Plickers is an awesome assessment tool that you can use to quickly assess your students knowledge through multiple choice questions. In this post I will show you how to use Plickers in your classroom and show you a demonstration of how I have used Plickers this year in my Physical Education Classes.
When using Plickers you can give a quick question and record student answers in a couple of minutes without taking out any paper or pencil
How awesome is that?
The video below will give you an idea of how I introduced Plickers for the first time and how you can use it to assess kids. It takes a little longer the first time you try it, but after your students understand the procedures and how the cards work the whole process can be done very quickly.
This year I jumped on the Plickers wagon and decided to see what all the buzz was about. My conclusion is that it’s a really awesome way to gather data and do quick assessments in Physical Education without getting out paper and pencil.
SO you think you wanna try it?
To get setup you will first need to download the App for Free
Plickers is a free App that you can can download to your device, just do a quick search in the App Store
After you download the App, you simply go to www.Plickers.com and register a free account. You can do this on your device, but it’s a lot easier to do from a computer.
After you register your account online you can create test questions, enter class names and student rosters and get familiar with the setup. I thought about making a setup video, but another awesome PhysEd Teacher Ben Pirillo has already put together a great setup tutorial, check it out below if you need some help and give him a follow:
The Plickers company recommends buying their matte laminated cards, or printing your own on card stock, by going to their website and downloading the free Plickers PDF Cards. You can try laminating your own, but if it’s a normal laminator the light reflection will make it hard for your device to scan the cards. I use the matte laminated Plickers cards from Amazon, you can check them out HERE. So far I haven’t had any issues scanning cards and I can scan a class of 25 students very quickly (10-20 seconds).
I also use a pocket chart organizer to store my cards on the back of my storage closet door so that they can easily be accessed by students anytime by simply opening up the door. You can check out the Pocket Chart Organizer HERE. My cards were a little droopy so I used a hot glue gun to put some glue spots in between the cards on the organizer which has helped improve the way that it holds the cards. See the picture below:
I knew that with double classes I would need 50 cards and there were only 40 cards in the pack that I purchased from Amazon, so as you can see in the next picture below, I printed my own cards on cardstock for last 10 cards (#s 41-50). You can also see that I organize my cards according to my students “Home Base Spots” with the stickers signifying their assigned number and letter.
You can always just ask your students the question, but I think putting a visual up is a good call and will help your kids process the answer they think is correct. If you are doing a true/false question, asking without a visual is probably fine, but with 4 choices it can be tough for even an adult to visualize all the answers, so if possible throw it up on a TV, Projector or a White Board. You can see an example of one of question visuals is used in the video at the beginning of the video in this post below (we were doing a pre-test before our fitness unit).
I know there are 6 questions in the download, but I wouldn’t recommend doing more than 1-3 questions per class. I think ideally Plickers can be used as a tool to ask your students an exit question and receive some great feedback to help you as the teacher understand where your students stand with content knowledge. It’s a very informative way to check for understanding. I know that I’ve been surprised at some of the results and it’s really informed my instruction. For example see the results from one of my classes below:
If almost half of the class missed a question, that’s a great cue that you need to review it and make sure kids understand the content – I speak from experience 😉
Check Out Plagnets
- If you’re thinking you like the idea of Plickers, I’d recommend checking out Plagnets, which are magnets and Plickers combined. I will refer you to 2 Phys Ed All Stars because they know way more about Plagnets than me:
Joe White says
This is really helpful thank you. I really liked the way you organised your cards. i have added a link to this article to my quick post on Plickers with SEN. https://inclusiveteach.com/2015/05/07/first-attempt-at-using-plickers-in-class-sen/
Marcus says
Thanks for sharing Joe!
Glad you’re enjoying the resources!
Laura says
I am curious how young your students are when you teach them to use plickers cards? I absolutely LOVE using plickers cards for my 3-5 kids but I have never attempted it with my littles and I am curious if you have and how you go about it? Are there any changes you make to your delivery or how they are used? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Marcus says
Hey Laura,
We usually stick to the older students with Plickers.
But if we did it with the younger students, we would keep it simple and provide students with lots of visuals.
What helps is posters and visuals if you’re using them with younger students.
Hopes this helps!
Nathan says
Thank you!! That does help! I really enjoy your resources. It has all helped me as a new PHE teacher.
Marcus says
You’re welcome Nathan! Glad you’re enjoying the resources! Let us know if we can help in any way!
Nathan Barber says
Thanks for the great resources.
For the plickers cards, can I use the same card number for different grades? For example Billy in grade 3 is spot 1A, and Sally is grade 5 but is also 1A. Would that work?
Marcus says
Hey Nathan,
Thanks for reaching out!
