3 Reasons You'll love Video Feedback with Letsrecap.com

Video Feedback with Letsrecap.com

letsrecap.com is the answer I've been looking for in student video feedback, and I think it's got huge potential to positively impact my classroom. I've used screencasting for student video feedback in the past, and it's great, but it's time consuming, and the workflow isn't as seamless as I'd like despite the ease of Google Classroom.

Enter: Letsrecap.com!

What is letsrecap.com?  It's a free video feedback app that is cross platform and allows students to respond with a brief video.  It's perfect for giving every student a chance to voice his opinion, share an idea, summarize his learning, or provide a reflective self-assessment.

How does it work? Like many other feedback classroom apps, the teacher creates a virtual classroom (I didn't see Google Classroom integration yet, but it's in beta right now, so maybe?), students join with a unique code or by email, you create a video prompt, and students respond with a video.  You can change how long you want the student responses to be (15 secs-2 mins.), set a due date, assign to a whole class or select students, and include a thumbs up, thumbs sideways, thumbs down "Assess Yourself!" poll question.  

Students log in to letsrecap.com, click on the assignment, watch the video prompt (there's a written caption), click the record button, and make a student feedback video. It's quick and easy.  When their responses are recorded, you can view a graph of the "Assess Yourself!" poll, see each response, play all responses, and it even creates a review reel of highlights with a whimsical frame added to the video.  The result for me? I had a face to face virtual conference with each of my students, and I viewed it in less than 10 minutes. Awesomeness!

Three reasons you'll love letsrecap.com

Personalizes and streamlines video conferencing and feedback:  letsrecap.com allows students to record short one take video feedback to a video prompt that you provide.  To hear their tone and see their expressions in their video feedback adds a personalization to the feedback process that I wasn't expecting.  My 8th graders Snapchat regularly, and I think the idea of giving a quick video feedback is a task that might be familiar to most of them because it's just like a "snap" on Snapchat, a quick video.

Develops Student Agency and Student Voice:  I loved giving my students the chance to voice their personal opinion and literally hear their voice; the shy, quiet student and the outspoken student all get heard, and all students get a chance to communicate in a format that is familiar and comfortable for them.

It's free and fun! Oh, and differentiated! The first time we practiced with letsrecap.com, my room was filled with self-conscious giggles and a little goofiness, and that was OK.  They were getting comfortable with the tool.  I imagine the next time we give feedback, it will go more smoothly, and students will take the task to heart.  I can see this being a tool I turn to regularly for formative feedback or to gather reflections from each student.  I love the options for differentiation that are built in as you could potentially customize lessons for students.  Imagine Parent Teacher conferences with a personalized video input from the student.  Fantastic!

I'll eagerly add letsrecap.com to my toolbox of digital feedback tools.  Give it a try, and let me know how it goes.  

Using Images to help Writers add Details

My students' writing was lacking details.  They had the basics down, and their sentences were generally clear, but details that add depth and meaning were generally not showing up in their writing.  I realized that images were a good way to help them understand the difference between practical writing and elaborate writing.  The first image that came to mind when I thought of elaborate was a chandelier.  Using Google Classroom's discussion prompt I asked students to describe the first image (light bulb), then describe the second image (chandelier), then tell the impact of the differences between the two.  What would be the mood or tone of walking into a large room with the light bulb hanging in the center, and how would that mood and tone change if you walked into a room with the chandelier.  The students described the light bulb as useful, simplistic, and practical.  The chandelier, on the other hand, was shiny, beautiful, detailed, layered, mesmerizing (exactly what I wanted from them in their writing).  The analogy became clear when I asked for them to be intentional about adding elaboration to their writing.  I wanted their writing to make me gasp in its awesomeness, become fascinated by the beautiful details, and mesmerized by the engaging word choice and layers of meaning.

In reflection, this lesson taught me to slow down and take the time to create something that builds relationships.  Now when students hand in their writing, I ask, "Is this a chandelier?"  They smile and remember the lesson.  Using images to connect to students and to add impact to a lesson is not difficult.  Too often, I get swept up in the "getting it done" part of the classwork.  In contrast, I think taking the time to model what it means to be visually literate, to model how to examine and discuss an image, and to model how an image can be representational can positively impact my students and make my teaching more effective.

