Forget about clickers, make your own Plickers

A classroom set of clickers, aka Student Response System can cost anywhere from $1000 to $3500 depending on the brand you choose, yet most of the teachers I have worked with use their clickers for quick multiple choice and true/false assessments.

My first set of 40 Plickers. Printed on white card stock and laminated.

I recently discovered a new iOS app and website (and Android app) called Plickers, short for Paper Clickers, that allows teachers to create and collect data from multiple choice assessments for little to no cost (provided they have a smart phone, iPod, or tablet.) Here's the basic idea: each student in class gets a paper card with a unique matrix design similar to a QR Code. When asked a question, students hold up their card with the correct answer positioned at the top of the card. The teacher scans the room with a smart phone or tablet (iOS or Android) and answers are recorded.

This is what it looks like in action:

As you can see, as I scanned the classroom, each student's name appeared on my screen to confirm that their card had been read and their response recorded. When that process is complete, I then get aggregate scores from the class displayed as graphs as well as individual scores for each student. Here's what the data looks like in the app and on the website:

This video shows what the results look like in the app. Scrolling through students, I can quickly see who answered correctly, who answered incorrectly, and who didn't answer the question.

Aggregate and Individual Scores via the Plickers website.

It's a pretty simple process to set up. The steps I followed are all listed below. The only trick is to remember that you need to visit the website to set up your classes and then you have to use the app to set up your questions. The other thing to remember is that when you create your quiz, you can't enter the responses for A, B, C, and D. So, I built my quiz as a PowerPoint presentation listing one question and possible responses on each slide. This way students could easily see the options for their responses.

When I was teaching with Plickers and sharing how to use them, I wrote these steps for setting it all up on the board.

One additional note, I added an answer key to the back of each card. I thought this would help students identify their answer while holding their card up for the teacher to scan. I made the letters for the back of the card in a thin font and used a light gray color so that the answers wouldn't be readily seen by a student's neighbors.

Here are all of the files that I used and created to make a set of Plickers and to get started.

• Set of 40 5-1/2" X 5-1/2" Plickers (recommended, scannable from 20-25 feet.)
• Set of 40 8-1/2" X 8-1/2" Plickers (scannable from 30-40 feet.)
• Set of 63 5-1/2" X 5-1/2" Plickers (for large classes or groups.)
• Plickers Answer Key (these were cut out and glued to the back of each card before laminating.)
• Plickers Instructions (from their website.)

Additional ideas:

• If you use small whiteboards in your classroom for student response, Plickers could easily attached to the back of those whiteboards and used for quick response questions. 
• Because the cards are so easy to make, you could make one set of each class and students could keep them in their binder or notebook for your class. 
• If they get lost or damaged, it is very easy to print new Plicker cards. 
• The biggest limitation is that you can't currently track and export data for a class or track student progress directly in the app. But the website says, "Online tracking/reporting tools coming soon," so hopefully that functionality is added soon. 

So, now that you can make your own set of clickers for next to nothing, how will you use them?

Easy Grading

Have you ever used a Rubric before? I know that when I first heard of them, i thought that it would make for a lot more work on my part as a teacher. Then I found out the truth!
Rubrics are a great way to grade assignments that you give your students. It does several things for you. First, it helps you grade every paper the same way because you are looking for different criteria that you have set up before you gave the assignment. Second, it lets the students know exactly what is expected of them and what they need to do to get the grade that they want. Third, parents know what is expected of the students and why they got the grade they did.
Rubrics can also be used in peer reviewing. They can be used as a check list of items that you want included in an assignment or they can be used as a self evaluation of a project.
There are several tools that you can use to create Rubrics. My 2 favorite tools are the Rubric tool from UEN (http://www.uen.org/tutorial/rubric/) and the Rubric tool located inside of Canvas (https://canyons.instructure.com/login).
I hope that you will enjoy using these and if you have never used a Rubric before, try it!

UEN's Rubric Tool