Why I love Boom™ Cards

I have always wanted to make technology a bigger part of my classroom.  And in 2020, like everyone else, I got my chance.  Thankfully, I had already been dabbling in using Boom™ Cards in my classroom so I was pretty comfortable making my own decks and assigning them to students.  When we went back to school in August of 2020, half of my students were online and half were in my classroom. Out of necessity, I started using my Boom™ Cards more regularly and I've never looked back. Let me give you a closer look at how they have helped me in my daily routines.

Boom™ Cards are essentially like digital task cards.  They can include anything from static text to dynamic activities like drag and drop.  They can include audio and images. They are really only limited by the creativity of the designer.  Some decks out there are pretty basic while others look like they came out of a video game.  You can design decks on your own or you can purchase decks from other sellers.  Depending on your membership level, you can assign decks to students and track their progress.  

One of the greatest features of Boom™ Cards is that they are self-checking.  Students get instant feedback telling them if their answer is right or wrong.  They can self-correct before moving on to the next card in the deck.  If you have a paid membership, you can see everything your students are doing with a deck that you've assigned. Boom™ Learning also provides you with some great data and metrics for easy grading. 

The short answer to this is no.  You don't have to pay for a membership on Boom™ Learning to be able to assign decks to students.  Of course, you have to create or purchase a deck of Boom™ Cards in order to have something to assign.  Then, you can use what is called a FastPlay to give your students a code or link to the deck.  The downside to using a FastPlay is that student data is not recorded.  So if you want to have evidence of what your students completed or how they interacted with the deck, your options are limited. The only way I can think to have them report what they did or how they scored is if they take a screen shot of their progress. Additionally, the link only remains active for a couple of days so you'd have a short window to allow students to complete a deck.

Because I am a Boom™ Cards publisher, I have a paid account so I've never tried using the FastPlay.  I'm basing the information above on what is available through the Boom™ Learning help pages. 

With a paid account, you can do so many things.  First, you can create your own classes.  You can give students a link and a code and ask them to sign in to set up their own account.  Or, you can create an account for them.  This is what I do.  It's a fairly simple process.  I create one "class" for each level of French I am teaching.  So, I might have a Beginner Class, an Intermediate Class, and a High School Class.  Then, I add my students to each class using their first name and last initial.  I set their password as their student ID number.  This seems like a lot of work but it really goes quickly.  Because I have many of the same students from year to year, I can just move them to a different class as they progress.  

I give students the link to my Boom™ Classroom.  There they can see a little thumbnail of each student in the class.  They click on their own name, enter their password, and they are able to play any deck I have assigned to that class.  They can also change their avatar using the images provided by Boom™ Learning.  They love doing this!

Each week I select a topic.  It could be something we are currently studying or something I want students to review.  I assign that deck to my class.  Decks are assigned on Monday and students have until Sunday night to play.  (Honestly they probably have until whatever time on Monday I un-assign the old deck and choose a new one.)  

Students can play as many times as they want during that week.  They know that I will keep their BEST SCORE on that deck as their grade.  This is only one of the many reporting metrics Boom™ Learning provides. Many of my decks include a short grammar lesson at the beginning.  There are no questions to answer, just a quick tutorial on a grammar topic.  Since I know many students will just skip past these slides, I also require them to take notes as they work.  I give them a guided notes template to complete which they must submit to my digital classroom by the due date.

When I am ready to grade, I use the reporting features to find out what I want to know about how my students interacted with the deck.  You can get super specific here and drill down to see exactly how students answered each question on each card.  As I said, I just look for each student's BEST SCORE on the deck which is expressed as a percentage and enter that as their grade for the week.  I also grade down one letter grade if the notes are not submitted.  For me, that happens through my digital classroom on Schoology.

Believe it or not, students LOVE to complete these.  On Mondays, one of the first things they ask me is if we have a new Boom™ Cards deck.  When I say "of course" one of the very next things I hear is the "ding" of students moving from slide to slide.  

Sometimes, I use my own decks as a whole group activity.  They make a perfect way to present a grammar topic to the class.  I project the slide deck to my smart board and go through the lesson slides with the class. I do this a lot, actually.  I don't always like the grammar explanations in the textbook so I tend to use my own with regularity.  My board is also interactive so I could call students up to complete the activities if I wanted to.  I don't do this very often, however, but it works if it sounds like something that would be helpful to you.  

Another plus is that you wouldn't need a paid account to do this.  You could just project the slides from decks you created or purchased. 

If you are the creative type and don't mind learning a new platform, you might enjoy creating your own decks.  A free account will allow you to create up to five self-made decks but you can purchase as many as you'd like to your Boom™ Library. 

If you are looking for ready-made decks, check out my Boom™ Store. As of this posting, I've got decks on just about every topic for Beginning French and I'm creating new decks all the time. 

La Petite Prof on Boom™ Learning

And that's about it for this brief introduction to Boom™ Cards!  I hope you have found some useful information that will help you simplify your busy classroom routine!  If there are any decks you'd like to see in my Boom™ Store, drop me a line at lapetiteprofresources@gmail.com.  I'd love to help bring your ideas to life!

À la prochaine!

Boom™ is the trademark of Boom. Used with permission.