How have you successfully incorporated images and visual literacy in your classroom? I'd love to hear about your favorite visual lesson.

Our Virtual Field Trip to Shakespeare's Globe Theater

A few weeks ago I took my students to Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London, sort of.  After studying Shakespeare, the Globe Theater History, and Much Ado about Nothing, I figured it was time for a field trip.  But I've got no money and no time, and the all important standardized tests are coming up (sigh).  What I do have is a classroom of curious and interested students.

The solution?  Google Cardboard, Google Street View, and my iPhone6. I located several photospheres from Shakespeare's Globe Theater and included the experience as part of a differentiated stations activity that was inquiry driven.  The resulting student engagement knocked my socks off!

Student responses? "Wow!  It's taller than I imagined! It's much smaller than I thought; it looks oriental in design.  I didn't think it would be so intricate.  Is that where the queen would sit?  Would they throw things on the stage?  It is open to the sky...cool.  What if it rains?  Doesn't it rain in London?"  These were just a few of the reactions.

What did my students like best about our virtual field trip?  They liked the experience of feeling what it might be like to be in the theater and seeing the details in a 3D environment.

What did I like best about our virtual field trip?  The student engagement, wanting to stay after class to do more, asking where they can buy their own Google Cardboard, and wondering where we can go next.

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better experience.  Well, I could have asked for 30 tickets to London and the premier of the hottest show in town, but I'll keep my reality virtual for now.

How Student Choice can set a Tone of Invitation

Student Choice can set a Tone of Invitation

Everyone loves to receive an invitation, but it is rare that our students feel invited to learn.  In fact, more often than not, the opposite is true.  Students feel forced, cornered, or trapped into learning.  In my experience of focusing on, creating, and encouraging student choice in my classroom, I have found that providing student choice changes the tone of instruction. It changes the tone of the learning environment from a forced requirement to that of an invitation.

Perhaps we can all relate to the experience of an obligatory family party that we feel forced to attend; we don't feel as though we really have a choice in the matter, and we reluctantly go through the motions of arriving with a gift, making small talk, and creating an excuse to escape before the end of the event.

Compare this to receiving an invitation to a coveted event; the tone changes.  We anticipate, we plan, we prepare.  We make an effort to arrive on time, dressed to the nines, and we eagerly enjoy the event.  On the drive home, we reflect about the conversation, gossip, and events.

The same is true of student choice.  When orchestrated effectively, student choice sets a tone of invitation.  Students take on autonomy in their learning, and become engaged in their own achievement.  The invitation of choice helps to establish a feeling of anticipation, planning, and preparation in our students; they make an effort to arrive on time, prepared and "dressed" with eagerness.  Finally, they self reflect-a keystone of autonomous engagement.

Recently, I introduced a research assignment that required students to research a particular element of Elizabethan Culture or Shakespeare's biography and present their learning to the class.  Students were invited to choose their topic from a list, invited to choose to work alone or with a partner, and invited to choose how they would demonstrate their learning in a product.  Some of the product choices were to create a newspaper, brochure, presentation, screencast, game, map, children's book, and many others.  I have the blessing of being in a 1:1 Chromebook setting, and I took advantage of technology based tools with which I am familiar.

What did I hear from my students as I introduced this assignment?  I expected the usual groans and moans that might accompany a research project, but (and I believe it's because of the tone of invitation that was established with student choice) instead my students exclaimed, "I think this will be fun."  A few mentioned that they were excited to find out about a topic that interested them.  The music kids learned about music, the fashion minded kids investigated fashion, and so on.
The basic assignment is linked below if you're interested.

I would encourage you to send out the invitation to learn to your students by enhancing student choice.  Let me know how it goes!

Much Ado About Research Teaching Stations Elizabethan/Shakespeare Assignment

Three Reasons Screencasting is a Win-Win-Win

Three Reasons Screencasting is a Win-Win-Win

Students show their thinking
Students practice their thinking
Students engage in their own learning

Students show their thinking.  Instead of just writing in their answer, screencasting allows and even insists that students show the evaluation, inference skills, and critical thinking skills that went into problem solving.  Screencasting takes advantage of the introspective reflection, and, when incorporated into a lesson as a formative or summative assessment, screencasting allows students to verbalize and visualize their thought process.  Why is this a benefit?  Maybe I guessed at an answer, or I know the answer but can't evaluate it.  Maybe I just copied the answer from a friend.  Screencasting helps to ensure that the critical thinking process is verbalized and explained.

