In my 12 years of teaching, I have constantly been looking for better and more captivating ways to review my students. Kids like games, so I have experimented with several different types of games over the years. There was always a problem though. Some games are fun, but didn’t engage all students at the same time, having students only participate directly in a small percentage of the questions. Other games grew dull and boring, resulting in me losing the students' interest midway through the review. Then I found Kahoot. This review game was not only fun, but every student can participate in every question, engaging the entire class at the same time. It also awakened their competitiveness. Once introducing Kahoot, I have seen certain students get excited about learning that I thought couldn’t get excited about anything. Best of all, I have seen an improvement in performance. My test scores have been better since introducing this amazing, online, review tool. So, what is Kahoot?
Kahoot is a website which allows you to quiz your students on any subject imaginable. The question appears on your board via a projector and your computer, and the students can use a smartphone, tablet, or computer to answer the question.
How do I get started?
First, go to www.getkahoot.com and create your FREE account. I love the free part. Once you have an account, you can make your own quiz from scratch or pick from thousands of quizzes made by teachers from all over the world that are already on the website. Just search a particular topic on the website and Kahoot will pull a selection of quizzes that match your topic. I like making my own so that I can control the content for my classes specifically. You can make quizzes containing multiple choice and true/false questions. After creating your quiz, you go to your “My Kahoots” library and select the Kahoot you want. The website produces a code that the students will enter into their device that allows them to join the quiz. They select a name, and once all your students have joined, you can start the quiz.
Once the quiz begins, students are given a certain amount of time, which you can control, to answer the question. After each question, Kahoot shows you what the correct answer is, and how many students selected each possible answer. This allows you to see whether or not they are grasping the content. Then Kahoot reveals the top five scorers in the class. This gets the student excited to see if they are in the top five. Points are determined on whether they guessed the correct answer, and the amount of time it took them to answer the question. Once all the questions have been answered, Kahoot reveals the winner along with the top five students. I give out little prizes to the top five and to the winner to add a little more incentive to win. My students love review day now, and they don’t even realize they are learning and having fun at the same time.
