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6 AI tools to use to transform the way you check for understanding through formative assessment.
Artificial IntelligenceAssessment

Revolutionize Formative Assessments with AI-Powered Tools

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Formative assessments play a vital role in understanding student progress and adapting teaching strategies for better learning outcomes. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), educators now have access to a wide array of tools that can transform the way they create and use formative assessments in the classroom. Let’s explore some AI-powered tools that help teachers develop effective formative assessments:

What Is Formative Assessment?

Formative assessment is an ongoing way for teachers to check student understanding of what’s being taught. It gives the teacher information about how students are doing while they are still learning new material. Formative assessments can help identify concepts students are struggling with so teachers can adjust instruction, review, and reteach if needed. Examples of formative assessment include questioning during class discussions, quick writing or drawing assignments to show what they learned, practice quizzes, exit tickets, and more.

Six Tools for Creating Formative Assessments

1. ChatGPT

You can always ask ChatGPT or your favorite AI chatbot to create a formative assessment. An example prompt you could use is, “Generate a list of [number] formative assessment ideas related to [insert topic] for my [grade level and subject] students.” Just replace each bracket with the information for each prompt. You can also ask ChatGPT to align your formative assessments with specific learning objectives. In addition, differentiate your formative assessments by asking ChatGPT to give you five assessment ideas using a variety of modalities like exit tickets, quizzes, graphic organizers, etc.  

2. Conker

Conker is an AI tool that permits teachers to generate formative assessments in the form of multiple choice, mixed, read & respond, or fill-in-the-blank questions.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Conker Create Page

Conker lets you create fast quizzes and formative assessments that can be differentiated by question type, grade level, and more. It will also allow you to copy/paste reading material to generate quizzes. All you have to do is open Conker and provide details about the quiz you want to create. Conker will then create a short formative assessment you can assign to students with a code or export it to Google Forms. You can even create a printable question sheet and answer sheet. There is a limited free plan, and teacher registration is required.

3. Magic School AI

MagicSchool is an AI with many tools available to teachers. Explore everything from lesson plan generation to formative assessment creation.
Screenshot taken by Emily Horn | MagicSchool’s Magic Tools Page

Magic School AI offers several tools and features that can be valuable for creating and implementing formative assessments in your classroom. This tool allows you to quickly build multiple-choice quizzes tailored to specific topics or standards. You can customize difficulty levels, question types, and answer keys to assess students’ base knowledge and readiness for new learning. In addition, you can generate quick reflection prompts or questions to collect student understanding at the end of a lesson. Then, you can quickly analyze the responses to identify areas for further clarification or address common misconceptions before moving on. There are both free and paid versions of the program. Learn even more about Magic School AI here.

4. QuestionWell

QuestionWell is an AI that provides teachers the chance to input topic, choose question type, and generate questions from text, YourTube, URL, uploaded documents, or imported questions.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | QuestionWell’s Create Set Page

QuestionWell generates questions so teachers can focus on what matters. Start by identifying the topic, content, and grade level. If you have text you want your formative assessment based on, you can provide it, but it isn’t necessary. Then, the AI will write questions. In the free version of QuestionWell, you can create a multiple-choice quiz with 20 questions. Once the questions are generated, select which ones you want to include in the quiz. Then, you can export the questions to tools like Google Forms, Kahoot, Canvas, Microsoft Word, and more.

5. Quiz Wizard

Quiz Wizard is an AI tool that lets teachers create formative assessments from topics, documents, texts, links, or audio/video.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Quiz Wizard’s Create Content Page

Quiz Wizard is an AI-powered tool that generates multiple-choice questions and flashcards that can be used for formative assessments within seconds. The process is straightforward and involves you entering the topic of your choice into the tool, and Quiz Wizard takes care of the rest by generating unique questions and answers. The content can be exported to other platforms, like Microsoft Word.

6. Quizizz AI

Quizziz AI offers searchable quizzes by topic and provides the opportunity to create your own formative assessments.
Screenshot by Emily Horn | Quizziz AI’s Create Page

Quizizz AI is an artificial intelligence-powered tool that can generate multiple-choice questions with four answer options. The tool can also automatically determine the appropriate number of questions to generate for a formative assessment from the content provided. You can create a quiz by uploading a document, entering text, or pasting a link to a webpage. Quizizz AI offers free and paid premium versions.

These AI-powered tools offer not only instant feedback but also insights into individual student needs, allowing you to tailor your instruction effectively. By leveraging these AI tools, you can create a dynamic and adaptive learning environment, fostering student engagement and growth.

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Want to quiz your students on semester content? check out these AI tools to make reviews quickly.
Artificial IntelligenceAssessment

Harness AI Tools to Make Engaging Quizzes

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

The weeks before school gets out for any break are probably not the best time for deep learning or introducing new content. Students (and the teachers) are already thinking about being out and dreaming of what they will do during the break. But what can we do to ensure learning is still happening? Well, it’s a great time to create a variety of quizzes for reviewing content introduced throughout the year and to practice discussion skills while working in teams. To make these tasks easier, let’s explore a variety of AI tools for making quizzes.

QuestionWell

QuestionWell AI Home Page
Screenshot by Emily Horn: QuestionWell Home Page

This is by far my favorite AI tool for making quizzes, especially if I want to quiz students using a particular platform. QuestionWell will create the questions and export them to the following platforms: Quizizz, Kahoot, Canvas, Schoology, Moodle, Gimkit, Blooket, Quizlet, Google Forms, Google Slides, Blackboard, Microsoft Forms, Socrative, and Microsoft Word. You currently can’t do this with Google Bard, ChatGPT, or Microsoft Bing. Start by identifying the topic, content, and grade level. If you have text you want questions based on, you can provide it, but it isn’t necessary. In the free version of QuestionWell, you can create a multiple-choice quiz with 20 questions. Once the questions are generated, select which ones you want to include in the quiz. Then, choose the export destination. Voila!

