Before each test, I create a folder of review materials and put it on Schoology. These include practice quizzes. I can honestly tell you that I was not getting much participation. I decided to change it up and turn those practice quizzes into Blookets, Quizizz(es?), Gimkits and more!
I have a ton of students play these! Even some of mine that just aren’t that motivated. I send the link through remind and they use it! I asked why and it was unanimous that it was more fun than just answering the questions. They really get into it too! I had kids answering over a 100 questions trying to beat a game. I was just shocked!
If you tried Kahoot and are looking for more, you have so many options!
Blooket offers live games and “homework” games. There are lots of options for different games; some of them are easier to understand than others, so I recommend practicing yourself or choosing one of the first listed options. I usually do Blookets in class because I love the energy. Their favorites, by far, are Crypto Hacker, Fishing Frenzy, and Battle Royale (not self-paced). If you are just starting I would go with Gold Rush or Crypto Hacker; they will have lots of fun with these and the concept is easy. These games can get so intense; we love it! Most of the live Blooket games are self-paced, which is great for so many of the students! A great feature for Blooket is that you can take a quizlet list you have created and turn it directly into a quiz. Although, creating quiz questions isn’t hard, if you want to go that route. There are also plenty of Blooks already made that you can copy and use! Isn’t that what all the best teachers do 😂The down side to assigning homework using Blooket is that it does not give you a detailed game report. It simply gives you names and number of right/wrong answers. You have to upgrade to get a more detailed report. Pro Tip: If you have lots of students and want to use this for a grade, I would make multiple assignments to help decrease the number of students to scroll through. Also, remind them to use their actual name. It took me 3 classes to figure out who Shrek was. Also, students can create an account to earn points and earn new “blooks” which are the game characters.
If I’m assigning something for homework or as a station, I usually go with Quizizz; they love this one and will go through it over and over again. I like the “homework” option better than some others because the game is simple to understand. There is an option to add memes in between questions and allow them to earn powerups and have redemption questions and all that jazz. There are actually quite a few options available, which is why this is my go-to for anything they are doing on their own. The live option is self-paced and still great, I just happen to prefer how much fun they have playing against each other with Blooket. Quizizz has options to let you play other peoples quizzes, but you can’t copy them directly (unless you upgrade). However, you can search through questions and add individual questions to your quiz. Also, there are multiple options on the types of questions you can add in; so you can do more than multiple choice. I haven’t used these yet, so I don’t know how the scoring works, but the option definitely opens up possibilities. The reports section on Quizizz is my favorite! You can actually click on a student and get details for what they missed and you can email that to parents, if you felt the need for that. Quizizz also lets you change how students are sorted.
I haven’t use Gimkit recently, but if you used it before and haven’t in a while, there are lots of new games available. When creating a kit, you have the option to import questions from flashcards or search through question banks to add them to your kit. Gimkit also allows you to search for other kits and copy them to your library. Gimkit no longer allows you to create assignments, unless you upgrade. I don’t know what the reports for Gimkit would look like, but I don’t think I would upgrade myself just because there are lots of options out there. I do plan on trying some of the games soon and will share more then.
