Summary
Be ready to move! Classroom practices that engage and maintain student interest while promoting student-centered learning and real-world connections are highlighted in this presentation. Participants will use Flipgrid technology to understand how students can communicate their learning in a new and exciting manner. Colleagues will experience a highly interactive session full of relevant instructional strategies discovered through collaboration and meaningful conversations. Participants will leave the presentation with activities that can be used in the classroom right away.
Essential Question
What do you think makes social media so engaging to students?
Session Objectives
Understand how Flipgrid can be used for communication inside and outside the classroom.
Engage with classroom instructional strategies.
Materials List
Presentation Slides
Flipgrid How-To Guide (attached; one per participant)
Handshake Handout (attached; one per participant)
Instructional Strategy Notes (attached; one per participant)
Cardstock paper
Chart paper
Markers
Sticky notes
Pens/pencils
Computers for Internet access
Engage
10 Minute(s)
Use the attached Presentation Slides to follow along with this PD.
Display slide 3. Ask participants to create a Name Tent using card stock. On the card stock, have them write their names on one side and answer the following questions on the back:
Where are you from?
How long have you been in professional education?
What has been the most challenging part of this year?
What has been a highlight for you this year?
What is most important to you as an educator?
Ask participants to display their Name Tents in front of them as they will be using them later in the session.
Display slide 4. During the introduction, explain to the participants the different types of handshakes they can use to engage an audience. Introduce the following handshakes. Distribute the Handshake handout and introduce the following handshakes:
Jellyfish
Turkey
Dairy Farmer
Happy Salmon
Remind the participants that these handshakes are a good way to use humor to connect with students in an informal way.
Display slide 5. Distribute the Instructional Strategy Notes handout to each participant. Ask each individual to consider how the handshakes have been used and how they might use the strategy in their classrooms. Explain to participants that each time they try out a strategy over the course of the session, they should take a moment to answer the two questions relating to that strategy on the handout:
How Was It Used?
How Will I Use it?
Explore
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 6. Ask participants how they use technology in the classroom. Elicit answers from the group and briefly discuss how they use technology similarly and differently in the classroom. Then, ask the participants to take a sticky note and write all of the different ways their students use technology. When they have finished writing their answers, ask them to post their answers around the room on the wall.
Display slide 7. Instruct the participants to engage in a Gallery Walk where they will walk around the room clockwise reading the sticky notes.
Display slide 8. On returning to their seats, ask the participants to take another sticky note and write their biggest takeaway from the posts they have read on their Gallery Walk. Ask participants to crumple their sticky notes up as you instruct the group to engage in the Commit and Toss strategy. Once they have crumpled their answers, ask them to throw them across the room.
Display slides 9 and 10. Read the Essential Question and go over the Session Objectives.
Explain
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 11. Explain to participants that they will learn how to use the tech tool, Flipgrid, with students. Watch the How-to-Flipgrid video. You may want to watch this a few times with participants, asking them to pay close attention to the details.
Display slide 12. Describe the 30-Second Expert strategy to participants. Ask participants to find a partner and explain that the first person will take 30 seconds to share everything they learned from the video. The pair will then switch roles. The second person will take 30 seconds to repeat back what they heard from the first person and add anything else they learned from the video. Convey to participants the importance of collaborative thinking involved with this strategy. Ask a few participants to share with the group what they learned about Flipgrid from their partner.
Extend
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 13. Describe to the participants how to use Flipgrid to introduce their "All About Me" Name Tents. They will go to Flipgrid.com and enter the Join Code you received when you created your Flipgrid group and topic.
Display slide 14. Instruct the participants to read the directions for creating their own Flipgrid presentation. Once participants have entered the Join Code, they will also be able to view in Flipgrid the directions that you entered prior to the start of the session. Try the creative options and have participants create a 60-second "All About Me" post. Tell participants they will deliver a version of an Elevator Speech
Evaluate
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 15. Ask for a few volunteers to share their videos. Emphasize how Flipgrid is a great tool to use with students for introductions, formative assessments, projects, and discussion posts.
