Purpose
In this assignment we were responsible for finding a collaborative platform that was not GAFE. The platform I experimented with was called FlipGrip, a K-12 web tool that is used to promote discussion between all students in the classroom (or across classrooms, or across district, etc). Educators and teachers post questions, videos, or links, related to lesson objectives, for collaborative discussions. Students respond to the prompt and/or one another with short video blogs or type a response to one another's’ short video blog/answer/response. In addition, we were to create a rubric that would evaluate students use and collaboration of the given task and students’ grades needed to reflect their ability to gather, organize, and synthesize new information during collaboration.
Collaboration Assessment
Criteria
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5 Points
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3 Points
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1 Point
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Citation/Gather Evidence
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Student accurately cited both page number and paragraph
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Student accurately cited only page or paragraph number
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Student did not accurately cite anything
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Answer/Organize
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Student completely used “RACE” in their video blog by: restating the question, answering the question, citing evidence, and explaining their thinking.
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Student partially used “RACE” in their video blog by: restating the question, answering the question, citing evidence, and explaining their thinking.
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Student did not use “RACE” in their video blog by: restating the question, answering the question, citing evidence, and explaining their thinking.
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Feedback
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Student stated clearly they agreed or disagreed with at least two of their classmates and provided a clear explanation.
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Student stated clearly if they agreed or disagreed with at least one of their classmates and provided a clear explanation.
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Student did not state whether they agree or disagree. Nor did the student provide a clear explanation for their reasoning.
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Challenges
Some of the challenges I faced when launching this collaborative tool was having students feel confident enough to record and post their video response. Initially when I first posed this assignment to my students and asked who would like to try this new tool, hands shot up in the air in excitement. However, when it came to actual application, my students became extremely shy and no longer wanted to participate. What I noticed was they took so much time re recording their answers because of anxiety or fear of embarrassment. There were only a handful of students who felt confident enough to record and post to the grid. When I first thought of this assignment, I thought this would be an excellent way for my ELLs to practice speaking, and work on creating a response until they were confident enough to post it. What I observed was that students had drafted and created very thoughtful responses previous to recording, but when it came down to actually recording, they no longer wanted to participate. I feel that this is a challenge because one of the most important aspects in learning is feeling confident in what you do, and feeling confident enough for feedback. Without those two entities, unfortunately, you will see many students shut down and no longer want to participate.
How it was Used in the Classroom
The Night of the Spadefoot Toads Video Response Assignment
Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.
Comprehension and Collaboration:
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 5 texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.
Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles.
Task: Many different characters contribute to the stories we read throughout the school year. In our current reading book, The Night of the Spadefoot Toads, we have been introduced to many different characters. Choose one character from our novel and describe their characteristic traits. Please use text evidence to support your answer. Use RACE (restate the question, answer the question, cite your evidence, explain your thinking) to answer the prompt correctly and completely. Respond to this question within a 90 second video blog. Be sure to include the following:
- The character you chose (example: Ben, Mrs. Tibbets, Frankie, Ryan, Agatha, etc)
- The characteristic traits you believe this character has
- Citation of text evidence supporting your thoughts
- Explanation of supporting your thoughts and citations
If you need help formulating what to say in your video blog, feel free to use the sentence frame below: (also found in your Shared Classroom Folder)
Sentence Frames:
The character I choose to evaluate is _____________. This character has traits of ____________. I know this because on page ___ paragraph ___ the text says “___________________”. This tells me that my character is ________ because ____________.
Student Example:
The character I choose to evaluate is Ben. This character has traits of being curious. I know this because on page 3 paragraph 1 the texts says “Ben walks toward the cage to get a closer look at the mice.” This tells me my character is curious because he got up to see something that interested him.
Finally, you will also be required to watch 2 classmates’ video-blogs and comment accordingly:
- State if you agree or disagree with their analysis of the character in the comment section provided to the right of the video blog
- Why or why not you agree or disagree.
- Provide text evidence that supports your thinking.
Timeline: Please have video blogs and two feedback responses completed by Friday, September 22, 2017 before 3:00pm.
Reflection on Growth
What I appreciated about this tool was the video blogging aspect. I believe that video blogging could truly connect students in many different ways. For example, I used this video blog experiment with another coworker and her students. Her students and my students both made video responses to their curriculum based questions, and were able to collaborate together whether or not they agreed or disagreed with one another and why. Instead of having my students consistently respond to each other, they were able to share their ideas, answers, and responses with OTHER classrooms. How cool!? Which only makes my imagination run farther to think, how cool this would be to use with students across the state or country that are ALSO studying Spadefoot Toads!
This also helped me grow as an educator because I was presumptuous about my ELL students feeling more comfortable with having an option to re record until they were comfortable enough to post. What I learned was, it not necessarily is the audience, or how long it takes you to deliver to the audience, it is how comfortable you feel speaking and expressing yourself verbally. Now knowing this, I know, I need to commit time to speaking with these students and guiding them to feeling more comfortable speaking their thoughts, and not just writing their thoughts.
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