Part 3: Launch and Reflect

I've played this game with my 7th grade health students before and the overall experience was really positive. The students were immediately engaged because they are familiar with Kahoot and love the competition style of review that it encourages. There was laughter, focus, and plenty of discussion after each question. I noticed that the instant feedback kept everyone involved, and even my quieter students participated more than usual. I would love to add visuals to the questions to appeal to different learning styles. Overall, the activity helped me quickly assess understanding while giving students a chance to learn collaboratively and celebrate their knowledge in a more interactive way.

Brad HorriganKahoot reflection        

The overall Kahoot experience was a good one. I used this with a small group ENL class of the three fifth grade students. The Kahoot that I designed was about the elements of fictional texts (characters, plot, setting, conflict, POV…) I like Kahoot because it is both a learning tool and an assessment, operating simultaneously.

The students were engaged with Kahoot. The boys have plenty of energy and were excited that Kahoot was the day’s offering for our small group work. They were familiar (from other classes) with the interface and eager to participate. Anytime competition is introduced, they are more engaged. The students responded well, had fun, and learned/demonstrated knowledge. It was not a whole-class activity, in my case. But it worked equally well in a small group.      

One thing that I might consider before next time would be to do an extra review of the material before the Kahoot. We had done so in the previous class, but I need to remember that that doesn’t always carry over as well from day to day, for my English-language learners. This, of course, is more of an instructional improvement for me to work on than it is a Kahoot issue. Another thing that I might do differently next time, is give less time for the responses. Even though my students are ELLs, it seemed as though that they knew it or didn’t know it, in much less time than I allotted. There was down time after they selected their answer (guessing or knowing).

Overall, I would say that students enjoy playing Kahoot! I teach high school students who are juniors and seniors, and I was surprised by their participation in the Kahoot! I think one of the things that makes the Kahoot! exciting for them is that I use it sparingly. I use the Kahoot! about once per unit either as a pre-assessment to see what knowledge the students are arriving with or as a review in preparation for a summative assessment. 

For the most part students are fairly engaged when I show them a Kahoot! I think that I've had to learn how to keep the questions short and to the point. If I have too many questions, or if I spend too much time on the questions, students initially start off willing to participate, but get bored easily. I also have to make sure that I don't have too little time on the individual questions or students will become frustrated that it's going too quickly and check out. 

I think the next time I do a Kahoot! I'd be interested in having students provide questions as a form of review and then put in a question from each student as long as they meet my question criteria. This would be a way to ensure engagement because it would allow students to see their own work. I also think it would be a good way for them to receive a variety of creative questions. 

•   I played Kahoot with students in a 5th grade small group speech therapy session to work on articulation targets. I thought that this would be a fun way to engage my students in a new way! When I first mentioned that Kahoot is what we were playing, all my students seemed vary excited to play. They were able to be creative with their nicknames for the game and had fun interacting with each other to guess who each person was! 

I was able to differentiate the activity to fit all the children's goals into the same activity. It was a fun new way to work on their targets. The pacing of the activity was nice because we would stop after each question to work on our targets before moving forward. I enjoyed the pacing because it kept students engaged and motivated to work hard to get to the next question.
Since it was a small group, it was difficult for the placements (first, second, third) to change unless someone got an answer wrong. If I were to play this again, I would see if there was a setting to hide the scores until the end or to do it without scores, as some students became a little upset that it was hard to move places. With encouragement, they were able to keep trying, however I would try to change this to prevent any issues from occurring. 

This Kahoot! was created for third graders who need additional practice with using equal groups to solve.. They were very excited to play and every student was engaged. They told me they want to play Kahoot! everyday. They were given 30 seconds to draw their equal groups to determine the answer. The students who struggle with skip counting took longer, so I would definitely include additional slides to provide skip counting practice. 

The students were excited to play. This was created for third graders who have been introduced to multiplication. They were given time to draw the equal groups and determine the answer. I would like to. Students who struggle with skip counting took more time to solve. I would include more slides so they can practice skip counting.

The class loves it! it is easy and quick for students to login which allows you to do it fast without making it a hassle. Students were working on math without even realizing it. They were engaged and having fun while answering the questions. The love doing a Kahoot and would play all day long. I also like how it tells the students the right answer if they get it wrong, possibly next time I could use it in a flipped classroom model where students don't know the topic but figure it out and gain curiosity as they play before they learn about the topic. 

Overall experience:  Much better way to review procedures were the students were motivated and engaged and reviewing what I needed them to.


Engagement:  100 percent engagement and I was able to check for understanding.


Whole-class pacing:  It was perfect allowing enough time for everyone to do the thinking and answer and allowing me to elaborate if I needed to

What might you do differently next time:  Sometimes questions might be better off in a different question type.  I noted the change and edited it already for next time.

Since I am completing this badge during the summer, I cannot say how it went in class.  Now that I have created a Kahoot I can see the value as using this as a type of informal assessment. I think it would be most beneficial if I created a kahoot at the beginning of a topic (pre-assessment) for both the students and myself to see what they already know. At the end of the topic I would use the same Kahoot as a post assessment.

• Overall experience?

Students loved using their ipads to play an educational game. They loved seeing who was winning after each round. It helped that I could see who gave which answers so I could monitor understanding of the topic. Used as a review before a formal assessment. Could easily see what needed to be addressed again when multiple students had confusion with a question. 

• Engagement?
1. Most of the students were very engaged. More engagement than having students using a worksheet and still provided enough evidence of student progress. Students were excited and eager to play and answer each question. 
• Whole-class pacing?
2. Some students need more time reading/ being read the question and answers. 30 second response was too quick for some students. 
• What might you do differently next time?
3. Showing a demonstration of how to play first with the students before having them participate with their ipads. Turning off the 30 second timer response. Creating rules with the class about shouting out the answers.