Week 9: Creating Formative Assessments--the Journey

Creating Formative Assessments--the Journey

Exploring Freckle

I started out this week with looking into Freckle and what it has to offer. As I researched, I found out that I could not actually create my own original assessment. I could assign assessments that are pre-made and go along with standards, but I could not create my own. It is important to me to be able to create my own assessments based on what I am doing in the classroom and based on preschool local/state standards. I am finding it difficult to find apps that are preschool specific and allows for teacher creativity with assessments. So, with this in mind I decided to look for another assessment tool where I could create my own assessments for my classroom. My goal in doing this was to be able to create assessments I can use from year to year, based on preschool state standards as outlined in the Virginia Foundation Blocks For Early Learners, AND, to create assessments that are age appropriate where I can add visuals so students can work on them on their own. 

Don’t get me wrong, Freckle seems like a wonderful tool to use for Kindergarten and up for assigning assessments based on K+ standards. It also seems like a wonderful tool for teachers to use where they do not need to create their own assessment, it will be a time saver in that aspect. It would be great to collect a lot of data on each student to inform instruction, to group students, and individualized instruction opportunities. 

Exploring More

Because I would like to be able to create my own preschool assessments and use images, I began to search again for an app with those features. 

I checked out Tailor Ed, it was only after I signed up for a free account and added students that I realized I could not create my own assessments. I also checked out Workbench that looked really cool but was not a platform to create assessments.

Next, I took a look at Socrative. I liked that I could actually create my own assessment here but I was not able to add images to the assessment. I played around with it a bit and actually did create an assessment on preschool rhyming words, you can check it by clicking the link below.

Socrative Rhyming Quiz

Socrative was easy to navigate and it did not take long to figure out how to create an assessment. But, it was still not exactly what I was looking for so I continued to consult the Common Sense site for more direction. When I found the next app I knew I had found what I was looking for.....

Quizizz met my criteria of creating an assessment AND ability to add images to the questions and answers. I was very pleased when I realized that not only could I create my own assessment but that I could add images to the questions and the answers!!  😂

When I started to create the assessment, I found that Quizizz is very easy to navigate, it guides you through making them and is very straight forward. This is how I created my Rhyming Word Quiz on Quizizz:

• Click on Create Quiz
• Type in the name of the quiz and click on the classes relevant for the quiz; click Next
• Click on Create a New Question
• For question 1 type in the question you want to ask and/or click on the Media button to the right to add image or video (once I realized I could add images I did a Google search for images--without restrictions--to use for the whole quiz and saved to my computer for easy access)
• When you type in information for a question you type it in on the left side and on the right side you can actually see it being created, images and all, very cool! 😎
• On the top right of the input screen you can click on single answer or multi answer for each question
• Next put in the answer options for the question, here again you can add text and/or images (I know, so exciting!)
• It has four answer options but you can add more if you want
• Under the question text box there is an option for turning on or off the Has a Correct Answer option
• On the bottom left there are two more cool features: Tag Standards option; a drop down list for how long students have to answer each question--the default is 30 seconds
• When finished inputting info for the question click on the green SAVE button to save the question
• On the left you will notice a check mark by each question, this is where you click on the correct answer if there is one
• Continue until you have put in all the quiz questions; once saved you can preview the question and continue to add more by clicking on + (purple plus sign)
• When finished adding all of the questions and happy with the product click on the top right Finish Quiz button
• Ta-Da you just created a very cool quiz in Quizizz

Here are some other cool features of Quizizz:

-Quiz Quality Score  This is a checklist that guides you to make a quality quiz

-You can also teleport quizzes into Quizizz

-Quizzes and can aligned to standards: put in state, grade level and subject (Virginia is a listed state)

-Quiz Image  An overall image can be uploaded to the quiz to see it easily when you log in

-Quizizz gives the option to Host a Game or Play Solo; teachers can assign it as homework, solo or live

Needless to say, I am very happy that I found Quizizz, it is a great platform where I can create my age appropriate preschool quizzes, assessments and actually add images to!!!

Overall I am very pleased with Quizizz and the features and options that meet my needs and I am sure will meet a lot of teacher's needs. There are other options and features that Quizizz offers, if you get a chance head over to the website and check it out! 

Quizizz.com

Take a look at the final Rhyming Word Quiz I created for my preschool classroom!

Quizizz Rhyming Word Quiz