Get in the Game - Formative Assessments and Practice with Giant Steps by Pear Deck

“It's the not the Destination, It's the journey.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have been doing my best to convince my students that the process of learning matters more than the final product. The idea is that they should focus more on exploring and questioning than getting to the finish line so they just turn something in and be done.

It is not always easy to slow them down, but one thing I've learned is that frequent formative assessments are a great way to slow down and check our learning. I use a variety of formative assessment tools to get this accomplished.

Today I wanted to share a new favorite, Giant Steps by Pear Deck 

Giant Steps is a gamified digital learning experience designed for student collaboration and independent practice. There are two "modes" in Giant Steps. Teachers can either run a collaborative "live session" that reminds me a bit of a blend between Kahoot and Quizlet Live, or an "assignment" for individual students. 

In my opinion, one of the most powerful features is the ability for students to use practice sets at home to review or master essential concepts. 

Let's Explore Some of the Giant Steps Features 

• Organize students in classrooms. Classrooms can be imported from Google Classroom or a link can be shared with students to join. You can also manually invite by email.
• 2 modes - "Live" and "Assignment" The live mode places students in collaborative teams. The assignment mode is individual.
• The Live Practice has two Game Modes. The Big Board adds in a bonus round and takes a little longer. "Quick play" shortens the game by skipping the tokens on the Big Board. 
• Questions can be imported, added from the "public library", or created manually. There are 6 types of questions.
• Multiple Choice
• Text Response
• Numerical 
• Draw
• Diagram (drag and drop)
• Classification (drag and drop)
• Questions and answers can be text-based or include images and graphics.
• Feedback and standards can be added to every question. 
• Right now, Giant Steps supports English, Spanish (Español), Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt), and Chinese (Simplified) (简体中文) languages in the user interface.
• Students and teachers can personalize and share animated avatars.
• Students can earn rewards by completing assignments, live sessions, and exploring practice sets on their own.
• There are quite a few fun additional features for students to discover. 

A few quick tips we've discovered for a live session. I'll try to add more as we explore more. 

• Give yourself some extra time the first time you introduce this to students. Students need to sign in before they can use the game code. It is a good time to let them create their avatars because they pop up in the live sessions. 
• 5 to 10 questions seem to be the sweet spot for a live session. A 10-question set will take between 15 and 20 minutes to complete.
• You can't set the time for individual questions differently, but you can add time to any question during the live sessions. I would recommend choosing a shorter time (30 or 45 Seconds) and then adding time for any questions that will take longer. 

Additional Resources

• Collection of Formative Assessment Resources for Teachers and Students
• Giant Steps Assignment Demo from the Student End (Stacey Rohan - YouTube)
• Giant Steps Support Center (Searchable database of help articles.)
• Giant Steps Back to School Resources