Technology Thursday: Flipgrid

A little background: Our school set up an optional book club for The Innovator's Mindset. And of course, at the word book club, I was there!  At meetings we discuss the book for about 15 minute and then have another 20-30 minutes to learn about innovative ideas in teaching. At our last meeting, we were able to get some ideas about some cool websites, etc. students could use to get in some "tech" time but also give our students more voice in the classroom. During this session, we were introduced to Flipgrid and the basics of how it worked. It seemed pretty awesome but I didn't have a lot of time to investigate.

Thankfully, I work with a lot of fantastic risk takers! My wingmate and fellow 5th grade teacher, Miss Burlew, got it set up and tested it out with her class. Then she shared the videos! I was so amazed with what students had to say about their book club novels in 1 minute and 30 seconds or less! I knew I had to get my Flipgrid account set up ASAP! Setting up the account is SUPER easy and literally took less than 10 minutes -- maybe closer to 20 if you want a cool customer header like me.

I can then post my personalized link to my Google classroom or my Schoology page for my students to access. Students click the link and they are are instantly part of my class! So easily. There is an option to add a class password but since I'm not sharing my link, I currently don't see a need to add one more password to my fifth graders' lives.

This week, instead of having students write out a reading response, I'm going to have them answer some of the questions using Flipgrid! Language Arts Teachers, this also helps meet and document those speaking and listening standards!

What is Flipgrid?

It's a website that allows students to record short videos in response to a question or topic. It reminds of a video version of Padlet in the way it looks and is set up. It's also super user friendly and there is a free version (that's not a trial) for teachers to use.

Currently, I'm testing out the free version, although I think the upgrade may be worth it to use the entire school year. Students easily click the link of the topic they want to respond too and click a big green plus sign and start recording! It's so easily! It counts them down and shows them how much time they have left on their video. If they like it, they can publish it to the Flipgrid board - if they don't like it, they can redo it as many times as they need too! Then students can like and watch each other's videos - I disabled sharing and since I don't have the upgraded account students can't leave comments and I can't leave feedback.

The set up is so teacher friendly! 

Here's what my page looks like when my students go to my Flipgrid website. The homepage is a hub of all the topics/questions the teacher has posted for students to answer. Currently, I only have two topics.

The questions are below. There is a word limit so directions and questions need to be creative. I also gave my student a handout with the questions restated so that they could write a quite script. I also noticed I had left out the word "book" from Book Club so I had to do some creative editing! Mistakes happen and editing is also easy peasy! 

When students are ready to reply to a topic they click the big green plus sign and they're ready to go! It'll give them a 3-2-1 countdown and set 1 minute and 30 seconds on the clock. If you pay for the upgrade you can adjust the time limits you give your students. So far, 1 minute and 30 seconds has been plenty of time for this quick reading response.

Teachers see the number of responses, time spent recording, topics created, and an activity line graph. Pretty cool data when you log in. It really gives me a snapshot of who's been online now that students are starting to post their reading response videos.

I'm working on a feedback form so that students can watch others' videos and give some feedback to each other. I'm hoping this will also help give my students some more practice thinking and discussing their book club novels. Flipgrid is an easy (and free) way to empower your students and let them share their thinking with the class!

How do you honor #studentvoice in your classroom?

Character Unit Book Club

So excited to be launching my first in class book club tomorrow! I get a lot of questions about book club and you can check out my Book Club Basics post {here}.

A big thing I stress is keeping book clubs authentic. For me, these are not literature circles with a packet and jobs. Could use those roles, sure! But a real book club, doesn't function that way. In real life you read a book independently and then get together with your club to discuss and enjoy the book. In my class, book clubs operate the same way. Students read the books independently and then come together on Fridays to share, discuss, or work on something fun! We also use these books as ways to get in our Reader's Workshop mini-lessons. Since I've read all of the books, its easy to do a comprehension check as well or help striving readers. As always, you need to do what's best for your classroom. I always try and offer lots of choice and once students finish two book club novels within the unit, they are on free choice.

Our first book club of the year focuses on characters. We dig deep and look at how and when characters act out of character. We also begin to analyze how other characters and even settings can impact characters. At the conclusion of this unit, students write a literary essay focusing on their main characters. My teaching partner and I wanted to focus on books that will help build community within our team. Therefore, many of the choices deal with characters that have special needs or are dealing with problems outside of their control like divorce and having a parent in jail.

This unit could work with ANY novel with strong characters but here are few of my favorites... 

If you'd like to book talk any of these novels, click the Book Talks graphic. It will link you to my Google Drive link. You can download my SMARTnotebook file with strong character novels.

Book Club Basics

I wanted to do a quick blog post about some book club basics. I'm a huge supporter of using book clubs as a way to foster a love of reading and build a community of readers in your classroom. If you're thinking of launching book clubs in your classroom here are few things to consider before getting started!

First, you need to make sure your students have access to books! When I was first starting out with book clubs, I used my local library as well as my school library to help put books in my students' hands. This can take a few weeks at times so give yourself plenty of time.  As my book clubs have grown, my own collection has grown as well. Scholastic bonus points, half price books, library sales, etc. have really helped grow my book collection. Currently, I have at least 4-5 copies of every book I feature in one of my book clubs. We also always offer the option for students to download or purchase their own copies.

Here's a few of my book club sets:

Don't forget your lower readers, too! Having a variety of books and reading levels is something you need to look at before starting book clubs. Book club needs may change year to year so having some back up books {for your highest and lowest readers} is always important!

Next, you need to decide how you're going to launch your book clubs. How will you get your kids excited? My favorite way to launch book clubs is to show a short preview video or book talk about each novel we're featuring. This gets our students SUPER pumped for book clubs. It also helps students decide if a book is a "good fit" for their reading tastes.

