Fun in the Morning: Quizzes in the Morning Announcement

Quizzes are absolute fun and they can be ideal for boosting the entertainment value of your morning video announcements. That’s exactly why you should seriously consider incorporating quizzes as a segment of your morning announcements.

The Benefits

There are plenty of benefits to having quizzes as part of your school’s morning announcements. In fact, if you can find a way to incorporate your curriculum into the quiz segment, you’d have something that is both, entertaining and advantageous to students.

Here are some of the key benefits that are offered through quizzes.

• Retrieval through retention. Plenty of psychological studies point to the fact that retrieving information right through methods such as quizzing allows one to retain information much longer. This is one of the reasons why we also have examination. So, a quiz is basically like an examination; only, far more fun.
• Addressing knowledge gaps. Quizzing helps students identify the gaps present in their knowledge, motivating them to keep learning.
• Easier learning. Quizzing makes it easier for students absorb new information faster. This is connected directly to the first point. As we already discussed, quizzing helps with retention. But, things don’t end there. The retention is what allows one to absorb future information better. This is especially true for mathematics and science based subjects, where having a foundation in one topic is key to figuring out other successive topics.
• Better organization. Quizzing allows students to organize the information stored in their brain. As one keeps testing the brain, the brain starts compartmentalizing information to help with future retrieval.
• Application and transfer. Studies have shown that testing through quizzing allow students to transfer and apply their knowledge in real world scenarios.
• Quizzing can also help with retrieving information that was never tested. There have been observances that quizzing allows for the retrieval of information that has not been tested yet. For instance, asking questions on one topic can lead to the recollection of information that is associated with the current topic.
• Improved metacognitive monitoring. What this means is that students develop more confidence in their knowledge through quizzing. To put it simply, students who do well in quizzes are less likely to doubt the credibility of the information they store.
• Quizzing also limits the interference caused by old material during the learning of new material. So, if you have a quiz right after completing a chapter, you’ll find it easier to start learning the second chapter.
• Quizzing also allows teachers to know how much their students have learned and where they are lacking. This can help teachers prioritize topics that require more attention.
• Quizzing can prove to be a practical and fun way to get students to study more. In a morning announcement video format, the effectiveness will likely be higher.

Choosing a Format

Now, there are plenty of quiz formats that you can choose from. Here are a few common ones that you can try out.

• MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions): This format really doesn’t need an introduction. This is a format that most standardized tests and quiz programs follow. However, they are always fun and never get old. So, you can definitely use the format. The format is an effective one that tests the knowledge of your students by presenting 4 or more options. Only one answer will be the right one. In some cases, you can try to confuse the participants by providing answers that seem similar. This way, students get to make use of their deductive reasoning skills.
• Yes or No: As the name indicates, this is a questioning format where the participant answers with a yes or no. For example, the question could be “Do all motorcycles have two wheels?” and the participant would have to choose between “yes” or “no”.
• Open Ended Questions: These questions are useful if you want to test a student’s opinion on a topic or if you simply want them to find creative solutions to a problem. That’s the whole point of an open-ended question – there are no definite answers. However, incorporating them as part of a video based quiz segment can be tough. This is where you need to get your own team to come up with a solution. You might just end up with something unique.
• Fill Up the Blanks: Needles to say, these are questions, or rather, statements, where the participant has to insert a word to complete the statement or sentence. For example, the statement could be “All snakes are *blank* and the answer would be “reptiles”.
• Match the Following: These are similar to what we just discussed above. The format involves providing several questions or problems along with multiple solutions/answers. The participant must then match the right solution/answer with the right question/problem. This allows students to absorb the content really well. Plus, like the MCQ format, this method also tests deductive skills.
• Definitions: Here, the definition of a word is provided and the participant is expected to identify the word/idea/concept. In fact, you can incorporate this with the “Match the Following” format to make things more interesting. Participants can be asked to match the right word with the right definition or the right definition with the right word.