Flipgrid

Flipgrid is a great way of getting students to talk in the target language. It can be used to create discussions in the target language or to have students answer questions or even talk about an attached picture, video or recording.

Teachers can create a grid that could be for a specific grade or a specific period and then, within that grid, you can create topics for your students to respond to. Teachers have the ability to moderate discussions. Topics can be modified based on needs and comfort level. Teachers can preview the videos before making them viewable to other students.

If you are a GAFE school, then students can easily log in using their Google account. Once you have created a topic, you can create an assignment in Google classroom and attach the flip code to the assignment so that student have direct access to the topic.

Flipgrid enhances student engagement in a language class as it creates a fun way of speaking in the target language. It is a great tool to assess interpersonal, interpretive and presentational communication, which are part of the World Readiness Standards for Language Learning created by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). 

Helpful Resources:

• Flipgrid guide for Educators
• Flipgrid guide for Students and Parents

Here are some videos to help you get started:

Google classroom and Quizlet

You can link your Google classroom to Quizlet by automatically inviting students from your courses on Google Classroom to join a Quizlet Class. 

This way, if you create a study set for a class, you can share it to Google classroom and select a class to create an assignment on Google classroom. You can add a due date and topic to this assignment. 

This a a great way to seamlessly assign Quizlet study sets for homework of classwork. The student progress feature shows you which students have completed the task and also mentions the dates when it was completed.You can use this feature to assign grades in Google classroom. 

Quizlet can be assigned as homework and students can be given a choice to complete the tasks of their choice. This gives them the choice of selecting study modes that are more conducive to their learning style and supports differentiated learning.

Helpful resources:

• Using Google Classroom with Quizlet classes
• Organize and share your sets by creating a Quizlet class 

 

How to Use the Google Classroom Integration on Quizlet

 

Quizlet Unconference 2018: Easy Ways to Share Quizlet (e.g., Google Classroom)

 

Using Quizlet for Language Acquisition

Quizlet is a great tool for learning vocabulary and also for grammatical concepts like verb conjugations. If you haven't used Quizlet before, then start by looking through the great repository of study sets for different subjects that have been created by different users that include teachers as well as students.

When you create a study set using Quizlet to create flashcards, it creates other study modes that include activities like Learn, Write, Spell, Test, Match, Gravity and Quizlet Live. It is not just limited to flashcards but offers users a variety of activities in line with differentiated learning.

Study sets can be made using plain text or with images. You can also create a diagram set, which can be used for labeling a diagram.

To get the most out of Quizlet, teachers should upgrade to Quizlet for teachers as it offers more helpful features. You can create classes for each period that you teach and monitor the progress your students make in every class. The student progress feature can be also used to grade students on completion of task.

Quizlet can be embedded into other sites like your class website so that students can have direct access to the study sets in the teacher website.

It can also be assigned to Google classroom (See next post for details).

Learning Vocabulary: Using the different study modes to review vocabulary helps students to use their multiple learning styles to learn. The games are a great way to review as well as the test mode.

Listening and pronunciation: When you create a study set, the audio icon next to the word can help you learn the pronunciation of the word. If you have the teacher account, then you can record your own voice. This helps my students to practice the pronunciation of vocabulary words and the grammar conjugation.

Reading: Quizlet can be used not just for the meanings of the words but also for long definitions in the target language, thus making students read the sentence to determine which vocabulary word is being defined.

Writing: The Write mode and the Spell mode both help students with spelling and the correct word order, which are important in writing comprehension.

Quizlet Live: This popular feature in Quizlet allows teachers to team up students, at random or assigned to review the subject in the form of a multiple choice game, where they match the terms with their definitions. This game encourages collaboration among students as they have to work as a team to win. Picking teams at random helps team up students who wouldn't normally interact with each other.

The Quizlet Help Center has many helpful articles and videos to help you get started with Quizlet.

Useful resources:

• Quizlet Fundamentals for Teachers
• Creating a study set
• Audio on Quizlet 
• Recording custom audio with Voice Recording
• How to use Quizlet Live with diagram sets
• Quizlet Live 
• Creating a class for your students
• Adding students to a class
• Using Class Progress
• Student activity data on Quizlet
• Embedding Quizlet sets into another website

Creating Quizzes with Google Forms

Google forms are a great way of creating online quizzes.You can choose from various formats like multiple choice, checkbox, drop down, short answers, and paragraph. In a language classroom, this variety of question types is a great assessment tool. It allows language teachers to choose different question formats for different skills sets. Here are some examples:

Verb conjugation: When teaching verb conjugations, using a multiple choice quiz is a great way to quickly assess learning. You can also use the short answers option so that students can fill in the correct form of the verb.

Reading comprehension: The multiple choice format can also be used for reading comprehension. You can either type a reading passage and ask multiple choice questions. You can also insert images like authentic ads or other authentic reading materials. Short answers can also be used as an option.

Listening comprehension: You can insert a YouTube video or a link to an audio file in your Google Drive in the question and then ask questions in any of the different formats. See the last video in this post about adding audio to your questions.

Writing comprehension: The paragraph option can be used for writing passages. You can insert an image, a YouTube video or any other authentic realia, which can be used as a prompt for the writing activity.

Here are some helpful links and videos to explain how to use the quiz feature in Google forms in general:

• 6 ways Quizzes in Google Forms are getting smarter
• Google Forms Guide: Everything You Need to Make Great Forms for Free
• Create & grade quizzes with Google Forms
• Self-grading Quizzes with Google Forms and Google Classroom

The Basics of Creating a Quiz in Google Forms

EDU in 90: Quizzes in Google Forms

EDU in 90: What’s New With Quizzes in Google Forms

Google Forms Tips - Adding Audio to Your Questions

Google Squared

Here is another great tool from Google Labs called Google Squared. It is a search tool that let's you see your search as a table and compare the information. You can delete the search item that is not relevant and you can also add columns to compare more information

Here is a video explaining the new search tool:


Here is an example. I searched for famous hispanics. Click here to see the results.

Google Squared Help Page

Google Wonder Wheel

More good new from Google. They just came out with a new feature for searching the web called the Google Wonder Wheel. When you are searching for something using the Google Web Search, you can click on the 'Show options...' link, which you will find just above the first search result. Here you will find that you can modify your search by using different types of search options. You will find these options on the left column. One of them is a Wonder Wheel, which shows you a graphic organizer that gives you related queries of your original search. The Wonder Wheel continues to progressively refine your search by giving you a variation of your search.

Click here for a Step by step guide on how to use the Wonder Wheel.

The following is a video in which the Google programmer who worked on the Wonder Wheel talks about the tool:




Here is another video about how to use the Wonder Wheel search tool:





Finally here is a video that shows you more Google search options including the Wonder Wheel:

Google Image Search - Life Magazine Photo Archive

Google Image Search is quite popular and well known by many people but did you know that Google also hosts a vast collection of photos from Life Magazine. The Life Photo Archive has photos from the 1750s to the present. It is a product of a collaboration between Life magazine and Google.

Visual learning aids are an integral part of language learning. What better way to create an interdisciplinary lesson by using some of these historic photos and have students express what they see in the target language. The assessment can be oral or written.

Here is a search tip by Google:
Add "source:life" to any Google image search and search only the LIFE photo archive.
Example: Pablo Picasso source:life