Plickers: A Guide for Beginniners

I have been kicking myself lately. I mentioned Plickers twice, in 2 days, in 2 posts, and I never really explained what it is. I hate posts that introduce a cool idea and then don’t give me enough information or explanation. I can’t seem to turn my brain off when things like this happen, so I’m left to my own pinning, blog-hopping, and googling. With that in mind, I decided to make a one-stop post to give you as much information about Plickers as possible. I know there are a lot of teachers who have been using Plickers for a while and know much more about this than I do. This post is for the newbies and curious teachers.

Disclaimer: This post is my own opinion and I am not receiving anything from Plickers.com, they don’t even know who I am. 🙂

Plickers?
Paper Clickers (similiar to electronic clickers like activ-votes)

What is it?
A free way to use technology to quickly assess students and receive individual student data.

What do I need?
A computer, one smart device (I use my iphone), printer, and a Promethean or SMART board (optional)

How do I get started?
1. Sign up for FREE on Plickers.com
2. Add student names
3. Print Plicker cards
4. Download FREE Plicker app
5. Add a question and choose the correct answer
6. Hit the camera button in the app
7. Scan student cards
8. Amaze students as results pop up on the board immediately

How does it work?
Each student receives a unique square-style shape. Each side of the square is marked with A, B, C, or D. When you ask a question, the students hold up their card, with the answer they think is correct on top. (So if they think B is the right answer, they will hold up their square with the B side on top.) Your device reads the unique shape to identify the student and reads the way they are holding it to retrieve their answer.

How do I use it?
Well, I really only found out about this after school let out and it is summer so I haven’t been able to play with it too much…BUT I did get to use it. Luckily, I was able to try this out with my summer school students. I loved it and they loved it. I taught only reading in summer school. Every morning, my students would have Evan-Moor’s Daily Reading Comprehension as morning work, it is a short passage with 4 questions. When we reviewed the morning work I had the students use their Plicker cards to indicate their answers. I was able to see immediately how many students got it and what they chose if they got it wrong.

What are some other ideas for using Plickers?
Math quick checks, introduction/review, exit tickets/closing, surveys, class votes

What are some management tips?
-Store them in a place where students can get to them easily, but they don’t get ruined. I plan on putting mine in the supply bins that I place on table-groups. My students tend to destroy things in their desks.
-Make them sturdy. I plan on gluing mine to cardstock and then laminating them so they will last longer, maybe even on neon paper. Don’t forget to put the student names on the back for easy identification! You can also buy thick, sturdy cards from Plickers.com.

Okay, so hopefully now you know exactly what Plickers is and if it is for you. I would love to hear from you about ways you have used plickers or plan to use plickers in your classroom.