Are You in Kahoot(s) Yet?

Hey teaching friends!   Apparently I have been out of the loop, but this is the first time I have heard about this really cool assessment website from some other teacher friends and I thought maybe there was also at least one other person out there who might be in the same boat or stuck under a rock like me – ha!

The website is FREE. 

You don’t need any super fancy equipment with it. 

And I think it rocks!  Head on over to Kahoot.it and check it out!

I imagine by now most of you have at least heard of interactive response systems?  

For me, I know we have used them in the past in conjunction with our interactive whiteboards.  They are little remotes that each child received and you could do a quick quiz on the interactive whiteboard and allow the students to answer. 

From that information, you were able to drive your instruction accordingly. 

It is wonderful for preassessment, middle of the lesson, or even a post-assessment review.  The data is nice because you can break it down by question.

The only drawback?  You have to have had the interactive response system (the clickers) which were not super cheap.  

Until now!

Kahoot works basically the same way, except any mobile device can be used as the clicker!  

Do you have a Bring Your Own Technology campus?  Or even have some outdated devices?  As long as they can grab an internet signal, they will work!

You log in and are able to create your own quiz – or even grab one of the thousands already created. 

I would like to have seen a better search function – or even by standard, but you can at least use a keyword search.

I typed in “telling time” and was able to retrieve several results. 

This one had been Favorited and Shared quite a bit, so I figured it was a pretty good example.

If you scroll down towards the bottom, you can see the questions – and answers – to decide whether it is right for your unique class.   Another option?  You can “clone” a quiz – and then change it up to fit your exact needs.

To allow the students to participate, they grab their mobile devices and will need the particular game pin in order to play. 

I love that an app is not required.  Just go to kahoot.it in the internet browser and it will ask for your game pin. 

Once that is entered, the student names will start to pop up on the screen. 

If you prefer them to be anonymous, assign them numbers before beginning.

The 3 screenshots of my phone below show the process. 

First, they get a warning the question is going to pop up.  They read the question on the computer or interactive whiteboard in your classroom, then they get 4 choices – I love how it includes both colors AND shapes for differentiation, and finally after choosing, the student is told whether that was correct or incorrect.

Now – you can see very quickly after students have answered what the class decided the right answer was – perfect for immediate intervention if needed.

Finally – after all the questions have been complete, you can even download an excel report that shows you class results – as well as an item analysis of each question. 

I personally love this idea because you can then easily pull small groups for enrichment or intervention.

This is a really fun little assessment tool and the price is certainly right.  Might be fun even for a staff development day or staff meeting to get everyone involved!

How would you (or have you) used Kahoot in your classroom? 

I would love to hear in the comments below!

~Charity