#4 Action (Reflect, Modify & next step)
This is the effective learning pyramid (created by Bethel & Maine) that I believe most of you have already seen this before. The top of the pyramid shows the “least effective” way to learn, while the base of the pyramid represents the “most effective” learning. My “Kahoot” assessment involved reading (students read the questions I created), discussion (students discuss and find out the correct answers) and perhaps little practice doing. According to the pyramid, I can make my assessment more effective.
Student centered, in my perspective, is one of the key concepts of effective learning. I always believe that students are the main character of their own “education story”, while teachers are the people to support and guide them moving to the correct path. According to MaCarthy, 2015, “Student-centered classrooms include students in planning, implementation, and assessments. Involving the learners in these decisions will place more work on them, which can be a good thing.”
Therefore one of the greatest improvements for me is to let students to create their own Kahoot question and test.
Student centered, in my perspective, is one of the key concepts of effective learning. I always believe that students are the main character of their own “education story”, while teachers are the people to support and guide them moving to the correct path. According to MaCarthy, 2015, “Student-centered classrooms include students in planning, implementation, and assessments. Involving the learners in these decisions will place more work on them, which can be a good thing.”
Therefore one of the greatest improvements for me is to let students to create their own Kahoot question and test.
These two questions were the questions I included in my survey after students completed my Unit 2 summative assessment Kahoot game, which also supported my thoughts. Students were enjoying in play this kind of game as well as enhancing their knowledge (according to the data last shown week). By creating their own test questions by using Kahoot, students can share and ask other students to take their test, and at the same time learn from each other with the format differ from the teacher. I found an interesting article about students creating their own test and ask their peer to take, and the result was awesome. During this process, students can practice and apply many skills such as what information should be included in the question, and how should they grade other students. Students will become the teachers/leaders to run their own assessment, teach other students the method, and share their creative skills and talent.
In addition, I really appreciated that we have time to share and talk to our critical friends. Art and Nathan gave me a wider point of view on pedagogy and methodology that made me to think even further. Since Kahoot is the game that everybody can create and play in anywhere. Therefore, it is possible that this learning format can go international in which to collaborate with students in other countries. Our school has partnerships with two schools in China and I have been to one of them. If I have the opportunity to engage in international (we called it envoy) program planning, I would like to try asking students in our school create English Kahoot questions and connect to the students in China to play. Mutually, students in China can create Mandarin Kahoot and connect to our students and play together.
This project gave me the opportunity to take the risk, disrupt my routine to improve my curriculum and teaching skills. I am very happy about the data, surprised about the improvement, and appreciate the feedback from students. I am a teacher and also a life-long learner. I should keep trying and exploring the resources that I can use to improve my teaching, planning and strategizing. Furthermore, I should unleash my talent to do something deeper that involved many different skills other than teaching. This is one of the reasons I decided to enroll in this program, so I can have more opportunity and obtain more skills to do something greater and provide better learning environment to learners.
Resources:
1. Learning Pyramid by National Training Laboratories, Bethel & Maine http://fitzvillafuerte.com/the-learning-pyramid.html
2. HOT Tests - Student Created Assessments by Kirch, 2013 http://flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com/2013/04/hot-tests-student-created-assessments.html
3, Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher by McCarthy, 2015 https://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-centered-learning-starts-with-teacher-john-mccarthy
1. Learning Pyramid by National Training Laboratories, Bethel & Maine http://fitzvillafuerte.com/the-learning-pyramid.html
2. HOT Tests - Student Created Assessments by Kirch, 2013 http://flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com/2013/04/hot-tests-student-created-assessments.html
3, Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher by McCarthy, 2015 https://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-centered-learning-starts-with-teacher-john-mccarthy
#3 Study
In the past two weeks, I provided my computer-based assessments by using Kahoot to my grade 5 students.
