Technology-Based Assessment

Kahoot

Kahoot is a fun way to informally assess student learning.

A tool I have used frequently in the primary classroom is Kahoot. I have a teammate who loves Kahoot and creates quizzes almost daily for her class and shares with the rest of the team. We also regularly use Kahoot during staff meetings and professional developments.

Kahoot can provide spreadsheets of students and their answers and scores, which is helpful as a teacher so I can go and provide reteaching or enrichment as needed. Kahoot provides students with a lot of motivation, as they are competing against themselves and others. Kahoot provides points for current answers, for how quickly you answer, and for keeping up your correct answer streak. The top three are shared on the teacher’s screen, so it can quickly become a competition.

Kahoot allows students to answer multiple-choice questions only, so it does not go very deep when looking at Bloom’s taxonomy or higher-order thinking.

(ISTE for Students 7c: Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal).

mClass Assessment

mClass Assessments host DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), Burst reading intervention, and TRC (total reading comprehension) assessments. mClass is also knows as Amplify or Acadience Reading. This tool must be purchased by the school or district in order for teachers to use the assessment and information in the classroom.

mClass helps teachers administer a series of one minute assessments that assess and analyze a student's reading readiness and reading ability. Some of the tests included in mClass are: phonemic awareness, first letter sounds, letter names, nonsense word fluency, phonemic segmentation and oral fluency with comprehension.

DIBELS helps teachers score the assessment and create small groups based on student needs. Students do not use the Amplify app, it is only for teacher use.

(ISTE for Educators 5a: Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs).

Prodigy

Prodigy is a math game that includes standards aligned to Common Core for students in first through eighth grade. Teachers can create lessons, quizzes, and assessments in Prodigy for students to complete. Students are highly engaged in using Prodigy, and I have heard students say "Wait. I'm learning math?" while playing and taking a quiz on Prodigy.

(ISTE for Students 1c: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways).

(ISTE for Teachers 5b: Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning),

Google Forms

Google Forms is a great way to create quizzes for assessment. The quizzes can ever be self scoring! The answers and information gathered in the Form can be automatically populated into a Google Sheet. Teachers can even include feedback for each question and answer. Even in a self-grading quiz, teachers can manually grade specific quiz answers. Students must be logged into their G-Suite for Education account, which ensures that each student only takes the assessment once.

(ISTE for Students 1c: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways).

Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a powerful tool for teachers to use as a grade book, or a way to store information about student performance on assessments. As mentioned above, scores can be imported from Google Forms, as well as Google Classroom.

If you are not administering the assessment through G-suite, Sheets can still be a powerful tool. Teachers can insert student scores, and the cells can be formatted to change colors based on the score. For example, I have cells with scores 80% or above turn green, 60-79% yellow, 59% and below as red. This helps give the teacher a visual cue as to what standards and skills need to be readdressed with the class, or what students need extra support. Cells can also be organized by lowest to highest value. So, a teacher can put student information in order by student name, or by score.

(ISTE for Educators 5a: Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs).

Socrative

Socrative is a tool that allows teachers to gather information from formative assessments for students in real time. Students can use a number of devices to interact with the Socrative quiz. The teacher can have students work independently or as a group. Students see their results on the teacher's screen as a race. However, the teacher can hide student names or have students use the app anonymously.

Teachers can collect information about student scores on a spreadsheet. These spreadsheets help teachers create small groups for reteaching, or see an overall misunderstanding in the class. Teachers can create their own quizzes, or search the library for assessments based on their standards.

(ISTE for Students 7c: Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal).

Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere allows teachers to gather information in real time in an easy-to-access interface, The answers are collected through texting, custom URLs, and Twitter, and then incorporated into the presentation. Questions can be open-ended or multiple choice.

(ISTE for Teachers 5b: Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning),