tl;dr You can use Boom Cards with great success even with very young children or kids with disabilities. They can be used as reinforcement, they can be used for individual learning targets, and they can be used during group learning like circle time or small group.
Well, with this past year and the upsurge in distance learning, Boom™ has boomed! Referring to Boom Learning, of course. If you are a teacher in any capacity, it is quite likely you use or at least know of Boom Cards… the self-correct digital task cards. Think of them like little learning games that YOU can create and customize (or use someone else’s good ideas) for the learners in your midst.
I’m not going to go into the how-to’s (how to create an account or assign a deck or actually create your own decks). There are tons of vids out there to show you that (see below for links to a few), but I WILL share some tricks that I’ve learned this past year.
I had just taken a new position as a special education preschool teacher in the twilight of my career because it sounded like a fun way to wind down. I have had a long and varied career in education and clinical settings, and I was looking for just something fun to bring it back around. Well, two days after I accepted the position, guess what? Covid shutdowns!
Now remember, I said SPECIAL EDUCATION PRESCHOOL. That means 3-4 year old children with disabilities. Yeahhhhh so that was fun, trying to engage with very young kiddos over a screen, most of whom I had not met, yet! I can go into all the ups and downs of my learning curve at a later time, but for now, here are some quick tips that I picked up.
Disclaimer: ***Some kids do not respond to learning or attending to a screen. That’s OK! We can address that in another topic.*** For now, let’s focus on those that DO like a screen (at least a little).
<<<quick tip>>> I found that assigning decks to classrooms and having students (or parents, rather) access their decks that way was NOT successful. My young families were simply in survival mode, and the extra steps of logging in and finding the decks was just a bridge too far. Instead, I found I most used them when interacting live with them over Zoom, in recordings sent home to them, or live, in-person when we started bringing them back into the buildings. So, for the most part, I accessed my decks through my own account or through Fast Pins (again, see the links below if you need info on that).
Tip 1: Use as a reinforcer
Many of our young or impacted kiddos need lots of reinforcement and breaks from learning. We can accommodate that! Heck, I like me my candy drawer in my office to dive into when I need a break!
I had one wee little one when we we still completely remote who wouldn't attend to anything I was doing over the computer for more than 2 seconds. Understandable. He was 3, non-verbal, and very busy. But I'm pretty funny! And I can incorporate pretty good learning goals if I can get a kid's attention.
What I did was create a very simple deck with his preferred characters, and I would plop that up on the screen (using screen share via Zoom), and while he sat on dad's lap, either dad would click for him when he pointed to it tell me when he pointed to it, and I would click on my end. I would get him engaged with me for a minute, then I would switch to just my face or to a different deck for a quick learning target, then I'd switch back to his preferred deck. With that back-and-forth, I was able to keep him engaged with me for up to 15 minutes! Here's the deck I made for him (decks like this can't be published because they use copyrighted images, so I just used them in "private" mode):
You can use silly games, activities, preferred characters; then intersperse those "fun" activities with learning ones. Something with a learning target, then something fun, then something learning, then something fun. This age group is all about switching it up and keeping them engaged! Here's another example:
Tip 2: Use for individual learning targets or IEP goals
Working on specific goals is easy to do, whether you are creating your own decks or find one of the bajillion out there that fits your needs. If you are savvy enough (and perhaps for another day's blog), you can even track data using Boom. Personally, with the young student, I did not find data to be reliable because the younger learners really needed too much adult assistance in recording answers to create reliable data. However, when I did need to take data on progress, I would jot down correct and incorrect responses on my own.
Here is an example of a 3-part academic assessment that I use:
Here is an ABLLS-Râ„¢ aligned goal, R5 Count out objects from larger set; objective 1-3 out of 5 items:
Maybe you use Common Core standards such as Kindergarten Phonological Awareness: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.A Recognize and produce rhyming words.
Tip 3: Use during group instruction
Early on, when we were doing ALL distance learning, I would record virtual circle times that I would send out to parents. I found that using a Boom template like this helped me create a consistent schedule each day, and then the familiarity each day helped the students engage (as much as possible for 3-year-olds at home!).
Once we started doing hybrid (some kids at home and some in person), I was able to keep the same schedule, AND, because I already had it planned out, it made the workload easier. I did the "live" version with kids in class, and I recorded the same version for the kids at home (all my recordings were done on one day of the week and then sent out each day). It saved me from having to do twice the work (which, believe me, I was already doing twice the work! I'm sure you know what I mean!).
Here is an example of my circle time template.
In addition to circle time, you can incorporate Boom decks in your group learning tasks. I wrote a blog for booksandgiggles.com about a recent social emotional lesson.
All in all, there are a ton of ways to utilize Boom Cards, even with your young students. Get creative! Have fun! If you need help getting started, here are a couple of great vids to get you going. I think there is a permanent shift that has happened, and the fanciful trend of using digital resources is here to stay. And I'm OK with that. Used well and with intent, it's pretty fun.