I am very excited about the result and the data I collected. I collected data by using 3 different formats: Pre-post assessment score, immediate rating from Kahoot, and the survey I created by using Kahoot. Collecting data, studying and analyzing is a crucial stage, which helps me determine whether my assessment is meaningful, effective, and fun as an accelerator to improve my teaching and students’ learning. According to Guidera (2015), CEO of Data Quality Campaign,
"To make sure the positive developments in student achievement from data use continue, policymakers should keep the beam of good data use lighting the way forward toward better learning outcomes for every child,"
Below is the data I collected and analyzed from my pre-post assessment. My pre-post assessment was on the vocabularies students have learned in unit 2. I asked students to do the pre-assessment at the beginning of class, and I asked students to do the same assessment again after playing the Kahoot try-out.
I am very excited about the result and the data I collected. I collected data by using 3 different formats: Pre-post assessment score, immediate rating from Kahoot, and the survey I created by using Kahoot. Collecting data, studying and analyzing is a crucial stage, which helps me determine whether my assessment is meaningful, effective, and fun as an accelerator to improve my teaching and students’ learning. According to Guidera (2015), CEO of Data Quality Campaign,
"To make sure the positive developments in student achievement from data use continue, policymakers should keep the beam of good data use lighting the way forward toward better learning outcomes for every child,"
Below is the data I collected and analyzed from my pre-post assessment. My pre-post assessment was on the vocabularies students have learned in unit 2. I asked students to do the pre-assessment at the beginning of class, and I asked students to do the same assessment again after playing the Kahoot try-out.
There were 5-6 students improve their score after playing this review game, while 1-2 students dropped their score (The other students remain the same). I was surprised that there were two students improved their score from 20% and 50% to 90%. In addition, 5A and 5C improved the average score by 3% and 5B had even more. Since we have already done a review activity before this project, I was not surprised the purpose of this try-out was to enhance their knowledge for most of the students. The improved average score each class was significant and I considered this was an effective review assessment. After completing this game, I received the immediate feeling from each group; most of the groups liked and recommended this assessment.
The positive result of my try-out supported me to continue my project with deeper content. I then created a unit summative assessment by using the same format (Please see some examples below). Students were allowed to use the worksheet and flashcards they completed earlier, but they have to be aware of the time limit.
The following is how I grade students based on their points. Before providing the game to students, I tested that if students can get all the questions correct, the minimum points they received will be 9000. The shorter time they spend to select the correct answer, the more point they would receive as bounce. All the groups received at least 92% on this assessment.
After play the unit assessment Kahoot, I also created a survey in order to get the data and feedback from students. For what I have learned so far in this course, I understand that getting feedback from others is one of the keys to improve my teaching plan, strategies and curriculum.
“Student feedback can heighten instructional effectiveness and thereby improve the quality of education.” (Seldin, 1997)
Online survey is one of the effective ways that we can provide as one of the 21st century learning tools. The benefit I found from Vanderbilt University stated, “online surveys can do a better job of preserving your students’ anonymity and thus increase their ability to be honest in their responses.”
Here are my survey questions and data I analyzed (Students completed the survey as group; the group they do the Kahoot assessment)
“Student feedback can heighten instructional effectiveness and thereby improve the quality of education.” (Seldin, 1997)
Online survey is one of the effective ways that we can provide as one of the 21st century learning tools. The benefit I found from Vanderbilt University stated, “online surveys can do a better job of preserving your students’ anonymity and thus increase their ability to be honest in their responses.”
Here are my survey questions and data I analyzed (Students completed the survey as group; the group they do the Kahoot assessment)
Most of the groups felt that the game was challenging and fun, they were paying attention most of the time, and they applied what they’ve learned in this unit. I considered that the technology and visual learning benefits students by letting them focused and concentrated more during the assessment. However, since more than half of the students have played Kahoot before, there were limited new skills for them to obtain by playing the game which they already familiar with. But the positive side was since they already know how the game process, they have apply their own strategies to prepare and figure out the answer in a short time. (This was the situation I saw when they were playing the game). For question 5 “collaboration”, although over half of the groups felt they worked well with their teammates, the grouping strategy would be one of my concerns afterwards. As mentioned in previous week, I made the group based on their ability in Mandarin and the observation during Mandarin class. Lastly, most of the students would like to experience more about Kahoot and doing Mandarin problem by using this fun format, and they would like to learn more about Kahoot as well. Therefore, this concluded that this project was positive, and there are many steps that I can make in the future. I would like to reflect on everything and think about how to move on in next week.