Display slide 16. 3-2-1 is the reflection we will use as our final strategy for the day. Invite participants to take a sticky note and write three things they learned from the activity, two things they learned about themselves, and one question they have about what they learned. Ask for volunteers to share what they learned or a question they have about the presentation.
Display slide 17. Discuss with the group the Exit Ticket question, "Why is social media so engaging to students?" Ask the participants if today's activity helped them understand why students are so engaged with social media.
Display slide 18. Have participants revisit the Instructional Strategy Notes and instruct them to add notes for the strategies they used today.
Move to slide 19. Share more resources available through the K20 Center.
See slide 20 to provide participants with social media links to connect further with the K20 Center.
Research Rationale
Transliteracy and 21st-Century Learning
Transliteracy is defined as "the ability to read, write, and interact across a range of platforms, tools, and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio, and film, to digital social networks" (Bush, 2012). According to Bush, the learner who is transliterate builds knowledge, communicates, and interacts across a range of platforms, tools, and media. To support transliteracy, educators should consider how technology may be integrated into instruction. Technology integration should support pedagogical strategies, increase information fluency, and facilitate the practice of 21st-century skills.
Research suggests that technology should support instruction, rather than dominate the learning experience. Educators have developed strategies that successfully balance the use of technology and pedagogical best practices. Clark provides several strategies that teachers can use to optimize the benefits of technology for learning:
Make student thinking visible
Give every student a voice
Make sharing work easy and accessible
Allow students to share work within the classroom and beyond (Passut, 2018)
Formative Assessment and Technology Integration
Mass and Bookhart (2019) describe formative assessment as "an active and intentional learning process that partners the teacher and the students to continuously and systematically gather evidence of learning with the express goal of improving student achievement. "Formative assessment allows educators and students to gain an understanding of their abilities and develop a plan to tackle learning targets. Effective formative assessments are designed to focus on the opportunities for learning rather than the assessment of learning (Mass and Bookhart, 2019).
As educators develop the formative assessment indicators, technology integration can assist throughout the process of the assessment and provide learning opportunities and collaboration for both the students and the teacher. Research indicates that technology integration, when paired with solid pedagogy, can deepen the learning experience. Effective technology integration should focus on supporting the following learning components:
Active engagement
Participation in groups
Frequent interaction and feedback
Connection to real-world experts (Edutopia, 2007)
As formative assessment requires feedback and collaboration, technology integration can play an important role in recording learning and disseminating feedback individually and among groups.
Resources
Bush, G. (2012). The transliterate learner. ERIC - Institute of Educational Science. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ980028
Clark, H. (n.d.). Two powerful formative assessment tools for the Chromebook classroom. Infused Classroom. https://www.hollyclark.org/
Edutopia. (2007, November 5). Why do we need technology integration? https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-importance
Flipgrid. (2021, September 17). Students: Getting started with Flipgrid. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR1FxImNPSs&t=2s
K20 Center. (n.d.). Bell ringers and exit tickets. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/125
K20 Center. (n.d.). Commit and toss. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/119
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elevator speech. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/57
K20 Center. (n.d.). Flipgrid. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/1075
K20 Center. (n.d.). Gallery walk / Carousel. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/118
K20 Center. (n.d.). 30-Second expert. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1048
K20 Center. (n.d.). 3-2-1. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/117
Moss, C. & Brookhart, S. (2019). Chapter 1. The lay of the land: Essential elements of the formative assessment process. [in Advancing formative assessment in every classroom: A guide for instructional leaders, 2nd Edition. ASCD.] https://books.google.com/books/about/Advancing_Formative_Assessment_in_Every.html?id=H4CYDwAAQBAJ
Passut, J. (2018). "Technology Can Give All Students a Voice." https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/higher/k12/article/2018/02/technology-can-give-all-students-voice