Savvy is one of my favorites from my fantasy book club!
Absolutely, Almost is a perfect for any character unit of study!

Once you have your books, you need to decide what book clubs will look like in your classroom. They should help facilitate what you're already teaching in the classroom.

In my classroom, my students know that our reading block will be a teaching point, read aloud, group practice, and then independent practice and reading. Some days, we have to read and model and then students will get time to read and practice the following day. It just depends on the length of the lesson and read aloud.

We use our Reader's Notebooks for modeling and practice. We also use them to jot down information about our book club novels!

Why do adults join book clubs? Because they are FUN! My students do not meet daily in book clubs because that's not how real book clubs work. They can always get help or ask fellow students questions but we only meet in book clubs on Friday. On Fridays, we choose a fun activity that relates to our weekly lessons for students to complete in small book club groups of 3-4 students.

Our students LOVE book club Fridays! It's great because they can also work with other students on our team that have the same reading block - we work it so it's not just homeroom based!

We made Facebook pages for our main characters during our character book clubs. This is Roy from Hoot's "Fakebook" page.

This Friday, we made theme posters as part of our interpretation book clubs. You can see more examples of these posters and the requirements we set {here}.

Planning fun Friday activities keeps kids engaged and helps focus their discussions. This really helps keeps book club excitement going. As kids read several books, they also get to choose which book club join . This offers additional choice for kids and promotes further reading.

How do you build a reading community in your classroom?

Handouts for Launching Book Clubs

Finally, decided to take all the general book club forms and handouts and put them into one BIG Book Club Handouts bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers. This bundle includes all the handouts and forms you need to get book clubs started in my classroom. I've included sample activities, letters to parents, teacher tips, leveled book choices by topic, quizzes, and a {no mess!} final book club project.

I'm not one to typically use my blog to promote my products but book clubs are SUCH a big deal to me! Since, book clubs are a focus of my blog, I just had to share my newest product that could help get them started in your classroom! This was truly a labor of book club love to get all these files updated and bundled together. If you're thinking of starting book clubs, check it out! These handouts are a great way to EASE into book clubs!

So what do you get? 

Do you currently use book clubs in your classroom? 
What questions do you still have about using book clubs to teach reading?

Nonfiction Book List

Whipped up a short{ish} and sweet recommendation list for my nonfiction unit. I plan on Book Talking several of these books from now through Christmas Break. Although, I'm not having set "clubs," I'm encouraging students to create their own reading book clubs. Plus, I know I've struggled reading choosing nonfiction and so do some of my kiddos!

I think this list would be appropriate for 5th or 6th graders. A few titles could also be appropriate for 4th graders as well but some have upper level content or themes. As always, preview the books you share with your students!

Editable PowerPoint version or a PDF version available as a Google Drive download! 

What books would be on your must read nonfiction list? 

Share with me on Social Media @ MsAPlusTeacher
 #wecantputbooksdown #nonfiction

Nonfiction for Big Kids!

I don't know about you but over the years I've really struggled finding "Just Right" nonfiction for my fifth graders. It seemed like a lot of nonfiction was either way too easy or way too hard. My students in the past have LOVED nonfiction but I was having trouble loving it myself. Until now!

I'm loving Lucy Calkins' new Units of Study for Reading. I'll admit it was not love at first sight with Lucy, but after having a few late nights with the teacher edition, love begin to bloom. The nonfiction portion is all about how reading gets harder as we become better readers. Main ideas get more complex and there may even be multiple main ideas {gasp!}. Text structures can also get more complicated and text features begin to disappear. Oh the horror!  However, I love that all my students are able to tackle some more complex texts finally because they have strategies to help them. With the help of Newsela and Scholastic News we've started getting into the unit but after break my students will need a nonfiction text in front of them daily. 

Here are a few of my favorites after putting over 16 books on hold at my local library for book talks... 

What are some nonfiction books you use to challenge your students?

Thursday Thoughts: Benefits of Newsela

Our school was recently able to upgrade to NEWSELA Pro accounts. I've used NEWSELA in the past but more as a source for myself. Today, I dove in face first into NEWSELA as I needed articles for a nonfiction lesson. As we work toward harder texts, I felt like Scholastic News just wasn't cutting for some of my lesson's objectives. Plus, with need for annotations and differentiation, I was looking for a way to make my job easier. Today, NEWSELA did that for me!

I was about to assign all students via Google Classroom, a NEWSELA article to read and annotate. I was able to put directions at the top of the article and on the SMARTboard. The best thing was after students finished reading the article, I had instant feedback on their reading successes or failures! What?! I felt like reading the article digitally also helped my students be exposed to reading "differently" and allowed to practice using tech tools for annotations. I was nervous students wouldn't be engaged because even I have trouble with digital texts. BUT... My room was absolutely silent as students read and annotated.  I was also shocked and impressed by complexity of some of their annotations. 

Here's a snapshot of my day using NEWSELA: 

Another benefit is the ability to create text-sets for popular topics. I'm hoping to use these of our "research" portion of the nonfiction writing component to this unit. We usually write feature articles focused on space exploration and technology. There are also lots of sets that create an instant pairing with novels or social studies texts. 

Students can also "adjust" the reading level of articles as well. I made my students choose lexiles based on their Fountas and Pinnell and MAP data for their first read. I'm hoping the short quizzes and data points, will give me more information and feedback on my students as nonfiction readers. 

The free version is worth checking out as well! Today, I learned that sometimes you gotta be willing to jump off and take a risk. 

Do you use NEWSELA in your classroom? 

How do you promote digital literacy?