KAHOOT: simple, attractive and incredibly worth it!

Hello digital teachers, I’m Amaranta and in this post I will like to talk about one of my favourites educational programs to use it at classroom with children or adults of any age. Do you know Kahoot? Kahoot is an App that allows you to learn by playing individually or collaboratively. Basically it consist on creating a quiz on any subject and in any language, which can then be shared with individuals or groups or even made public. If you project your Kahoot in class, your students can do it in real time, answering each from their device, whether a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. Also, you can see who is winning in terms of successes and speed of response at all times, giving them additional motivation.Imagine the possibilities offered by this application when assessing learning!

The functioning of the app is quite easy. For busy teachers is a great tool because it does not involve too much time and also allows children to become familiar with it easily. I’ve thought that would be really useful for you to have a clearer idea about how it works so here is a presentation that I found with all the information explained in detail.

Kahoot how to from Marsha Osburn

Main features:

• Free
• Easy to use
• You can do it whether a quiz, discussion or survey
• Different electronic devices: Computer, smartphone, ipad...
• Team and individual mode
• Challenging and motivational
• Any topic, any age
• Personalized
• Save it as a pdf as well

My experience with Kahoot (from my Internship report). Hope you like it!

During my last internship in an immersion school, I decided to create a Kahoot Quiz which I believe is a brilliant ICT tool to help students review the content while having fun and using something that they love: Ipads. took advantage from the fact that they had almost an Ipad per child so I did not miss this unique opportunity. I hardly had to explain the functioning because children understood it it perfectly with just watching it for seconds. I created some questions about fractions, irregular verbs, forces, timetables, past simple...etc. that I combined with colourful photographs that I took from the Internet or from the school website to make questions more closer to them. I also tried to use teacher’s or student’s names as well. For this activity, I let them chose if they wanted to go in pairs or individually. As I mentioned, they loved feeling challenged so they were absolutely engaged in the activity to the point that they constantly wanted to repeat it! I must say we made a lot of noise squealing with joy but, is not that noise the evidence that something special is happening?

ACTIVITY

Target audience: 4th grade of primary

Placement in curriculum: Science (CLIL)

Topic: materials and their properties: wax, leather, plastic, glass,stone...hard, rigid, soft, elastic...

School course: Third trimester

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy:

• Higher order thinking skills.
• Level VI: Creating (create new products or points of view). The activity gives the students the opportunity to create a piece of text to talk about their holidays.

This game will be placed at the end of the third term. My purpose is to make students create their own quiz to review the content and language learnt before about an specific topic: the materials and their properties. By doing this activity, children will be able to formulate questions as well as get to know the difference and similarities between the multiple choice options when it comes to select the correct one.

Aims:

1. To be able to use Kahoot.it app
2. To make questions about what things are made of? taking into account question grammar structures.
3. To be able to work in cooperative groups

Grouping and roles

• Slip up the whole group in groups of four
• Give them roles but all of them have to participate and be involved when creating the questions.
• Time controller: will be in charge of controlling the time. They will have 30 minutes
• Image searcher: will be in charge of looking for images related to each question.
• Options thinker: will be in charge of thinking of four different options for each question.
• Typer: will be in charge of typing the questions in the ipad once they have been corrected and checked by the teacher and the whole group.
• English policeman: in charge of making sure that all the members use English.
• Roles will be changeable each turn.

Competences involved

• Linguistic and audio-visual: because pupils have to create questions and add images to do a Kahoot quiz.
• Information handling and digital competence: in order to do the task, they have to interact and know the app to use it.
• Autonomy, initiative and decision taking: because they are creating a tool to assess their own classmates knowledge (quiz)
• Social and civic: because children have to work in teams and listen to others opinions and suggestions.
• Knowledge and interaction with the world: this activity will be about the materials and the properties that we can find in things that surrounded us.

Materials required

• Ipad
• Paper and pen if they need it

Development

Context: Children have been learning about the materials and their properties in s Kahoot will be useful to assess the vocabulary they have learnt.

1. Ask children to make groups of five and give them roles. Make sure they understand that roles will change while doing the task.
2. Create one account so all children can do the same kahoot.
3. Show children a kahoot quiz made by you so they will know exactly what their are supposed to do and the final result Get ready your devices and take advantage of the students that already know how to use it (Experts ICT) Give them time to get familiarized with it. Explain the instructions carefully or show them a power point with the instructions, you will see they will get it faster!
4. Later on, children will have to make questions, statement, unfinished sentences about the topic: What things are made of? Which is this material? Is this strong/soft/elastic? This is made of….Give them examples to help them with the language.
5. Give them time to type their questions and show you to check the spelling and the grammar structures. Make sure they have selected the right option to avoid problems while playing.
6. Play all together and enjoy!

