Most students hate tests. I think the reason they hate tests, in most subjects, is that they have to go home and cram for them because they are not prepared. When we teach students using Comprehensible Input (C.I.), students have less of that feeling of being unprepared. When I first mention that I am going to take a writing sample, student get nervous because they think they can’t do it. However, once they actually do it, they feel less afraid in the future. Teachers can relieve their stress by providing frequent opportunities to write while also teaching them how to write in another language. I will elaborate on this in my next post.
Another way to lower test anxiety is to use gaming to assess them. This past year, I used Gimkit for three out of four sections of my final exam. I had one part that dealt with vocabulary alone. Another game was focused on reading short paragraphs. The last one was all listening questions. For the vocabulary, I required students to answer 100 questions correctly with 80% total accuracy overall to receive full credit. For the reading and listening, I reduced the number of correct questions required to 80 while maintaining the 80% accuracy goal. I awarded points on a sliding scale when students did not reach the target. Each portion was 25%. The final 25% was the writing sample. If a student participated, he or she received a minimum of 10 points regardless of the score.
We played each game at least 3 times. Some students met the goal immediately. I asked them to continue to play again when I readministered that section because I told them that they could work on improving their accuracy, plus the games would help them with the other test sections and ultimately on their writing sample. I noticed that most students with few exceptions improved their score every time. That is because Gimkit is adaptive and it repeats questions that they missed. They were having fun and never really looked at it as a test for the most part.
What about cheating? Gimkit gives every student a different question, so they are not going to be able to look at a neighbor’s computer. I monitored the game and did not allow conferring. I also made sure that no one was playing under someone else’s name. Most students wanted to play anyway, so that was not really an issue. I did allow students to use Google, but ultimately this would slow them down and prevent them from reaching the target. Students who met the goal did not use Google. It was particularly difficult to use Google on the reading and listening portions.
Be strategic on what game modes you choose for your students. If you are administering a listening test, don’t pick a game mode with a lot of loud noises during the game. There are some settings you can select to eliminate those in most modes. Students by far prefer the “Capture the Flag” mode.
A benefit to this type of assessment is that the grading is done for you. All the teacher is required to do is look at the report and assign a score. You can also look at individual questions in the report to get an idea on where to remediate and reteach.
You could also consider using Blooket, Quizizz, or Kahoot. I think it is easier to cheat with Kahoot, so I would not use that for assessment except in a formative way.
Have you ever used gaming to assess? How do you use gaming in your classroom?
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