Teacher Spotlight: Vlogs: An Outlet for Student Voice and Creativity with Sophie O'Carroll

When students walk into Sophie O’Carroll’s AP Literature class at BMHS, they not only learn the curriculum necessary to succeed in the class, but also the skills necessary to succeed in life.  To enhance her curriculum and ensure that students are global-ready graduates, Sophie weaves several tech-forward projects into her lessons, one of which is her vlog project.

Vlogs have become a popular way for people to share information. As the name implies, vlogs are very similar to blogs, except they utilize video as the medium to share content. In this project, students form small groups based on novels they are reading in class. They each create a vlog to post their ideas and opinions regarding their reading to Flipgrid, which is a user-friendly platform that allows students to post/upload videos to a “grid” and then respond to one another.  In the first post, students share initial reactions and thoughts to the assigned reading, but also leave the audience with an open-ended question.  In the next post, they respond to other vloggers’ questions, and again, leave the audience with another open-ended question to ponder. This continues until the end of the novel. To create their vlog posts, students have the option to use their cell phones, Chromebooks, WeVideo, iMovie, and whatever other tools they choose, and then ultimately post each video episode to Flipgrid.

Throughout the project, students sharpen their oral communication skills while also exploring their personal creativity and voice in producing their own vlog.  In addition, Sophie is keenly aware of the critical thinking and problem solving skills that her students must utilize to put all the pieces of this project together.  She notes that this project requires students to think on their feet, but in a low risk environment. Students grapple with problems such as transferring files between devices, how to work around internet connection issues, and creating files in one platform while needing to post them to another.  These are all skills, however, that they will utilize in life beyond high school, so rather providing them specific instructions to accomplish their task, she promotes student inquiry and individual problem solving to reach the end goal. And while the vlog itself is the end goal in the students’ eyes, Sophie realizes that the learning that occurs along the way is something they’ll carry with them far beyond their high school years.