Quizlet has been around for over 10 years, helping teachers promote study skills with students in the form of flashcards, mini quizzes, and more. Quizlet is available as a web based tool and as an Android and iOS app on student devices. It’s flexibility makes it one for all teachers to check out. It was already awesome. Now, it includes a live quiz game to help students study.
Quizlet recently launched Quizlet Live which allows teachers to use their pre-existing study sets to gamify learning. Recently, I had the opportunity to play Quizlet Live in two 8th grade foreign language classes (one Spanish and one French class). Both classes were already familiar with Quizlet, which made it easier to implement Quizlet Live!
I would like to add, even if students never used the non-live version, it would not be difficult for them to pick up the game rather quickly. Even if you are tech savvy, consider the following tips and tricks to get you started with your first session of Quizlet Live!
5 Tips and Tricks for Implementing Quizlet Live in Your Classroom:
- Check it on your school network to make sure it is available. Obviously you want to test it (and any other tech you use with students) using a student account to determine if it is available. If not, follow your school division’s policies and procedures for getting websites unblocked.If the game locks up on your school network using one browser, try a different browser. At first, we used Internet Explorer (admittedly we don’t have the latest version installed) and students kept getting locked out, which for them was frustrating. Very quickly, we had all the students try Mozilla Firefox and they had no more issues.
- Make sure you have study sets with 12 unique questions and answers. It’s key! You will receive an error message and not be able to proceed if your study sets do not meet the criteria. The teachers I worked with had numerous study sets. We all laughed when they requested to ,”dust off an oldie moldy.” Kids. Let’s just say we may have had so much we reviewed material from the first few weeks of school.
- Only one student in a group will have the correct answer. This forced to students to effectively collaborate with their teammates. We tried putting students in a group together in one class and the groups sat apart in another class. You will know which is a good fit for your classes. If students move to sit with their classmates, they are also bringing the technology with them so make sure they understand the ground rules (two hands, screens down, tiptoe).
- Establish ground rules for playing Quizlet Live, which includes being a positive teammate. I am VERY much a “learn by doing” kinda gal, especially when it comes to implementing technology with students. You can practice and demo a tool but there is nothing like actually having a live audience. Because you will learn more about how your class reacts to the game as they play, the ground rules may have to be revised as you go along- and that’s totally okay! One thing that should not change is fostering an environment of positive communication. Encourage students to cheer on their teammates when they are doing well and when they missed the mark.
- Decide in advance how you are going to reward the winning team. To be honest, just playing the game is so fun for students they truly do not need any external incentives. The two teachers I worked with gave sweet treats, which was awesome but the students were not allowed to eat candy using the laptops. I guess they also got a lesson in self control : ) In my opinion, students would play the game without the “dangling carrot.”
BONUS: Quizlet Live versus Kahoot!
One of the teachers who gave Quizlet Live a try had previously introduced Kahoot! in her classroom. If you are wondering how students liked Quizlet Live in comparison to Kahoot! it was a really close call. The students admitted that Quizlet Live was more difficult and challenging than Kahoot! I suspect the student who enjoys a challenge preferred Quizlet Live!
If you want more information on Kahoot and more tech tools to try check out this post.
Looking for even more tech to try? Here is my list from 2016.
Check out these other cool Formative Assessment tools.
I highly recommend giving Quizlet Live a try. Games, friendly competition, and learning make a pretty cool combo!
Thanks for reading,
