We're in Kahoot reviewing

There have been so many teachers using Kahoot. I dragged my feet resisting this site for a long time. I thought this was a slow process of quizzing students that I could do much more quickly in a traditional way, leaving time for more communicative activities.

Yesterday I thought, ok I'll bite. I set up an account to review chapter 5 of ¡Viva el toro! What I assumed was that only one question could be asked at a time. I pleasantly discovered that I could put a whole list of questions into one kahoot. My students are highly competitive so the leader boards are a great way to keep them motivated and engaged. Speaking of engagement, in a traditional setting, kids can hang back and not participate. With Kahoot, it won't go on until all students have entered a score. At least, it waits a predetermined amount of time before answering a question.

I love that students can use either their phones or their laptops to do this. It gives a purpose for them using their phones in class. Because it is interactive, engaging, and appropriately competitive, students are not texting, emailing, or off task at the same time. There was no boredom as the activity went on and everyone was checking their status - "I'm 857 points behind Pablo!" "Rebeca, I'm going to knock you out of first place; I'm coming after you!" In the end, there is also a final scoreboard posted.

Since I can write the questions, they are comprehensible to the students. After each question, we also discussed why the other answers were not accurate, addressing any misconceptions in their understanding of the chapter.

I typically don't condone any specific website or tool, but this was pretty great seeing how this activity unfolded in class. How do you use this, or similar tool in class?