MagicSchool

MagicSchool AI Home Page
Screenshot by Emily Horn: MagicSchool.AI Home Page

MagicSchool is an excellent interface that gives you the benefit of identifying the grade level target for your audience. It’s a solid AI tool for making quizzes. Granted, you could easily put it in your prompt, but no need to do that with MagicSchool. MagicSchool offers a lot of tools, which is great for folks who aren’t interested in learning how to create effective prompts. I chose the Multiple Choice Assessment Generator tool. For my quiz, I selected 5th grade, identified 10 questions, and shared the prompt in the description area. The quiz questions were neatly generated to the right of the prompt with an answer key following. I was impressed with the questions and layout on the first try.

Using Major AI Assistants

ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, and Perplexity Logos
ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, and Perplexity Logos

Not all AI assistants are created equal. While one may be phenomenal on a particular task, it might falter and really miss the mark on a completely different type of task. So, when creating a quiz, try your prompt on several different AI assistants. I wanted to try out the top AI tools to see how they fair for making quizzes. Here is an example prompt that I used and the first results generated by four different AI assistants. I reviewed the first response to the prompt below; I did not ask it to regenerate a response. My goal was to find a tool that creates the best product on the first try.

The Results

Prompt: Create a 10-question multiple choice quiz on [SUBJECT]. For each question, there should be four answer choices. Create an answer key that identifies the correct answer but also gives a sentence for each wrong answer as to why it is wrong. SUBJECT = Christmas traditions

Claude: Overall, Anthropic’s Claude did an excellent job as an AI tool for making quizzes. Instead of giving me a sentence for each wrong answer explaining why it was wrong, it gave me a sentence that shared why all three wrong answers were wrong. It wasn’t necessarily poorly done, but it didn’t exactly follow my explicit prompt as written.

ChatGPT: I ran the prompt in 3.5 and 4. With GPT4, it didn’t surprise me that it produced the format exactly as I asked in my prompt. The quiz questions were given first with an answer key following the quiz, which is convenient if I want to copy/paste into another program and keep questions and answers separate. When I ran the prompt in GPT3.5, it intermingled the answer key with the quiz. Out of the two, I would opt for ChatGPT Plus (4) as an AI tool for making quizzes if I have a choice.

Bard: I like Bard, but I was disappointed with the results. It stopped in mid-sentence on question 9. And, of the nine questions produced before stopping, answer choice “A” was the correct answer for seven of them. If I were giving this to my students, I would need to do additional work to randomize the answers and produce additional questions.

Perplexity: Perplexity did the nicest job out of these four AI tools when it comes to making quizzes. It generated the quiz first with the answer key at the end. If I were using this with my students, it would make it easier to copy/paste to a Google Doc or other medium for sharing without needing to pull out the correct/wrong answer information with each question.

Which Should You Use?

If you want to write your prompt and use an AI assistant to create your product, I recommend ChatGPT4 or Perplexity. These two would require the least amount of edits and work on your part. I was surprised to notice that there were a lot of questions common across the tools, though some were unique. However, if you want an excellent interface where you don’t have to create or tweak prompts, you will find QuestionWell and MagicSchool to be great options. Which AI tool will you try for making quizzes? Tell us and share your prompt in the comments below!

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Three students looking at different graphs.
MathMathematicsReadingScienceScience

Resources for Teaching Graph Making and Analysis Skills

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

How can you better develop graph and chart analytical skills with your students? One way is to have them explore and analyze graphs, then discuss what they have learned and think. Another is to create graphs. Let’s take a look at some ways you can do that.

Check out this Google Slides deck of Graphs, Correlation, and Causation. It can assist in teaching about how graphs and statistics can be used to mislead, an appropriate lesson for secondary students.

How to Teach What Graphs Mean

See the quote below for a common problem in classrooms. As a student, this quote reflects my experience with graph skills. And, from a teacher’s perspective, this is spot-on:

Last year, students frustrated me. They could graph lines and do the math. But, they didn’t understand what the graphs and equations meant.

I saw this when they couldn’t tell if answers were reasonable. They also couldn’t explain the graphs beyond the basics.

I knew I needed to get them thinking deeper about what the graphs show. That way the numbers would mean more. I wanted complex problems for them to spend more time on, doing more with fewer problems. (adapted for readability from source: Rachel at Idea Galaxy)

So, how do you teach graph skills? What graphs mean? What they represent? My answer? Focus on having students create graphs based on data they collect. Let’s take a look at some alternate approaches for analyzing graphs. Then, we will explore some digital tools for making graphs.

Teaching Students Graph Analysis Skills

There are many ways to analyze graphs that follow an approach like the one below:

  • Read the title and make predictions about the graph.
  • Read the axes and the labels and ask, “How are these related?”
  • What is the relationship in the data and how does the data change?
  • What units of measurements did the designer use?
  • Study the data values to understand how big the differences shown are

Often, graph design is poor, and this affects students’ graph analysis skills. You have to work extra hard to ask questions that engage your mind. For some students, nothing pops into their mind when they look at a graph or chart, which makes teaching graph analysis and design important for critical thinking.

Guiding Questions for Graph Analysis Skills

Finally, I always dig into my back pocket for some questions. Here are a few that pop into my mind when I’m looking at a graph for the first time. They might be helpful when teaching students graph skills.

  • What kind of graph is being used to represent data?
  • Is that graph type the right one for the data? Why or why not?
  • What colors did the graph designer use and do they mean anything?
  • Why was this data chosen to present? What makes it special?
  • What are some reasons for the differences in the data?
  • What do I need to learn or understand better to see how and why this graph is important?
  • How do I know this data is valid and reliable?
  • What’s the proof or evidence?
  • What is meant by this data?
  • What does it symbolize?
  • What does it mean for me? For others?

It never hurts to equip students with questions they can ask. Building a habit of graph analysis and design is the next step.

Resources for Analyzing Graphs and Charts

Here are some resources that provide background knowledge for graph and chart analysis:

Tools for Making Graphs

Making graphs is one of my favorite ways to get students thinking and analyzing. I have a round up of five simple graphing tools you can explore, but here are two of my favorite graphing tools to teach graph making skills.

