Student Feedback

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Hi! I'm Alissa from Fun in Fifth. I am excited to share with you a couple quick and easy ways to get feedback from your students.

Have you ever wondered how your students feel about their day and what they loved or didn't love? Needed to know if there were any questions still unanswered or any moments that really clicked for your students?

The Parking Lot

Last summer I participated in a professional development academy at VCU and one of my favorite takeaways was the parking lot. It is a place for students to leave their thoughts, questions, and concerns. It can be anonymous or they can leave their names.

I love the parking lot because it gives students a chance to not only give feedback on academic items, but also to share what they like (and don't like) in the classroom, what needs to change, and a place for those amazing "Ah Ha" moments when something clicks for them. The parking lot has been invaluable to me and getting a chance to really hear them. Many students are more comfortable leaving a sticky note question for you than they are asking aloud in class.

All of our 4th and 5th grade teachers have a parking lot in their classrooms. Our library media specialist has also put one in the library learning commons for our students to use. The parking lot is easy to make, takes just a little bit of training, and is a worthwhile use of your sticky notes. (Coming from a sticky note hoarder like myself, that is saying something!)

So that is overall feedback, but what happens when you need to ask a question and see what each student knows?

In the past I have used white boards where students hold up their answer. I have used Activotes and ActivEngage...but what happens when you can't get the iPad cart or someone else is using the 1 set of votes that is shared among 12 teachers?

Plickers

"Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices"

Plickers is great because all you need is one device, for the teacher, to scan and a set of cards.  You can print the cards for free and laminate them yourself, or buy a sturdier set on Amazon.

When you ask a question, the students turn their card based on the answer they choose and hold it up.  You scan and get instant feedback on who knows the answer.  Easy and simple.  Fast, formative assessment with little to no setup.  The best part is...it is completely free!  The cards looks like this:

This video from the Plickers website will give you a little more information about plickers and why people love using them.

We have a fabulous physical education teacher at my school and he uses plickers in class with all grade levels.  He even has the plicker cards fastened withVelcro to posters and students can run and place their answer card on their spots.  

Hope this post has given you a couple tips on gaining feedback from your students.  What are some other ways you get quick feedback from your students??