In the Classroom

1. Pre-Assessment
   1. Use a  A+ Classroom Student Response Software activity prior to beginning instruction of a new chapter or material to evaluate the students' knowledge of the content.
   2. Create or select a competition that builds on the progression of the curriculum to be introduced.
      • Monitor the scoreboard as the competition progresses
      • Immediate low or poor scores typically indicate that the students are not prepared or have little comprehension of the objective or material
      • Moderate performance identifies key objectives to focus on during the instruction of the content
      • Exceptional scoring often indicates inherent knowledge of the material and allows the teacher to use their valuable class time more efficiently by proceeding to new objectives or more advanced materials
2. Instruction of Concepts
   1. Select or create competition (remember to use multimedia!) that will test new objectives or materials.
      • Include sequential questions testing the concepts
      • After the first question, stop and instruct on the fundamentals
      • Resume the activity with the next question over the same concepts
      • Continue to pause and instruct until the concept is mastered
   2. Partner students to create competitions on assigned materials to challenge their fellow classmates - outstanding critical thinking skills are built using this methodology.
      • Inform other students of the material to be covered in the competition - nobody wants to be stumped by classmates!
      • Rotate student groups to ensure complete participation and quality content
3. Facilitate Classroom Discussion
   1. Motivating students of any age to express valid and educated opinions in a group setting is sometimes difficult.
      • Use the polling format for competition activities
        • Use pre-created questions and answer choices
        • No right or wrong answer
        • Graphic display of class answers
        • Activity automatically pauses at graph until manually restarted
      • Use the Live Polling Activity
        • Make up questions and answer choices on the spot
        • Instant graph displays live results
        • Add variables to question and monitor impact
4. Formative and Summative Assessment
   1. Use the countdown or quiz format to evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional session (no clues)
      • Immediately following instruction
      • To evaluate performance of an assignment
      • In advance of standardized testing to identify potential weakness