Socrative has become a very popular, as well as useful, formative assessment tool in the world of education. Mastery Connect continues to offer this tool as a free option to help drive instruction through instant analytics.Socrative Basic Use
Socrative has some basic features that allow you to assess your students and get instant results. Socrative is device agnostic and available on browsers as well as apps.Accessibility
Students can access the teachers questions and activities without signing up. Students simply input the teacher room name when prompted and wait for a question.
Quick Questions
Instantly assess your students with multiple choice, true false, or short answer questions. These don't need to be planned, they can be spontaneous and help drive instruction. Note- only short answer allows you to actually type in a question.
Quizzes
Deliver pre-made quizzes to your class and receive GRADED results. Sign in with your GAFE account and Socrative will even create a folder for the reports where you can store them and access them later. Tired of individual work? Gamify your quizzes using the Space Race feature. Have students race rocket ships or unicorns in randomly assigned teams.
Socrative Secrets
Frequently teachers ask me about next steps with Socrative. Like any app there are multiple ways to apply the same tool based on what you want the result to be. Here are some of my favorite tricks.
Student Voting
Using the Vote Now feature on the response sheet of the Short Answer option is by far my favorite feature. With this feature you can allow students to drive critical thinking in the classroom. No longer are teachers providing the "right answer", they allow students to analyze other responses and vote on which is the best. This is a powerful tool that can drive instruction and affect student performance instantly. Specific examples we've seen success with are thesis statements for research papers, responses to DBQ's, point of view responses in history, and open answers in math.
Technology Station
Stations are not just for primary classrooms. Secondary instruction can benefit from station rotations such as the Tabor model where blended learning drives student creation and assessment. Socrative provides a great platform to send assessments and allow for open ended questions.
When using a class set of tablets/computers complete the activity and start a new one at each rotation. Even if you've locked in the app (guided access on the iPad) the new activity will allow the user to submit their name and answer without having to leave the room.
Shared Quizes
Import thousands of shared quizzes, and add your own favorites, at the site garden.socrative.com. Follow instructions to search for your subject or specific keyword.
Socrative as a Delivery System
Socrative can be used as a basic delivery system using the Short Answer feature. Simply type out what todays activities are and even have them submit a short answer or journal entry to a prompt.
*Embedding Items*
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| Google Map with Question- Student View |
Have an embed code for your activity? Paste the embed code in the Quick Question bar and it will send the item to your students within the Socrative platform. Here's a couple we have found success with:
- Send a Zaption activity for your students to complete.
- Embed the current weather conditions from the AccuWeather Widget.
- Include an open ended question after a YouTube embed code. Students can view in the Socrative platform and submit their response.
- Use the embed code on your Google Map to send out with a question. Can you manipulate the map? Of course. :) Switch from street view to satellite? Yup.
- Embed ThingLink interactive pictures so students can access information and videos from pictures.
- Use embed.ly to put in any web page. Students are stuck on the specific page you send, but sometimes that's nice.
Playing with the embed options has become a new hobby this summer. Please post suggestions in the comments below!
