Flipgrid as a tool for sharing book reviews
I’m sure that you’re familiar with the video sharing too Flipgrid, which
has seen a huge jump in popularity over the last year or so. It’s so popular
now that it’s even been called ‘Flipgrid fever’. If you’ve been teaching online
recently, you have probably used it or researched its benefits, as it is a very
useful tool to use for learners to connect, communicate and collaborate with
each other by sharing and commenting on each other’s videos. It has been very beneficial
during the pandemic as one way of reducing the distance and isolation that both
teachers and students can feel online.
Flipgrid is extremely easy to set up and use, and it is
completely free. It has some very nice extra features that would appeal to
younger adults and teenagers in particular, such as the ability to add filters,
frames, text, emojis and drawings to the video. They can also pause and record
their video, to ensure that they are happy that they are submitting their best
attempt.
Flipgrid has many uses in the online classroom, but I’m just
going to share one more unusual way in which I have used it – for students to complete
and share book reviews from our book club, in an interactive and highly
motivating way.
Have a look at my previous blog post on how I’ve set up
online literature circles with my students. Basically, the students read a
chapter of the same book and complete a task on a role card, then hold a
discussion where all ideas and opinions are shared. This creates a deeper
understanding of the book and motivates them to keep reading.
Once the entire book has been completed the next step that I
use is to encourage students to work independently to complete a book review.
They get the choice of reviews, which I have added to the shared Google folder
for the book club. This allows them to increase their autonomy, as they will
select the review template which they feel best fits the book they have read.
If you’re looking for book review templates, you can create your own or use
some of the many ready made ones available for free. I like the selection on Twinkle.
After the students have gathered their thoughts and got them
down on paper, the next step is to share their review on Flipgrid, so that they
will be able to look at each others and leave a comment.
I have set up a topic which I entitled book reviews and
written the question that I want the students to respond to. I wrote ‘ After
you have completed your written book review, please record a one minute video
in which you share your review with the class. Then watch the other responses
and make a comment on them, telling them what you liked about their review.’ It
is optional for the teacher to record a video question prompt too. I always do
this, as it makes it much more personal and engaging for them if they see your
face and hear your voice. After this has been set up, the next step is to share
with the students – either through a link, embedding it in a website etc., or by
sharing a QR code.
From that, the students follow the link, read the prompt and
watch the video. Then they only have to hit the ‘add response’ on their screen
to begin making their own recording. There is a very simple tutorial for
students to watch, but it is so easy to use that it is not really necessary. They
add any effects they want and are prompted to take a selfie and hit submit. One
of the best things about Flipgrid and privacy is that there are a very wide
variety of backgrounds that the students can experiment with and use, so although
they are being asked to make a video their privacy is protected, and they are
not being asked to reveal their houses, possessions etc. A further step which
can be taken if the students are really against revealing themselves on camera
(which must be respected), is to select mike only, or alternatively, click on
effects, then click on a board and choose one of the options which will fill
the screen. Privacy can also be protected when taking the selfie, as the
student can again click on a color or use an emoji in place of their face. The
possibilities are endless and very amusing for the students to experiment with.
This is far from a dull book review activity!!
Two of the feature of Flipgrid are particularly attractive
to me in terms of motivating the students and encouraging as much
student-to-student interaction as possible. In my experience, although writing
book reviews is interesting for the student who wrote it, I have found that the
vast majority of students are not particularly keen to take the time and effort
to read and respond to the efforts of their classmates.
The student-to-student replies feature of Flipgrid makes it
motivating and interesting, as they can watch the videos of their classmates
(complete with all the special effects they may have added to make them
visually appealing) and then make their own video response. It is best if they
are given some clear guidelines and criteria about their feedback. I tell my
students to always give a feedback sandwich (a technique which I have also found
to be useful for myself), in which they give two pieces of positive feedback
and one piece of constructive criticism or advice, which is sandwiched between
the two positive statements. It is very supportive, and due to the fact that
they know that everyone will be able to watch their responses, they take time
to really make an effort. Sometimes written feedback to peers can consist of
writing things like, ‘Good job!’ or ‘nice’. This is not really helpful for the
writer or the recipient.
A final feature which really attracted me to using Flipgrid
for my book club reviews was that there is the possibility for the teacher to
compile a mixtape. The teacher has the option to choose videos to add to the
mixtape. This can be done in collaboration with the students, then be shared
with all the members of the book club. I feel that this way of creating an end
product of the learning really makes it more worthwhile, as they have something
concrete to aim towards. In this respect it has some of the features of task based
learning (Willis 1996) where the students are using all their linguistic
resources in the target language to complete the task and create an end product.
Willis, J., 1996. A
Framework for Task-Based Learning. Harlow: Longman Pearson Education.
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