You can use the same card for different grade. Each class you create on Plickers will use the same cards. The answers are linked to each class and cards can be used for multiple classes.
Hope this helps!
Samantha says
Thank you for sharing and saving me!!
Marcus Nellems says
You’re welcome Samantha! Glad we can help!
Cindy Garrett says
With using Plickers, can you see what each student answered or does the data just show the class as a whole?
Marcus Nellems says
Hey Cindy,
You can see the results of each student when they answer the question. There is also a website where can access Excel Spreadsheets of each student and their answer.
Hope this helps!
Michael Mosby says
Thanks so much for all the info.
However, could you describe a few good ways for the “Collection” process in the high school setting.
When I was student teaching, the elementary teacher had all the students sit down, hold up their card and he would walk back and forth scanning each one from a distance.
I feel their has got to be a better way to scan!
Things to consider in your response:
-High school students are so Independent, I don’t want to treat them like elementary and sit criss Cross all together.
– COVID Social distancing
– could I Project this on my gym screens as a rolling slide and have them answer it as they walk in talk about the day’s lesson to begin class?
– if so, how would I scan them?
Marcus Nellems says
Hey Michael,
Excellent questions and we understand your concerns, especially with high school students. You could project the questions on your screen and have students scan their answers as they walk in and leave. But that would leave you with just one answer.
We did see Plickers is rolling out an “E-Learning” platform where students can answer questions remotely. This is something you could have them do from their device, even if they are in class with you.
Check out the link to Plickers E-Learning below:
https://youtu.be/ywXuUVGVamc
Hope this helps!
Ben Landers says
Check out this video for an example of how to use Plickers for a daily question and taking attendance: https://youtu.be/g2z5DsJZdi4 (note just google
“Plagnets” for more info on
Dr. Akshara Singh says
It looks amazing. I will try it.
Lisa says
What grade levels have you been using this for?
Ben Landers says
I’ve used it for 2nd – 5th, but I also know other teachers use them with all ages even K. I’m just personally not that brave 🙂
Mindy says
I’m so excited I became a member. I’ve picked up some really useful tools and ideas! I really am looking forward to trying this plickers app in my classes this year! Instant feedback! So cool!
Ben Landers says
We are too! Appreciate you joining us!
Amanda says
What app students use to scan the plickers?
Ben Landers says
You use the app “Plickers” and the students hold the cards while you scan them with the app to confirm which answer they choose
Teresa Frey says
How can I create cards for # 41-50? I have classes up to 50 students and would love to try using this but need to be able to assess all of my students!
Ben Landers says
You can print them from the plickers website – that’s what I did, links in the post 🙂
Teresa Frey says
Thanks!
Meriah says
Hi…it’s very interesting ….
may i know..when plickers have found or when flickers first used or created?
tracy kowal says
fantastic job can’t wait to use it in my PE classes
Connie Dunn says
Thanks for posting this plickers info. I am a K-12 PE Specialist and new to plickers. I am wondering if there are resources like yours that have already created questions for assessment. I can certainly do my own, but like these fitnessgram questions, I am guessing there is a lot of good information already out there.
Ben Landers says
If you google “Plickers PE Questions” you can find some around on others sites 🙂
Trixie says
I love the idea of applying technology in P.E. My only concern is the students are not being active. They are sitting while answering the question. Is it possible to use only for cards and put it in each corner of the gym then they can do locomotor skills or any movement to go to wall for letter that they pick then scan it?
Ben Landers says
I don’t think you can do that with Plickers, but I’m sure there’s a way to do be creative and work it out. If you want to add activity you could just have kids do an activity in between each question.
I personally feel that sometimes kids need to sit for a moment to think through a question and I wonder if having them run around would cause them to care less about actually answering the question.
Plickers is more of a tool for me to formally assess kids to find out if I’m doing my job well and the kids are understanding the concepts, or if I need to review some of the content or find a different way to teach it
Maria Phelps says
I like that it offers an alternative to pencil and paper. We have to assess as part of our curriculum, and I like the plickers format. Easy to apply at the end of a class after cool-down prior to dismissal.
Pat says
I like the idea of using it as a cool-down. I may try that!!
Richard says
You could use plagnets (magnetised plickers) which are based on a white board. Students move their plicker next to their answer choice/chosen level of understanding and then you scan the codes on the board.
I have seen a great example of these being used alongside SOLO Taxonomy criteria to gauge student understanding of concepts. Look up Matt Washer. He teaches in Japan and has recently started using these and he presented at APPEC this year.
Ben Landers says
Hey Richard – Plagnets are a great idea, I haven’t tried them out but learned about them from Joey Feith and Mike Ginicola. Thanks for the recommendation!