Here you have a short example of the type of questions they can make

Class management                       

Following the tips that we have learnt in the ICT lessons, we would ask students to set Ipad aside when they didn’t need them to avoid classroom management problems. When we are telling them the instructions of the activity, we would say “Ipads facing at me”, so we can make sure that they pay attention and don’t get distracted. Moreover, we would ask students for assistance if we need their help or we get stuck (Experts TIC) In addition, at random points during the session, we will ask students to flip their screens of the Ipads so we could check that they are doing the task proposed. We believe that it is always important for the teacher to have used the app before and have tried to create a game to foresee the problems that can arise.

4 skills

Reading: teacher and students need to read and understand the questions and the options	Listening: Interaction with others. One can read the questions and others have to listen to it.
Speaking: Importance in the spontaneous language: Press it, the red one, the triangle, try again, we are right, etc.	Writing: Making the questions, grammar structures.

Added value through ICT

• Visual support
• Creative and attractive tool
• Involves a challenge (time, multiple options, competition and cooperation…)
• Ideal for reviewing content, assessing children and make them create questions in a more motivational context (not only making them write it down)
• Develop digital competence as well as linguistic and audiovisual.
• Involves other kind of language (expand it): winners, play, score, points, you are on the top!, lose, shapes, colours...

Trouble-shooting - possible problems

• So much competition. Do it in pairs depending on your teaching style of let them choose how they want to play. Some kids get really upset if they lose.
• Internet connection, be sure that sometimes it doesn’t work perfectly and you have to deal with the delay of some questions.

Assessment Grid

To be able to use Kahoot.it app	-Does he/she know how to add an image? -Does he/she how to choose the correct option? -Does he/she know to add questions? -Does he/she know how the control the time for each question? -Does he/she know how to edit it?
To make questions about what things are made of? taking into account question grammar structures.	-Is he/she able to make a question using the auxiliary verb? -Is he/she able to create questions using the main structure: Is this made of…? Which material is this made of…?
To be able to work in cooperative groups	-Is he/she able to listen actively to the members of the group? -Is he/she able to give ideas/suggestions… -Is he/she able to respect the roles?

Kahoot!

Creation of a game with Kahoot

Name:Laura Carrillo and Elena Joaquin
Level: 3rd grade, 20 students working in pairs with tablets.
Curriculum: CLIL
Topic: Food and going to the restaurant
Skills: Reading and vocabulary
Classroom management: Two kids in charge of going around and helping the others to go into kahoot (experts).
Type of activity: Task based activity, learn by doing
Material: PDI and Ipads.

We have created a vocabulary game with kahoot. Kahoot is a useful tool to create games by yourself or as a resource to look for them. Once you create a game, kahoot provides you with a code which kids will have to introduce and they will have access to the game.

To create a game in kahoot is very easy. You need to register and you can start!

https://getkahoot.com

This is the result of our game. You can always edit things and add songs whilst playing! It is very engaging and motivating for the kids. As you can see, you can also manage the time you want the kids to answer the questions, the number of options to answer and you can display the answers while doing or editing the game:

The vocabulary presented in the game has been previously worked in class in order to do a roleplay of a restaurant at the end of the project. The game is accompanied with pictures so that it helps to identify and relate contents. It is related to a the restaurant context where kids need to decide which option is the correct one between four different ones.

According to Bloom’s taxonomy this activity requires remembering and applying so that afterwards they can produce the language in a real situation (roleplay). This activity is going from LOTS to HOTS because it is a simple game of vocabulary but it becomes more difficult because kids need to learn not only the vocabulary but also the structures that will be presented in the following session (scaffolding).

The activity will be held with tablets and it will be shown on the interactive whiteboard so that everybody can follow. The questions are going to the displayed on the PDI and the kids will mark their answer on the ipad. It will be done in pairs for the first time so that they get familiar to kahoot and next sessions we will carry out an individual assesment with a different game but the same content. 

The teacher, though, will know the results of the pairs because kahoot shows inmediately the marking so it is a quick way to assess your students in a motivating and fun way.

It is useful to have two kids helping when starting the activity. They will show the others the steps to go into kahoot, otherwise it becomes messy. Also make sure all the Ipads have battery and they work properly so that you can avoid any surprise or problem.

Hope it is useful and you can apply it in your classrooms! ;) 

The ant and the grasshopper with iPads

Hello everyone,

We are Míriam Porras, Ma Àngels Tugores and Anna Solé. We are going to present a lesson plan related to the story “The ant and the grasshopper”. We strongly believe that it is useful to use a source as iPads to carry out the following activities, because they can enjoy the storytelling time in a different way.

We hope you enjoy the following lesson plan and it would be useful in your classrooms! 

