Utilizing Technology for Formative Assessment and Differentiation in the Classroom

Alyssa Davidson teaches 9th grade Earth Science at Ralston Valley High School. Instead of relying on a predetermined lesson plan, Davidson uses formative assessment to guide student learning and direct instruction. I recently observed Davidson to see how she integrated technology and formative assessment into her instruction. Upon entering the classroom on Monday morning students were immediately engaged in the learning content. Davidson invited students to take a short four question Socrative quiz to help determine where they were in their learning. Davidson clearly explained to the students that no points were attached to the formative assessment. This made students feel at ease and comfortable to answer the questions to their best ability. The class then discussed the answers to the quiz questions. To stay mobile in the classroom, Davidson controlled what appeared on the class SMARTboard through her iPad. Airserver is an easy, inexpensive tool to enable mobility in the classroom. By using the AirPlay feature on your iPad and Airserver software onto the device that is attached to your projector (laptop or desktop computer with a wireless card installed) you have the ability to mirror content from your iPad onto your projector.

Students then used the data feedback from the quiz to determine the next steps in their learning. Davidson asked students who missed one or more questions or just wanted more instruction on the prior content to join her in one side of the room. Students who answered all of the questions correctly were allowed to move on and begin exploring a new topic. Davidson provided these students with reading materials and Ed Puzzle videos to hold their engagement. Ed Puzzle is a web tool that allows you take any video from YouTube, vimeo, Khan Academy, etc. and adjust it to meet your specific needs. Questions and comments can be added throughout the video.

As students moved on to their individualized content, Davidson started a Pear Deck Activity. Pear Deck is an interactive presentation tool used to actively engage students in social learning. Davidson has been using Pear Deck for a little over a year. She finds it very easy to use because the interface is intuitive and the customization options are limited. This forces students to focus on the content and questions rather than the appearance of the deck. While there is a free version available, Davidson prefers the paid version for her Earth Science classes. The drag-able and drawing questions are critical for diagram interpretation and she has the ability to collect more rigorous data about student understanding than the traditional multiple choice platform. Davidson recently surveyed her students and found that “Pear Deck was the activity in class that best supports student learning and is the most enjoyable. It has also made students more comfortable making mistakes. Since there is an ask again option, they know that if their response is incorrect or needs some editing, they will be able to revise it”.

Davidson’s classroom reflects a learning environment where students are curious, engaged and in control of their own learning. By utilizing tech tools, Davidson is able to provide a unique learning experience.
If you would like to try Pear Deck here are some of Davidson's tips for success:

• Use the free trial wisely, make the most of your 30 days!
• Read the Pear Deck blog, they share some fantastic content
• Show your students how to access the Takeaways at the end of your first presentation. 
• Email Pear Deck if you have questions, it’s a small team and they respond quickly. 

For more information on how to get started using Pear Deck in your classroom, check out the following video.

Need more help? Contact the Ed Tech Team

Teacher Spotlight: Bob Santone, Math Teacher

Bob Santone, Math teacher at Jefferson Jr/Sr High School, uses his interest in educational technology to help his students apply math in real life. He integrates technology into lessons and projects so that students see, hear and do the math.

In class he uses the whiteboard to display his instruction, and a TV with AirPlay to have students display their work without interrupting the flow of the lesson on the board. Other students use both these visual aids to stay on track.

On their iPads, students click on the web links in the Schoology assignment, upload the PDF of the lesson into Notability, open the Desmos graphing calculator - switching from one app to another with a quick double-click of the Home button to apply their learning.

The brief video gives a glimpse of his class in action, showing students app-smashing and Bob's use of Nearpod's drawing function for real-time formative assessment and correcting misconceptions on the spot.

Link to video

Bob can direct the lesson on his iPad from the back of the class using AirServer as he walks around giving students just-in-time help, or he can use the SMARTboard to toggle between his SMART notebook lesson, Schoology, Google Drive, information websites, and his iPad with its myriad of powerful apps.

