Middle School Update
April 15, 2016
Service Learning Day
Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Important Dates
April 18: No School (Dalat Holiday)
April 21: ES Sneak Peek, C Block (5th grade only)
April 25-26: Accreditation Team Visit
April 26-29; MAP Testing Schedule
April 27: Q4 Progress Reports Due
April 29: All S2 Newsletters must be sent out
May 9: SCIPS visit (5th grade only)
Technology Quizzing Ideas (from Melodee)
Get.kahoot.com
There are tons of quizzes to search and use. What I usually do is find the kahoot quiz that has been used the most, duplicate it and then create my own. You can customize the time limit given to the students. 20 sec is default. I have found that students respond well to the competition, the music is fun, but that for my classes 15 questions is about the best (20 usually drags on and I lose a few students’ attention. 5-10 is great as a bell ringer). For kahoot speed in answering appears to be more important than those who take longer and get the question right. So this format is frustrating to those who are more deliberate and careful in answering.
I just started using the following (an alternative to kahoot)
Quizizz.com
Here are the advantages to this one: It’s far easier to create a quiz—format is user friendlier. With Quizizz the students all work at their own pace and you can start it whenever you want (for kahoot you have to wait for everyone to join in the quiz as it’s a group quiz). Quizizz you can assign for homework (although neither Josh nor I have done that yet) and you can get a statistical print-out in excel. There is instant feedback just like with kahoot and I think the students enjoy the more individualized format. For quizizz there is no need for me to project the questions. Kahoot requires you to project the questions.
Both games can be played through tablets or computers and I have never had connection/wifi issue… even with a class of 22. Both games require you as the admin to start the game and it then generates a sign in code which the student use to get into the game. They can either use their own name or a fun nickname.
I’m not a big game player … my classes definitely lacked review time but I have found these invaluable to help them review. It takes about 10 min or less to play an average 10-15 question quiz.
Thanks to Melodee White for sharing her classroom ideas with us! Chris has had great success with these in 5th grade, too!
Top 10 Active Learning Structures: Skill Drill/Quiz Me
This last active learning structure is a fusion of several ways to help students to review a concept or skill they’ve just learned. It’s very simple, but I have been surprised at how powerful it is. You can give students note cards, in their notebooks, or on a device.
Skill Version: Ask students to solve a problem you provide OR have them create a problem of a certain type for another student to solve. (If they create their own problem, make sure they solve the problem as well and keep the answer to compare with their partner’s.)
Fact Version: Post 1-3 sentence starters for students to fill in. Example: “Two types of mammals are…” OR ask students to create their own sentence starters using the topic you prescribe.
· Divide students into partners. If they are solving a problem you provide, have them work on their own and then compare answers with their partner. If they are solving each other’s problems, then have them exchange and then compare answers when finished.
· An additional step to this is to have partners each share their reasoning behind the answers they gave or the steps that they took to solve the problem. Tell them you will call on random students to share about this (in order to motivate them to do it well).
Susan Allen