We would start the lesson with the following app to introduce the story “The ant and the grasshopper”:

https://itunes.apple.com/es/app/ant-grasshopper-interactive/id524296140?l=ca&mt=8

The pupils could interact during they are listening or reading the story. For instance, they could help the ant to pick food or to help the grasshopper when she is frozen because of winter.

After reading or listening the story, they would complete different activities like making a puzzle or replying different questions or pinpoint objects observing images from the story by the app. Then, we would ask them several questions concerning the story to know if they understand and comprehend the plot. Finally, we will divide the class in different groups and we will create an alternative ending for the story.

Target audience

The activity created is to be developed with 1^st Grade. It depends on the level of your class-group and the knowledge they have in the additional language (English).

Aims: 

- To develop the oral skills: listening and speaking. (Students)

- To acquire vocabulary related to story. (Students)

- To be able to understand a story told it in English. (Students)

- To develop their iPad skills (Students)

Vocabulary related:

•    Ant, grasshopper, summer, winter, woods, foods, snacks, candy, snow, clothing, door, scar, house, moon.

•    Help, remove, give, play

* Alternative and spontaneous vocabulary that suits the topic.

Competences:

•    Linguistic and audio-visual, because pupils have to watch, read (in some cases) and to understand different vocabulary in relation to the story.

•    Management of information and digital, to complete the activity the students have to use and interact with the IWB to carry out the activities).

•    Knowledge and interaction with the world, using stories we can develop the imaginary of our pupils and also we can connect the relationship that animals have in the story with the human relationship and feelings like help or friendship.

•    Social and civic, we are going to divide the class in different associations promoting the cooperative group and the individual

•    Learning to learn (The students will have to think about what ingredients they would like to add to the pancake and so they will have to create it and present it to the rest of the classmates. Thus they will have to manage their time effectively and regulate their own learning whilst solving problems).

Class management

In relation to classroom management, each pupil would have an iPad to follow and interact with the story and then, to do the proposed activities like puzzle or the evaluation part. However, at the end of the lesson plan, we would divide the class in different groups with the aim to create an alternative end to the story and present it using story creator.

The main aim is to promote the communication among students using the additional language (English) and the IWB as a tool to reach it.

*If any school that would like to carry out this lesson plan and they don’t have available iPads for each students, we could divide them in more groups to do the previous activities before the creation of the story ending.

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

The lesson plan offers the possibility to improve lower and higher order thinking skills:

Lower order thinking skills

•    Level I – Remembering the vocabulary and the story they have learned.

•    Level II – Understanding the vocabulary and the concepts that the story and the activities present, not only remember them.

•    Level III: Applying and practice the vocabulary they have learned in different ways and activities like puzzle, assessment or create a story.

Higher order thinking skills

•    Level VI: Creating their own version of the end of the story and then, they will have the opportunity to share it to their peers.

Four skills

The lesson plan we have created, it takes into account the four skills that are the following:

RECEPTIVE	PRODUCTIVE
Listening: The pupils will listen the story, the explanations of their teacher and their classmates when they are preparing the alternative ending and presenting it. Reading: The pupils could read the story and the instructions to interact with the ant. Also, they need to read the activities of the IWB.	Speaking: They will have to speak with their peers to create the alternative ending and to cooperate to present it in front of the class. Also, we have to promote the interaction with the teacher using some words in English. Writing: They will have to create and write the alternative ending for the story of “The ant and the grasshopper”.

Activities with iPads

The lesson plan is divided in the following activities:

Activity 1: The ant and the grasshopper

In this activity, the pupils will know the story reading it or listening it by the teacher. Meanwhile, we could interact with the ant doing some actions like helping the ant to carry candies or give to grasshopper the scarf for the winter.

Activity 2: TinyTap

In this activity, the pupils could interact with different activities concerning the story like making a puzzle of one of the images from the app or recognise vocabulary like scarf, moon, candy, house, etc.  Finally, they could watch another video version of the story to develop their listening skills.

Puzzle

Video

*If you pick on the objects of the image, you will listen how do you say this word and what is the written word

Activity 3: Socrates

To assess if they understand the story, we have created a Socrates with different kind of questions regarding the literacy elements. Here you would find some examples:

                                   

Activity 4: Create an alternative ending

The pupils will be divided in different groups and create an alternative ending for the sort of “The ant and the grasshopper” using Storyjumper (https://www.storyjumper.com/main/help). The teacher will help these groups with difficulties in English and problems to use the program to collect their stories. At the end, they will have to present it to the rest of the class.

Assessment

In relation to assessment, it would be carried out through observation during the activities and the Socrative we have created to assess if they understand the plot of the story. In addition, we will take into account the oral presentation of the alternative ending to assess the lesson plan and the cooperative work through rubrics.

Try it in your classroom and send us recommendations to improve the lesson plan!!