What's in YOUR Backpack? Creating Empathy with Flip

As educators we are constantly seeking innovative tools that enhance student engagement, provide real-time insights and foster personalized learning experiences. Flip (formerly known as Flipgrid) has been one such platform that I’ve used time and again as it empowers students and gives all of them a voice. In this blog post, I’ll explore one way that I’ve used Flip in my middle school LA classroom and why this tool has been so successful.

Prior to reading the novel Refugee with my 7th graders, I wanted students to build empathy for individuals put in situations where they have to flee their homes with little possessions. I knew it would be a personal topic of discussion and wanted to find a way to pose the question of what they would take with them, but also give them a more engaging visual experience.

Enter Flip!

Setting up Flip was very easy to do. I made sure I had a separate Group created for each of my classes. And then I created a Topic entitled “What's In Your Backpack?” This is the prompt I gave them:

I included a video of refugees being asked to share what is in their backpack so students would have an exemplar to base their recordings from.  I also created my own recording to the prompt - demonstrating how I wished the students to create their video. I think its important to participate in assignments like this as a teacher because it not only sets the expectations of what I’m looking for, it also shows them that these videos don’t have to be perfect and we are all doing this together.

You can see the assignments and student responses here: https://flip.com/s/MSF8rthzDrX3

Then students recorded their own videos and showed the items that they would choose to bring along with them. They talked about the items and gave their rationale for bringing each of those items and what purpose it may serve them in an unknown future - similar to those of true refugees.

Some students opted to keep the video private, for only myself to view, while others were willing to let their classmates watch and respond. Flip allows for easy choices in set up – including privacy and recording length.

Managing Flip submissions as a teacher is easy too. All student videos arrive in the Group you created and your feedback to students can be easily written or video recorded.

The responses I received were fantastic. They were thoughtful and serious in their videos and it really helped to set the tone of our upcoming novel study. By putting kids into a more realistic situation - one that they recorded in their own homes, with their belongings in front of them - I think they were able to grasp the magnitude of the situation on not only the characters in the fictional book we were about to read, but as well as the real world connections I had planned to discuss along the way. This wasn’t just a ‘paper and pencil’ project. Putting actual tangible items into their backpacks and capturing that on camera really provoked the empathy I had hoped for. And using Flip definitely promoted that feeling.

Flip is a fantastic resource for any content area and I have loads more ideas to share on how to incorporate into your classes. Feel free to reach out with any ideas or questions.