Utilizing Plickers for Educational Purposes: A Guide
Introducing Plickers: A Simple and Cost-Effective Formative Assessment Tool
In today's digital age, finding tools that cater to classrooms without a device for every student can be a challenge. Plickers, an app-based polling tool, aims to bridge this gap by offering a low-tech solution for formative assessment.
Plickers allows teachers to collect on-the-spot assessment data without requiring students to have electronic devices. Instead, students respond by holding up printed special cards, which the teacher scans using a single device to capture live quiz results that can be instantly displayed to the class.
How to Use Plickers Effectively
Preparation is key when using Plickers. Teachers should prepare and print the Plickers cards ahead of time and familiarize themselves with the scanning app to ensure smooth operation during class. Questions should be clear, concise, and suitable for quick formative checks.
Teachers can take advantage of live result displays to address misconceptions immediately. It's important to teach students how to hold up their cards properly for accurate scanning. Plickers cards are numbered 1-40 (or 1-63) to allow individual student answers to be identified and tracked.
Advanced Features with Plickers Pro
While Plickers is free to use, a Pro version is available for $5.99/month (paid annually) with extra features. The Pro tier offers advanced content sharing and design, allowing teachers to create Sets with unlimited questions and collaborate with other Pro users.
Engaging Assessments with Plickers
Plickers can be used as a polling tool as well as a question-and-assessment system. It offers a check-it-later assessment style that is great for keeping track of all students. The app also allows the use of imagery for big picture-style question rounds, making it an engaging way to assess current knowledge.
Teachers can open a lesson or new subject using a set of questions to assess student knowledge with Plickers. Plickers can also be used mid-lesson to refresh on what's been taught and keep students alert and focused. Responses in Plickers are saved so that both students and teachers can see progress in that round of questioning.
Monitoring Student Progress with Plickers
Plickers offers a free scoresheet and question history reports on its website for teachers to track student progress over time. Teachers can print sets of Plickers cards for free, ranging from 40 to 63 cards in various fonts and sizes.
Additional Resources
For additional tips and tricks for using Plickers effectively, resources such as the New Teacher Starter Kit and Best Tools for Teachers may be helpful.
In conclusion, Plickers is an ideal tool for teachers seeking a simple, cost-effective, and engaging way to perform formative assessments without technology-heavy requirements. End a lesson with Plickers questions as a way to cement learning and see how students are taking in what's being taught.
- Teachers can use Plickers, an app-based polling tool, to collect on-the-spot assessment data without requiring students to have electronic devices, making it a cost-effective solution for formative assessment in classrooms where not every student has a device.
- Plickers cards are numbered 1-40 (or 1-63) to allow individual student answers to be identified and tracked, providing teachers with an effective way to monitor student progress over time using free scoresheet and question history reports available on Plickers' website.
- The Plickers Pro version offers advanced content sharing and design, allowing teachers to create Sets with unlimited questions and collaborate with other Pro users, making it easier to engage students with a variety of question types, including imagery for big picture-style question rounds.
- Students can use Plickers cards to respond to questions, which the teacher scans using a single device to capture live quiz results that can be instantly displayed to the class, providing teachers with opportunities to address misconceptions immediately and keep students engaged in the learning process.