1. Kids’ Zone Create a Graph

NCES Kid's Zone Create a Graph activity page
Screenshot by the author: National Center for Education Statistics Kids’ Zone Create a Graph

This is one of my all time favorite graph creation tools. It’s easy to use via the web and works great on Chromebooks. It’s not too complicated! I’ve used it with third grade and sixth grade students.

2. Imgflip’s Chart Maker

Imgflip's Chart Maker page showing a pie chart being created.
Screenshot by the author: imgflip Chart Maker

This graph and chart-making tool is drop-dead easy. You can make pie, donut, or bar charts via your web browser. And you can change colors.

With those two powerful tools, you will have students designing graphs in no time. But wait, what kinds of graphs could you start with? What data sets could you use for teaching graph skills?

Additional Tools for Older Students:

Make Your Own Data Sets

Want to get students to graph data? Hands-on experiences and labs are one way to do that. You want students to recognize that graphable data surrounds them.

A student building a tower using marshmallows and wooden sticks.
Jason Kasper from Harrisburg, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, Homeschooler with Project via Wikimedia Commons

Here are some quick data sets and activities from various sources that can get your started with teaching graph analysis skills:

Graphs for Students to Analyze

Graphs and charts surround us. Let’s take a look at several graphs and charts you can use in the classroom.

1. Turner’s Graph of the Week (GOW)

A graph of the week activity example from Turner's Graph of the Week site.
Screenshot by Emily Horn: Turner’s Graph of the Week, 8/21 Weekend Box Office Sales in U.S.

Kelly Turner’s Graph of the Week website wants to help students become “lifelong critical and analytical thinkers.” They also hope to achieve the following:

  • Improve academic literacy
  • Develop students engaged in civics through oral discourse
  • Link mathematics to real-world situations
  • Develop students’ Habits of Mind
  • Improve written communication
  • Give students current events awareness

You will find a very long list with a variety of graphs to analyze for the current school year and in the 2013-last school year’s archive. Don’t be afraid to make your own! This is a great resource for teaching and reviewing graph analysis skills.

2. Using Graphs for Writing to Learn

This particular collection (view-only link) is available as a Google Doc of instructions (make-a-copy link). Find it via MiddleWeb‘s blog. It offers specific suggestions, such as:

  • Give the title of the graph.
  • Describe the picture/shape of graph.
  • Summarize the information given in the graph.
  • Give statistics and results included in the graph.
  • State the source of the information.
  • Give your opinion of the results.
  • Explain how the information relates to you or the world around you

Students then review a series of graphs and charts. They follow the instructions included to write about it. Then, as an extension activity, they create an infographic of their data. Great way to put graph anaylsis and making skills into practice! You can get some more ideas about infographics from these TechNotes articles.

3. Next Graphs + Charts

Next.cc's home page showing 8 activities and a gallery available.
Screenshot by Emily Horn: Next Graphs + Charts Home Page

This website encourages students to become graph graphic designers. With that goal in mind, you will find seven activities to assist you with teaching students graph design skills. A short list of the activities appears below:

  • Activity 1 – collect charts and graphs
  • Activity 2 – parts of graphs and charts
  • Activity 3 – direct a pie chart
  • Activity 4 – build a bar chart
  • Activity 5 – area graphs
  • Activity 6 – point plots
  • Activity 7 – variables
  • Activity 8 – identify and interpret

At the end, students can take a short quiz about key concepts. This is a valuable resource that provides a lot of great ideas and suggestions. The information is bite-sized, so your students won’t be overwhelmed with information.

What’s more, you will find pages of information on topics including area, coding, diagramming, grids, temperature, and more.

4. Problem-Attic

Program-Attic's home page, explaining the purpose of the site and site features.
Screenshot by Emily Horn: Problem-Attic Home Page

Looking for incredible graphs aligned to curricular concepts? Explore Problem-Attic. You get access to a question bank with 280,000 questions, and it offers many more features. One feature I like is you can search for graphs, then export quizzes to your learning management system of choice (e.g. Schoology, Canvas, Google Forms Quiz, etc.). Or you can create a slideshow with instant feedback via QR code and website.

Learn more…

5. Tuva Labs Content Library

Tuva Labs home page showing a few graphic resources.
Screenshot by author: Tuva Labs Home Page

Tuva Labs offers a rich collection of graphs and content you can use in your science class for teaching analysis skills. Their searchable content library, which includes both free and premium offerings, has rich content resources.

Some graph relevant links include the following:

AI Graph Makers

Once you’ve had a chance to work with graph reading, analysis, and design, check out these AI tools. These AI graph makers can certainly help:

Give these a shot later on when students are comfortable with their skills reading and analyzing graphs.

If you’re wanting to get up to speed on better analysis of graphs before working with your students, here is a great video for you:

Now that you have a wealth of tools, remember, it’s about getting students to analyze the graph, ask tough questions about the data the graph is based on, and why it matters.

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The title "5 AI Tools to Try (September 2023)" typed over the photograph of a woman with various tech symbols in her head.
Artificial Intelligence

Five AI Tools to Try (September 2023)

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

We’re back with five more AI tools for you to try this month! There are so many available now it’s becoming more and more difficult to choose which ones to feature. But we’re having a great time exploring, and we hope you are, too. September’s batch won’t disappoint, so grab your phone or laptop, and get ready to try out some AI tools that might just become your new favorites.

1. QuestionWell

QuestionWell's homepage
Screenshot by the author: QuestionWell Home Page https://www.questionwell.org/

QuestionWell is an awesome AI tool that will help you quickly and easily generate questions and objectives that can be exported and used with a variety of other tools. So, if you use any of the following online tools, you will definitely want to check out QuestionWell:

Access QuestionWell by logging in through your Google account. Once logged in, you’ll be prompted to type in the topic, subject, and grade level and select a language for your questions. For the subject matter of your questions, you will need to write text or copy and paste text related to the content, or you can leave the text box blank. Right now, there are three account types: Free Plan ($0/month), Paid Plan ($7/month), and Team Plan ($6/month per user). I would highly recommend giving this one a try!

