Flippity for a mini-novel project online

We have one more week until break! WHEW! Between virtual teaching and a few long long months of my third trimester, I am exhausted! Good news: I am finishing up the book that I am writing with Florencia Henshaw! It won’t be ready for awhile since it will have to be edited etc, but I am thrilled about how it is coming together. Once that is put together (and the baby is here!), I am hoping that I will be able to focus a bit more back on the blog. Don’t expect anything TOO big- but hopefully I will publish something more than once a month. 🙂

Earlier this year, one of my colleagues mentioned Flippity, and it sounded great! (Then AnneMarie published this Flippity post and I thought- hmmm I should really check it out!) We are in the middle of reading El Ekeko in sixth grade, and I wanted to have a mini fun project for the week before break. I remembered those projects where students would create board games to represent a novel they were reading. However, most of the time was spent on things that didn’t necessarily show language growth or involve a ton of re-reading the book like creating and designing the game board and the game pieces. In this case, I have found that creating the game online focuses exactly on what you want it to- the questions and answers instead of the process of making the actual game!

Next week, I will have my students work in break-out rooms and create the game using some Flippity templates/spreadsheets in one class then we can play their games the following class! I will have my students work in groups of 2-3. Luckily with Google spreadsheets, they can all edit it together! Flippity has created spreadsheets that students can edit (or teachers!) and then, the program creates the games. The website is here. (Looking for an overview on how to use it? Check this out!) I plan on making copies of the spreadsheets that they would need and then share those with them, so they don’t have to search around the website initially. I will share the options of a game board, quiz show and scavenger hunt. (Click on template and it will automatically make a copy for you!) Once they have the spreadsheet, they can easily write in their questions and answers on that.

In order to get the actual game link (at the bottom of the page on another tab), they have to “publish to the web.” I will have my students share the spreadsheet back with me, so I can do this step. Then, I can reshare the link with them. The day of games, the students can run the games themselves through Zoom with the link I share with them! I have a small class that I am trying this with, but if you have larger classes, you could also put them in breakout rooms to play. This would also be effective if you are in a hybrid model as there are no game pieces to touch.

Other options? This would also be a great review AFTER the winter break to get students to review the book again. (Looking for other ways that I reviewed books after break? Check out this post.) For my youngest students, I want them to submit questions via Seesaw, then I can create the game boards!

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