Throwdown Thursday - Making learning interactive with CLICKERS!

I am linking up with Erin over at Lovin' Lit for her monthly Throwdown Thursday!

I know that this is not a new concept...many schools have used a version of the "clicker" or some sort of student response system long before my campus got them 5 years ago. I don't use them all the time, but boy are the students engaged when we do!

The ones that we have look like this:

I am sure there are newer versions. You can use these several ways: it's easiest to begin using these where the the students sign in anonymously (no student login required) to assess and see what students know about a particular topic. Simply set up your lesson for the day in SMART notebook or whatever software comes with yours and insert slides to "ask a question." A professor of mine did this in college and we never knew when the questions were coming. This forced us to stay awake in an 8AM Oceanography class...yawn. BUT, there was something fantastic about the immediate feedback that he received from us as well as immediate feedback from him when we found out the correct answers.

There are several ways that you can ask questions, true/false, multiple choice, short answer, and many more. Mostly, I have used these whenever we give a pre-assessment that is multiple choice because the students log in and there is not any grading required. This year, however, I want to incorporate these into my daily lessons for more interaction!

Don't have the funds for these? There are several FREE options for you if you have access to iPads or if you are a school in which kids bring their own devices. The app is called Socrative and you can find out more information about it here!