Cathy Yenca – Superstar math teacher:
“Helping students make connections between new concepts and ones they already know can be effective for instruction and review. The best way to review and study math is to actually DO it. A few strategically-chosen problems and tasks can help learners revisit a lot of concepts.
Review at home with Kahoot! challenges
I’ve had the privilege of creating standards-aligned kahoots this year in partnership with Kahoot! Studio. This opportunity has helped me get to know our standards more deeply than ever! As we near the end of the school year, when many summative and high-stakes assessments are coming up, I share these Kahoot! challenges for students to try independently. Afterwards, in class, we play the kahoots on areas which students need to practice most, or need some additional instruction and support on.
Doing math is the best way to review math
Gamifying tasks enables students to review more concepts than they realize. For example, a simple game of guessing how many gummy bears are in a jar can lead to an impromptu task of reviewing concepts of measurement as well as operations. Recently, my students also completed an “escape room” task for which they had to answer questions and solve problems related to our quadratics unit. Again, each task was rich and covered many topics, so students reviewed more math than they realized.
Repetition is key
Throughout the school year, I provide my students with soft copies of resources as well as the solution keys. I encourage them to work over the problems first, then check with the keys and make revisions as they need to.
I believe that giving students opportunities to review content and receive timely feedback is powerful. Kahoot! challenges certainly provide this opportunity! Students appreciate having the chance to try a challenge again and receive additional support as they need it. Having both asynchronous Kahoot! challenges and live games together helps keep making learning (and reviewing) awesome!”
Jack Quinn – Science teacher extraordinaire:
“When I began teaching science to 5th graders in Texas, my principal told me to assume that my students had not been taught anything up to this point. He challenged me to fit 3 years of subjects into one school year – challenge accepted! Here’s my guide to success.
Prioritize common topics
Before I start reviewing, I go straight to the standardized tests and look at what has been asked before. I find out which common topics come up on the standard tests. It helps to prioritize these topics as well as the subjects that my students are struggling with the most.
My first class review will typically be an open book test. I find that having to search for the answer helps my students internalize the need to retain the answer. Over the course of the test, I slowly decrease the time students have to answer or limit the number of resources they can use. After that, I assign the tests as Kahoot! homework challenges to my students too.
Reward and motivate
The next day, I’ll spiral the most commonly missed problems into our review to assess the progress my learners are making. Usually, I mix about a third of review questions with new material. I also award bonus points for questions that I know will be heavily tested or are particularly difficult. Rewarding my students keeps them motivated!
By the end of the review classes, I make sure that my students have seen every question from every previously released version of the test. This sounds like quite the task, but my learners really enjoy the opportunity to “play games” for weeks before the test. Reviewing with Kahoot! gets them to learn without realizing they’re doing it! It also gives me the opportunity to go over their results and analyze how my teaching can be adjusted to achieve even better results. Reviewing so vigorously with Kahoot! has led us to achieve two state of Texas distinctions, so the approach definitely works!”
Prep for exams with these review kahoots
Looking for high-quality kahoots to prep for exams? Our very own Kahoot! Studio has released a collection of review kahoots for you to use in class. ELA, Science, History and Math kahoots can all be found in the collection. Check them out!
