If you are a Special Education teacher and are not using Boom Learning cards in your classroom, this post is just for you, My Friend.
When Covid-19 struck the world, and we had to shift quickly to online learning, I found myself actively seeking and creating new digital resources for my students. When I stumbled onto Boom Cards, my life changed forever.
What is Boom Learning?
The Boom Learning platform is a digital task card resource center that provides self-grading, interactive, digital resources that cover a broad range of topics. The activities have a gamified feel that students love, and the platform allows teachers to either create their own decks of cards for students or search the Boom Learning deck library and purchase previously-made decks from other teachers.
Boom Cards integrate with Google Classroom and Seesaw, or you can use them on the Boom Learning platform. The one negative is that the Boom Learning platform is homed on the internet, so internet access is required for using Boom card decks.
I love that Boom Cards are self-checking and provide students with immediate feedback. I was even able to create some errorless Boom Card decks that only had one answer choice that students could use to work on task completion.
Benefits of Boom Cards
Boom Cards drew me in as a viable digital resource for a couple of key reasons.
- Self-correcting/Immediate Feedback: When students answer a question, they receive immediate feedback about their chosen answer. If it is incorrect, then they can try again. The ‘in-the-moment’ feedback can help students to build independence in completing academic tasks.
- Shuffling Cards: Boom Cards can be shuffled, which is an awesome feature for students who try to memorize answers. Students will get the same cards in a different order if the shuffling option is turned on.
- Individualized Logins: Each student has an individual login, and you can choose what type of login they have. The login can be a text password for your student or a picture password. A picture password is very beneficial for beginner learners who may have trouble remembering a text password.
- Customizing Decks: Teachers can customize decks for students by hiding cards that they do not want the students to see. Teachers can also create a custom ‘playlist’ that allows them to select a certain number of cards for the student to play. These features that allow me to individualize for my students are pieces that I really appreciate.
- Engagement with Variety: Boom Cards are highly engaging for students and with options to sort or type answers, match images, etc. Teachers can easily create variety within the activity and use the different options to utilize Boom Cards as a way to grow with students. In addition to the variety of answer types, teachers also have a variety of decks to choose from in the Boom Learning store.
Boom Cards Make Teaching Easier!
Boom Cards are naturally created to be student-centered.
Students can match, sort, or even type in answers, which helps meet all students’ individual needs. The teacher can also include sound or a video on the card to read aloud any text or give instructions to the student verbally, so they know what to do.
Special education teachers know the value of data. Boom Cards provide a load of data for the teacher to use to help students set goals and assess skills. As the teacher, you can view data about a student’s progress. With the student report, you can see the speed and accuracy of completion and identify the student’s mastery on each deck. Teachers can also see live data as the student is completing the deck right from the teacher dashboard.
Lastly and most importantly, teachers benefit from the ease of assigning cards to students. Boom Learning has an app that you can download and use on the browser. The website is user friendly, and it only takes seconds to assign a deck to 1 student or all of your students. Being able to provide resources quickly, especially in this digital environment, is incredibly valuable.
Resources
When I found the Boom Learning platform, I immediately began to create resources for my students. Still, I know my Teachers Pay Teachers followers are finding value in the resources as well.
Here are some of the resources that you may want to check out if you think Boom Cards could be helpful to your students as you begin to prepare for the fall!