2. iScanner

iScanner's home page.
Screenshot by the author: iScanner Home Page https://iscanner.com/

iScanner for Educators is an AI tool that’s available through the App Store, Google Play, or through a web browser. It boasts that it can scan any document and make it look professional. You can get started with iScanner for free and unlock additional storage space and features with the paid pro version, but with the free version, you get:

  • Unlimited Scanning
  • Full PDF-Editor and e-Signature
  • Export to PDF, JPG, PPT (5 documents per day)
  • 200 MB cloud storage
  • No advertisements, no iScanner watermark on the documents

BUT, as an educator, you can access iScanner Pro for free if you meet the requirements and complete the educator form at the bottom of the iScanner for Educators page!

3. Typpo

I was a bit skeptical about this tool, but after trying it out, I think it’s pretty amazing! Using Typpo is simple:

  • Download the app.
  • Talk into the app.
  • Edit any words it may have gotten wrong.
  • Watch the video it generates.

Typpo essentially uses voice-to-text to create a video for you. I can see this being a useful accommodation tool for students who need to see written language as they are hearing it, for students learning English, for chunking assignments, etc. Here is the video it created for me, and it took me about 10 seconds longer than the length of the video to make. So when I say it’s easy to use, I really mean it!

4. Research Rabbit

ResearchRabbit is an AI tool I was introduced to by my dear TCEA colleague, Dr. Bruce Ellis. This tool allows you to start collections of research much like you would create playlists in Spotify or collections in Wakelet. You begin a search with keywords (like you would in Google), a title, or an author, and ResearchRabbit will put up papers for you to add to collections. Once you add a paper, you can see its abstract, references, citations, similar papers that relate, and other information. This tool also generates graphs that show timelines and relationships between research content, authors, and more. Here is a great introduction video to this free tool:

5. Movie/Book Recommender

An image of the Movie/Book Recommender tools' website, showing the input options for the tool.
Screenshot by the author of Movie/Book Recommender Home Page https://movie-and-book-recommender.vercel.app/?via=topaitools

We’ve all been there. You finished your book and need a new recommendation. Or it’s Friday night, and you can’t decide on what movie to watch. Fear not. There’s an AI for that! This AI tool is very simple. Movie/Book Recommender requires you to type in a favorite book or movie. Next, you indicate whether you’d like it to generate a book or movie recommendation for you. Then, choose how many recommendations you’d like to get (from two to 10). It’s pretty great.

Well, I hope you enjoy September’s AI tools to try! Which one is your favorite? Do you have any we should add to the list? Let us know in the comments!

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AssessmentBlended LearningContent Areas

TeacherMade Autograding: Avoid Burnout and Give Meaningful Feedback

by Laura Bresko
written by Laura Bresko

We all know that teacher burnout is one of the major factors amplifying teacher shortages. And teacher burnout is on the rise. In 2021, 39% reported working more hours than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Imagine what that number is today, as we work to combat the devastating learning loss our students have suffered. Can technology features like autograding help?

What is teacher burnout?

The answer to the question “what is teacher burnout” seems obvious because we know burnout when we see it. But how do you define it and even rate yourself? Using the Leichtman Scale is one helpful method. 

The Leichtman Scale has four levels of associated symptoms that we all recognize in ourselves and our colleagues, excerpted here:

LEVEL 1: PASSIONATE BUT OVERWHELMED

  • Low feelings of self-efficacy (I’m not good enough)
  • Negative coping strategies (addictions, unhealthy habits)
  • Limited pursuit of passions or hobbies outside of work

LEVEL 2: OVERWHELMED AND BECOMING CYNICAL

  • High levels of stress
  • Quick to become irritated (at work and home)
  • Bringing work home and not completing it
  • Feeling like there is never time for friends or family
  • Guilt from not doing enough for students

LEVEL 3: CYNICAL AND APPROACHING EXHAUSTION

  • Isolation (in and out of work)
  • Feelings of paranoia (every school policy, program, etc., is out to get you and make your teaching day harder)
  • A constant feeling that school goals and your goals will not be met
  • A refusal to engage in professional development

LEVEL 4: COMPLETE EXHAUSTION AND BREAKDOWN

  • Feelings of exhaustion every day (including holidays and summer)
  • Drastic increase in sick days/mental health days
  • Lack of optimism for career and personal life
  • Unusually frequent physical symptoms (cold/flu, stress-related illnesses, hospitalizations)

Where are you on the Leichtman Scale? If you’ve been sharing with others that you feel burned out, you’ve likely been advised by them to take some time off, make more time for enjoyable activities, spend more time with your family… do you see a common theme here? TIME!

How can teachers win back time?

Educators need time away from their job to recharge and start each day fresh. But teachers often bring their workload home because there isn’t enough time in their day to complete all of the tasks their job demands. So what’s a solution? How would your level of burnout change if you didn’t have to grade the mountain of student work on your desk? And would your level of burnout subside?

Here’s a letter TeacherMade recently received from Sandra M., a 5th grade teacher:

“I just wanted to tell you that because of TeacherMade, I have my weekends back. I have spent many hours over the past year making activities for my students, and it is finally paying off. I get much more grading done during the week, and I don’t have much to grade on the weekends. If I do grade on the weekends, I spend between 30 minutes and an hour. This is a huge change from the 10-12 hours I would spend every weekend before I began using TeacherMade.” 

Sandra has found that using the platform has given her back her weekends. That’s a huge start for combating burnout. How did she do it? She made an investment of time to convert her paper-based materials to digital interactives in TeacherMade. Let’s explore how it’s done.

