Some Assessment Tools For Use in the Classroom

This week I researched online assessment tools that can be utilized by teachers to expedite their testing and grading in the classroom. I picked PlayPosit and Socrative and developed two assessment tools for use in the 3rd grade classroom. I chose to do my assessments for lessons on adverbs and the study of plants because these are two areas in my eight-year old son’s current school curriculum. Because of the current Coronavirus pandemic, I am homeschooling and trying to stay on top of his studies. I have to say this is giving me great experience with teaching!

The first assessment is “Schoolhouse Rock Adverbs” in PlayPosit. It has two videos linked together with questions placed throughout. Here is the link to the video: https://api.playposit.com/go/listcode/559388/1370545/869920/2/Schoolhouse-Rock-Adverbs

My second assessment tool was developed with Socrative and is titled, “Plants”. It is 30 questions long. Here is the link to take the test: https://b.socrative.com/student/#quiz . You will have to enter the room name: JOHNSTEN.

I found Socrative to be easy to use.  Some of the features, like adding pictures or allowing students to race each other to see who answers the question first, were not available unless you payed for it.  However, I still found it to be a great tool for the classroom.  The quizzes created on Socrative can be accessed by students after they log on to the site and enter a room code.  The students do not have to enter their email or any other information.  This tool is very beneficial because teachers have the option of setting quizzes on different modes, such as instant feedback, and flexibility in structuring their questions, answers and explanations.  Teachers are able to get real-time data to see how many students answered a question correctly.  This allows teachers to see where students are struggling and they can adjust their teaching strategy accordingly.  For use in my homeschooling, I can see areas that I need to explain better or revisit.  The only challenge I found with using this tool was the time it took to compose a quiz.  This won’t be an issue if you are teaching the same subject each year and you can reuse your quizzes.  A benefit of this is that you can always go back and edit your quizzes at any time.   

I liked PlayPosit, because you use videos, either from the Internet or self-made, and upload them into a “bulb” you create. You can attach different videos to each other so they will play as one long video. Questions you create that are related to the video can be interspersed throughout. There is a pause at each question until the student provides an answer. A benefit of PlayPosit is that it is engaging and students have to pay attention because they are expected to answer questions while they are watching. In this way, it can help them remember more material. You can find fun and entertaining videos to keep them motivated. A challenge that I encountered with PlayPosit, is that I found it difficult to find videos that fit into my lesson. I think that having a collection of self-made teaching videos would make PlayPosit a relatively easy way to develop formative assessment tools for your students.