Semper Maximas Gratias Vobis

Last week my blog passed over 400,000 page views. Granted I will chalk up the majority of those page views to spambots, but after five years, I still cannot believe that there are folks out there who read this blog on a regular basis or even check it out. Two years ago, I wrote a post similar to this when I reached over 150,000 page views. I was blown away by that! I thought for sure by now people would tire out with what i had to say and move on. 

Honestly, I really do not think that I have much to say about CI. Nor am I putting on false humility when I write that. There are so many others out there who know CI theory much better than I do, can discuss it better than I can, and actually like getting into long academic pedagogical discussions about it - that is not me at all. Look at those blogs which are listed on the sidebar - THOSE folks are the ones who understand Comprehensible Input and can talk about it with a degree of confidence. THOSE are the ones whose blogs you should be consulting. THOSE are the ones whose presentations I attend to learn about CI. But yet, I will continue to blog. 

I do not blog with the intent that tons of folks will ever read what I have to say. I blog, because it gives me a place to put down and to share what I am learning about CI in the Latin classroom. I am always amazed when I meet people at conferences (especially non-Latin teachers) who say that they read my blog and use many of the ideas about which I have written, because in my mind, I still think only about five people are reading my blog. But yet, what I write here in this blog appears to resonate with CI-users and CI-seekers. I am not interested in writing about CI theory only per se (occasionally I will muse on some aspect of CI theory) but my interest rather is about how to apply it practically in the classroom (because quite honestly, I am a practical kind of guy. I do not think that anyone ever would call me an academic!).

I am excited about the CI movement in the Latin community. When I first began blogging back in 2013, there were only about 3-4 blogs out there dedicated to CI in the Latin classroom. Now five years later, there are SO MANY more out there. More importantly, the CI community at large is seeing Latin as a viable language for CI implementation. I love that there are Latin teachers presenting non-specific Latin presentations at CI conferences and that non-Latin teachers are learning from them!

So as we enter this Thanksgiving week, I just want to say maximas gratias vobis - thanks to you all very much. Thanks for thinking that I have something of value to say in this blog and for taking it to heart. Thanks to all of you who have contributed to my CI journey. I am so thankful for those of who are joining me as a result of this blog.

Movie Talk - Joy and Heron

Here is a Movie Talk which I presented this week in my Latin 2 classes. I was looking for a short animated movie short for which I could introduce the words boat, board a ship, river, and fishing. Unfortunately, the National Movie Talk database did not have anything related to these words, but after a Google search, I came across this movie short (I have now added it to the database). I really like this Movie Talk, because it is a cute story involving a dog, its master, a big bird, and a can of worms with LOTS of repetitions and a very nice ending.

Movie Talk script - Latin

Movie Talk script - English


Consider using this!

Kahoot vs. Quizizz vs. Quizlet Live vs.GimKit

Allow me an excursus here to put on my ITEC hat and to address four popular digital review/assessment tools which teachers are using in class: Kahoot, Quizizz, Quizlet Live, and GimKit.

Kahoot

• Delivery: Synchronous. The entire class participates in answering a set of questions simultaneously against a countdown clock. The timer and teacher determine when the next question is asked. Students receive points for correct answers. The more quickly students answer correctly, the more points which they will receive. After each round, a leaderboard is updated.
• Student feedback: After each individual question, the teacher can review as a class communally what the correct answer is and why students may have missed that question.
• Teacher feedback: After each question, teachers can see how students "performed" and also receive a report at the end.
• Price: Free.
• Pros
• Very engaging for students.
• You can use the Name Generator setting so that students cannot create "naughty nicknames." As a teacher, this saves so much time - no more having to remove student names from the game!
• Ghost round - students can play a 2nd game against "themselves" from a previous round.
• Jumble - this activity asks students to put answers in an order (such as chronology, spelling, etc.)
• You can randomize questions and answers.
• You got to love the Kahoot soundtrack! 
• Cons
• Because this is a game of speed, Kahoot tends to appeal to the fast processors. Slower processors can get very frustrated, because although they may answer questions correctly, their point value will never be as high as the faster processors.
• Very competitive students tend to stop playing after they get a questions wrong, because they feel like they cannot win the game on account of missing a question.

