3 Easy Ways to Incorporate Plickers Into Your Lesson

Are you tired of asking students, "How do you feel about (insert topic here)?" only to get blank stares in response?

Or do you find yourself checking for understanding, only to see the same students raising their hands to answer each time?

The solution is here! Plickers will solve all of your problems with checking for student understanding. The best part? Plickers will make your life easier while keeping students engaged!

Plickers is a tech(ish) way to ask students multiple choice or true/false questions. I say tech(ish) because it's tech for you, and not for them. Now, I'm all about giving students the technology and creative freedom to use technology, however I know that sometimes time is of the essence and you need to do a quick formative assessment to see how students feel or answer a question anonymously.

Click the video below to see how Plickers works!

1.   Assess How They Feel

Plickers is the perfect way to see how your students feel about a particular topic. Of course there are some students who feel comfortable verbalizing their comfort or discomfort with what they are learning, but there are usually an equal amount of students who don't feel comfortable sharing that in front of their peers. This can be an anonymous, safe way for your students to ask for help without getting embarrassed. 

Another great thing about Plickers is that the data is always there! You can look back at previous scans to track student progress.

2.   Entrance/Exit Tickets

How do you know what your students need when they enter the room? Entrance tickets are a perfect way to see what students know before you teach a lesson. The problem that I have always found with entrance tickets is that there isn't enough time to analyze student data before teaching so it doesn't really drive my instruction. Plickers instantly grades each student's answer so that you can use that data purposefully.

Similarly, you can use Plickers to collect your exit ticket data. The instant grading makes it easy to assess whether concepts need to be retaught the next day. 

3.   Student Groupings

Before Plickers, I struggled with differentiation. Mostly because there weren't enough hours in the day! Plickers was convenient because I could very quickly post a multiple choice math question with one correct answer choice and three incorrect answer choices. I would purposely make the incorrect choices common mistakes. This allowed me to create groups and centers based off student need and address any misconceptions right on the spot!

Plickers has truly been a time saver for me. My students seem to like using them too because the instant feedback is almost like a game show! This app has really helped my grading and has helped to drive my instruction.

What are some other ways that you could incorporate Plickers into your classroom? Comment your ideas below!

Resources

Plickers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://get.plickers.com/

Plickers- A Step by Step Tutorial. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpx56rjCVjQ

Technological Poverty in Today's Classrooms

It's no secret that we are becoming increasingly reliant on technology. Just go to your local McDonald's or Walmart and you will see that you don't even need to speak to a real person anymore to check out. More and more jobs are requiring employees to be proficient with technology and as a result, we as educators need to prepare our students for life in the Technological Age.

Implementing the use of technology in the classroom has many benefits . Educational technology prepares our students for the future by improving skills such as collaboration, digital learning, communication, and problem solving. Learning through digital resources is engaging and has the ability to be completely individualized. This is necessary in today's day and age.

With the increased need for our students to be fluent in technology, it would make sense that appropriate funding for technology would increase, also. Unfortunately, that is not the case for many public schools in America. Many classrooms in America still struggle to keep up with the times. How is this possible in the 21st Century? How are digital resources still not evenly distributed to all classrooms? Technological Poverty is the main reason that implementing digital devices such as laptops, tablets, and Smartboards proves to be difficult. Educational technology requires money and is a substantial investment. Not only is purchasing this technology outright expensive, it is also expensive to maintain it.

In recent years, student enrollment is up and school funding is down. When state and local budgets make up the majority of public school funding, students who live in an impoverished area are at an extreme disadvantage. Many students go days or weeks without using a computer. In 2020, there is absolutely no reason why any student should go a single day without technology being integrated into their education.

I encourage everyone to contact their governor and express an interest in more funding for technology in public school systems.

Contact Your State Governor

Resources

Contact Your State Governor. (n.d.). Retrieved January 6, 2020, from https://www.usa.gov/state-governor

Digital Divide in America | American High School. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyOQLGRyKt4

Mareco, D. (2020, January 28). 5 Benefits of Technology in the Classroom. Retrieved January 6, 2020, from https://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/5-benefits-of-technology-in-the-classroom

The High Cost of Education Budget Cuts. (2018, July 19). Retrieved from http://neatoday.org/2018/07/16/the-high-cost-of-education-budget-cuts/