Note: this is my reflection of my use in the classroom; nothing more
Set-up: I printed the free plickers, size "normal" and copied onto colored paper, laminated, and wrote each student's name on the back in sharpie. I had my students use the plickers for one question on Monday and one question on Tuesday, just to see how they would work. Then I planned to use them multiple times on Wednesday.
Class: I was doing this in my intervention class, which has 8 students enrolled. I wanted to try plickers in my smaller, more flexible class before full-out implementing into my large core classes.
We have been studying domain and range, so I prepared seven graphs, each with 4 options for domain and range, trying to include common errors as possible options. I also created some beginning questions about domain and range, just to get us started.
Implementation: I showed the graphs and the options using my document camera and the students pulled chairs around the screen. I did not show the plickers "Live View" because I was showing everything they needed through the doc camera. I gave them 30 seconds to think then asked them to hold up their answers and I scanned with my iPad.
The app gives immediate feedback as to who was right and who was wrong, and which wrong answer they selected. I can use that to base our follow-up conversation before we move on to the next question.
Reflection Thoughts:
- The kids LOVED it. They asked to do it everyday and for the most part they were engaged the whole time.
- At the end of the lesson I gave the a graph and had them give the domain and range WITHOUT options. They were more successful than they would have been before the lesson, but not as successful as I would have hoped.
- The app seems slow, but I have to remember that it is faster than if I had to read and judge them all.
- If they are covering up any part of the QR Code it will not read their answer.
- I'm not ready to implement in a full class, because it would be harder to keep everyone engaged.
- I can't think of a better way to help students learn about domain and range in a way that will engage them and simplify it to make it more accessible to all students from the beginning.
- I'm planning on doing something similar in the future with other concepts.
How have you tried plickers? What did you like? What does it take to make a good plicker lesson?
-Kathryn