Five Big Wins with TeacherMade Autograding

1. Quickly and easily upload your assignment files for autograding.

You may have experimented with Google Forms in the past. It was easy enough to type up your multiple-choice assignment and send it to your students via Google Classroom. But then you realized that you would have to do that for every assignment if you wanted to go fully digital.

TeacherMade solves that. “Once you have your PDF, Google Doc, Word Doc, or even a scanned document on your computer, you can easily upload it to TeacherMade and make it digital for your students to use,” explains 8th grade ELA teacher Melissa P. You can quickly add multiple question types to the online assignments. It’s similar to how you add an element to a PowerPoint slide. 

Upload of Create a New Augograded Activity
Upload or create a new autograded activity. TeacherMade supports a variety of file types.
Example of an Autograded Assignment TeacherMade
Example of an autograded assignment in TeacherMade.

2. Load in an answer key to autograde some or all of an assignment.

Are you loading up your giant teacher bag on Friday afternoon, dreading your weekend of grading? Stop doing this, and, if you’re an instructional technology coordinator, stop letting your teachers do this to themselves. You can be a successful educator while enjoying restful weekends. Here’s how:

When you make online assignments the norm in your classroom, you will quickly gain back your nights and weekends because of autograding. As you create activities and questions, you just set your answer key and let the platform do the work for you.

With TeacherMade’s autograding, you have flexibility with grading and assessments:

  • Grade some or all of an assignment with autograding 
  • Utilize over 20+ different question types (all STAAR 2.0 types available)
  • Leave personalized comments in areas that need them most
  • Change or edit the answer key before, during, or after the assignment and all student grades will automatically be updated
Image of TeacherMade Autograded Example Activity
TeacherMade autograded example activity, showing correct and incorrect answers.
Example of the “Teacher View” showing scores, submission dates, and status for the assignment.

See how our autograding works with this quick video demonstration. 

3. Focus personalized comments on areas that matter most.

Here’s how middle school teacher Mariana D. handles autograding and personalized comments in her classroom: 

“After your students complete the assignment on TeacherMade, you can give them immediate feedback, which is truly effortless. You won’t need to private comment in Google Classroom anymore! Commenting on Google DOCS and Slides would take me hours to do. 

I’d then need to return the work, which would confuse the students. They could view their grade and work on what they did wrong with little to no redirections. Since I spent so much time grading and giving feedback on Google Classroom, I didn’t have the time for a small group to reteach. Instead, everyone would need to stop, putting us further behind. 

Now with TeacherMade, I can tailor my lessons and worksheets to students’ individual needs with time to spare. The self-grading component is a game changer. It allows me to utilize the time in the classroom like never before. Students who are ready to move on can do so while I sit with the ones who need a little bit more to succeed.”

4. Increase student accountability.

When students get instant feedback and know that work will get graded, they put in more effort. This leads to:

  • Better parent engagement: Parents see grades show up instantly with autograding and LMS integration. 
  • Increased personal responsibility: When students get instant feedback, they remember working through questions, and they ask more questions about what they missed. 
  • More meaningful reteaching: Students take a more active role in reteaching when the assignment results are fresh. 
Example “Student View” of progress as they work.
Example “Student View” of their score after submission.

5. Take back your nights and weekends. 

Transform your teaching materials and PDFs and reduce your workload. 

  • Easily use what you already have. Transform your existing Google Slides, Docs, and other PDFs into interactive activities in minutes. Or construct digital activities from scratch. The choice is yours.
  • Prevent teacher burnout with autograding. Regain your nights and weekends. 20+ question types are autograded for you. Scores flow straight into your online grade book! Even student-constructed responses are graded more easily in TeacherMade.
  • Measure and track what your students know. Students engage more deeply with the curriculum when they get instant feedback via the ‘Check My Answers’ button. Turn learning loss into gains.

It works. And we are anxious to help you and your team get started. There are many strategies and best practices for going digital using TeacherMade. Contact us (or any TeacherMader you may know) and we’ll show you how to add more time back into their lives, your life! Let’s combat teacher burnout together. 

Get a Quote or Start a FREE Trial Today!
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Announcements/Important DatesThanksgiving

Ready-to-Use Thanksgiving Activities

by Peggy Reimers
written by Peggy Reimers

Sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas, Thanksgiving seems to miss out on the glory of the end-of-year holidays. Even in the retail world, stores go from trick-or-treat candy and the spooky-ooky to the glittery red and green of Christmas. We are barely into November, and Christmas music is playing in the stores! I mean, wow! I just gotta feel for the fourth Thursday of every November. Yes, I am that one who always roots for the underdog. So what about Thanksgiving activities?

As you can probably tell, I do like Thanksgiving. This time of year gives me a chance to pause and really count my blessings. I am extremely thankful for my job at TCEA, the wonderful people in my work family, my home, and my good health. 

If you are looking for ways to celebrate Thanksgiving at school or around your own dinner table, please check out these freshly minted activities to honor the “underdog” of the holiday season.

Would You Rather Thanksgiving Activity

Would you rather? Thanksgiving activities

This Canva presentation can be played in presentation mode right from your browser. You are also welcome to edit this template of the presentation to customize it for your particular audience. Like all the other Would You Rather games, it can be played in several ways. As the teacher, you can decide, and there are no wrong answers! 

What Does Not Belong? Thanksgiving and Fall Edition

Which one doesn't belong? Thanksgiving activities

I also set up this Canva presentation as a ready-to-go activity for your use, and you can modify the template to suit your needs. Each slide has four options, and the participant decides which doesn’t belong. There isn’t just one correct answer for most, and it’s interesting to hear what object students pick and why. Have your students give their reason, and cheers to lively discussions!

The Giving Thanks Word Wall

Giving Thanks Word Wall

‘Tis the season for gratitude and thankfulness. My colleague Diana Benner writes in her blog, “Gratitude Activities for Your Classroom,”

“Gratitude is defined as the feeling or expression of thankfulness and appreciation toward yourself, others, people, places, or things.”

