Hello colleagues, I'm sure many members are like me and are interested in locating online resources that can be easily integrated into a virtual classroom. One website that was recommended to me is quizizz.com. The site is free for both teachers and students.
This site features a wide range of teacher-created digital games on various topics such as math, social studies, world languages, science, computer skills, creative arts, career and technical education, health and physical education, and language arts.
The site has a search feature, so you can locate games on specific grammar topics. When I searched for "simple present," I saw that thousands of games have been created by teachers on this specific grammar point. The search feature allows you to preview the questions and answers, so you can choose a game that best suits the needs of the learners in your class. You can do grade-level searching, too.
The games can be played competitively during class, or they can be assigned as individual "homework" -- which can actually be completed as homework outside of class or during class time-- whichever works best for the teacher.
This is a site with thousands of teacher-created games, and we can contribute to the site by creating our own games on any topic. I just created a game for an Anticipation Guide I wrote for a Newsela.com reading about civil rights icon, Representative John Lewis, who died last week. The students in my class are advanced English learners. Creating a game on this site is quite intuitive and incredibly easy. It was my first time creating a game, and it only took me 14 minutes to create this game. See below for a link to the game I created with the statements about John Lewis. The game requires you to decide if each statement is true or false.
To play my game, first go to joinmyquiz.com and enter the code 2806898. I think you will have to create a username, too.
Let me know what you think about this game and the potential for integrating games from this site into your virtual classroom.
Take care, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP
Comments
Hello Susan and all,
I've been using Kahoot in my online ESL classes. I set up the games ahead of time, then we play during a zoom class meeting. Students really like the fast-paced game show style competition. The only drawback is that students need 2 devices to play in class. They need a laptop to see the game in the zoom meeting, and then a phone to enter their answers. I've used it for a fun break at the end of class about once every 2 weeks.
Quizizz seems very similar to Kahoot. Does anyone have an opinion about which one is better? I've just briefly been looking at Quizizz and it looks like it might have more ESL games than Kahoot, but I need to spend more time comparing.
Thanks,
Jennifer Kluempen
Thanks for your question, Jennifer. I'm hoping members who have more experience than I do with Kahoot will weigh in. I love Quizizz because it is super easy to create practice activities based on the materials I'm using in class. Plus, the site keeps a record of the results of students' work.
I prefer to assign the activities as "homework" which enables the students to complete them on their own which can happen during class as well as outside of class. I've noticed that some students often want to repeat the game again and again to give themselves more practice. I'm not a huge fan of competitive games since the students in my class are at varying levels of English proficiency.
As I noted above, there are thousands of games on the site from which to choose, and I have used some in my own teaching; however, teachers will want to review games carefully since I've noticed they sometimes have errors and may not be well-suited to your class.
Take care, Susan