Flipgrid is one of my new favorite tech tools for collecting responses from students. It allows the user to set up a question or topic that students then answer using video. Think of it as a video messaging board.
There is a free (limited) educators account but it has enough features that one can easily use it with students without having to upgrade to a paid account (for a step-by-step guide to setting up your account and creating your first topic you can flip through my Google Slideshow above or click directly on this link).
I've seen our teachers using it in a variety of different ways:
- Asking students an "exit" slip type question
- Asking students to record their response to a literary prompt.
- Having students respond to a prompt about how to keep schools safe (this was on the "walk out" day)
- One teacher had students draw political cartoons and hold them up to the camera and explain their drawing.
Flipgrid offers a variety of suggestions in their "topic discovery library" if you need ideas.
Most students I have worked with don't mind videoing their response. From time to time I get a hold out (who doesn't want their face on the screen). When that happens I just allow them to hold something up to cover their face or reverse their camera. The folks at Flipgrid posted a good blog post of alternatives for the camera shy student.
Currently my two favorite uses are to post "Would you Rather" questions related to math. I read about the idea on a blog post highlighting 10 ways to use Flipgrid in the math classroom. He even links to a "Would you Rather?" site of math questions so you don't have to come up with something yourself. Since you can post a picture within a topic I usually just take a snip of something on the site and then attach it to the question. So in the case below I would write: Which option would your rather have? Explain or justify your answer using math.
I posted the idea to a group I belong to on Facebook and someone posted that I could also use "Which One Doesn't Belong" questions and linked their response to a wodb website. So in the example below I snipped a picture of a number set and posted the following topic: Which one of these doesn't belong? Use math to justify your answer.
There is no "right" answer. I had students noting that the 9 doesn't belong because it is the only single digit number. I had other students state that the 16 doesn't below because it is the only even number. I am sure other classes would come up with different responses as well. The idea is to get them thinking and using math to explain themselves.
There are literally hundreds of ways you can use Flipgrid as an alternative type of formative assessment in the classroom. I would love to hear how you are using it! Feel free to leave a comment to let me know what kinds of topics are your favorite.
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