Formative Assessment Toolbox: Plickers

Plickers is a classroom response app that teachers can use very easily without having devices for each student. Each student is assigned a card (printed from the website) with a unique shape on it. The teacher then uses a smartphone app to scan the cards and view student responses. Responses can also be displayed in real time from the website.

Plickers is entirely free. You will need to download the free app for your smartphone in order to scan the cards. The cards can be downloaded from the website and come in sets of 40. They can be laminated or printed on card stock for durability.

How It Works

1.  Login with or create your free Plickers account.
2.  Click the Classes tab and create a new class or modify the Default Class.
3.  Open the class and type in student names. Students are automatically assigned a card number, but you can drag and drop a different number on to a student name.

4.  Click the Library tab to create questions. You can create Multiple Choice or True/False type questions. Currently there is not a way to group questions by lesson or topic. A way to get around this is to put the standard number or lesson number at the beginning of each question. Questions must be assigned to a specific class.

5.  Download the free app for your smartphone and login to your Plickers account. Select your class and the question to ask.

6. Tap the camera icon, hold your phone in portrait mode, and scan your student’s cards. Student names will color code to indicate their answer. Rescan different areas of the class until you’ve gotten all student responses.
7. Live View lets you display the current question and share real-time responses from students.

8. At this time the only Report available is a single completed poll report.

Integration Ideas

• Create an on-the-fly poll on the smartphone by tapping the + button, then the correct answer letter, and then scan the “empty” question.
• Exit questions - to gather end-of-class info for planning next day’s learning
• Quick response for in-class practice
• Vocabulary practice
• Have students create questions for projects that they are going to present and put into Plickers so that the students can assess if their classmates understood their presentation.
•  Plickers doesn’t allow pictures or math problems. Get around this by putting those in a PowerPoint and display that on the screen.

Download the Tech Integration Challenge for Plickers and see if you are up to the challenge!