Resources:
1. "Why Collecting Student Data Is Important to Student Achievement" by Gorman & Educational World, 2015
http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/why-collecting-student-data-important-student-achievement-1284123462
2. "Using Student Feedback to Improve Teaching" by Seldin, 1997
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1392&context=podimproveacad
3. "Gathering Feedback from Students" by Vanderbilt University, 2016
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/student-feedback/
1. "Why Collecting Student Data Is Important to Student Achievement" by Gorman & Educational World, 2015
http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/why-collecting-student-data-important-student-achievement-1284123462
2. "Using Student Feedback to Improve Teaching" by Seldin, 1997
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1392&context=podimproveacad
3. "Gathering Feedback from Students" by Vanderbilt University, 2016
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/student-feedback/
#2 Do
By Jordan Shapiro, 2014
There are several big ideas of my computer-based assessment. First is using “game” format to assess students’ progress, and benefit their learning by playing the game. Kahoot is a website that teachers can create quiz question and connect to students’ computer (or other electronic devices) to play and learn at the same time. I found several articles and research to state that students feel more engaged and have better achievement by experiencing in educational game playing:
- Students learn through the process of playing the game.
- Games provide a context for engaging practice.
- Through games, students can learn a variety of important skills.
- While playing games, students develop a variety of connections with the content and can form positive memories of learning.
- Games grab students’ attention and actively engage them. (All from Education World, 2016)
In addition, "GlassLab" is a website/organization that provide many educational games. The research from the GlassLab provide the data bleow:
“For a student sitting in the median who doesn’t have a game, his or her learning achievement would have increased by 12 percent if he or she had that game.”
This was a big changed idea from the traditional learning when the game was never included in the curriculum. With the concept of “If I am the learner…” I believe that this learning style would be effective and can develop students' interest of learning Mandarin.
(Please check my planning agenda from #1)
The second idea is group work. This is the way I usually do when doing hands-on and playing review game because there are many benefits for students when they work with others.
“Collaborative learning has many well-documented benefits such as enabling shy students to participate more confidently in class, but it’s also a useful differentiation method.” (BBC, 2010)
Therefore, I assign students into 2-3 groups according to their performance. I put students who were little struggle to the students who have high achievement so the struggling students can be motivated and build their confidence. Here is the example.
“For a student sitting in the median who doesn’t have a game, his or her learning achievement would have increased by 12 percent if he or she had that game.”
This was a big changed idea from the traditional learning when the game was never included in the curriculum. With the concept of “If I am the learner…” I believe that this learning style would be effective and can develop students' interest of learning Mandarin.
(Please check my planning agenda from #1)
The second idea is group work. This is the way I usually do when doing hands-on and playing review game because there are many benefits for students when they work with others.
“Collaborative learning has many well-documented benefits such as enabling shy students to participate more confidently in class, but it’s also a useful differentiation method.” (BBC, 2010)
Therefore, I assign students into 2-3 groups according to their performance. I put students who were little struggle to the students who have high achievement so the struggling students can be motivated and build their confidence. Here is the example.
My third idea is to make a paper-based pre and post assessment and ask students to take it before and after playing the game to observe if they really enhance their knowledge through Kahoot. I remember when I was a high school student, there was one time I did poor at the pre test, but I improved after doing a review activity. There are several points I found to support this idea:
Below are the example questions I created by Kahoot for students to do a try out. I provided the pre and post assessment and did the try out with my students last Friday.
- Pretests help measure true learning. By comparing pre- and post-tests, teachers can see what students actually learned from the lessons that were developed. (Kelly, 2016)
- Pretests can help generate ideas for future lesson. (Kelly, 2016)
- Pre-post testing is valuable to students because it illustrates and documents their individual academic gain. (NDTAC, 2003)
Below are the example questions I created by Kahoot for students to do a try out. I provided the pre and post assessment and did the try out with my students last Friday.
