As a future world language teacher, I love the idea of having pen pals for my students. However, it seemed that any attempts my teachers made in high school to connect us to pen pals always fizzled out. And it wasn't their fault at all. It just took too long to mail handwritten letters between continents. Even when we tried doing it through email, this was ten years ago, and it was too difficult to get a computer into the hands of every student during class time.
Despite these missed attempts, I still believe that pen pals can be such an awesome and impactful way for students to connect with kids their age from another country, learn about other cultures, and practice the language.
One tool that is helping redefine pen pals is Flipgrid. Flipgrid is an amazing tool that allows students to respond to a teacher's prompt using short videos. These videos then show up on a communal grid, allowing students to view and respond to their peers' videos.
In terms of pen pals, Flipgrid can expand beyond just your classroom of students. You can have your students post videos that another class of students in a different country can respond to. In terms of language development, this is an invaluable tool. Students can practice with a native speaker who might use words and phrasings they've never heard before. They can visually show them around the town they live in. They can respond quickly rather than waiting months for a response letter. And, it's pretty fun.
Here's is one French teacher's reflection on how she uses Flipgrid in her classroom. Not only do her students use it to talk to peers in France, but they also get to communicate with a college student who is spending a semester abroad and a Peace Corps volunteer who is working in Cameroon.
Additionally, Flipgrid is a great way to monitor student progress in the target language. It can be difficult to find time in class to meet with every student individually and assess how their spoken language skills are developing. However, students can easily make a 90 second video and post it to Flipgrid to allow you as the teacher to watch after class. Plus, what a refreshing break from grading paper tests :)
I am excited to try using this in my classroom and connecting my students with people all over the world.
Thank you for sharing Stephanie! I was pondering how I could do the same thing in an English classroom and remembered what Jeff said about kids learning different things in different states. I think it would be awesome to use this technology by having students from different parts of the country talk about a specific text. How does a book that speaks about a certain area come across to those that live there versus across the country?
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie! I completely loved using Flipgrid in this class as well. Your post has gotten me thinking about how to implement it in a math setting. I really enjoyed your French example of Flipgrid and I would love your feedback if you think this would be a good math idea:
ReplyDeleteI think it would be super interesting to do mini-lessons and then having students solve a few problems by making Flipgrids. Other students could then watch each other's Flipgrids and reflect on them. This could be a cool way of assessing the math process of students.
Thank you for sharing!