can be used for quizzes, reflective surveys, and more, it all depends on what your needs are.

These are just a few of many ways to use these tools. Each of the tools mentioned can be used in any grade level or subject area and they do not require students to create an account but can be shared simply through a shareable URL, posted on a class website or written on the board. The ability to design, share and evaluate students using these and other tools is remarkable.
So if you’re looking for better, more effective ways to provide feedback to your students, and to reduce the amount of paper used, I recommend trying out one of these tools.

There are many options available but these are just a few that I used when I started integrating more technology into my classroom and that have had a tremendous impact on the assessments I have created for students. My students have responded positively and truly enjoy having alternate ways to show what they know and can do with the material.

Using these tools really enables teachers to personalize instruction and help students to reach their fullest potential in the classroom.

Images from each website

Promote Student Expression through Storytelling

March 19, 2016March 19, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth 1 Comment

Published on March 17, 2016 by Kidblog. Thankful for the opportunity to be a Blogger for Kidblog.

Promote Student Expression through Storytelling

MARCH 17, 2016 • RACHELLE DENE POTH

Depending on particular class content, concepts, or topics, blogging can have a strong, positive impact on several aspects of the learning process. Recently, I have found that providing students with a short prompt and having them create or tell a story has been extremely beneficial. In doing this, they not only build knowledge and skills in the relevant academic area, but also improve their writing, literacy, and critical thinking skills. In addition to these learning opportunities, blogging also gives students a means to build skills in technology and become reflective writers in the process.

One way to guide students in writing successful stories is to provide them with writing prompts. Typically, I aim to supply a writing prompt focused on a certain theme we have been covering in class. This assignment enables me to provide differentiation in their learning and lends itself to more student creativity and choice. I post a writing prompt related to a recent class lesson or theme and ask the students to be creative with their responses. Being a foreign language teacher, I often provide my students with a few specific elements that I would like the responses to contain. Depending on the content area, these elements range from the use of a specific verb or verb tense, a focus on grammar usage, topic of discussion, specific style of narration, or a method of debating an issue.

One example in a foreign language class may be discussing one’s childhood. By providing a prompt which asks for students to discuss their childhood, they are focused on narrating in the past tense and using specific themed vocabulary. By requiring students to use a few specific verbs in the blog, it helps to guide their practice with an area in which students may be having some difficulty.

Using blogging in this way has helped promote student discussion and creativity and has served as an alternate means for student assessment. It enables teachers to provide reinforcement of specific content in an individualized way that promotes more authentic learning. For students, it provides a unique way to complete a homework assignment, share ideas, and develop critical thinking skills and learning in multiple areas.

Kidblog has been an awesome medium to get students creating and writing in class. One feature of Kidblog that has helped increase engagement for students in any writing prompt and, in some cases, may also be used as a prompt itself, is the ability to add a photo to your post. Using the photo as a focus helps promote discussion and increase curiosity. Kidblog provides students with the option to enhance creativity through the diverse images and formatting choices. Images and customized formatting brings students’ writing to life and provides a way for instruction to be personalized for each student.

Giving students options empowers them in their choice for writing, and leads to a more engaging and fun learning experience.

Putting All Your Teaching In One Place With An LMS

March 4, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thanks again to Terry Heick for the opportunity! Originally published in TeachThought on February 10, 2016

Putting All Your Teaching In One Place With An LMS

by Rachelle Dene Poth

If you are starting to integrate technology into your classroom, it is easy to feel overwhelmed with so many options available.

The number of choices available for each area of integration are tremendous. The best advice I can give is to start with one thing at a time. Find an area that could use some enhancement, and work on it for a while. Learn about it, reflect on it, figure out if it truly is of benefit to your students and your classroom. The key words being you and your. It has to be something that will benefit your environment and your students.

Once you feel comfortable with what you have been using and your students are comfortable as well, then it is time to start thinking about something else that could help to improve the opportunities and learning in your classroom. There are many options, and I will share with you what my next step was, but it may not be the exact thing that you need. As a suggestion, perhaps the next step is to find a way to create more organization for your class materials.

How can your students access extra copies of their papers or review the requirements for a project that’s due the next day? Is there a way you have to share some web tools or review activities with them that is easily located? If not, this would be another great step. If this sounds like something that would be helpful, then what you might consider an LMS (Learning Management System).

Making The Choice

For myself, searching for a way to do all of these things was another way to solve the “disconnect” I felt was happening initially. So after doing some research, I came across Edmodo and decided to try it out for a while. Although I found and still use Edmodo, I will also say that there are many wonderful learning management systems available and depending on where and what you teach, Edmodo may or may not be the best choice for you.

But I believe that each classroom should have a common site. A place where teachers and students can access course materials, communicate and collaborate on assignments. A place where students can interact with their classmates and more importantly, receive help when needed.

For my classroom Edmodo is a great choice. I have spent time using and learning about several other LMS and I can tell you about them, because I think it is important to know the options. I have continued to use Edmodo because my students stay with me throughout their Spanish studies, and it makes sense to keep them in the system, so they can see their growth, so I can track their progress and have access to the materials which then become a part of their digital portfolio.

Maybe an LMS is not what you want but instead you choose to create a website, for example through edublogs, Google, Weebly, Wix or even use Wikispaces as a way to post resources and links. No matter what you choose you can’t go wrong. Centralizing your materials for your class and your students is a great idea and both you and them will benefit from it.

laptops-in-classroomc

What were the effects?

Going back for a moment to my initial word of “disconnect,” perhaps it is clearer now how these two tools really help to solve that problem. Individually either one would work in my favor to promote the communication and collaboration with the students and to make class materials and resources available.

