Answer Garden is a collaborative word cloud. Kinda.
When using Answer Garden, students have a link to get to the ‘question’. They type in their response. Their response appears on the displayed screen.
Like a word cloud, the more similar responses, the larger the word or phrase gets. This is a great way to show similarities in ideas and interests.
I love using Answer Garden because it is a quick low tech tool. It takes minimal time to set up. It takes little time for students to learn how to use it. And students can add to a garden in no time at all. Once they get the hang of it.
Setting up an Answer Garden is fairly easy. After going to the site, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click where it says ‘Create AnswerGarden’.
Type in the topic or question. Keep in mind that students will need to respond with less than 20 or 40 characters. You get to choose how many characters they can use. Just remember to explain to students that every letter, space, and punctuation is a character.
I highly recommend adding a password at the end. This allows you to edit the garden. When editing, you can remove posts, update questions, and change character count.
Grab the url For the garden. I share the link in Seesaw, Google Classroom, Classcraft, and even in QR Codes. It just takes son long for young students to type one in
I don’t do a lot to introduce Answer Garden to students. ITpT’s really not necessary. I pretty much pop up the garden I created on the screen and then I show them how to add a response.
Before students can use an Answer Garden I have already shown them how to access a link either through a QR Code, Google Classroom post, or Seesaw activity.
Brevity: One of the great things about Answer Garden is that it requires students to keep it short. I love using Answer Garden for students to summarize. It’s similar to the Twitter Story concept.
Poll or Survey: When you have a short answer poll, AnswerGarden is a fun tool to use. For example, during a getting to know you activity, students share their favorite food. They will immediately see similar interests because the more times a word is added, the bolder and bigger it gets. It even adds a number next to it so you can get some exact data.
Choice Sign Up: As I teach my students to make choices for their learning, I use Answer Garden for them to sign up. For example, I give the students a choice of LEGOs, Clicks, or Knex. Students type in their choice. This is a good way to demonstrate hOw we make choices and stand by them.
Brainstorming: Have students jot down everything they already know about a topic. Jot down the character trait they think best describes the main character. Have students identify a theme. Have students dump anything they remember about a newly or previously learned topic.
Formatives:Answer Gardens are great formative assessments. While you won’t have individual student data, it does give you a great snapshot of what the class knows. This can guide your next steps. For example, I have fifth grade share what they learn about veracity in a garden. I use it to determine what I may need to reteach, clarify, or can go deeper with.
Depending on how you use Answer Garden, will determine whether You display the garden while students add to it. Or if you’ll wait to share it after student input.
If using it for retrieval, you may choose to wait to share the garden until after everyone has had time to post.
If using it for a survey, you may choose to display it while everyone posts. The kids really love seeing their words appear on the screen. Sometimes, they will notice they misspelled something and ask me to delete it so they can resubmit.
When I decide to use an app, there are a few things that I consider. I always wonder if it will be engaging for my students. Typically if I love it, they do as well. My enthusiasm is contagious.
I determine if it is applicable for many purposes and can be used outside of the media center. Lastly, I try to figure out how long it will take me to teach students to use. If the answer is less than a class period, I’m in.
Quite frankly, Answer Garden meets all of that criteria. It doesn’t take long to learn and can be quickly taught to students. This is also why I have been using it for well over ten years now.
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