Make a copy of my Giving Thanks slide deck and use this activity as a simple way to express thankfulness. Just assign each student a slide, and they can add their words of Thanksgiving with text boxes. I would save changing the font until their list of words is complete (because you and I know how choosing fonts is so much FUN!).

Thanksgiving Syllacrostic 

Thanksgiving Syllacrostic Activity

I discovered the “old school” PennyPress Variety puzzle books about a year ago. I find that working on puzzles helps me unwind, and on a long airplane ride, it helps pass the time. I discovered my new favorite type of puzzle: the syllacrostic.

If you’re not familiar with this type of puzzle, read on. 

Basically, there is a pool of syllables in a box. The puzzle usually has 15 to 20 words to solve. You are given three pieces of information for each word: 

  1. A related word or phrase
  2. The number of syllables in the word
  3. The number of letters for each word

Since they have become my favorite type of puzzle, I have tried my hand at developing a Thanksgiving syllacrostic. Drop a note in the comment section, and let me know what you think.

More Thanksgiving Activities

If you are looking for more digital Thanksgiving activities, please check out my other Thanksgiving blog article. These activities might have been created two years ago, but I must say, they have withstood the test of holiday activity time.

Here’s a quick list of what you will find. :

  1. Story Randomizer with a who, what, when, and where
  2. Thanksgiving Bracket Challenge (think March Madness)
  3. Thanksgiving Bingo
  4. Scrambled up Thanksgiving Words with a  wheel spinner
  5. Gobble Gobble Digital Breakout
  6. Dress up a turkey with Google Slides

And, as always, if you need answers, need something changed, or have an idea, please email me at preimers@tcea.org. I’ll be thankful to help out. 

Happy Thanksgiving,

Peggy

Access All the Thanksgiving Activities

Even More Thanksgiving Resources

Give Thanks with Google Forms

Gratitude Activities for You and Your Students

Native American Heritage Day

Gratitude Towers for Social-Emotional Learning

The Gobble Gobble Breakout

Thanksgiving Digital Resources

Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Thanksgiving Resources, Names, Templates, and More

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Good Teaching

Three Ideas for Retrieval Practice

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Retrieval practice is a learning strategy that focuses on recalling facts or concepts from your memory in order to enhance learning. By recalling information, we are forced to pull our knowledge out and examine what we know. Many times, in the classroom, retrieval practice is confused as an assessment strategy, which it is not. It is a learning strategy that can include any activity that has students retrieve what they have learned from their memory.

Research on Retrieval Practice

According to Pooja Agarwal, Ph.D., founder of RetrievalPractice.org, retrieval practice boosts learning by pulling information out of students’ heads rather than cramming information into students’ heads. Based on more than 100 years of research, simply retrieving what you’ve already learned further boosts your long-term learning. There is a lot of additional interesting research on retrieval practice that is worthy of exploration.

Ways to Use Retrieval Practice in the Classroom

There are many ways to use retrieval practice in your instruction. Below are a few ideas:

Brain Dump

Ask students to write down everything they know about a certain topic. They should not use any assistance while completing this. Give them a couple of minutes to complete the task. Then, students can compare what they wrote down with other students or in small groups. They can discuss similarities, differences, or any misconceptions. Lastly, a whole-class discussion can be held around the topic or concept that was originally presented.

retrieval practice

Flashcards

A classic example of retrieval practice is using flashcards. These are tasks where cards are displayed containing a word or a picture. Then, students are asked to retrieve their knowledge of what they are shown, recalling facts they know. Students should go through the flashcards multiple times and say as much of the information as possible out loud before flipping the card.

Low-Stake Quizzes

Frequent low-stakes quizzes are an easy way to incorporate retrieval practice. Quizzes can be free response, multiple choice, or another format. Also, polling students works well for low-stakes assessments. With digital tools like Google Forms, getting feedback is automatic and quick. Remind students that the quizzes are not for a grade but more for showing what they know.

For more information on retrieval practice, check out the resources below:

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Blended LearningGood TeachingPlanning and Preparation

Self-Paced Lessons Set Students up for Success

by Lindy Hockenbary
written by Lindy Hockenbary

What happens when you don’t feel confident in your abilities to complete a task? Procrastination? Anxiety? Low self-esteem? That nervous feeling in your gut? Every person reacts differently to this situation, but in general, a typical reaction leans towards disengagement. A big part of facilitating engaging learning and setting students up for success is creating personalized learning.

Self-Paced Lessons as a Strategy for Student Success

The ultimate goal of educators across the world is to personalize learning for each student. Different elements of the learning process can be personalized, including learning outcomes, pace, product, process, and content. (Source) A simple way to personalize the pace of learning is to create self-paced lessons.

A self-paced lesson includes everything a learner needs to complete a lesson on their own timeline. Imagine these lessons packages you wrap up and hand to your students. However, to put a bow on this package, I have found that adding specific elements helps ensure students are set up to both feel and be successful learning at their own pace, whether the teacher is synchronously and/or physically present or not.

Example Self-Paced Lesson

Before we dive into discussing the essential elements of a self-paced lesson, it is helpful to review an example. Become the Character is an example self-paced lesson designed for the intermediate-elementary ages. No worries if you teach younger or older students. Focus on the lesson elements and not the content. This example is created using Google Slides, although keep in mind that self-paced lessons can take on many forms.

Essential Elements of Self-Paced Lesson

What elements are critical to a self-paced lesson in order to set students up for success?

Learning Target

In order for students to buy-in to the learning, it is essential that they know the purpose of a learning task. Make sure the learning target (also known as goal, objective, outcome, or intention; adjust for the terminology you use) is clear and visible. I recommend beginning with only one learning target per lesson.

