Flipgrid for Interpersonal Speaking... and for reaching outside of classroom walls

Have you heard of Flipgrid? Arianne Dowd recommended it to me (anything she recommends you should check out) and I tried it for the first time yesterday. It was excellent! I am so looking forward to exploring all the possibilities that can be done with it. There are probably blog posts out there about this already... but I haven't seen them yet, so I thought I would share here about this fabulous resources!

• So what is it?

• Flipgrid is a website/app that can be used for asynchronous communication. Students get a link to a teacher created "flipgrid". They enter the password and then they can post videos. Other students (or outside "visitors") can respond to those videos. (The subscription costs $65 for students to be able to respond to each other). 

• What did we do with it?
• We just finished our También la lluvia unit (unit packet) in my AP class, so in order to "discuss" the movie, all students had to post two questions and answer three or more of their classmates' questions. I emphasized that this is interpersonal, so they are just supposed to answer... not prepare notes!
• Students did an excellent job and enjoyed it!
• There were 31 questions posted and 122 responses. That is a lot of verbal exchanges!

• Why is so great?
• Interpersonal Speaking without the pressure: Flipgrid takes the pressure of off students. They were in the hallway and in the classroom speaking and listening to each other without the pressure of everyone listening to them at the same time.
• Interpersonal Speaking: It can be challenging really "do" in the classroom. Flipgrid allows for this to happen in a fun way.
• Listening: Students not only listened to the questions of their classmates, but also they listened to their classmates' responses to their questions.
• Choice: Students got to choose which questions they answer.
• Fun: Students really seemed to enjoy this activity! They especially liked taking the selfie that will be displayed for each video (see pensive selfie above).

• What else can you do with it?
• Reach outside the classroom walls! I contacted a reporter via Twitter who wrote one of the articles (Arianne translated it and it is in the unit packet) that we read during this unit and he has agreed to answer some questions from my students. This will be a fantastic and authentic interpretive listening activity for my students.
• Reach outside the classroom walls! I am repeating this because there are so many possibilities with this, especially because it is asynchronous communication.
• Obviously interpersonal speaking is much easier to do with AP students because they are top notch students with lots of language ability, but I am planning to use Flipgrid next week with my Spanish 2 students for an interpersonal speaking assessment as well. I hope to share how that goes next week.

Four, actually five, stories for the "Reflexives" unit

**Update - 4/19/17** I just added a quick fifth story! See the bottom of the post.
I am teaching Spanish 2 and trying to revamp the curriculum (from Realidades chapter 2A). We just finished up a sports unit. For that unit, I pulled together resources from Martina Bex, Adios Textbook, and some of my own and it went pretty well. I will say, without a "story," the unit did not have the same impact.

Now, I am about to start the ole' "Reflexives unit" (chapter 2A from Realidades). So, I gathered four stories in order to make it more compelling and interesting... and so that students will acquire the material in a much more compelling way. It is kinda boring to talk about our own morning routines for two weeks, so with these four stories, we will be talking about ourselves and others! Here is a partial unit packet, which includes Essential Questions, I can statements, and possible evaluaciones (quizzes and a test) and a some activities related to two of the stories. I also linked Elena López's TPT store for three of the stories.

The first story is !No voy a levantarme! This is actually a Sr. Wooly song. I made an embedded reading to slowly "release" the story to students. I may have "released" too much as Sr. Wooly noted when I shared it, so you may want to take out some key parts, particularly the ending. 

When using an embedded reading, students get tons of repetitions. I also created this slideshow (click here so make a copy) using the embedded reading and screenshots (downloaded from Sr. Wooly - he gave permission for me to share here). Students will also do all the nuggets during a week and half time period. The nuggets will be homework. 

If you don't have a subscription to Sr. Wooly, I highly recommend it!! (Note: I do not work for him. I just love his site and really like the idea of a Spanish 1 and 2 Wooly curriculum?!?)


The second story is "Alarma".  I created a slideshow, but then Elena López made this one, which is better! Students will definitely relate to this story.
(Warning: The original video has a fake gun in it. The man uses it to shoot his alarm clock, but I chopped up the video to delete those scenes. The video is in three segments in this slideshow.) 
Click here to buy Elena's resources for this story.

The third story is "El Monstruo del armario," also created by Elena López. This is a fun story  to teach with. Click here to purchase Elena's resources for this story.

The fourth story is Destino, also created by Elena López. The first slideshow is an easier version of the story. Elena has a more advanced version of this story and you can click here to purchase Elena's resources for this story.


Students will also see a variety of related commercials (#authres). Each day students will watch one commercial. After they see it one, they will read the transcript aloud with their group (or chorally as a class). I will then translate it. They will do a cloze activity with the transcript and then write two sentences about each. This will be how we start class each day during this unit. This is good because they are hearing short audio of an authentic resources. Here is a doc with the transcripts and links to the commercials.

Included in the packet, I will have Martina Bex's Reflexive Notes as well.