POP QUIZ GUIDE
Teaching it
- Give the students access to the pop quiz questions.
- Give the students time to answer the questions.
- Discuss the answers to the questions.
Different forms of delivery: A pop quiz can be delivered in a variety of formats. Printed handouts are quick and easy. Online forms allow you to collect (and potentially share) the students’ responses instantly. Interactive technology like clickers or quiz-based apps (e.g. Kahoot!) provide even more options. You could even have the students respond to quiz questions orally. In each case, consider which format will best suit the kinds of questions you are asking, as well as the learning styles of your students.
Teamwork: Keep in mind that quizzes don’t have to be administered to students individually. You can also organize the students into teams or have the entire class work together to answer quiz questions. “Collaborative quizzes” often take the form of a learning game, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still use them as formal or informal assessments.
Student-created quizzes: Consider having students write their own quiz questions. This puts students in charge of their own learning and helps them review what they have learned in a more in-depth way. Furthermore, it can give you a better idea of what knowledge and skills the students value most.
ASSESSING IT
The pop quiz may be used to gauge students’ familiarity with certain topics and skills prior to completing a lesson or lesson activity. Collecting this kind of information can help you fine tune your activities to different students’ needs.
The pop quiz may be used to measure students’ mastery of the knowledge and/or skills they were meant to obtain during a lesson or lesson activity.
Content-based criteria for specific pop quiz activities can be found within the Protecting Our Waters lesson plans.
In some cases, you may want to administer the same pop quiz multiple times. For example, you may have students take the same quiz both before and after completing an activity (to demonstrate what they have learned). You may also use recurring quizzes to measure improvement over time, or to ensure that students retain learned knowledge and skills.