Assessment+Creators

Socrative is a free student response program used to assess student understanding in a quick, engaging way. Not only is there a website, but there is also an app for both students and teachers that can be downloaded on smartphones and tablets. With Socrative, teachers can create short quizzes or assignments (like exit tickets) to gauge students' understanding levels, receive instant feedback, and keep a record of all assignments and student responses in one place.

=About=

Socrative was developed in 2010 by graduate students Ben Berte (Harvard), Michael West (Cornell), and Charlotte Duncan (Harvard). It was started to "make teachers' lives simpler while making teaching more fulfilling and learning more visible," according to the site's "About" page. Socrative was acquired by MasteryConnect in June, 2014. MasteryConnect is a widely used company that provides teachers with evaluation tools and resources.

=Specific Tools= There are several useful tools within Socrative, from simple multiple choice quizzes to "space race" games. The program is cloud-based, so all of the free tools can be accessed on the website or the smartphone/tablet app.
 * Teachers can log on using their Socrative account.
 * Students log on using the "Room name" at the top of the page and joining that room.

Specific Tool #1: //Create a Quiz//
As you probably deduced, this tool allows you to quickly create a quiz with the option to include multiple choice, true and false, and/or short response questions, as well as the ability to include images and explanations for the answers.

How to Use
To access and/or make changes to your quiz, go to "My Quizzes" which can be found under the "Manage Quizzes" page.
 * 1) Once you've logged on, click the blue button "Manage Quizzes" at the bottom of the dashboard.
 * 2) Click "Create Quiz" to make a new quiz from scratch.
 * 3) You can give a name to your quiz, share it with other Socrative users, and add tags from this page, as well as add questions.
 * 4) To add a question, simply choose the type of question from the three buttons ("Multiple Choice," "True/False," or "Short Answer").
 * 5) Enter the question and answer choices, if applicable, in the text boxes.
 * 6) Select the correct answer choice, if applicable (like "choice 1" for multiple choice questions or "true" for true/false).
 * 7) //Optional//: Add an explanation for the correct answer in the text box beneath answer choices.
 * 8) //Optional//: Add an image to go along with the question; images will be displayed above the question.
 * 9) Questions can be moved around using the arrows on the right-hand side.
 * 10) Once you've finished creating your quiz, click "Save & Exit" on the top right. (You can always edit the quiz later!)

Specific Tool #2: //Exit Ticket//
This tool enables you to create short assignments for students to complete before leaving class that day. The three questions are pre-made by Socrative:
 * Question #1 (multiple choice) states: How well did you understand today's material?
 * A) Totally got it
 * B) Pretty well
 * C) Not very well
 * D) Not at all
 * Question #2 (short answer) states: What did you learn in today's class?
 * Question #3 (short answer) states: Please answer the teacher's question.
 * This is where you would include your own question, whether it be content-based or diagnostic, such as "What could have been done better in class today?"

How to Use

 * 1) Once you've logged on, click the green button "Exit Ticket" on the dashboard.
 * 2) For an "Exit Ticket" assignment, you only need to come up with one question (Question #3) which you can say aloud to your class or write on the board/projector.
 * 3) From here, you don't really need to do much. Once you've allowed students to access the quiz, they will respond at their own pace, and you can choose to display the live results on the board/projector or you can view them personally to protect students' privacy.
 * 4) Once students have finished the assignment, click "Finish" on the top right. You will be prompted to save your reports as Excel and/or PDF files (which can be emailed, downloaded, or viewed later on Socrative).

=Implementation Ideas=

Science
These quick quizzes would be great for science classes because of the option to add images. You can easily add diagrams to the quiz. For instance, if you are quizzing students on the systems of the human body, you can include diagrams of the different systems that have numbers or arrows and ask students to identify the different parts.

Social Studies
The option to include images would also be useful in social studies classes. You could ask questions referring to a map of a country or a state that your students are learning about in that unit.

=Opinions & Feedback=
 * General**
 * I think Socrative is an extremely useful tool. It is cloud-based (think of all the paper you would save!) and streamlined. The program has a very simple, user-friendly interface and it's free to use for students and teachers! This program offers a lot of possibilities for teachers to assess students' understanding in an engaging way.