Overview of Lesson

Do you write on the board of your physical classroom what students will be doing that day, period, or block?  Instead of writing a lesson summary on the board, put it in the lesson so students can access it anytime, anywhere. I recommend using consistent language each time, such as “In this lesson you will . . . ”

Video Introduction

Using video is a great way to set students up for success. Video can be watched at any pace and rewatched as many times as needed. When it comes to self-paced lessons, I find it crucial to begin the lesson with a video of the teacher introducing the lesson. Why? Research regarding using video for learning indicates that the more learners see and hear their teacher, the more likely they are to engage with the content. (Source) In addition to engagement, teacher-created videos increase student satisfaction and participation, and they can also help develop a quasi-relationship between teacher and student. (Source)

Think of this as the introduction of a direct instruction lesson where you stand in the front of the class and say something like, “today we will be doing ___, and I want you to focus on ______.” The introduction video for a self-paced lesson is the same idea. Introduce the lesson. Explain anything that may be confusing. Give a little pep talk. 

Make this quick and informal. Don’t stress about it being high-quality. High-quality videos take hours to make. You don’t have time for that, and studies show that quality doesn’t have a direct impact on engagement. (Source) What matters more than quality is that you seem enthusiastic and upbeat. (Source) This doesn’t mean that you can’t use a video made by someone else for the content of the lesson. However, try to start a lesson with a short video of yourself enthusiastically introducing that lesson.

Learning Resources

This includes any resources that help meet the learning target.  Make sure to provide choices in various formats, if possible. I try to give at least one visual resource, such as a video, and one written resource, such as an article.

Learning Task

This is the assessment. How will students show proficiency in the learning target outlined at the beginning of the lesson?  It is important to provide choices here as well, and it is easy to integrate choice boards into self-paced lessons.

What Does “Done” Look Like?

This is also known as a checklist of completion. I find that answering the question “What does ‘done’ look like?” is extremely helpful to both the student and any caregivers who are potentially assisting the student. I find a simple checklist is effective as shown below.

Reflection

Adding a short reflection at the end is crucial to bringing the lesson together. The reflection serves as valuable feedback for you because what the learner shares in the reflection is usually a tell-tale sign of whether they met the learning target or not. 

Pacing Guide

Including pacing guides throughout a self-paced lesson is a crucial element to ensure student success. Pacing guides can be approached in two ways—approximate time of completion or minimum time of completion. I find it easier to gauge a minimum time of completion as opposed to trying to guess an average time across all learners and all choices provided.

Brain Breaks

Our brains need breaks from digital screens, so brain breaks are important for digital lessons. A brain break can be as quick as you want to make it and can be anything that gets bodies moving. A GIF is used in the sample lesson.

Choice

It is important with self-paced lessons to give students autonomy over their learning. If students have choice in their learning tasks, they are going to choose the option they feel they are most likely to be successful at. This is a great way to sustain engagement. 

Consistency

Creating consistency and routine is an important strategy in setting students up for success. Just as you create routine with logistics and agendas in your classroom, create consistency with digital learning tasks. The more you are consistent in the format of your self-paced lessons, the more successful your students will be.

Self-Paced Lesson Template

Using templates is a great way to create consistency. If creating self-paced lessons using slides peaks your interest, use the Google Slides Self-Paced Lesson Template. To keep in Google Slides format, navigate to File > Make a copy. If you would like to use Microsoft PowerPoint, navigate to File > Download > Microsoft PowerPoint. Either way the template is designed to be plug-in-play. Add your content, videos, and links and you have an instant self-paced lesson! The more lessons you create the faster you will become.

Self-Paced Lessons Come in Many Formats

Tools such as Pear Deck or Nearpod could also be used with the slides template to create self-paced lessons. Both Pear Deck and Nearpod add interactive elements to slides. 

Self-paced lessons can also be created using Google Forms or Microsoft Forms. If you use a learning management system (LMS), the elements of self-paced lessons could be created using the features of the LMS. 

Self-paced lessons can be used in face-to-face classrooms and are perfect for blended and hybrid learning. In my book, A Teacher’s Guide to Online Learning, I discuss using self-paced lessons for asynchronous virtual learning. 

When it comes to setting your students up for success with self-paced lessons, the sky is the limit!

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Social-Emotional Learning

Activities for the End of the School Year

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

Can you believe the end of the school year is near? My answer is complicated. On the one hand, yes, I can believe it. But on the other hand, I have no idea where the time went! Some days flew by while others slowly mosied along, seeming to never end. It was the fastest, slowest year I think I’ve ever had. Do you feel this way? To celebrate the end of one of the most challenging school years, I want to share some of my favorite ideas for end-of-school-year activities. Because you know what? You did it. You and your students made it through this year, and learning happened. And that should be celebrated.

Create a Visual Timeline

Turn your classroom or hallway into a visual timeline of the school year. Students can create videos using tools like Screencastify, FlipGrid, or the video app on a Chromebook, iPad, or laptop. Their videos can reflect on different units, activities, events, lessons, and field trips from the year. Turn the videos into QR codes and have students choose photos or draw pictures to include in the display. For example, you can have a poster for each month of the year. Students can place the QR code videos and photos (or drawings) on the correct poster.

When it’s all finished, have a museum walk with your class to reflect on all that you’ve accomplished together this year. Watch the videos, look at the pictures and drawings, and celebrate each other! (Spoiler Alert: You can also use this along with activity suggestion number three.) This is a great activity to encourage reflection at the end of the school year, and it’s super fun.

Write Thank You Letters or Cards

The end of the school year is a great time to think back about peers and teachers who have been supportive, helpful, encouraging, kind, collaborative, etc. We never reach success on our own. Ask students, “Who has helped you get through the year? Who has encouraged you and supported you in meeting your goals? Who has been a good friend?” Encourage them to make a list of people to whom they would like to write notes of thanks. But expressing gratitude is not easy, and it is a skill to be taught. Before beginning the writing, model examples of how we can give specific, meaningful, and honest thanks to others. Write a note of thanks as a class. Leave it up on the board as a reference for students as they write their own messages.

