Flip.com is a great way for students to express themselves in the target language. It's totally free, easy-to-use, and kids can show their creativity while demonstrating their language prowess!
I'm not a big believer in homework, but something I started during the pandemic and have continued is using flip.com as a quick and easy assignment students can do at home without taking too much of their personal time.
Why do I give Flips if I don't believe in homework?
Because the value I get out of it as a teacher far outweighs the few minutes a week I take from my students' personal time.
And, YES!, it only takes a few minutes for them to complete.
Teacher Benefits!
I have a real (not your typical learning name problem) problem learning students' names, but watching Flips each week, I quickly am able to put a face to a name and learn their names much quicker while at the same time getting to know my students on a more personal level than I could in the classroom.
I learn what makes them tick, what they like to do, and who they really are.
This makes it fun for me to watch while I learn their names and get to know them.
It's really difficult to get a true sense of a student's speaking ability with only a few assessments per grading period, but watching their Flips each week, I get a better sense of what they can do and their confidence level with the language and I can instantly give them feedback quickly and privately.
I realized during the pandemic that while watching these every week, I was getting a much better sense of how well students spoke in the language.
I had always only measured speaking during assessments and never really had a thorough understanding of my students' speaking ability.
But by watching these flip.com videos every week, I knew where every kid stood with regard to speaking and had a much better understanding of their abilities and what I could do to help them. I knew where their struggles and strengths were and that was a huge benefit for me!
Student Benefits!
With weekly Flips, my students are building their speaking confidence in the privacy of their own homes much more than they could in front of their peers.
This confidence allows them to demonstrate their true proficiency without the fear of peer ridicule.
Often times students are shy or embarrassed and don't want to perform in front of their peers. So this is a great solution and where they can really show off what they can do and say!
And for many, this is an opportunity to show their creative side and create some really cool videos or be really creative with what they have to say.
I've had students make little skits and even use some special effects. Flip.com has some different filters too that kids like to use, so it can be lots of fun.
And you can also have them download the snap camera (made by snapchat) and that can change their look with different hats, masks, makeup, etc, to make it even more fun.
Flip Ideas
There are so many activities and assignments you can give using flip.com.
My favorites are exit tickets where I have them say to me three things that they learned or that we talked about in class that day.
Another common one I use is chapter summaries. I'll have them tell me three things about the chapter we read in class.
Or you can ask them a conversation question and have them answer that question on flip.com.
At the start of the school year, I have them all introduce themselves in the target language telling me their name, their age and birthdate, their favorite color, and something fun about themselves. These are always fun to watch.
Here are some additional ideas you might want to try!
- Exit tickets
- Book reports
- Story retells
- Chapter summaries
- Conversation questions
- Opinions
- Character descriptions
- Formative assessments
These are just a few ideas! I'm sure you can think of many ways you can use Flip.com in your classroom!
I'd love to know if you use Flip.com in your classroom! What do you have your students do with it? Please share in the comments below!