This is the 13th post in a series on using iPads in the language classroom. Click here to view an index of previous posts. In this post, I will talk more about iPad stations, as I did in Volume 10, focusing on Socrative and Quizlet.
As I continue to use iPad stations to review material (3 stations, two of which feature iPads, and one tech-free station), I find more ideas to share, so I decided to write a second post on them.
As I mentioned previously, I really love Socrative for its simplicity and ability to provide immediate feedback. Another great use for Socrative that I hadn’t employed yet at the time of my last post is the ability to have students respond to a quick question. Do you ever have a few minutes left at the end of class and spontaneously decide to have the students respond to a question (or maybe you’ve planned it)? There is an option that simply allows you to have students respond to a quick question, be it true or false, multiple choice, or short answer. You don’t have to pre-plan anything. You can ask them the question orally or write it on the board somewhere.
Then, if you have more, time, you can have your students vote for their favorite response (if you chose short answer). This would be cool for a creative writing question. In the question below, I simply asked students to order an item off a menu.
Quizlet is another tool I am loving for iPad stations. I throw a couple QR codes on the board that lead to Quizlet sets for whatever we are reviewing. Students who finish early at their station can study the vocabulary however they wish using the sets (they usually choose to play scatter). I do sometimes allow them to play DuoLingo as well, but that isn’t as targeted. The other benefit of allowing students who finish early to play on Quizlet means they are more likely to play it at home.
Another program I’ve been using a lot lately is EdPuzzle. More and more teachers are using EdPuzzle (and similar tools like Zaption and EduCanon) to add questions and annotations to YouTube and other videos. I love including an EdPuzzle station because it’s a great authentic resource. Again, ever a fan of instant feedback, I so far have only embedded multiple choice questions. I know that some teachers have students sign up for accounts and assign these as homework. I have yet to do that, but I may in the future. Once I gain more experience using EdPuzzle, I may write a dedicated post about it.
Another feature of EdPuzzle is the ability to crop the unwanted parts of the video. The only thing I don’t like about this is that you can only crop out the beginning and the end of the video. There’s no option to cut out part of the middle of the video. This often leaves my students watching more of the video than they need to, often with language far above their comprehension level. You can see my EdPuzzle quizzes by searching for “Mlle Decker” here (only two as of this writing).
