Generally speaking, each summer I look for a new "special" activity, game, idea, etc. that I can use in my classroom for the following school year. This fall I discovered "Kahoot" a wonderful on-line method for students to play games or do review activities while using their handheld devices or laptops. Having students engaged in learning is always important and where often using a student's cellphone is a "no no" this allows the students to use them in an educational way.
To start you need to set up a "free" account for yourself at: https://getkahoot.com/
You can either explore the thousands of 'shared' games that other people have made and use these in your classroom or make up your own to use. This way your games or reviews can be subject specific. I have made some for my French 8 classes to review the new concepts. Even the quietest of students can participate without anyone knowing if they get the answers correct or not. There is always a running list of who are the "top leaders" of the game and students can create their own "fictitious names" to hide their identities if they wish to remain anonymous. My colleagues and I also make games to review movies that we have watched in class and now one of the most recent ones is one about Christmas. === all of these are of course in French for us. With a multiple choice format or true/false you can either write questions, do fill-in-the-blanks or even link questions to pictures. This is particularly great for vocabulary review.
The questions will appear on the large screen (connected to a projector) and then the possible answers. You program in the correct answer when you make up the quiz/review. The answers will not show up on the students' devices but instead will be red, blue, yellow or green squares with shapes on each of them. The shapes are particularly good as it allows for students who may be colour blind. The faster the students answer the questions, the more points they will earn. You can also set the amount of time allowed for choosing the correct answer. I like to use 20 seconds. The funky music plays in the background so be sure to hook your projector up to a speaker via your laptop. The countdown will also appear on the screen. You can use this as review by pausing after each question and discussing the correct answer choice with the class. --- a great learning tool! Check it out!
