Thing 8

I have had experience with all of the assessment tools discussed in Thing 8. I used Poll Everywhere at the middle school level. This is a great resource to poll students, just as the video described. However, I was reluctant to use it in an open-ended way because I was nervous about what students might post. That being said, I really appreciated how the example in the video used the open ended answers to create a Word Cloud. I thought that was a powerful way to use Poll Everywhere. I would not choose this as my go to tool for elementary students though.

I have used Socrative at the elementary level. I stopped using it when I discovered Quizizz. My students enjoyed Quizizz more because it was more interactive and visually appealing. What I did notice in the Socrative video, however, is that it now has a feature called "space race" that allows students to race against each other. This makes it more comparable to Quizizz, but Quizizz is still more visually appealing (and still free). You can check it out here: https://quizizz.com

I have also used Quizlet. Interestingly, I have used Quizlet more as a graduate student than as a teacher. It is great for flashcard type studying and I have used it as such by creating multiplication math facts flashcards for my students

Finally, I have also used Google Forms. I know Google Forms can be a much more powerful tool than the ways in which I have used it. I have used it primarily for parent sign-ins during Back to School night. I would definitely like to become more familiar with it so I can encourage my 4th and 5th grade teachers to use it, since they already actively use Google Classroom with their students.

In my opinion, the most engaging, easiest to use, free assessment tool is Quizizz. Be sure to check it out at the above link!