I recently became an Ambassador for Kahoot. (www.getkahoot.com) So perhaps this post will sound biased. But friends, really, I can’t find anything more engaging and useful for my classroom right now. Students walk into class asking for Kahoot. If that is the level of interest, I owe it to them to figure out the best ways to use this free platform.
Most teachers use it to review material. That makes sense as it is super easy to make a quick online, multiple choice quiz. I support that as long as you are including this type of review in a balanced program where students have plenty of opportunities to answer open-ended questions and other ways of elevating their thinking skills. I absolutely use it for quizzes but I also capitalize on deeper uses (ie: Students creating Kahoots!) because I don’t want to only give them multiple choice assessments. That is not stretching them as learners.
So for my students, producing English, comprehending English and acquiring academic/social language is our main priority. I teach NELD which stands for Newcomer English Language Development.
Basically, We used 3 stories from www.newsinlevels.com. (fantastic resource for increasing reading for ELLs) As recommended by the site, newcomers were to start on level 1 (audio if needed) and then move to level 2 and 3. I gave some class time for this and also let them know that they could practice at home for Friday’s Kahoot.
To make the Kahoot, I took screen shots of the news stories at the highest level and made those images my question image. (easy drag & drop when you make a Kahoot). If you’d like to play the kahoot, it is here:
https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/266b08cf-1a7b-4f27-93ee-6a9e0516b367
Because my class is English language development, my focus for the questions were a mix of content but also structures of language. I took the opportunity to point out proper use of verbs and idioms as well. Once those questions are played, the image is there to discuss why it is “kicking” vs. “kicked.”
For my BRAND new kiddos, I worked with them in a small group with the above images. I want them to practice saying the correct phrases aloud and News in Levels also has an audio feature so they can listen to the story and track the print for reading.
Remember that you can get a free Kahoot account at www.getkahoot.com and your kiddos don’t need to make accounts to play. There other uses of Kahoot that will have them thinking more deeply about content. Kiddos making kahoots…. now THAT is high on Bloom’s! That is another post.
This is our first day to have multiple volunteers in our room. That is the next post!
Happy English Speaking friends!!
Carol