Skip to main content

Zip Grade... Thank You.


I give many, many kinds of assessments. But there is one assessment I give throughout the year that makes me want to pull all of my beautiful curls out of my head, and that, my dear friends, is the REVIEW UNITS FOR VOCABULARY WORKSHOP.

I will promote Vocabulary Workshop until the cows come home (affordable, SAT prep, CC aligned, online resources, etc., etc.), but the review tests (five in total throughout the year, in all three of my LA classes) are 50-100 questions, primarily multiple choice, and by the time I have graded close to 90 of them, my eyes are crossed and I swear I need new glasses.

Enter ZIP GRADE. I remembered hearing about some program years ago that would scan a bubble sheet and give you the answers. Zip Grade goes a step further. Create your class list, and each student gets a code (I created easy-to-remember ones based on their graduation year). Tell the students their code before the test, and you're off to the races, as my momma would say. When the lovely student is done, I always give them the choice to see how they did or not (they usually do). I scan it with my iPad, and it gives them the number right over the total and their percentage. It literally saved me about three days of grading. THREE DAYS! It will save the scan too, so you can look back and see specific questions that went wrong for one or all of the students.

And what did I do when I learned how this worked? Well, I ran around my school building telling anyone who would listen! 

As far as students go, they weren't that crazy about it at first. The bubbles made them nervous and reminded them of the old days with the bubble standardized testing (we test online now), so they took a little convincing. But once they were getting results right away, they liked it! You can also use it for exit tickets, quick quizzes, etc., because they have a variety of sizes of bubble sheets. I use it only for these review tests right now to stay away from too many bubbles. :)

Pros:
- Students know results instantly.
- Less anxiety after a test for them.
- Students can immediately know to study more for next exam if this one didn't go so hot.
- The first 100 papers are FREE! I went ahead and purchased the full year ($6.99) after my first 100, and it's already paid for itself in psychiatry bills. :)
- Works with Apple and Android

Cons:
- Takes a bit to set up for middle school
- Goes back a bit to old school testing

Give it a shot and see what you think. You can't lose with a free app, free set up, and future free time!

~Caitlin

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Books I Read Every Summer

When I was in my graduate program, there was a particular professor that... well, let's just say he shouldn't have been there. Everything we wrote was apparently garbage, every discussion left students angry and upset... not what a MEd program should be. ANYWAY. The one and only thing that I remember being worthwhile in the two classes I took with him was a resource day. This was partially because it had nothing to do with him, but it was also because everyone brought a book they were passionate about that they had picked up along the way. It was so incredibly helpful, and I went shopping after that! So, since I know the usefulness of having someone else look at something and say, "Hey, this is worthwhile!", I thought I would share mine! These are some more targeted towards ELA/MS, but there is something for everyone! Whether you are in year 1 or year 40, anyone can use a reminder of the things you need to remember to do each year to make your class great. I tel...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Summer Reading!

Last summer, I had a baby. So, my summer consisted of hanging out with my little love and coming to terms with leaving him to go back to work in November. Very little was accomplished school-wise other than trying to figure out this new juggling act. THIS summer, though, my kiddo has been in daycare part time (in order to hold our spot/ moving classrooms/ transitions/ he loves his daycare!), so I have had some time to do some things that will allow me *more* time with him once the school year starts, so yay for that! I jumped into some books, read some new things, read some old things , did everything I possibly could with my Erin Condren teacher planner before school, and here I am, two weeks to go before inservice week. What have I been reading? I know you're dying to know...   The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong I have already sung the praises of their classroom management book (the pictures! so many pictures!), so I decided to h...
Post a Comment
Read more