Do You Even Flubaroo???

Pre-assessments, common assessments, differentiated instruction, data-driven instruction, PLCs. These are just some of the many buzzwords and acronyms teachers hear all the time.  Sometimes these things are extremely difficult to implement in the classroom.  Some teachers may wonder what it actually looks like. Others know how to do it, but question how they will find the time to work out the logistics of it.

To start out the school year, the social studies and science departments at Valley Southwoods decided to use Google Forms to accomplish many of these tasks.  During their PLC time they would go over what standards need to be mastered, what questions would address that content, and collaboratively created Forms that all teachers would use.  Adam Kent said the science department saved a lot of time here too by having all simultaneously write questions on the same form for different standards. Common pre-assessment: check!

After having students complete the Google Form, the social studies and science teachers had a wealth of data to look at and analyze.  To make this easy, they enabled the "Add-on" called Flubaroo. Grading a stack of papers or running a scantron become a thing of the past. Flubaroo automatically assesses Google Forms as they are submitted by students. Students even had immediate feedback on how they scored, since Flubaroo automatically emails them their score within a minute of submission.  Luanne Baker noted that students really like the immediate feedback, as well as the option of taking the assessment on a computer rather than paper and pencil.  Time efficient: check!

Flubaroo gives a great breakdown on scores beyond just a percentage for each student or a class average.  It also analyzes each question and quickly informs you what standards your classes will need more instruction on.  This allows you to create flexible grouping for each standard based on content.  Ross Bower was amazed by the conversations and learning that occurred in these newly formed groups as he got into instruction and the students were able to reflect on what they know and what they are learning.  John Upah may have summarized it best by saying, "I instantly know which learning targets students mastered and which ones they struggled with, as well as how students performed as a whole.  After that first quiz, as a department we were able to see that all students in the building struggled to answer the same questions, and now we can develop strategies to help those students." Data-driven instruction and differentiated the content/processing: check, check!

TL;DR VERSION: 
Pre-assessments are valuable. Flubaroo is easy, fast and awesome. See an instructional coach for help using Flubaroo in your classroom.