I chose to use the informal assessment tool KaHoot for my final e-assessment portfolio.  I began by making a simple KaHoot with questions and some images in certain questions.  We started our weather unit last month and Kahoot was used on the weather instruments and tools lesson.   I decided to use the technology in the flipped classroom model.  I had the students do the learning and researching today about the tools in a web quest format.  Then I used the KaHoot at the end of class to informally assess how much they learned on their own.  I was shocked!  First of all they were all so engaged all class and were so savvy with the technology.  I need to give them more credit from now on because most of them probably know more about technology and apps than I do.  Using KaHoot that day made me feel amazing about the future of informal assessments in my classroom and my ability to use e-assessments in general with my sixth graders. 

 

A few weeks later before giving a midterm I made a KaHoot with my colleagues instead of our regular Jeopardy or Amazing Race games to help students review for the test.  We used some of the questions from the weather tools KaHoot I previously made while also including questions for the rest of the content. 

 

This week I used it to informally assess their knowledge of the water cycle and clouds before taking their quiz.  I continue to be shocked by their continued excitement!  After the regular KaHoot I decided to use Jumble which is another feature on KaHoot.  It uses more critical thinking because students have to put steps or certain words in order to get it correct.  So instead of picking one answer choice they have to order four correctly to get the points.  I also decided to mix it up and try giving a fun survey to finalize my end of the year plans.  They loved seeing how many kids answered differently when asked things like “do you like to go outside” or “do you like using clay or slime in class?”  It was a great opportunity to get some planning done with them while also showing them that KaHoot is more than just a fun quiz game.

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In the KaHoot that I used this week I only included images with some of the questions, but after reading James Sheil’s article “How to use iFrames and multimedia to enhance your assessments” I plan to incorporate much more!  He mentions ideas such as videos, maps, images, and slideshows!  I hadn’t considered any of those before today.  My plan with my next KaHoot is to include weather maps and more images.  Once I get a little more comfortable I plan to incorporate videos as well.  I already found a great example of a video by Ms. Lacourse.  This video uses images and sounds/music to engage students in a quick minute video about weather instruments.  It would be great to use in a KaHoot because it is short enough to keep their attention.  I plan on searching for more fast paced and curiosity building videos such as this!

 

Sheil states that “IFrames, and the use of freely available social media streams, allow us to greatly enhance our assessments and engage the learner in a richer assessment process”.  I can’t believe I had never realized how boring and miserable my assessments seemed before reading that statement.  I mean I knew students dreaded quizzes and tests, but I hadn’t thought about the way I formatted them or presented them.  After using the KaHoot to informally assess their weather instrument knowledge I know that they didn’t even view it as an assessment, which relaxed them and made it so enjoyable to show me what they had learned!

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I highly recommend using KaHoot in your own classroom to informally assess your students!  I found a guide to using KaHoot on their site that I attached at the bottom (“The KaHoot Guide to Creating and Playing Learning Games”). 

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The biggest lesson that my students had to learn from the game was that it is important to take the time to read the questions.  The questions are only on my board so they all had to look up to read the question and answer choices.  I liked that when sitting in the back of the room I could see both who was looking up while also watching to make sure everyone was on the KaHoot screen.  You get points for being faster than others, but if you get it wrong even if you were the fastest you get zero points.  When I told the class this through our second play through the students did take longer to answer, but the number of correct answers chosen increased.  

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I also truly appreciate KaHoot's reasoning for only having the question and choices on the board instead of their individual screens: