Improve Reading Engagement with Kahoot!

Last week, while perusing Scoop.It! (which, along with Twitter, is my favorite place to find new teaching resources and apps), I came across an article highlighting a new online quiz-making website called Kahoot.  As you are probably well-aware, there are tons of websites that can do the same thing.  So, what makes Kahoot so different, you might be asking yourself?  In short, Kahoot takes student engagement to a whole new level by turning a normal multiple-choices quiz into a whole-class trivia game against the clock!  On top of that, Kahoot has gone the extra mile by making these fun quiz games accessible from any device, be it a laptop, tablet or mobile phone! Let me explain how it works...

Steps to Set Up a Quiz Game

1. To get started, all you have to do is go to the Kahoot website, and sign up for free.  

2. Once there, you get the option of creating a quiz, discussion or survey.  Click the quiz button, give it a name, and then fill in the questions and answers as you would normally do with an online quiz.  However, if you wish, you can make your quiz even more engaging for students by including an image for each question by inserting a picture.

3. After completing the questions and answers, click the Next: settings button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.  There you can adjust the amount of points given for each correct answer, the time given for each question, and other basic information about your quiz.   

4. Then, after clicking Next again, you can include a cover image for your quiz, and click Done.  Now, your quiz is ready to play with the class!

5. When you are ready to play, connect your computer to a smartboard or projector.  You must have either one to play because your students will see the questions and answer-choices from there.  

6. Next, log in to Kahoot, and go to your profile page by clicking Me in the top left-hand corner.  There, you will be able to see all of the quizzes that you have created and saved.  

7. Click Play, then Launch, and Kahoot will show a game pin number on the screen, as pictured below.  

8. Your students simply then connect to the internet from any device, type in kahoot.it into the URL, and then enter the game pin.  

9. Once there, they can enter their names, and wait for everyone to join.  As they enter their names, you will see them on the screen.  

10. When ready, click Start now, and let the fun begin!

For sure, there are many different ways you could use this brilliant website.  You could use it to review for exams, review vocabulary items, or even as a fun way to teach grammar.  What we did, this week, however, was to use it as a way to get our students more engaged in their reading.  We told them that before we went down to the library to read around 20 pages of our current story, that they had to read extra-carefully because we were going to play a game when we returned to class.  We made the Kahoot quiz about the story, ranging from easy to very difficult questions from those 20 pages.  Once we started playing, we couldn't believe the look on their faces.  The students were so engaged and competitive with each other to see who could get the highest score.  (As a side note, the faster the students answer the questions, the more points they receive for correct answers.)  Just take a look for yourselves of our class in action below... 



The most amazing part for us as teachers was that a student in our class, who normally has a difficult time reading, was so enthralled in the game that she came in third place!  This was such a major confidence boost for her because it helped her realize that she does understand the main points of the story.  Now, many of our students have already been asking when is the next time we are going to play because they want to beat the first winner of the game, Kaan, but more importantly, they know that they have to read more carefully in order to do so!