This is a guest post by one of our blog writers, Katherine Miller.
Midnight Music is celebrating productivity this month! Although many things can be different from music room to music room around the world, I think we can all agree that time is of the essence with our students. That makes the use of technology for productivity something we should all be able to use. Being more efficient helps us to regain some of that precious time.
One example of how to save time in our classrooms is to look for ready-made resources that can be used with our students with little to no prep. Although there are many options out there when utilizing technology for this purpose, one of the favorites in my classroom is Kahoot.
If you don’t know Kahoot….
Kahoot is a popular online trivia style quiz tool that my students request over and over again. Kahoot allows teachers to easily create and play learning games and quizzes in minutes. Creating a quiz, or a kahoot, is super easy! Kahoot provides a template which has options for formatting including:
- How many questions you would like to include
- How many answers you want to provide (between 2-4)
- How long students have to answer the question
You can also easily add video links from YouTube, images from their image library or straight from your computer and diagrams to enhance the student experience and, in turn, engagement.
To play, students can use any device to access your game and will NOT need an individual login. Kahoot games are accessed by students through a unique game pin. The game pin is a series of numbers that any grade level can handle inputting! It will be displayed to students once you hit play on your Kahoot game.
There are two types of Kahoot games to play:
- Team mode: Team mode allows you to group students together in a team. This would work great if you have just a few devices. After entering the game pin, each group of students will create a team name that they will be identified by during the game. Kahoot also allows them to include their own individual names. Team mode will have a 10 second talk time before teams have the opportunity to answer a question.
- Classic Mode: Students can use their own device to play individually in this type of game. Each student will type their own name to create a unique player to player experience. The name they type in will be how they are identified throughout the game.
But why create your own kahoot when you can also search ready made ones?
How to find and use ready-made Kahoot quizzes
Kahoot is a great way to increase efficiency because Kahoot encourages users to share quizzes they have already created. So, you do not even have to prepare your own!
It is easy to get started!
You can begin by visiting https://create.kahoot.it/ to create your own teacher login on any device.
You can locate quizzes made by other users by clicking “Discover” in the toolbar at the top of the Kahoot homepage once you are logged in.
Here are some helpful tips when searching through the vast database of quizzes available:
- Search for the specific topic you are looking for rather than just music. For example: note names, dynamics, tempo, general music terms, music styles, etc.
- Filter by teacher-created quizzes (avoid student-made quizzes which can have incorrect info!)
- Preview each quiz. You can review each of the questions and also the answer choices by clicking “Show Answers”.
Don’t worry if the quiz is not exactly what you want! You can duplicate any quiz to make the adjustments that you need to tailor it to your own classroom. You can do this from the toolbar on the left hand side of the screen by clicking the series of three dots.
Once you have duplicated the quiz, you are able to adjust everything from the title of the quiz to individual questions and the time students will have to answer them by clicking “edit”. This is a great option if you have never created a Kahoot yourself because most everything is set up for you.
Kahoot has also recently added a question bank. This helps you search millions of questions in community-created Kahoots for an easy way to make the changes needed to fit your purpose and situation. You can find the question bank on the left side of the screen once you are in and editing a kahoot.
Once inside the question bank, you can begin to type the question you would like to ask students. Questions that have been included in any shared Kahoot will auto populate for you to add into the quiz you are working on.
Here are 5 Kahoot quizzes we found that you might find useful
Kahoot can be used with students of all ages! This quiz is an example of how you can engage even the tiniest of musicians. The questions are in a repetitive pattern and include pictures. Like in all Kahoot quizzes, the student devices will work like a controller. They will only see color blocks with shapes to select their answer.
This Kahoot also works great for older students as a practice quiz so they can see what Kahoot will look and sound like.
Treble Clef Note Names and Recorder Fingerings
Kahoot is a great way to review skills that have already been learned. Rather than having to make copies or prepare centers, this quiz is a good example of how practice can become a game!
Kahoot also works as a formative assessment tool. Whether you use it as a pre-assessment or even an exit ticket, students can show what they know through answering questions on the quiz. At the end of each quiz, you have the option of keeping the results of the game on the teacher device. You can see how the class as a whole did on each question to guide your instruction.
Kahoot can also be used as a summative assessment. Along with viewing how your class scored on each question, you can view individual scores to use for grading purposes. You can download the results as an .xlxs file or send it directly to your Google Drive. You can always go back and find these reports by clicking “Reports” in the toolbar at the top of the Kahoot homepage. Remember–in order to have individual scores you would need to have students play in classic mode.
A jumble is another style of quiz where students are required to put items in order rather than just choosing a correct answer. This style of quiz could be useful for practicing lyrics or any other ordering activities like the ones included in this great review of many different music vocabulary.
Do you have a Kahoot quiz to share?
The cheers from my room are audible down the hallway every time I use Kahoot in my music classroom. That type of enthusiasm for learning paired with the little time needed to elicit that engagement from students makes Kahoot an easy choice to increase productivity.
Have you tried Kahoot? Have you created quizzes for your own music students?
Help us continue to increase our productivity by commenting with a link to a Kahoot quiz that you utilize in your music classroom.
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About the Writer
Katherine (Katie) Miller holds a Bachelor of Music in Education degree from Otterbein University (Westerville, OH) and a Master’s of Educational Leadership from Antioch McGregor Midwest (Yellow Springs, OH). She has 14 years of professional musical experience as a music educator and performer.
She is currently employed by the School District of Waukesha in Waukesha, WI where she teaches K-5 General Music and serves as a district model tech classroom.
You can connect with Katherine Miller on Twitter: @K8TMiller and on Instagram: @k8tmusicmiller
Looking for More Resources for Music Teachers?
Hello! I’m Katie Argyle – an Australian music technology trainer and consultant with a passion for helping music teachers through my business Midnight Music.
I’m a qualified teacher but no, I don’t currently teach in a school. I help teachers through my online professional development space – the Midnight Music Community – where there are tutorial videos, courses, links and downloadable resources.
I like to focus on easy ways to incorporate technology into what you are already doing in your music curriculum through a range of creative projects. I also run live workshops and have presented at countless conferences and other music education events.
If you want simple, effective ideas for using technology in music education, I would LOVE to help you inside the Midnight Music Community.
8 Comments
Here is a Kahoot! I made that shows the treble and bass clef for my beginners at the same time. This one gives them all an equal playing field because they look at the clef they’re used to so it feels more like a true competition.
Have fun!
https://create.kahoot.it/share/note-names-treble-bass-clef/f1a100b4-7e52-4dcd-9226-0613cb363439
Thanks so much for sharing your Kahoot 🙂
THis is great thanks for suggesting! Apart from generating the copy link how else woukld I share? Google classroom perhaps?
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Thanks for a great article. Here is one I made for my Year 7 class.
https://create.kahoot.it/share/recognise-that-rhythm-lvl-2/33f0ee40-952c-4495-9ced-9c1208ff735a