The thing that surprised me was most of students have already played Kahoot before so they were very familiar with how to operate Kahoot quiz. There were 5 seconds for students to get ready but students were able to figure out the answer in this 5 second. Right after the actually time started mostly all the groups answered within few seconds.
However, there was a mild problem occurred regarding to the connection. One computer was having difficulty on loading the image and animation. Therefore, we spend extra time to wait for the response, but it was glad that I planned 5-10 minutes extra time just incase anything happened with technology.
Next week we will be doing the actual unit assessment by using the same format. I have created my quiz problem that is based on everything we have covered in this unit (vocab, Chinese characters, direction words and sentence patterns). I also made a survey for students to take after the assessment.
I will be showing the result of my pre-post assessment and the data of the survey in the next blog.
However, there was a mild problem occurred regarding to the connection. One computer was having difficulty on loading the image and animation. Therefore, we spend extra time to wait for the response, but it was glad that I planned 5-10 minutes extra time just incase anything happened with technology.
Next week we will be doing the actual unit assessment by using the same format. I have created my quiz problem that is based on everything we have covered in this unit (vocab, Chinese characters, direction words and sentence patterns). I also made a survey for students to take after the assessment.
I will be showing the result of my pre-post assessment and the data of the survey in the next blog.
Resources:
1. GlassLab Website http://www.glasslabgames.org/
2. "Games In The Classroom: What the Research Says" by Jordan Shapiro, 2014
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/27/games-in-the-classroom-what-the-research-says/
3. "Five Reasons to Use Games in the Classroom" by Education World, 2016
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/reasons-to-play-games-in-the-classroom.shtml
4. A BRIEF GUIDE TO SELECTING AND USING PRE-POST ASSESSMENTS by NDTAC
http://www.neglected-delinquent.org/sites/default/files/docs/guide_prepost.pdf
5. "Pretests" by Melissa Kelly, 2016
http://712educators.about.com/od/assessments/a/pretests.htm
6. "Methods of Differentiation in the Classroom" By BBC, 2010
http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/MethodsofDifferentiationintheClassroom.aspx
1. GlassLab Website http://www.glasslabgames.org/
2. "Games In The Classroom: What the Research Says" by Jordan Shapiro, 2014
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/27/games-in-the-classroom-what-the-research-says/
3. "Five Reasons to Use Games in the Classroom" by Education World, 2016
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/reasons-to-play-games-in-the-classroom.shtml
4. A BRIEF GUIDE TO SELECTING AND USING PRE-POST ASSESSMENTS by NDTAC
http://www.neglected-delinquent.org/sites/default/files/docs/guide_prepost.pdf
5. "Pretests" by Melissa Kelly, 2016
http://712educators.about.com/od/assessments/a/pretests.htm
6. "Methods of Differentiation in the Classroom" By BBC, 2010
http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/MethodsofDifferentiationintheClassroom.aspx
#1 Plan
Although we have already known that the technology is a tool to make better learning, I have never looked it in detail, analyzed or found the evidences of how technology really helps to create a better engagement and outsome. My idea is inspired and resonated from “The Innovator’s Mindset” written by Grorge Couros. “Disrupt the routine” and “technology as accelerator” are my two most important foundations. The way I usually teach (in my 5th grade Mandarin class) a unit is making papered flashcard for learning vocabulary, doing peer review and take dictation quiz, doing several hands-on activities, writing sentence worksheets to learn grammar, and finally taking the unit test. This project gives me the opportunity to disrupt this regular agenda to try something new, and the opportunity to have better vision of students’ outcome through technology learning.
One article I found supporting this idea. Doug Johnson, 2012, (Director of media technology in Mankato School) stated, “Technology is an amplifier of natural abilities. Brilliant teachers see that good writers become better writers, good debaters become better debaters, good French speakers become better French speakers…Brilliant teachers have experienced the empowering power of technology themselves.”