Visit the Grade Above and Welcome the Grade Below

Certain students may feel a high level of anxiety and the end of the school year. Some take everything in stride, but others may fear the unknown and all the changes that come with a new school year. Coordinate with a class in the grade level above and arrange a visit. The class could present their visual timeline or create a class presentation, and host a question and answer session for your students. This will help them know what to expect in their new grade level. Showing the visual timeline can give students specific things to look forward to. And hearing from other students directly about their experiences can help belay some fears. Also, consider hosting a class from the grade level below you! Your students will definitely take pride in talking about what they’ve accomplished and in answering younger students’ questions. It’s a great way to pass the torch!

Brainstorm Advice for the Upcoming Class

Ask the students to recall how they felt when they began the year. Were they a little nervous? Did they feel a bit lost or unsure? Well, the new students will likely feel the same way. As a class, brainstorm some advice and information that the new students might find helpful when starting the new year. Create a list of advice, have students write letters to the new students sharing their words of wisdom, or craft a letter as a class to the incoming class. This is an excellent activity for reflection and a practice in empathy.

End-of-Year Self-Reflection Survey

Have students answer a self-reflection survey. This can be done on paper, through video, or using a tool like Google Forms. Ask students questions that will instigate self-reflection, and the answers don’t necessarily have to be academic. This is a great gift for students to take with them at the end of the year, but it’s also valuable information to hand up to teachers in the next grade level. For example, you could ask questions like:

  1. In what area did you most improve?
  2. What gifts, talents, or skills do you have to offer your new class?
  3. What would you like to improve next year?
  4. How were you a leader this year?
  5. What was your favorite thing about this school year?
  6. What are you most proud of?
  7. If you could go back in time, would you do something differently?
  8. What was your least favorite thing about this year?
  9. What helped you learn best in class?
  10. Was there something in class that made it more difficult to learn?
Download the Self-Reflection Survey

Make a Class Book

Using a tool such as Book Creator, make a class book full of information and reflections about the year. Much like the visual timeline, students can write, draw pictures, record videos, and select photos for their class book. You can include pages about special lessons, projects, activities, and field trips and include examples of students’ work. This is a lovely keepsake for students and teachers alike!

Student Speeches

Last but not least, one end-of-year ritual that I love is the student-written speech. Guide students in writing short speeches about their year. In their speech, they can highlight one favorite event or activity, express gratitude to one person who helped them, talk about how they grew, and outline one goal they have for the upcoming year. Students can even use their self-reflection survey as a guide for their speech. Let students know that they will be performing their speeches in front of their peers. And if you work in a school where it’s possible to invite parents, invite them to be in on the fun. Student speeches are a great way to end the year, and you can use them in coordination with the visual timeline celebration and presentation. It is a nice way to provide students with some closure and also have them practice important writing and speaking skills.

There are plenty of resources on the web for end-of-year activities, but here are some of my favorites.

Additional Resources

Let us know how you’ll celebrate the end of the school year with your students in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!

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choice board
Math

Choice Boards for Active Learning in Math

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

None of us like to be told what to do all of the time. We like to have the freedom to make our own choices once in a while. And that’s just as true for students of all ages. It’s just one of the reasons why choice boards are an excellent tool to use for any subject. They allow each student to complete required content and have some say in either what else they learn or how they demonstrate that learning. For today, let’s examine some great math choice board examples.

Choice Board Templates

choice board

Matt Miller (Ditch That Textbook author) has a wonderful Google Slides template for a math board. And it is great to see how these can best be structured. His template includes the following:

  • Vocabulary Activities – Choice of creating flashcards or create a sketchnote of vocabulary words
  • Display Options – After some direct instruction, students can practice what they are learning with an infographic, an anchor chart, or a Flipgrid video.
  • Check Your Understanding – Students can either answer questions on a Google Form or work several problems on Google Slides. This allows the teacher to see if any reteaching is needed.
  • Assessment Options – Finally, once the unit is over, the student has the choice of taking the assessment on paper or using Google Forms and getting immediate feedback on right and wrong answers.

Tara Dusko created these choice boards for third through fifth grades in multiplication, division, and geometry. They look more like what I think of when the phrase “choice board” is mentioned in that they have the standard nine squares. Her directions on the boards don’t specify which ones students must do and which ones they can choose from, but you could easily add that element. Tara does offer a great choice board teaching tip– include a self-assessment scale to “provide students with an opportunity to reflect on the choice that they made, how working on that choice went, and what their next steps are.”

More Math Choice Boards

  • Math Transformations has a wonderful collection of choice boards from grades kindergarten through high school. These are colorful and very well designed. They also include additional teaching and learning resources and are all available in Google Docs. You can download them and then change them up to meet the needs of your students.
  • This blank template in Google Docs is from the amazing Kasey Bell and is easy to fill out and start using.
  • Complete with a grading rubric, this excellent pre-algebra unit board is ready to go. The teacher even identifies the type of strategy for each choice.
  • While created for an emergency school closing, this fifth grade choice board has a great selection of activities that you could include at school as well as at home. A similar problem caused the design and making of this second grade board.
  • Think that choice boards are really only for younger students? Check out this Pre-Calculus one (TBH, it made my head hurt just reading it!)
  • The Effecient Classroom blog has some great ideas for creating different types of math boards for secondary classrooms including This or That? and Add It Up. And this site also offers several choice activities for seventh grade students.

Choice Board Teaching Tips

  • Before letting students get started, be sure you tell them how long they have to complete the board. Will they work on it at home or only in school? How can they get help if they get stuck? Can they work cooperatively on any of the choices?
  • If it’s the first time your class has worked in this fashion, limit the number of choices. Three seems to be a good starting number. You can add more as they become comfortable with this strategy.
  • Make sure that critical content that absolutely must be learned is a required item on the board.
  • To help students who struggle or may learn differently, have a variety of learning strategies as choices, from drawing to word play to creating a learning tool.

To learn more about creating your own choice boards and to discover more templates, check out these TCEA blogs on the subject.

And to receive a digital certification in all things choice boards, take a look at the TCEA online, self-paced course. You’ll become an expert in this differentiation technique and receive 12 hours of CPE credit and a digital badge. The price is only $29. Your students will thank you!

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