Improve your fluency by Flipgrid

Hey! Nice to see you again 👋

😶Have you noticed that some students are introverted in your class? They would perform well if you nominate them to answer the questions but they are not active in the class. 

😕Or, sometimes you might be confused about how could I encourage my students to speak and practice more so that they could enhance what they have learnt.

👀Do you want to encourage them to speak more and practice more even after the class?

👌Then, I would recommend you this tool: Flipgrid (by clicking the word)

💆To be honest, I was an introverted student before! When I was exploring this tool, what I thought is if I could have this kind of tool, I might be more confident to speak in the class and practice my fluency after class. Thus, after exploring this tool, I am eager to introduce it to you.

Different from my previous blog, the description of how to use Flipgrid would be the job of the video below. The introductions are very vivid and clear which would guide you to explore this tool from the perspective of teachers and students step by step. Hope you would enjoy it.

💁When I was exploring this website, I found that this tool would be very suitable for storytelling tasks. In my context, reading picture books in English is getting more and more popular in primary schools. Teachers would ask students to complete a reading list once a week but they can not check whether the students complete the task one by one. So, this tool could meet their needs well. And it could also benefit other tasks. 

👇I would illustrate the advantages and limitations of this tool through the process of this task. 

At first, set up a new group. 

And share the link or QR code to students so that they could join in. (Or you could invite the students by entering students' emails if they are too young to follow the instructions on the website)

😍It is very convenient and easy for both students and teachers to explore this website since the navigation is clear and there is no extra distracting information.

Then, you could create a new topic for a week's task.

You could illustrate the task in the description part.

And also add some attachments or related pictures or videos above.

The recording time could also change according to the requirement of the task.

Then you could share the link to this week's topic with your students. 

😍The editing page is very convenient and friendly for teachers.

😑BUT, there is a maximum limit for the recording time which is 10 minutes. So, I think that is a limitation of this tool.

You could join the group, and follow me while reading my explanation. 

Here is the link to the group. https://flipgrid.com/7130259e 

Or, you could scan this code to join us！

As a student, you could see this page when you click the topic this week. 

Then click "Add Response", it would lead you to a magic world! !

When you start to record yourself reading the books, you would explore a new and interesting world! Welcome!!

As we could see on the left side, there are three options that you could edit your video. Such as backdrop, filters, and so on. 

You could also record the screen, upload a clip, and mute it while you are telling the story. There are plenty of useful tools for you to choose from.

And I would show you the video that I make by adding these interesting options.

😍As the teacher, I could say during this process, I find myself enjoyable by adding these little tools which would make the video more attractive and vivid. Thus, I think Flipgrid could motivate the students to speak and record themselves. 

😑BUT, "Everything is a double-edged sword". It may take students much more time to choose and add GIFs to their videos. Maybe they would pay more attention to how to make their video more attractive instead of practicing their fluency.

But from my perspective, the advantage would overweight the disadvantage. Although they may confuse about the main points of the task, they are still learning English from the text. 

After students complete the task, both teachers and students could comment below the video by text or video.

😍Feedback from others could also inspire students to record and practice their speaking better next time.

💗Hope you would enjoy exploring this tool to help your students to practice speaking and fluency. 

💬If you have any questions, feel free to comment below.

😘I would be very delighted to answer.