Other taks
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My great resource
Observation task
Kahoot
This tool is commonly used by all teachers, even though my teacher in the school did not use until I implemented it in my teaching unit. I personally find it a fantastic manner to approach assessment to students in a fun way. This application allows to create an online test about any content you decide in an interactive and engaging format. Kids love it and have fun while learning. They do not even realize that this activity can be part of an assessment process.
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It is the way we present things that will make kids develop one though or another towards the activity and therefore, they will feel more or less motivated. From my experience, all the students liked playing Kahoot and it offers multiple options depending on the teacher’s criteria. It does not have to be an individual activity, you can let students make groups and therefore, answer as a team after reflecting on the question, you can do it in pairs or individually. It depends on your objective. For instance, it can serve as a self-assessment task for the students previous to an exam to see whether they have consolidated the contents or not. Another option can be to use it as an “exam”, Kahoot can be an assessing task itself for the teacher as it allows to have a record on the answers and the participants.
What is more, it is not only for the students and for the teacher to obtain a “mark”, but more importantly, it allows the teachers and students to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses regarding the content. Teachers can detect which questions are more difficult or unclear for the students and therefore, it indicates the teacher what content has to be reinforced.
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The way I used it was in a half-class situation in which students could form pairs and debate the questions between them before answering. Afterwards, the answer was discussed by one different pair every time. This way, the assessment task is discussed in class as well and it is not just a mark, but it is integrated in the learning process. In other words, discussing the correct and incorrect answers can lead to deeper levels of understanding.
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On the one hand, since the content is totally adaptable, you can decide on focusing more on reading comprehension for the question by providing questions and complete answers or perhaps on the information itself.
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On the other hand, the options of presenting the information are multiple. It allows to include videos and images; therefore, students can receive different inputs which is a key element to take into consideration for attending to the class’ diversity. Referring to that, not only the input is interesting but the way students are requested to answer as well. The Kahoot’s creator can change several things and one possibility is not to have a time controller, this way, every student from its own device can answer respecting their own pace.
There are many ways to approach Kahoot, for instance, it can help teachers to introduce new topics and therefore, to use it as an assessment of students’ previous knowledge. In addition, another possibility is to make students create their own Kahoot and then, share them with the rest of the class. It does not only serve the purpose of assessing the one who has to answer it, but it helps the creator to consolidate the information when designing it.
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All in all, this tool presents lots of advantages that will help any teacher in class to engage students into learning and it will ease the task of assessment to both students and teachers.
Colour sticks
This tool has been an amazing strategy for me for different purposes. It consists on a variety of sticks in different colours and the idea is that each student represents one so they have to write their name on the stick. This way, all pupils would have their own stick.
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This tool can serve different purposes. It is very useful when you want different pupils to talk. For instance, when asking a question, the teacher can then pick a stick and then that pupil would have to answer. This is fantastic to avoid that always the same students respond or otherwise, to make the most silent students to speak in class. It is an equitable way to make all of your students participate in class and “normalize” that action in class, so that they feel that participating in class is good.
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Moreover, these sticks can be also used to make groups. It eases the process for the teacher and makes it more heterogeneous. For instance, you can group students by colours, so all the pupils who have the same colour stick should be together. Another way could be to make groups with one of each colour minimum. I believe that this manner brings lots of advantages due to it helps students to connect and relate with the other classmates in the class and it is very useful for the teacher by saving a lot of time when deciding on carrying out group activities or creating cooperative groups.
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Overall, this strategy definitely supposes and advantage for the teacher and the students to relate with the others and to foster participation in class by allowing shy students to have an opportunity to speak as a part of a “normal” process and regulate the participation of the students so that not always the same students speak.