Leave the Worksheet Behind: Part 1 in a Series

By: Mary Kienstra on: October 8, 2014  in: Engagement, iPads, Math   2 Comments

It’s not that a math worksheet is not engaging, it’s just that there are other ways to deliver the same lesson in a more engaging way.  The only problem is that once you transform your math class to make learning more engaging, it’s very difficult to go back!

Kahoot is one of those engaging games that has students begging, “Can we do that again?”  If you haven’t tried www.getkahoot.com as a way to pump up your students’ engagement, stop reading now and go check it out.

Creating a lesson on Kahoot is very easy.  First set up your account.  It’s free and simple to manage.  Your teacher dashboard shows all of your quizzes.  You can even share them with colleagues who have accounts.  All you need is a laptop or iPad, a way to project the image on the screen, and a set of devices for your students.

I have used problems straight from the text or worksheet to create the “quiz”.   In my class, my student: iPad ratio is 2 or 3:1, which works very well.  That ratio forces my students to share an iPad and to collaborate on their responses.  I like to hear them discussing their ideas, explaining how and why they found their answer.

When I open Kahoot and project the quiz, it shows the PIN for the quiz.  Students go to www.kahoot.it to sign in using that PIN.  They choose a team name and then the fun begins.  As they work their way through the quiz, students receive immediate feedback as the site shows the correct answer as well as how many teams answered correctly.  It does keep track of team points too.  At the end of the quiz, there is an option to export the results into a spreadsheet, making Kahoot a great tool for formative assessment.

I’m always looking for ways to make the everyday kinds of math problems more engaging.  Kahoot is my new favorite.  It’s easy to create, simple to use, and my students are begging to “play” it again.