Kahoot

Kahoot is a website that gives you access to various quizzes of various types. There are different ways for a group to respond: you can rearrange lists or unscramble jumbled sentences in Jumble mode, you can take multiple-choice quizzes, you can take surveys, and join in discussions. Multiple choice quizzes are the most popular, at first glance, and kids love them.

The great thing about Kahoot is that it’s free (although now they’ll pester you about how to create a ‘pro’ account; you can ignore their ads by simply clicking ‘Continue for free’) and you create your own quizzes limited only to your needs and class capabilities. The best thing is that if your school has a laptop/computer for every student in the class, everyone can participate at the same time. However, if your school doesn’t have these resources, you can still take advantage of Kahoot and invite everyone to participate. Since my school currently does not have a laptop for every child, I divide the class into two or four groups. They love competition and go crazy when they win. There is usually some sort of ‘prize’ for winning, such as being the first group to leave the classroom when the bell rings.

Another great thing about Kahoot is that your students can earn points. The distribution of points depends on how quickly they answer the questions, answer the questions correctly, and answer the questions correctly in sequence resulting in a bonus hit. After each question, the correct answer or answers are displayed for review (And if for example the question is about the present simple and I have given the answer with the present perfect or continuous, I ask which). Then, a leaderboard is displayed so the top three competitors know where they stand and the other competitors see how far behind they are. While this may discourage some students, I remind them about the bonus for consecutive answers. I also reminded them that I would look at their respective scores at the end, so if they intentionally failed, they would be in big trouble.

When taking a quiz, Kahoot gives you a game PIN that test takers use to log in to the session. Each student enters a PIN on their personal device or on a school computer as well as their own nickname. If a child demeans himself as a “Borja´sa doosh”, you can immediately remove him from the game (or wait until someone tattles on him or finds out who he is through a process of elimination). Once you see the number of players reach the current class size, you press start: The question will present itself for a few moments; followed by a screen with the image you selected, another question, and two to four answers (at least one of which must be marked as correct).

Kids love playing Kahoot even though they can’t do it on their personal devices. At my current school, we only have the teacher’s laptop and a projector screen. I ask kids to raise their hands if they know the answer and try to pick a shy kid first if they decide to be brave. In some cases, they will be wrong and other kids will be rude by telling them, which of course discourages them so you have to tell them that it’s not nice to scold someone for making a mistake. And of course, you have to remind bullies that they make mistakes too. In my experience, and in general, Spanish children have no discipline (I don’t speak Spanish because I have no experience with children’s behavior in other countries, although I imagine Americans are probably naughty too these days). Children who are not called on will shout out the answer or be the ones to put down someone who answers incorrectly. I’ll plan something like copying sentences from the board or a worksheet that I’ll pass out if the class gets rowdy or something gets really annoying.

You can find the Kahoot I created at the following link, but of course it’s best to make your own because you know your students’ levels and can adapt your quiz to the material they’re working on.

You must create an account (free) to create and play quizzes/puzzles.

English, geography and grammar travel quizzes for grades 4 – 6

Level 5 to 6 grammar quiz

Vocabulary quiz for students in grades 1 – 3

Super short quiz for 4th grade students

In the cities and capitals of Spain