SMART Response

We recently learned in technology about SMART Response. SMART Response is a system that goes with SMART Notebook. It is a way to assess kids on what they've learned using the SMART Notebook software. Each student is given a remote to use with the system. The teacher can bring up each slide and the students answer the question. The questions can be formatted in a variety of ways. They can be multiple choice, true/false, have more than one answer, be numeric or free response. This allows the quizzes to be more than the traditional multiple choice exams. The teacher can put the question up on the screen, and the students answer on their remotes. There are different types of remotes as well. There are ones with shapes and colors for the buttons to be used for younger grades. There are ones with the traditional 0-9 keys as well as T/F. And there are also ones with a full keyboard. This allows teachers to select the remote appropriate for their class.

To begin a quiz, the teacher would need to use SMART Response Teacher Tools to add students to their class. In their class, each student has an ID number that they enter each time they join the classroom. The ID numbers are assigned by the teachers. Once the students join their class and type in their ID number on their remote, the teacher can begin the quiz. The students will select the appropriate answers on their remotes as they move through the quiz. When they are finished, the teacher will stop the quiz, and the responses are recorded in the Teacher Tools. The teacher will be able to see all the scores in different forms.

I created a SMART Notebook with a short lesson on the different seasons and then a quiz. My answers were color coded because my students would be using the color and shape remotes. My lesson is designed for kindergarten students addressing the standard K.H.1.2. Explain how seasons change over time. Personally, I don't know if I would use SMART Response in kindergarten, at least not at the beginning of the year. I gave the quiz to my classmates in an effort to learn how to use the software. I've inserted the bar graph given by the program of the results. Two questions were answered incorrectly and two of my students received 80% on their quiz. SMART Response Teacher Tools allowed me to set the passing grade percentage, which I set at 50%. All of my students passed the quiz.

I was very glad to have the opportunity to use SMART Response. It is a very useful tool that I can absolutely see myself using. It turned out slightly difficult for our class to master, but now that I understand it, I would love to use it if I have the capability at my school. I think it is best suited for second grade and up, but it is a great tool!