Yet another useful website for teachers is Socrative (https://www.socrative.com/ ).

I found out about this website from my colleagues.  It's been very popular in the staffroom that I currently work in.

It is one of those websites where you have to create an account before you can access anything.  (Without an account, you can't even access activities that other people share with you.)  But creating the account is easy to do, and it's absolutely free--at least for the basic version.

The primary drawback to the basic account is that it only allows you to save 5 quizzes in your library at one time.  If you want to create more than 5 quizzes, you need to delete one of your old quizzes first.  

This isn't a problem if you're never planning on re-using your quizzes.  But if you are like me, if you like saving and archiving all of your material so that you never have to plan the same lesson twice, then it can be annoying.  (Although you can sort of get around this by saving the questions and answers on a Google doc.  Then you only have to copy and paste the questions and answers to re-create the quiz.)

[You could always pay for the premium version, and be able to store unlimited quizzes in your Socrative library.  But I long ago decided that, as a matter or principle, I would never pay extra money to use a website in the classroom.  There are already so many other free websites out there. And besides, as an English Teacher, I'm not exactly a rich man.  Although you can always try to convince your school to pay for the premium account.]

Anyway, once you've created the quiz, you launch it, and the students go to gosocrative.com and enter the room code.  (This is yet another website, like Kahoot or Quizziz, etc, where the teacher starts the game from the classroom computer, and the students join the game from their smartphone or other device.  In other words, you would only want to use this website in a class where everyone had devices.  In my context, it is assumed nowadays that all students have smartphones on them, so it's not a problem.  In fact if anything, the problem is too much smartphone use during class, and so a lot of my colleagues say that one of the reasons they like to use websites like Socrative is in order to occupy the smartphones, so that students aren't checking social media during the lesson instead.)

Anyway...

the primary benefit of Socrative is that I can see my students answers displayed on my computer screen in real-time.  Which makes it easy to give feedback in real-time.  "Everyone has number 1 correct.  Good job class.  John, check number 2 again.  Alice, you wrote too much for number 3.  I only need the name of his job.  I don't need you to copy the whole sentence." etc.

Of course my CELTA tutor would say that this is what teachers should be doing anyway: monitoring students answers and microteaching during a reading activity.  But it's always awkward to look over the student's shoulder, and you can only see one student at once, and it's often hard to get around the whole room.  With Socrative, I can see all the answers clearly displayed right there on my computer screen.

The danger, though, is because I'm stuck upfront at the classroom computer, I find myself calling out to students from across the room when they have the wrong answer.  Which has the potential to embarrass some of the more sensitive students.  Something to keep in mind when using this website.

There are, of course, any number of ways alternative ways you could manage it.  (e.g. only congratulating students with correct answers, stepping away from the computer to quietly talk to students with wrong answers, etc.)  You can use your own judgement.

In my staffroom, a number of my colleagues like to use Socrative for listening lessons.  In these lessons, they share the audio file with the students electronically through the school website.  The students download the audio file on their devices, and listen to the audio with headphones.  While listening, they answer the questions on Socrative.

My colleagues are fond of this approach, because if the students get a question wrong, the teacher can see it on the computer, and give them immediate feedback.  The student can then rewind the audio to the appropriate part, and re-listen as many times as they need to get the answer.

My colleagues are really fond of this approach because it allows the students to control how often they listen to the audio, and at what pace they answer the questions.  (i.e. it's supposed to build learner autonomy).

I've never actually done a listening lesson like this, just because I keep imagining all the potential for things to go wrong.  (At least one student in the class is going to forget to bring his headphones, right?  Someone else is probably going to have trouble downloading the audio file, etc.)  But my colleagues claim to have had great success with these Socrative lessons.  I may try it out one days.

So far, I have been using Socrative for reading lessons.  

I usually use it once, possibly twice, a term, but no more than that.  It's the kind of thing where the novelty of it is really fun for the students at first, and it can be a great way to add some variety to my lessons. But once the students get used to it, the novelty factor wears off quickly, and then it's time to try out other activities instead.

To see an example activity, HERE is a link to a Socrative Activity I made for Unit 7 Reading 2: Alaska's Pebble Mine: Minerals vs. Nature p.193-199 from Q: Skills for Success: Reading and Writing 4.  You won't be able anything unless you create an account.  Also, with apologies, I'll probably end up deleting it in 6 months because I'll need the space in my library to make new quizzes.  But the questions and suggested answers can still be found on this Google Doc HERE, so it should be easy to recreate the quiz again with a little copying and pasting.

1. Besides the living, breathing resources of Bristol Bay, what other kinds of resources are there?

the inorganic resources--oil and gas and mineral deposits

2. What is special about the copper deposit discovered in Bristol Bay?

It is the largest known untapped copper resource in the world

3. Why is the Pebble Mine project controversial?

It could harm the fishing industry

4. What would be the positive effects of building the Pebble Mine?

create jobs and bring in revenue

5. How do most Alaskans feel about the Pebble Mine project?

oppose the mine

6. What three different groups united together to ask the Federal Government to intervene?

commercial fisherman, native tribes, and concerned citizens

7. According to Gine McCarthy, what two things would Pebble Mine have a bad effect on?

On Bristol Bay watershed and its abundant salmon

8. Who was happy about the EPAs decision in 2014?

the environmentalists

9. Who was not happy about the EPAs decision in 2014?

the Pebble Partnership

10. Why does Tom Collier believe that the EPA did not act fairly?

He believes they have been unduly influenced by environmental advocacy organizations

11. What will the company trying to build Pebble Mine do about the results?

Not going to give up / continue to try and gain the EPA's approval to move forward

12. What is Bill Sherwonit’s job?

Nature writer