Clickers in the Classroom

Today we are going to be taking a closer look at clickers in the classroom. There are a lot of types of clickers out there and we will go into the details of types of clickers at a later time, but right now I want to focus on the effectiveness of these great devices.

First off, clickers are a simple idea that provides many wonderful opportunities in the classroom. Clickers are designed to give the teacher (and students) instant feedback on his or her understanding of the topic(s). It is an amazing tool because students love being able to point and click to the receiver in the room and love to see if they are doing the problems correctly or know the information.

Clickers can be used for a lot of different ideas. Here are a list of the few main concepts for clickers.

1) A pre and post test that can be done in 10-15 minutes of class to see what students may already know before starting a unit and then be able to see the students' growth from the post clicker test. A bonus is that students don't feel that it is a test and will relax and really show you what they know!

2) Teaching a new topic? Why not incorporate your notes onto a powerpoint or other slideshow that works with the clickers, teach a concept and then have the students use the clickers after a new topic was taught to see if they are understanding. Perhaps provide an award idea that if you maintain an 80% over so many checks that they can earn a ticket towards the iPad time (See the 1 iPad Classroom Series).

3) Use for a review game...how great could it be for ask the audience?


I started using clickers as a way to engage my students longer on math problems. I teach for 90 minutes, middle schoolers and 90 minutes is a long time! When we bring out the clickers, it is like an amazing reset on class, where the students are refreshed and ready to do more problems even though 2 minutes ago they were burnt out.

I run a Funday Friday idea, where we review a previous topic and students receiving above an 80% are considered proficient on that topic and earn some time in our technology room, which features iPads and computers. Students not at that proficient mark work on a mini-lesson with myself that reflects the topic used with the clickers. It is not seen as a punishment, just as a reward which is really neat to experience, plus some topics you can cut your class in half!

Our next blog will feature how to effectively use the data from clickers to assess your teaching abilities and student growth.