My day was made by a 50 second response. As part of the Agen online conference, participants were asked to record a short introductory video about themselves on Flipgrid including one fun fact.
Flipgrid was not new to me, I had used it for years to assess speaking ability and show student growth. However, I rarely responded to student videos other than to say good job, or with tips on how to level up.
And then one day in my inbox I had a reply to my video from my teacher idol, Jason Fritz.
I immediately went to Flipgrid and see what Jason had said. His 50 second response to my video made me crazy happy. The fact that he listened to my video and took the time to reply made me feel valued. Jason said that he thought we had met before, and reacted to my fun fact by adding skiing graphics and goggles in his response.
In that moment, I realized the power of this free platform for providing additional individualized input, forging relationships, and providing asynchronous interpersonal speaking opportunities to build community.
Here are some “Tips I learned from Fritz” at that awesome conference. When setting up a grid, choose your target language in the captions so that all videos recorded or uploaded by you and the students will have the option to use closed captions. You can edit the captions if the program does not capture all words correctly.
Record yourself asking the question or prompt in a video and add captions so they are reading at the same time. Then, create a sample video of the response you would like for more input. You can also provide attachments, links, sentence frames and other supports.
Students can click on the blue dot to use the immersive reader feature and listen to the text read by native speakers. Students can click on a word that they do not know and Flipgrid provides an image or translation to show the meaning of the word.
Students can use stickers, gifs, or the Snapcam app to add interest or disguise their faces. The teacher can also use the hide video option if a student requests it.
Teachers can reply to students videos for extra input and to establish relationships. You can record a response video and/or type a response. Use all characters possible in your response to provide even more input and additional personalized vocabulary.
Require students to respond to at least three other videos to build community. Train students to watch other student videos before answering for added input and ideas.
Here is another great idea from Jason. Type up student responses in Flipgrid to create readings or informational text about the class.
With Flipgrid, every student has a voice. They can record asynchronously for extra practice outside of class so class time can be used for other things. Also, by listening to each others videos first, they are getting additional input and hopefully building relationships.
Make every student feel heard this year, record personalized responses to student videos in Flipgrid to offer additional input, provide interpersonal communication opportunities, and establish community.