The students have access to iPads, a few class Chromebooks and graphing calculators, and many use more than one device simultaneously in order to have multiple displays and work more efficiently or collaboratively.

For deeper learning on any of these applications, use the Ed Tech website, or contact us for help. Thank you, Bob, for the inspiration!

Using Question Banks in Schoology

As many of you are gearing up for CMAS and PARCC assessments, Schoology quizzes can be a wonderful resource already at your fingertips to help students prepare. Whether you are working as a team or department or just by yourself, the Schoology Question Banks can be a real time saver. Every person on a team or in a department can contribute questions to the “bank”. You can then customize a quiz by using any of the stored questions from the bank. Question banks allow you to create a repository of test questions in your Resources. You can create Question Banks in Personal and Group Resources.

Create Question Banks in Resources

To create a question bank, follow these steps:

• Click on the Resources area on the top menu, and select the option for Personal or Group resources.
• Click into the collection or group in which you'd like to add a question bank.
• Click on the Add Resources button.
• Select the option to Add Question Bank.
• Enter a name for the Question Bank, and click Create to complete.

To add questions from Resources, follow these steps:

• Click to open a Question Bank in your Resources.
• Click the button to Add Question.
• Select from the following question types in Schoology:

• True/False
• Multiple Choice
• Ordering
• Short-Answer/Essay Questions
• Fill in the Blank
• Matching

• Fill out the question form.
• Click Create Question to complete

Create Question Banks and Add Questions from Within a Course

If you already have a test/quiz with questions in a course, you can add these questions to Question Banks. To create Question banks from within a course, follow these steps:

• Click on the Courses area on the top menu, and select a course with tests/quizzes.
• Click on a test/quiz whose questions you'd like to save in a question bank.
• To add all questions to a question bank, click on the Options button in the Questions tab.
• Select the option to Add Questions to Bank.
• To add a select question to a question bank, click on the gear to the right of the question.
• Select the option to Add to Bank.
• To create a new question bank to house the question(s), choose the option to create a New Question Bank.
• To add the question to an existing question bank, find the bank from within the options available in the menu.
• Click Add Questions to complete.

Add Questions from a Question Bank to a Test/Quiz

Once you have a Question Bank in Schoology, you can build tests/quizzes with questions from the banks. You can add individual questions from a question bank, or you can add a random selection of questions from multiple question banks when you create your quiz.

To add individual questions from one question bank to a test/quiz:

• Create a test/quiz, or click on the name of test/quiz into which you'd like to add questions.
• In the Questions tab, click Add Question and select From Question Banks in the menu.
• In the Import from Question Banks window, select Individual Question.
• Click the Question Bank from which you'd like to import questions.
• Select the box next to the question(s) you'd like to import. To import all questions, select the box next to the Auto-select button.
• To insert a set number of randomly-selected questions from the bank:
• Click Auto-select.
• Enter the number of questions you'd like to add to the test.
• Click Select.
• (*When you use the Auto-select feature, the selected number of questions are added to the test/quiz, and all students in the course receive the same set of questions.)
• Enter a value in the field to the right of each question to set the number of points it’s worth. To set a consistent point value for each question, click the Set Points button and enter a value in the Points Per Question field.
• Click Add Questions to complete.

To add a random selection of questions from one or more question banks to a test/quiz:

1. Create a test/quiz, or click on the name of the test/quiz into which you'd like to add questions.
2. In the Questions tab of the test/quiz, click on the Add Question button.
3. Select the option to import From Question Banks.
4. In the Import from Question Banks window, select Random Questions.
5. In the Select Question Banks window, select one or more of your question banks to pull from. You can select as many as you’d like.
6. Click Select Question Banks.
7. In the Add Random Questions window, enter:
8. The number of questions that you want to generate from each bank.
9. How many points each question is worth.
10. Click Add Questions to complete.

• Each quiz will contain the determined number of questions from the selected question banks.
• Each student in the course receives a unique set of questions. Even if students receive a few of the same questions, they will appear in a different order, so no assessment is alike. This is helpful in maintaining the validity of your quiz results.