Using Brisk Boost for Reading: Formative Assessment That Actually Helps Students Learn

If there ever was a post that belonged perfectly on this blog, it is this one about Brisk Boost for Reading. 

You may know the Chrome Extension Brisk as a great way to give feedback, create materials, or inspect a text to authenticate it. (It also works with Microsoft Edge now too.) If you don't have the Brisk extension I highly recommend it for all those reasons. 

This post though, is about Brisk Boost. It's the option with the red backpack 🎒when you click the Brisk icon on a doc or website. 

What Brisk Boost Does for Reading

Starting with a reading on a Google Doc or a website, Brisk Boost creates learning objectives about that reading. You can edit these learning objectives and even delete a few if it feels like too much. Then you create the boost and share the link with students. When students click the link, they get the reading material, and an interactive chat that will guide them toward the learning objectives with questions that adapt to the learner. The teacher gets a dashboard where you can see the progress each student is making toward the learning objectives and even view the conversation. 

How I use Brisk Boost for Reading Comprehension

I'm finding my best practice is to use Brisk Boost in tutor mode as a formative assessment after students already have some experience with the text. On one day we will read it, do some annotations, have some discussion, probably even write about it —my general old school teaching methods. The next day I'll ask students to respond to the same article in a Brisk Boost. This gives them another way to engage with, and process the material, and gives me a way to quickly see which students do and do not understand the learning objectives. 

Text on the left, chatbot on the right

Why I Like It

Having students re-read and respond in the boost is better than a quiz about the reading, because it shows me who might be struggling and helps those struggling students at the same time. If I gave a quiz the results only show me who I need to support better the next day—while the rest of the class moves on, or works on a side project. But, by using the boost, all students develop a deeper understanding of the text at the same time. I can use the dashboard to see who needs support in real time, and the chatbot is also providing support to help the student examine the text and work toward understanding and analysis. The dashboard even suggests insights about the class as a whole. 

Teacher Dashboard for Brisk Boost

Why My Students Like It

Honestly, I did not think my students would like this. Previous classes had not responded well to other chatbot tools, so I was surprised when they stayed engaged with it. They like the immediate feedback as the circles for each learning objective change colors, yellow to show they are making progress, and blue to show they have met that objective. They like that the chatbot adjusts to their needs, responds to their questions, and supports with specific guidance like, "Look closely at paragraph two." When we do station rotations, I often include a Brisk Boost activity as a station. In reflections about stations my students consistently say the Boost activity was the most helpful for their learning. Students have options to change the language and also have the chatbot speak to them with the audio buttons. 

Some Tips About Brisk Boost for Reading

⌛️ Keep readings in Brisk Boost short, 1-2 pages, and even shorter when you first start. (I haven't tried using it for poetry yet, but I think that would probably be very interesting.) The Boost could even be an excerpt of a longer work students are familiar with. 

📖 Have students read the text in another format first. It could be a Google Doc, a Formative, or even paper. Give them some time to interact with and process the text in ways that are normal for your classroom. 

☘️ Keep objectives reasonable. Brisk creates great learning objectives and is responsive to my prompting when I want to create a Boost that focuses on specific aspects of a text. But it often creates five objectives, which results in a longer session for students as they try to answer in response to all those objectives. From the five objectives Boost generates I often pick my favorite three, or even two depending on the text and my students needs. 

🏁 Have students finish during the class period. I'm using the free version of Brisk for these activities, which means students are not "signed in" to Brisk and it will not remember them or their answers if they close the tab. I actually like the limited availability, do-it-now-urgency, this adds to the task

✏️ Boost offers many kinds of activity choices. I almost always use the Tutor option. 

🎥 This seven minute video from Brisk will walk you through the process of setting up a Brisk Boost activity, but it really is pretty simple if you just want to get started on your own.

👉 Start by installing the Brisk Chrome extension if you don't have it already. 

I'd love to hear how you're using Brisk Boost and how it works for you and your students. Share your Brisk Boost experience in the comments below.

Disclosures: This is not a paid post. I don't do sponsored posts. I write this blog out of a genuine desire to help teachers and share what works in my classroom. I am part of a community of educators that give feedback to Brisk and, on occasion they have gifted me swag and iced tea in exchange for my feedback. Using my Brisk links above will gift you a month of premium access, and may someday earn me some more swag. But again, I wrote this for you, not for a t-shirt. 

Pervious Posts that include Brisk: 

Preserving Authenticity in Student Writing in the Age of Generative AI

Advice about AI to Pre-Service Teachers