It is a fact – gamifying your classroom with Boom Cards keeps students engaged! When digital task cards are used in a game format, student engagement instantly skyrockets. The biggest challenge is finding innovative ways to continuously engage your students that keep them interested.
Platforms like Boom Cards or Google Slides enable teachers to create interactive and fun tasks that turn learning into an adventure. Students can navigate through challenges, earn points, and receive instant feedback, fostering a sense of achievement and motivation.
And the benefits of adding digital task cards, such as Boom Cards, into your elementary classroom are numerous!
> Boom Cards create an immersive and dynamic learning environment, to keep kids’ interest.
> The element of competition adds excitement, encouraging active participation and learning retention.
> Instant feedback allows teachers to view progress immediately, allowing for timely interventions and personalized support.
By gamifying your classroom with digital task cards, you not only make learning more enjoyable but also empower your students to become active participants in their own education. A win-win for the student and teacher. Students often don’t realize they are practicing skills that are frequently described as BORING and teachers experience student engagement that is not achieved with ”drill and kill” flashcards. Adding digital task cards to your classroom provides a layer of FUN!
I’m not wholly advocating for 100% student technology time, by any means. However, in my 25+ years of teaching I have learned to harness techniques that work. One method has been to use digital task cards. What do I mean? I’ve been using Boom Cards– digital task cards with the ability to provide instant feedback to the student AND teacher. Every Boom deck that I use in my classroom is Standards-aligned. In other words, I’m combining rigor AND learning results.
Part of What Makes Boom Cards Fun
When students work with Boom Cards, they can earn Coins, Gems and Pulses(lightening bolts). Do you remember earning a merit badge when you were a boy scout or girl scout? You had a sense of accomplishment. The same is true with the coins, gems and pulses earned with Boom Cards.
– Students earn Gems when correctly answering a question with no wrong answers.
– Coins are rewards for persistence and struggle, with more coins awarded for harder questions.
– Pulses (the lightening bolt) reward overlearning behaviors (the concept that learning past mastery leads to automaticity, with speed and accuracy).
Coins are currency that can be “spent” to buy new Avatars.
Gems and Pulses are rewards to be collected. (Think Girl Scout vest/sash.)
Student engagement improves while your student is encourage to master (and maybe even struggle with) new skills.
How I Use Boom Cards
As a Reading Specialist and Reading Tutor, I work with striving readers. In other words- students who would rather be doing anything else other than reading. I’ve used Boom Cards as a way to teach foundational reading skills, the basic building blocks essential to reading success. My students love to complete phonics decks on the ipad. I’ve also found it especially helpful to use ”Boom Card ipad time” with one student while I am completing a running record with another student.
These are just a couple of examples that work for well for me. You will probably have many other examples of quality technology depending on what you teach. In short, Boom Cards make MY life easier and my students are happy and engaged with learning!
“How do I get started?” is a frequently asked question.
If you are a homeschooling mom, tutor or work with small groups of students(5 or less), all you need to sign-up for is a free Starter account. (If you would want to track student progress with data reports from Boom Learning, you will need the Basic account.)
I hope you have found this helpful. Stay connected with Teacher Features’ teaching tips and classroom freebies be sure to follow on Facebook, Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and subscribe to my blog!