Therefore, I believe that students can enhance their knowledge by experiencing in digital learning.
After talking to my critical group and couple of my colleagues, I found a good and new-to-me website to create my assessment: Kahoot! https://getkahoot.com/
From my learning so far, Kahoot is a website that teacher can create assessment, survey, and discussion. Students are able to access by using a code and using a game format to learn and compete with other groups. After students playing a set of questions, Kahoot will show the brief data of the result. According to Mackay (a writer of Stanford News), 2013, “Using games as an educational tool provides opportunities for deeper learning.” In addition, after reading many teachers comments from several blogs (listed below) I believe that Kahoot can be one of the best websites to promote learning, student engagement with fun.
From my learning so far, Kahoot is a website that teacher can create assessment, survey, and discussion. Students are able to access by using a code and using a game format to learn and compete with other groups. After students playing a set of questions, Kahoot will show the brief data of the result. According to Mackay (a writer of Stanford News), 2013, “Using games as an educational tool provides opportunities for deeper learning.” In addition, after reading many teachers comments from several blogs (listed below) I believe that Kahoot can be one of the best websites to promote learning, student engagement with fun.
Educational Blogs Commenting on Kahoot!
The Snarky Schoolteacher
http://www.thesnarkyschoolteacher.com/blog/tech-tuesday-woohoo-kahoot-ten-fun-ways-to-use-kahoot-in-your-classroom
The Comment Sense Education
https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/kahoot
The Snarky Schoolteacher
http://www.thesnarkyschoolteacher.com/blog/tech-tuesday-woohoo-kahoot-ten-fun-ways-to-use-kahoot-in-your-classroom
The Comment Sense Education
https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/kahoot
So here is the outline of my plan:
- Create a vocabulary pre-assessment (paper-based) before I introduce Kahoot to students.
- Create a set of vocabulary question as a try-out for students to get familiar with Kahoot.
- After playing the try-out, I will ask students to complete a post-assessment in vocabulary to have a brief understanding of their progress. (Since 5th graders do not have 1 to 1 laptop policy, I will divide students into group of 2 or 3)
- Create my unit assessment questions. Students are going to work with their group/partner, use the resources they have to complete the assessment. They are at the same time competing with other groups in time.
- I will use the immediate result provided by Kahoot as one of my data.
- I will create a set of survey question by Kahoo and ask students to take the survey.
- If the outcome is positive, I can continue to add Kahoot as one of my teaching tool, and also provide the opportunity for my 5th graders to create their own Kahoot in the future. (I am look at students creating their own when they go to 6th grade so they have their own laptop and email to sign up)
Above is one the example of Kahoo in the classroom created by Jennifer Zurawski, the Library Media/Instructional Technology Specialist in the School District of West De Pere. In this video, I have seen so many positive actions from her students. For example, students were all paying attention, students were collaborating with others, students were using the technology, and students were learning and having fun at the same time.
I am very excited about my project and can’t wait to start!
I am very excited about my project and can’t wait to start!
Resources
1. Playing to Learn by R. F. MACKAY, 2013
http://news.stanford.edu/2013/03/01/games-education-tool-030113/
2. Seven Brilliant Things Teachers Do With Technology by Doug Johnson, 2012
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/johnson/johnson033.shtml
3. How to create a Kahoot Quiz, Survey and Discussion by Kelly Carabot, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlIPHsUxhq8
4. Kahoot in the Classroom by Jennifer Zurawski, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPeJ2-CgEh4
5. The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros, 2015
1. Playing to Learn by R. F. MACKAY, 2013
http://news.stanford.edu/2013/03/01/games-education-tool-030113/
2. Seven Brilliant Things Teachers Do With Technology by Doug Johnson, 2012
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/johnson/johnson033.shtml
3. How to create a Kahoot Quiz, Survey and Discussion by Kelly Carabot, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlIPHsUxhq8
4. Kahoot in the Classroom by Jennifer Zurawski, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPeJ2-CgEh4
5. The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros, 2015