Quizizz

• Delivery: Asynchronous. Students answer questions at their own pace but are still competing against a countdown clock for points. Students receive points for correct answers. The more quickly students answer correctly, the more points which they will receive. Students can view their point totals on a leaderboard.
• Student feedback: Students receive immediate feedback if they answer incorrectly, but the feedback is limited to "correct" and "incorrect" and the correct answer.
• Teacher feedback: Because students are answering asynchronously, you can view live which questions students are answering correctly and incorrectly. You can also receive a data report at the end.
• Price: Free.
• Pros
• Because the game is asynchronous and students can proceed at their own pace, slower processors do not feel frustrated like they do in Kahoot.
• You can add memes which students see after answering a question telling them if they answered correctly.
• Cons
• Because students receive more points for quicker correct answers, there still is a a slight edge for faster processors.
• There is no communal review of correct/incorrect answers except at the very end of the game, so students do not receive immediate feedback as to why they answered incorrectly.
• You have to deal with the possibility of "naughty nicknames" unless you pre-enter student names.

Quizlet Live

• Delivery: Asynchronous. Students are in groups and answer questions at their own pace. In teams, every device will have a different list of possible answers, but only one device has the correct answer. Teams move forward in a race course with each correct answer. The more quickly students answer correctly, the more quickly they will move forward. Students can view their progress on a leaderboard.
• Student feedback: Students receive immediate feedback if they answer incorrectly, but the feedback is limited to "correct" and "incorrect," with the correct answer given afterwards. 
• Teacher feedback: Teacher can receive a data report at the end.
• Price: Free.
• Pros
• This game is collaborative in nature as students need to discuss with each other whose device has the correct answer.
• Because the game is asynchronous and students can proceed at their own pace, slower processors do not feel frustrated like they do in Kahoot.
• At the end of the game, the teacher can review all of the questions and answers with the class. Although this is a communal review, it only happens once the game is over.
• Cons
• When teams answer incorrectly, their score goes back to zero. This can frustrate the more competitive students.
• You have to deal with the possibility of "naughty nicknames." 

GimKit 
(see here for my blog post on GimKit)

• Delivery: Asynchronous. Students answer questions at their own pace. Students earn "money" for correctly answering questions. Amount of money is not based on amount of time needed to answer question. Teacher determines amount of time/money earned as the countdown, so students will answer questions more than once.
• Student feedback: Students receive immediate feedback if they answer incorrectly, but the feedback is limited to "correct" and "incorrect," with the correct answer given afterwards.
• Teacher feedback: Teachers can also receive a data report at the end.
• Price: It is a pay site, but a free version does exist with limited access.
• Pros:
• The game is SO engaging for students once they understand how upgrades and powerups work. This is what makes students want to continue playing the game.
• Because questions are on a continuous loop, this allows for lots of repetitions.
• You can easily import questions from an already existing Quizlet Live set or from a CSV form. 

• Cons
• You can enter in student names ahead of time to prevent "naught nicknames"
• Because the game length is based on time or the class combined-totals,and because the questions are on a continuous loop, if you do not have enough questions, it can get boring for students. I have found that 75-100 questions for 10 minutes is a good amount.

Overview

Each of these four digital tools have their benefits and drawbacks. I love the collaborative nature of Quizlet Live, while I like the immediate feedback benefits in Kahoot of reviewing questions and answers communally as a class after each question, instead of delayed at the end of the game. Quizizz and GimKit allow for the slower processor to answer at their own pace and not be penalized for it. Both Kahoot and GimKit are very engaging for students, although Kahoot appeals to the more competitive students. GimKit allows for questions to repeat on a random loop, allowing for more repetitions. Kahoot, Quizizz, and Quizlet Live are free, while GimKit is a pay service (with a very limited free version).

My recommendation: GimKit