PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP
Two-hour agenda
Using technology in assessment: Socrative
Assessment plays a huge rule in education, it helps student learning and educators teaching. Educators can measure students understanding through the results of assessments and they will be aware of the gaps in students’ knowledge which will help them to support the students according to their needs. Assessments doesn't need to be stressful, complicated and strict to measure students understanding. With integrating technology in formative assessment students are more engaged and active, which help them to perform better in summative assessment. Socrative is a technological tool that can be integrated within the classroom as a formative assessment.
Workshop learning outcomes:
Engage participants in Socrative to embrace differentiation and collaboration through different activities that mirror the tool strengths
Collaborate with peers in conversation to share ideas and boost the usage of technology in the learning environment.
Visualize students understanding by exploring the tool features to improve students learning in the classroom.
Visualize students understanding through building assessments, improving instructions and helping student learning.
Common Core standards:
Building on the best of existing state standards, the Common Core State Standards provide clear and consistent learning goals to help prepare students for college, career, and life. The standards clearly demonstrate what students are expected to learn at each grade level, so that every parent and teacher can understand and support their learning.
The standards are:
Research and evidence based
Clear, understandable, and consistent
Aligned with college and career expectations
Based on rigorous content and the application of knowledge through higher-order thinking skills
Built upon the strengths and lessons of current state standards
Informed by other top-performing countries to prepare all students for success in our global economy and society
According to the best available evidence, the mastery of each standard is essential for success in college, career, and life in today’s global economy.
What to expect in the PD workshop:
In the PD workshop, participants will engage in hands-on learning activities and will get the opportunity to explore Socrative and create assessments, quizzes, and rooms. Plus, they will watch their peers participant in the activity they created as students and they will get the chance to observe the results. Participants will get the opportunity to incorporate formative assessment using technology to make the process more enjoyable and engaging, instead of being traditional and boring. This technology can be implemented in a classroom to help learners to be collaborative, active and dynamic. Through such technologies educators will be able to provide a link between fun and knowledge, this approach will take the learning engagement into a different level where assessment doesn’t need to be about sitting behind a disk and writing 1000 word. Formative assessments can be created through tools such as Socrative, Kahoot, or Nearpod and have more impact on students learning then paper and pencil. Through this tool, educators will be able to identify the weaknesses of each student and they can analyze the results to support the students. On the other hand, students can focus on their weakness when practicing to an international exam or summative assessment.
After the PD workshop participants will be able to use Socrative in the classroom to assess their students in multiple ways. They will be able to use all the features of the tool to promote collaboration, engagement and critical thinking. The outcomes of the PD workshop will lead the participants to boost accessibility and incorporate technology usage in their learning environment. The integration of technology in formative assessment allows students to be more captive of the material and increase feedback that students get on their performance.
PD Timeline
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ltgSXWGZ3kPFvDU-TCyBY-Jp6Lj1giPU/view?usp=sharing
Workshop materials
User guide:
The guide introduces Socrative as a formative assessment tool, with all the features of creating quick questions, quizzes, the space race, and exit ticket. It demonstrates how to create an account as a teacher and how to login as a student. It also demonstrates all the characteristics of downloading the results and creating different rooms.
Link below to the user guide:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zSDjBGhzgRI8cbrMieOHvSvW9WGWZRbc/view?usp=sharing
Materials need in the PD workshop:
Electronic tools like tablets, IPads, laptops or smartphones
Internet connection
Projector & smart board
Sticky notes
Overview:
Participants will be given time to create their own quiz, quick quest or space race to reflect their understanding of the PD session on how to use the tool after exploring the features of the tool, they will have the chance to collaborate, ask and discuss any ideas or questions they may have to allow for immediate feedback which will support their learning from their own inquiries and doubt. As all the participants are adults, the goal is to make the tool relevant to their own teaching environment, so they can use it in their educational context with their learners. Each participant may have a different background, but PD workshop will focus on how the tool can be used in a diversity of ways where the participant can integrate into their own background.
