Recently, 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Lorenson asked for suggestions to incorporate video into her classroom. Specifically, she wanted her students to record the book talks that they had just finished writing. She asked students to include the title, author, main characters and plot summary. Mrs. Lorenson wanted her students to be able to share their book talks with each other and beyond the classroom. With this in mind, we chose
Flipgrid. Flipgrid is a platform that allows each student to video record themselves. Their responses are then shared with each other. The free version allows each student to record no more than 1 minute 30 seconds. This is great as it requires that students think about what they want to say and use their words efficiently. Once the student recordings are done, and they begin watching each other, it is a great opportunity to talk about appropriate commenting. (I always love giving students to opportunity to practice their social media skills before they are old enough to join social media on their own!) The class really loved Flipgrid. They were able to practice their speaking skills, discuss their reading and share their voice with their classmates. We learned a few things along the way. It is better to find an area to spread out so it isn't quite so noisy.
Below is an example that I rerecorded as a screen recording so I could exclude her name which appears on the original in FlipGrid. She is retelling the plot of Charlotte's Web, and she clearly knows her subject!
