Cupcakes and Lesson Plans: Plickers

I'm always on the lookout for something fun and quick to try with my kids, especially when it comes to formative assessments. We've used approximately 250 trees worth of post-it notes this year as fast exit slips for different lessons, but I wanted something unique.

I was browsing some of my favorite teacher Instagrams when I came across one talking about Plickers. Isn't that a fun word? My kids love to say it too.

Okay, let me get to the point. Plickers is a website/app to do quick assessments with your students. First, you set up a roster at plickers.com and assign a number to each student. Then, you print out the plicker cards, which look a lot like QR codes. Each card has a special symbol, the student's number, and A, B, C, D options. After you have given your students the plickers cards, you can go onto your mobile app (or the website) and create a multiple choice question. Once you read the question and the options to your students, you ask them to reveal their answers. They turn their cards to where their answer is on the top and point the QR code towards your phone. You use your phone to "capture" the answers and the app identifies those students who got it correct. I love it because there is NO way that students can cheat. (Unless they have super microscopic eyesight and can see the itty bitty letters on their neighbor's card). I also love it because it tells you what everyone answered and you can use the information to modify your lessons. Student 1, 5, and 9 answered incorrectly? I will be sure to hit on that skill again during guiding reading next week. Here's a snapshot of how it looks. Sorry that I had to blare out my cuties faces. I also didn't want anyone to see who got it incorrect! The red names are the students who got it incorrect, green is for the students who got it right, and the gray are the names of the students who haven't shown their answer yet.