Socrative
Socrative is a student response system that allows teachers to administer pre-made quizzes, conduct on the fly formative assessments, poll student opinions, and more. There are separate apps for students and teachers, and Socrative is available on Android, iOS and the web. Teachers open the app or web browser, log in, and choose the activity they would like to conduct. Students simply open the app and enter the Room Number provided to join the session. This app takes the place of clicker student response systems, and since it works on such a variety of devices, it allows all students to be a part of the discussion. Students get excited about it, especially when they can see their answers popping up on the projected responses. Teachers can start a Space Race activity that allows students to play as individuals or teams to compete over correctness and speed. Students can share their opinions in their responses in polling activities, allowing them to get involved without having to speak out in class. Teachers can also assign exit tickets to see how well students are understanding the material. Teachers are offered a report after each activity, allowing them to track the data from the session.
The best things about Socrative
- Students don't have to create accounts to join sessions. This allows the system to be used with very little setup.
- Teachers can share quizzes they have created or uploaded in Socrative.
- You can conduct single question activities, allowing for spur of the moment questioning or polling.
- Quizzes are graded immediately, students and teachers have instant access to results,
- Students can answer questions anonymously or with their names attached, allowing them to share without embarrassment when appropriate.
The constraints of Socrative
- Student data isn't tracked over time, so data from multiple sessions can not be compared within the app.
- There is very limited capability or questions within the app. Images can be included, but not videos. Long questions are very cumbersome in the app.
- Although the tool can be used solely through the app, responses can only be displayed through the web version. Sharing the responses is a primary function of Socrative when utilizing it for polling and class discussions.
How to use Socrative
Original artifact using Socrative
How you can use Socrative with students
- Icebreakers - Students can use Socrative to answer introductory questions on the first day of class. By using Socrative for this activity, not only do students get to interact with engaging technology right off the bat, but they also get to participate without feeling uncomfortable in front of new peers.
- Exit Tickets - Students can complete exit tickets before leaving class. Teachers can choose to use the default exit ticket, or create their own with specific questions from the lesson.
- Quizzes - Students can take quizzes with Socrative. Like a traditional clicker response system, teachers have access to immediate graded data from the quiz.
- Space Race - Students can participate in a competitive review game, either as individuals or as teams. They get points for correct answers, as well as the speed of their responses.
- Opinion Polls - Students can share their opinions through Socrative. This could be in the form of objective questions like multiple choice or true false, or in the form of open-ended questions where they can elaborate on their responses. The format of Socrative allows even shy students to contribute to class discussions without feeling uncomfortable.
How you can use Socrative with teachers
- Staff or Department Meetings - Socrative is an excellent tool for promoting staff involvement in meetings. It can be used to gather needs assessment data, poll opinions, or get ideas about best practices.
- Polling Parents - This app would be great to utilize on a Parent Night or any other time parents are gathered in classrooms. Socrative could be used to gather information about student resources at home (such as access to internet and devices), or polling parents' opinions about the class, such as communication level and quality of feedback for student assignments.
- Professional Development Exit Tickets - Socrative would allow you to quickly gather information at the end of the PD session that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the PD, as well as the areas of need for follow-up sessions. This could be done through an actual exit ticket, a short content quiz, or open-ended questions that allow the participants to reflect on their experience.
- Create and Share Quizzes - One of the best attributes of Socrative is that it allows teachers to create or upload quizzes, and then share them with other teachers. This is an excellent tool for collaborative teaching teams.
- Remediation Plans - Since Socrative allows teachers to see data from responses, it's a great tool for determining remediation needs. For teachers, it provides and opportunity to shuffle classes around based on responses. For instance, if two math teachers asked the same set of questions about parabolas, students that miss a particular question or set of questions on Monday could be with one teacher on Tuesday that's providing remediation, and the rest of the students could be with the other teacher that is moving forward and building on the previous day's lesson.