Link to an overview of the tool: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DY9d65ARup78_PaKnHFR0fXAvLxFSbiP/view?usp=sharing
Strategies for organizing around the school mission and/or vision
Each school mission/vision may differ in context, but all schools nowadays are building up the knowledge of the 21st-century students which means they must follow the 21st century teaching techniques. One of those techniques is to integrate technology in the educational environment. 21st-century students are native digital users, therefore adding technology to the educational context makes it more familiar to their generation. Digital citizenship is known as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use, which includes the safe, legal, responsible, and ethical use of digital information, which all school is promoting. Students should respect copyright and intellectual property and appropriately document sources. Participants can promote digital citizenship and academic integrity by addressing three essential components in their classrooms: prevention, awareness, and role modeling.
The workshop focuses on integrating technology in the formative assessment to encourage and support learners in their learning joinery. Using Socrative as formative assessment will not only encourage the student to participate, it will also help teachers to indicate the week points for each student and plan a strategy to support them. Socrative offers different features such as a quick question, quizzes, space race and exit ticket which promotes student engagement, direct learning, high order thinking skill, communication and collaboration.
Descriptions and evidence of activities, assessments, planned outcomes, workshop evaluation and post-workshop next steps (evidence of improved teaching and learning, sustained change) should also be included in exemplary plan
Introduction: Introduce myself and my credentials. Give participants introduction about the PD workshop and what to expect and share with them the PD timeline, so they get familiarized with the sections/activities of the PD
Pre-survey: Participants will need to participate in a survey at the beginning of the workshop so that I can assess how familiar they are in using technology in their teaching environment and I get to compare the results of this survey with the one that is going to take place after one month of the workshop. Link for the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/bHRn7SKNkORwD9hm1
PD objectives: Explain the learning objectives and outcomes in relation to the common core standard.
Presentation: It will be screencast of how to use Socrative and it will demonstrate the key features of the tool. This presentation will give participants all the knowledge they require to create formative assessment. It will be delivered as screen cast as way to demonstrate integrating technology in delivering the workshop. Link to the screencast: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jFkQQP-Mr_nvMYqwyUccfoE74raO9Bow/view?usp=sharing
Reflection: After watching the presentation of Socrative participants will follow the link to the Padlet platform and input their thoughts so that it will be visible to everyone
Discussion: Participants then need to discuss with other participants what they can see on the Padlet and what are their expectations from using such Socrative as a way for formative assessment in their own school, for a certain grade level and subject.
Hand on activities: Participants will create accounts on Socrative and then participants will be divided into 3 groups the first group will create quick questions, the second will create a quiz, and the third will create space race. Each participant will have room number that they will share with other participants so they can log in as students. So participants will get to alternate roles and practice as students and teachers.
Quick questions: Have three features, first multiple choice self-explanatory, with up to 5 possible answers. Second true or false questions for instant feedback and third short answers to give students a chance to express their understanding.
Quiz: Participant will get to create a quiz with a combination of question feature depending on their target group, in the workshop they will be advised to try all the different options. As teachers, they can save the quizzes they created and use them again. As a quiz is launched, teachers can monitor students progress.
Space race: Is a great feature for the competitive edge where students get to race each other across the board. The more correct answers they get further they move to the end line.
Collaboration: Participants will get the chance to share their experience in creating and participating activities through Socrative. They get to share their experience and the challenges they faced if any. Plus, if their thoughts have changed from the beginning of the class.
Exit ticket: I will use the exit tick in Socrative for the participants to answer before the workshop is over. The questions are “How well did you understand today’s material?” “What did you learn in today’s class?” and then "please answer the teacher's question" will appear and I will ask them verbally “How did today’s activities increase your capacity to use technology to improve your practice?” After participating in the exit ticket participant have the chance to ask questions if they have any.
I will ask all the participant to share their email, so I can send them a survey one month after the completion date of the workshop to measure the influence the workshop had on their teaching.
Link for the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/CnIQb3sEmpOEF8a83