One use of screencasting I've used in class was for students to explain the influence of different persuasive techniques in their own persuasive writing.  They wrote a persuasive piece and screencasted how they hoped the audience would be impacted by their use of rhetoric.  This extra step extended their thinking and demanded self-evaluation and analysis.  Win.

Students practice their thinking.  When I have students deliver speeches using a slide presentation, I send them home with a slip that a parent signs stating that they have practiced their speech three times, and this practice is only mildly successful.  When I had my students screencast and watch their own screencasts as a form of practice, they practiced  many, many, many times without complaining, without prompting, and without hesitation.  The first student asked, "Can I redo my screencast?" and all of the others followed suit.  This intentional, focused practice and self-evaluation was not required or prompted by me; it was an organic extension of self-evaluation.  Students watched themselves on screen and wanted it to be just right, so they practiced and re-recorded numerous times.  Win. Win.

Students engage in their own learning.  Despite some students saying that they preferred to speak in front of a live audience instead of screencast (we mix it up), most of my students were more engaged in their own learning and reflection when I asked that they screencast their thinking.  No one wants to look foolish on camera (well, almost no one...), and most teens are so aware of peer reactions that they are much more invested in a recorded representation of their learning they are in a simple discussion or speech. Win. Win. Win.

Tools I've found successful for screencasting with students include Screencastify, Screencastomatic, and Movenote.  I love using screencasting for tutorials or directions, and find it's even better when students direct the learning by creating their own tutorials.

How have you used screencasting in the classroom and what are the benefits and drawbacks you have found?

The Book Trailer Project Google Innovator Application

The video here highlights The Book Trailer Project, my Google Innovator Application.

Don't count the days, make the days count.  I have this quote in my classroom near the door, and I view it everyday.  It's one of the first comments I make to students so that they can get to know me and what I'm about. It's also sort of an inside joke because I hate to count; numbers simply are not my game.  Even simple math often sends my head spinning.  So when I'm pondering what to write in my first blog post as "seeyoulatermrsschroeder", this is what comes to mind.

How can we make the days count more?  I live in a minimum of two worlds: teacher and mom.  And I daily try to navigate making the days count more and more because I see how quickly the clock spins in each of my worlds.  In my teacher world, it's suddenly October and almost the end of the first quarter.  In my family world, my oldest is in high school (what??) and my other two children have changed overnight from sticky toddlers to young men with underarm hair. To top it off, I have wrinkles. Sigh.

How can we make the days count in our classrooms?  This is the challenge for every teacher out there, and I certainly don't have the answer.  I do know from my personal experience, from my reading, and from my Twitter PLN that reaching out and making personal connections with our students is the number one way to impact students in a positive, impactful way.  Not test scores, or Lexile scores, or MAP percentiles....but eye to eye, face to face, human to human connections.  Can I ask my student about their pets, their music tastes, their hobbies, their family life, their favorites and make a connection?  It's a step, and my hope, my passion, is that I can be a positive influence on these young humans that have been entrusted to my care and guidance.  Maybe when they are interviewed for their first job and are asked if there was a teacher who inspired them, their answer will be, "Ummm.  Mrs. Schroeder.  Eighth Grade."  Success.

Why "See You Later, Mrs.Schroeder"?  I want them to remember my name (and it's pronunciation, SCHRAY-DER ).  I want my students to remember that I challenged them, that I cared for them, that I helped them find a book that they actually read and enjoyed.  I want them to remember that we laughed, we worked, and we learned.  I want them to remember that the days need to count.  So, I end my class every day with, "See you later."  My hope is that they respond, "See you later, Mrs. Schroeder!"  I tell them that it brings me joy to hear them say it, and it does.  But even more powerful in my purpose of this playful banter is that I feel reassured to know that they will remember some of the learning that we've done that has made the day count.