Let me begin by saying that I do not work for Plickers, nor do I own any portion of the company... though I wish I did.
Plickers are paper clickers. This free app allows you to get feedback from all of your students in a matter of seconds. Here is how it works. You print out a set of Plickers cards (shown below). They each take up only a half sheet of paper, and they look a bit like the old Atari Space Invaders. I call them "alien letters". On top of each side of the card, there is a small letter: A, B, C, or D. The teacher asks students a multiple choice question. The student holds the card toward the teacher with the letter of their answer choice on top. The teacher can then scan the classroom in a matter of just a few seconds with an iPad or smart phone. Here is the amazing part: the teacher instantly sees the name of each student pop up over the card in either red or green. Green means they got the answer correct, while red means that it is wrong. When finished scanning, the teacher can see the class results as a whole or see a list of individual students. You can even see these results on your computer, and display the results to the class! |
Another bonus to this is that students who are reluctant to share their answers with the class will actually give you feedback. Since every student's card is different, no one knows what answer any other student is holding up. It is virtually impossible for a student to cheat off another one, unless they can see that tiny letter on top... and it is tiny! When asking students to raise their hands if their answer is A, then B, and so on, it seems impossible to get very high participation. Plickers forces every student to participate. You can even quickly look at your mobile device as you are scanning to see who has not answered.
Let me describe to you how amazing this app worked in my classroom on my first attempt. In my first class-- an ENL class with extremely low participation when I ask for a show of hands or ask for volunteers-- the students were all extremely engaged in the problems that I was having them solve. These were just dull review problems involving factoring. Nothing fancy at all. I just projected a question, gave them time to work it out, and then asked for them to show me their card for their answer. Everyone was into it, and everyone was holding up a card. It was miraculous for this class! I was observed by an administrator later in the day, and she immediately sent a message to the principal, telling him that he had to see this. If you aren't completely sold yet, you just need to trust me and try it out.
Let me describe to you how amazing this app worked in my classroom on my first attempt. In my first class-- an ENL class with extremely low participation when I ask for a show of hands or ask for volunteers-- the students were all extremely engaged in the problems that I was having them solve. These were just dull review problems involving factoring. Nothing fancy at all. I just projected a question, gave them time to work it out, and then asked for them to show me their card for their answer. Everyone was into it, and everyone was holding up a card. It was miraculous for this class! I was observed by an administrator later in the day, and she immediately sent a message to the principal, telling him that he had to see this. If you aren't completely sold yet, you just need to trust me and try it out.
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In addition to being free, this app is extremely simple to use and does not require much time to set up. Here is how to do it:
Download the Plickers app wherever you normally go to get your apps. Apple users, choose "iPhone only" in order to find it. (Don't worry. It still works on the iPad.) Go to www.plickers.com and set up a free account. Once you're in, click CARDS at the top and print a set of cards for yourself. While you may be tempted to print the larger ones, think again! Students in front will block the ones in back if they have large cards. Your device will read the small cards just fine. I do suggest that you print them on neon-colored cardstock so that it is more durable and so that students do not accidentally mistake the card for one of their own papers. Lamination might not be a great idea because of the reflection, but if someone else is doing the laminating for you, I guess it's no big loss if it doesn't work. You will just have to print a new set of cards. |
Create a class by clicking CLASSES, then ADD NEW CLASS. Now is where organization is important. I strongly recommend numbering the seats in your seating chart before entering names. Once you have done this, enter the name of the student in seat #1, then seat #2, and so on. If you come to an empty seat, just name that student "X" or something that lets you know that desk is empty that period. Continue until you have finished the entire class. Then, add your other classes using the same method. There is also a "Copy & Paste" option that allows you to enter all of your students at once if you already have a list of them ready to paste in. Place the 1 card on desk 1, the 2 card on desk 2, and so on. Tell students to never take their card to another desk, and you will never have to bother with changing the cards, even if you have multiple classes.
Create a set of questions by clicking on LIBRARY. I recommend numbering the questions as you enter them. For example, "1 Which is a quadratic trinomial?" That way, you know what order to select the questions as you are teaching. In addition to the question, Plickers also gives you space to type your answer choices. Personally, I just type the question number in the question space and leave everything else blank and project my own pre-made questions for students to see. However, you could also project the Plickers site, which would display your question and answer choices, too. Most importantly, you need to select which answer is correct. Another important item to note is that you must assign each item to a class. Click on the icon that looks like a calendar and choose ADD TO PLAN. Select the name of each class where you want to use the question.
Once you have entered your questions and assigned them to classes, you are ready for action! Take out your iPad (or other mobile device), and click on the Plickers app. Then select the class that you wish to poll.
Once you choose a class, you will see a list of all of the questions that you can ask that particular class, along with the number of students who have already responded to that question from that class.
When you select a question, you will see the question that you created, along with its answer choices. In addition, you will see at least the first eight students from your class listed below the answer choices. You can easily see the rest of them by swiping up.
Click on the camera icon at the bottom of the screen to begin scanning. You can stand right in the front of the room to do this. Don't feel like you have to get a close-up of each card. The app will read the cards from very far away. Your only problem occurs when students put their thumbs over the alien letter on the card. Even a millimeter of the alien letter being covered up by a thumb will make it so that your device does not read the card. The only other problem I have had is when students hold their card diagonally. Obviously, if you could not tell which side of the card is "up," then neither can your device. As you scan, your students' names should appear, along with their answer choice. You can easily scroll through all of your students' names at the top to see whose name is in white (has still not answered), red (wrong), or green (correct). No, my son's name is not really Bubba.
When you finish scanning, press the check mark at the bottom of the screen. Your device will show you all of the results from that question. If you realize that you missed someone or if someone wants to change their answer, just click on the camera icon again to pick up any stragglers.
While you are scanning the class using your device, your computer (if you choose to use it) will display the question that you are doing, along with live, real-time results. You have many options for what you can display. If you are displaying this to the class, you will probably want to choose the option that simply shows a check mark next to each student's name whose card has been scanned. If you are not displaying it for all to see, you could always click the "reveal answer" button to show the answer that each student chose. As always in Plickers, green is good; red is bad. You may also wish to click on the GRAPH tab, which allows you to reveal the answers of the entire class as a whole. This allows you to more easily see trends of the whole class.
When class is over and you want to see which students need additional review tomorrow, you can always return to your computer. All of the results from each class are saved for you. You can even filter the questions by class.
Once you have finished using a question, you can either permanently delete it, OR you may choose to "archive" the question. This allows you to save it for later (perhaps during final exam review or even next year) without it junking up your workspace when you are scrolling through questions the next time you use Plickers.
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]
Please check out my store for tons of algebra and trigonometry materials at The Algebra Awesomeness Warehouse. Search for "Plickers" to find materials that I am beginning to create for this app.
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]
Please check out my store for tons of algebra and trigonometry materials at The Algebra Awesomeness Warehouse. Search for "Plickers" to find materials that I am beginning to create for this app.