Sunday, August 28, 2016
Kahooting a Syllabus
Nevertheless, it is imperative that students understand and abide by classroom expectations since day one. Otherwise, the school year will become a senseless battle ground to abide by expectations while maintaining sanity and a conducive learning environment.
I am on the student side on this one, going over a syllabus is extremely boring...... That is why I needed to do something new. After a few days in class, I handed out the students a copy of my 3 page syllabus. I asked students to read it silently. We went over a few questions and I clarified any concerns. After that. I told them we were going to play Kahoot to review if they understood expectations. Kahoot is a gamified platform to assess knowledge and understanding in a fun and engaging way.
I created my Syllabus Kahoot in a situation like scenario. My question prompt was imaginary scenarios like this one: "Maria was too tired to do her homework last night..... ". For the answers, I created four possible options with only one or two being correct. Example: a) That's ok, Maria can turn in her homework any time (incorrect answer), b) Maria won't be able to turn in her homework because she doesn't have an excused absence (correct answer). I hope you get the idea. Students had to to try to match a situation and possible answer depending on the expectations they had read on the syllabus. I threw a few funny statements in my answers that made students laugh. We had a lot of fun. Students were able to take home a printed copy of the syllabus after a few weeks into the semester and once we knew which students were staying. If you would like to see a sample of my syllabus Kahoot please go to https://getkahoot.com/ . After creating an account or signing in, search on public Kahoots by author and type educatortalk .