I created a poll to substitute for an activity called 4 corners. I make a statement and students have to decide if they strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree, or disagree and go to the corner that matches. It's a visual and physical way for students to state their opinions and reasons. I would be interested in trying this and the four corner activity and seeing which students enjoy more. I think some students like to actually see the people in the corners and get the movement, but I could see students liking to add their comments instead of having to share it out loud. That would be less threatening. I also wonder if I can determine who hasn't answered a question if I'm missing some answers. I think they students would really like texting in the answers, and I would be interested in seeing how many of my students bring cells to school. I guess they can use the laptop if they don't have one.
The form I created I plan to use during my writer's workshop as a reflection and goal setting tool. It will also give me feedback on what I can teach next to best help my students. Being able to access this easily with my Ipad during this time will be great. I had students fill out paper copy sheets similar to this the last couple of years. I would keep them in a binder with all of my notes from conferencing. It was very bulky and inconvenient. I am very excited for the use of my Ipad, google docs (where I can view student writing), and forms like this.
I like both of these ideas. It will be interesting to see if students prefer texting or physically moving around the room to express their opinions. This could be a good way to change it up every so often, especially with topics students might prefer to anonymously share their comments. And I like how easy your form will be for students to fill out and share with you. Absent students could access it from home, and it would help with organization for those kids that just can't seem to keep track of papers. :)
ReplyDeleteI use corners as a Spanish teacher. I thought that was just a language learning activity. I found that many students would just follow their friends from corner to corner and I didn't have enough time to ask everyone in the class their opinion. By using PollEverywhere, you can still see what the majority of the class thinks and call on people randomly to give their opinion and you could even hide the poll while people are voting so people won't just pick the most popular answer. I don't think you can find out who has or hasn't voted on the free version. I just wait until I see the total number of votes equal the total number of students in the class at the time.
ReplyDelete