During distance learning, I began using Boom Cards. But it wasn’t until the school year when we are going between in-person and virtual learning did I fall hard for them. I found so many great ways on how to use boom cards with my students inside the traditional classroom and out.
Let’s Start off With the Basics: What are Boom Cards?
Boom cards became a buzzword within the teacher community during virtual learning.
But what are boom cards? They are basically digital task cards. When several digital task cards on the same subject are put together in the same spot, it is called a boom deck.
Teachers and parents are loving boom cards because they present information in a fun, interactive way.
Due to this game-like format, boom card learning is enjoyable for the student.
In addition, they are self-checking (so a student knows if they are on the right track or not) and they provide data to the teacher. This valuable data can then be used to know where a student is in their understanding of a concept.
How to Use Boom Cards with Students
There are 2 basic ways to use Boom Cards.
Fast Play Method
The fast play method is the quickest way to get students playing a boom deck. It is awesome if you are in the classroom and need a quick task for students to do. (Amazing if you have a fast finisher of a task and need something quick.)
Simply go into your library of Boom Cards, click on the ‘action’ button on an individual deck, and select ‘Fast Pin’. This will then pop-up a window and you will push the ‘Generate Pin’ button.
In that same pop-up, a hyperlink will appear. This hyperlink can be sent out to students (via email or message using your district’s online learning platform).
Students simply use this hyperlink to get playing the deck.
This is so easy when thinking of how to use boom cards in google classroom. Simply create a new assignment, name it, grab the fast play hyperlink, insert it into the link section of the assignment, and go.
While this is fast, the downside is that no data is created and the link is only good for 14 days. So if you are looking for some information on how a student does with a specific task or want the deck to be available longer, try the original assigning method below.
Traditional Method
Here you will build a classroom of your students first.
From there you assign them decks from your library. Your library consists of both decks you have purchased as well as any decks you make yourself.
The traditional method is great because it allows you to see many things. For instance who completed a deck and who hasn’t. And data – SO.MUCH.DATA. Here is the data you can get:
- Plays – how many times a student played a specific deck/card.
- Mastery – how many cards were answered correctly at least once.
- TIme – the active time spent on each card
- Average Percentage – percent correct of all the cards played
- Best Percentage – percent correct of the best set of answers to all cards in the deck
- Last Percentage – percent correct of the most recent answers to a deck
Different Ideas for How to Use Boom Cards
Boom cards can be used in many different ways. Here are just a few ways that I use them within my own classroom:
How To Use Boom Cards In The Classroom
Using the Fast Play option is great when you need a quick activity. It is great when looking at how to use Boom Cards on an ipad or chromebook.
I love doing this when one student in my group really gets a concept and finishes before the other students.
It is so simple to just assign that student a deck that relates to the subject matter or one of their IEP goals. No wasted time during small group. Winning!
How To Use Boom Cards on Zoom
While distance learning, I loved using Boom Cards on Zoom.
I would teach a mini-lesson then have a student complete a deck that related to the subject matter.
Sometimes I would pull up the fast play version, share my screen and allow a student to have remote access. Then I could watch them complete the deck and see how it went.
Other times I would drop the fast play link and have the student share his/her screen with me. This allowed them to do it on their own but I could still see what was going on. If it was a student that I wasn’t concerned with how they did and needed to focus my attention on a different child, I would just give them the link in the chat and have them do it independently.
Another way I would use it was to assign it the traditional way. Students while on the Zoom call would log in to their accounts and complete the deck. Sometimes I even had them share their screen. If I had multiple students I would put them all in their own breakout room and bop between the rooms. This allowed me to collect data while working with multiple students.
Assessment (No Matter The Setting)
You can assess how well a student understands a concept by assigning him/her a boom deck and having them complete it individually.
If you are going to go this route, I’d suggest that you make sure the student knows how to navigate the specific boom deck (if it is a drag and drop, select the correct answer, ect.). It is also a great idea for it to have auditory support if there is heavy reading (this way you know the student’s reading level wasn’t a factor in how well/poor they did).
Boom provides so much great data on how a student does. (Remember that you can ONLY get data is by assigning a deck the traditional way). I love seeing the difference between the best percentage and last percentage. It allows student growth to be seen – so good, right?!
Free Boom Cards
Does this all sound amazing but not ready to fully jump in yet? That’s me too!
Get your feet wet by setting up a FREE Boom Learning account and downloading a free deck or two. Try them out with your students. See how you and your students like using them. Then if you don’t like them (which would honestly be a shock to me!), just stop. No harm, no foul.
Looking for a great set of free math boom cards?
Click here for an awesome deck for make a ten. This deck has students counting the chocolate chips on a cookie and deciding how to do a fact family. Then students think how many more chips are needed to make ten.
Then in a fun interactive twist, the boom cards drag and drop feature is used where students put that number of chocolate chips on the cookie. This deck even features a 10 frame for added visual support in how to make a ten fact. Every card has the ability to read aloud for audio support. And it is self correcting so students know if they are on the right track from the beginning.
Or if social skill instruction is where you want to start, grab this freebie on identifying primary emotions.
This deck gives basic facial features that depict the emotions of happy, sad, and mad. Then students match the emotion vocab word with the party hat showing the correct emotion.
Again, this deck is self correcting and automatically reshuffles for play again and again. All the cards contain audio support so student reading level doesn’t get in the way of performance. Plus students love the fun party hat theme.
I’ve got a few other free boom decks in my store, click here to see them on TeachersPayTeachers or here to see them on Boom Learning.
Looking for More Information on Boom Cards?
Boom Learning – Of course check out the Boom Learning Site! And here is their YouTube channel chalked full of great tutorial videos.
Boom Cards 101 – How to Get Started on Boom Learning by Tiny Teaching Tube – great, short YouTube video on getting started on Boom Learning.
Whimsical Wheelerland – amazing post on more ways to use Boom Cards with students and some great step-by-step directions to get you started using them on many different platforms.
I hope you enjoy using Boom Cards in your classroom as much as I do.
Happy Teaching!
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