In the last post, I introduced how to set up Quizlet. If you are not familiar with this amazing website, read that post first. Then, you will have your free account ready, so you can try Quizlet LIVE.
https://royalechristine.com/2019/11/30/increase-student-engagement-with-quizlet/
At first, I was excited with the amount of student engagement just with Quizlet learning options. Then, another teacher mentioned the Quizlet LIVE option. Life changing!
Our school is fortunate, because most of our classrooms are now one-to-one with technology. In my classroom, I have a Chromebook for each student. That’s important to mention in order to play Quizlet LIVE as a class.
In the previous post, I mentioned that you can create your set of cards to share with students to learn. It’s best to share these terms at the start of a new unit. Then, they can practice learning the terms based on the Quizlet activities they choose. I build in some brief amounts of time throughout the unit for students to practice. They practice at home as well, because they especially like to prepare for the Quizlet LIVE.
Once a set is created, I project the set on the classroom wall. After some days of practicing, I will select the LIVE option (under the set), and it will generate a class code for the students to play LIVE. I highly recommend having a rule that students are to use their first names only in order to play. This is helpful for so many reasons.
(I will add a picture soon of where to select the LIVE option on a set.)
Students go to: https://quizlet.com/live or quizlet.live to enter the code.
Once your students are ready to go, it’s time to play.
You may want to set your desks up in teams of three to four to play. It will help with spacing, and I shuffle teams on every round. This isn’t necessary, but I believe it’s beneficial. Due to the shuffling, students get to work with a variety of peers, and it increases motivation and improves relationships and teamwork amongst the students. There is a lot of movement when you shuffle, so we review how to carry and use the Chromebooks appropriately for each new round.
Here’s an example of a computer generated shuffle for a round of Quizlet LIVE.
As soon as the teams start to play, they are off to the races. The projected screen displays team progress. The answers are not on everyone’s screen – only one teammates – and it’s a race to the end. If someone answers incorrectly, the team is sent back to zero. It feels like the game at the fair where you have to use water to get your horse to the end first.
In the photo above, the unicorns are in the lead and the foxes just answered incorrectly, so they are wiped out to zero. Once a team wins, it is displayed on the screen. The students get very excited.
One of the first times we played Quizlet LIVE was on Halloween. I was allowing students to “trick or treat” with a win, but I was moving through the candy quickly.
Now that I have some experience with the game, I often have this scheduled for a piece of time near the end of class, and I award HERO points to the winners. They would have fun without a reward, but it might be fun to create Quizlet Bucks, too.
Since students are extremely engaged, it can get a bit intense and a little bit loud. I was a genius and told them we had to try a twist on the game. Since ancient humans (early unit of study) had to utilize nonverbal communication, we have to try Quizlet LIVE – Silent version. Students go to their original desks and the game is the same – except they can gesture, but there is no talking or the team is eliminated. This might be the best game ever. It does force some of the students to step up, since they are not close and communicating.
As with anything new, there will be a learning curve. Don’t worry about losing time the first time you play. Once this becomes a classroom “routine” it is worth the initial time used to get the hang of it.
I will update this as I utilize Quizlet LIVE more, and I will add some more photos to help with your experience.
Michigan Mama 