Sunday, March 11, 2018

Flipgrid: Video in the Classroom

Most education Mission Statements typically use phrases like "ensuring all students meet with success..." West Genesee is no exception:
“The mission of the West Genesee Central School District, in partnership with the community, is to ensure that each student attains the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary, not only for lifelong learning, but also for becoming a cooperative, self-directed, productive, caring citizen.”
It can be a challenge, however, for teachers to reach every student, every day, as time constraints make it difficult to engage all students, all the time. Instructional technology, however, can help teachers reach that goal. In particular, tools that allow students to express their thinking and demonstrate mastery have the potential to support the district's mission and empower learners of all ages to share their voices. Flipgrid is one such tool as it allows teachers to set up "topics" or prompts for students to reply with a video response.


Ideas for the Classroom:
  • Elementary: Assign students the task of recording themselves reading to gauge their fluency 
  • World Languages: Task students with recording themselves in Spanish or French as they respond to prompts to demonstrate their mastery of vocabulary and grammar
  • Social Studies: Allow students to record themselves as they respond to a prompt that has diverse interpretations, demonstrating what they think about a topic and supporting it with evidence and logical reasoning
  • ELA: Prompt students to share their reactions to assigned fiction and discuss various literary elements an author utilizes to convey tone and develop characters and plot
  • Math and Science: Have students explain their reasoning in arriving at a solution to an equation or describe the process they used to test a hypothesis.