However, the combination of them builds even more into what I can offer because the students can be assessed, they can have their voice expressed in many ways using Edmodo or Celly. Then, each year we can track their progress through tools like Edmodo. It took some time to learn how each of these could be used, but it was well worth it and I am still learning. And more importantly, the students are benefiting tremendously.

So again I ask you, what would help you the most? If you were asked to name one more thing that you could change, determine what that is, investigate and try something new. Take that first step, work with it and then continue to add more. Again, you may find that your choice is not the best but give it some time before making a final decision. There is always a risk involved, but as educators we are role models for our students.

Being a role model means taking a risk, confronting any roadblocks, and setting new goals after reflecting. All of these lead us to learning and growth and isn’t that what we want for our students?

Formative: How to make instruction individualized without making yourself crazy

February 14, 2016Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Thank you David Kwan for the opportunity to share this in the community and be a part of the Dream Team.

How to make instruction individualized without making yourself crazy

Rachelle Dene Poth

Having students complete different assessments or take the same assessment and trying to come to an understanding of the needs of the class as a whole as well as the individual student needs, is a very intricate part of what we as educators must do. As an educator, it is very important to be able to monitor the progress of and provide meaningful feedback for each of our students.The students rely on us for this feedback and guidance in order to help them learn the material, improve their skills and grow as a learner.This feedback is critical for their success and should be provided as frequently and timely as possible. Depending on the subject matter and the grade level that you teach, individualized instruction can prove to be quite time consuming and requires a lot of multitasking. For teachers, time management and keen observational skills are key.

It is so important that we provide learning experiences which are personalized to meet their needs and lead to mastery of the content material. So how do we do this? And how do we do this without driving ourselves crazy in the process and spending so much time on it that it takes away from our time to work with and support all of our students? Without the use of ed tech tools to help us create these assessments and provide learning opportunities and support for our students, we would end up only meeting the needs of a few students. So what can we do?

Edtech: Resource for tools to provide individualized instruction quickly

The answer quite simply is to turn to any of the wide variety of digital assessment tools that are now available. Through the numerous digital tools readily accessible to educators and learners, it is so much easier to provide individualized instruction and assess student needs. We can give students options in how they are assessed and learn from their responses, exactly what their needs are, instantly. Through these tools, we can analyze student data and provide feedback quickly, without the loss of valuable instructional time and lesson preparation time. And because these digital tools enable every action to be expedited, we used less time and keep ourselves sane in the process. Students need this feedback so it can help them develop their skills.

Edtech: Promotes student driven learning

Using some of the tools available also provides tremendous options for student assessment and also for student driven learning. Students can be assigned to create something to use as part of their learning process. The students have the opportunity to lead by designing practice assessments and sharing them with their class. They can then use the data from prior assessments to reflect and come up with a plan for their own learning goals, creating their personalized learning path through collaboration with the teacher. Working in this way helps students to become more empowered and have choices in their learning experiences;allows the teacher to facilitate the learning in the process. This is also great for working on those important relationships that help to build a solid foundation in the classroom environment.

SO what are the tools available to help us keep sane in this individualization process?

One example is using Go Formative. Students can engage in activities which enable teachers to see the live responses appear instantly and provide immediate written feedback to each student, when it is needed the most. Teachers see the responses as they are being entered and for some assessments in which students are “showing their work”, this is very valuable. For students, the ability to receive this immediate feedback leads to more engagement, increases instructional time and allows both the teacher and students to really focus on the needs and to plan next steps or provide extra practice as needed.

With Go Formative, teachers can set up class accounts, which will enable the teacher to fully monitor the work and provide ongoing feedback for the students with accounts. Activities can also be shared with students who do not have accounts yet by simply sharing the URL.

Other tools for individualization

Some other tools that I have found useful for some quick assessments and for having students complete activities are Kahoot, Quizizz, Riddle, Responster and Socrative. The type of information I want to get from my students, drives the decision for which of these I ultimately decide to use with my classes.

Possible uses for these tools: For student reflection

If you are looking for ways to find out if students have needs or concerns, or to have students reflect after an assessment or other activity,these tools provide options for question formats and do not require students to have an account. For example, for a general reflection, perhaps after midterm exams, I tend to create something using tools such as Responster or Socrative because of the data that is compiled and quickly available, and students can easily access the survey. The results from their responses can be accessed and analyzed live and saved for future reference. Being able to look at the student responses enables the teacher to really focus on their needs and also better understand the students, their backgrounds and make important connections.

For entrance and exit slips

If I want to assess my students on content or design something for use as a quick entrance or exit slip, I will use Kahoot, Quizizz or Riddle which provide engaging themes and lots of options for question choices and including images and other add-ins. Each of these also provide the ability for the teacher to see individual student responses and to save the results in various formats to use for providing feedback and also for helping students to see the areas they need to work on.

Overall benefits of edtech tools and how they improve individualized instruction

By using edtech tools, students can create their own assessments and activities, which can be used for their practice, geared toward their individual needs for the material. An additional benefit of this is that these student created assessments can be shared with the class, therefore providing more resources for everyone to use, enjoy and learn from. Another added benefit is that the teacher has the ability to see the needs of each individual student and also in the process of having students create these assessments and games, continues to provide the individualized instruction and practice they need and stays sane in the process.

So it really comes down to finding a resource that will help to provide enhanced learning opportunities for the students, better and faster ways to assess students and have that immediate feedback, and staying sane through it all. Digital tools like Go Formative are of tremendous benefit to teachers and students and facilitate the delivery of individualized instruction in many ways. And they help to make differentiation possible without going crazy while doing so.