Kahoot!

 Enhancing your Assessment with Kahoot!

📢 What is it?

Kahoot has always been a favorite of mine and my students. My students always got SO excited when we used it and were always very engaged (although just a warning... it can get loud and rowdy when you do the game)! This is also not just an elementary-based game. I've seen it used successfully in all grades, elementary, middle, and high.

If you've never heard of Kahoot, it is a game-based student response tool. You create quizzes and display them on a projector. Students login with a game pin (shown on the display when you start the Kahoot) and do not need to create an account to use it. Teachers can create their own quiz or can pull questions from (or completely reuse) another teacher's quiz. Students can play one-on-one or in teams from any device either on a computer or using the app on a phone or tablet. Each question is timed and the teacher can set the time limit on the question. After each question, the game tells them which place they are in and the top 3 winners are announced at the end.

📚 Formative Assessment

There are so many ways Kahoot can be used for formative assessments. I've used it as reviews before quizzes/test, exit tickets, or during lessons while learning/reviewing new material. As we go through the questions Kahoot tells how many people chose each answer choice, which shows the areas my students have mastered and which areas we still need to review. 

After each game is completed, an excel spreadsheet will be sent to you to give your more insights on your student's responses. All reports can also be viewed in the reports tab within your Kahoot account. 

🧠 Brain Breaks

Kahoot games are great for brain breaks. Use the discover library to find tons of different Kahoot games that can be used for times your students just need a break. I've also used different Kahoot games for holiday parties or even if I just have a little bit of extra time that I need to fill. They can even be used as rewards for student behavior.

🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️ Student Created Kahoots

Kahoot has the option to upload a spreadsheet of questions. Students can work individually or with a group to brainstorm questions for an upcoming quiz or test. After they submit them, upload it to a spreadsheet. When you add a questions to a new Kahoot, there is an option to upload a spreadsheet instead of adding questions individually. Add your spreadsheet and your student-created Kahoot is ready to play! 

*Bonus tip: If you have students create questions in a Google Form, you can get the questions already made in a Google Sheets. This saves you the step of typing in each question and answer choice. See the step-by-step directions here.

🔊 Beginning of a Unit

When you create a new Kahoot, you have a few different template options. One option is called introduce new topics with a "blind" Kahoot. 13 questions are created and you can change them to whatever you need to input for the topic. It's a fun way to engage students on a new topic and see what they know, while introducing and teaching new information.

🏅Create & Play a Kahoot

Creating a Kahoot is a pretty easy process. Once you sign up for an account, click on Create in the top right corner. There will be different template options offered here (free or premium). If you do not want to use any of the templates, click New Kahoot. Add your own question or choose one from the question bank. You have a 120 character limit on your questions. However, one way I've gotten around that is to snip my question and add it in as a picture. You can also add pictures as an answer choice. Creating a Kahoot for math can be tricky, but using the picture option for the choices and questions can help you get around that! You can also add links to YouTube videos.

After you've created your question and added your answer choices (there must be at least 2), change the time limit and point value. Your time limit can range from 5 to 240 seconds. Questions can be worth 0, 1000, or 2000 points. Continue adding your own questions or questions from the question bank from the task bar on the left side. When you are finished with your Kahoot, click done in the right corner. You can also preview it in this area as well. Name your Kahoot, add a description, picture, and change the privacy to either everyone can view or private (this is only for searching in the discover tab). 

See the following video to see a quick tutorial on creating your Kahoot game. 

Once your game is created, you are ready to play! You can play in live mode or student-paced mode. If you play in live mode, be prepared for your students to get loud and rowdy, but in a good way. 🎉