…and even more coming all the time!

This month, we present a big batch of new videos for your enjoyment. They’re in a range of subjects, from Vocabulary to Language Arts to Math. These fourteen new videos cover Shakespeare, addition and subtraction, and more!

If you’d like to watch all of our videos, make sure to sign up for a free two-week trial to Flocabulary.

New Videos

Vocabulary

4th Grade Vocabulary: Kid Who Always Says the Wrong Thing
“Jimmy, do you like sports?”
“Yes, especially bananas.”
Learn ten fourth grade vocabulary words with Jimmy, who always says the wrong thing. Watch now.
 

5th Grade Vocabulary: Golden Dragon
Imagine if you had a golden dragon who could take you anywhere in the world! This song teaches ten fifth grade vocabulary words. Watch now.

7th Grade Vocabulary: In the Jungle
Take a trip deep into the jungle as you learn fifteen seventh grade vocabulary words. Watch now.

 
8th Grade Vocabulary: Back in the Jam
Watch this video to learn fifteen eighth grade vocabulary words as you get a quick run-down of hip-hop history. Watch now.

Language Arts

Grammar: Suffixes
Suffixes are an important clue to the meaning of a word. This song covers some of the most common suffixes in English. Watch now.
 

Shakespeare: Lullaby
This video depicts a scene from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which Oberon tricks his wife Titania as she sleeps. Watch now.

Shakespeare: Three Times
This song is a modern take on Antony’s famous speech from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Watch now.

Math

Addition & Subtraction: Challenge Rap: 0-10
With this challenge rap, students can practice their skills adding numbers from 0-10. Can you keep up when we go this fast? Watch now.
 

Addition & Subtraction: In Their Teens (15, 16 and 17)
Adding larger numbers can seem scary at first, but if you watch this video, it’ll be a cinch. Watch now.

Addition & Subtraction: Challenge Rap: 0-17
This challenge rap tests students’ ability to add numbers from 0 all the way to 17. Watch now.

Addition & Subtraction: Doubles +1
If you know your doubles, your doubles-plus-one won’t give you any trouble. Watch now.

Math Vocabulary: Money
This video teaches students about American money, including pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, and bills all the way up to $100! Watch now.

Roman Numerals
Roman numerals: numbers that look like letters. Watch this video to learn what all those letters mean. Watch now.

 
Circles: Circumference & Area
All you need is pi and the radius! This video teaches students how to calculate the circumference and area of circles. Watch now.

Like these videos? See hundreds more with a free trial to Flocabulary.

Here at Flocab HQ, we’ve been doing some spring cleaning. And lo and behold, we have discovered some gems among the dust and cobwebs! They are letters written by some Flocab students in 2010, voicing their concerns that there were not enough Flocab social studies videos to get them through their 7th grade history classes. We listened, and our Modern World History units were born. But we still enjoy reading these impassioned pleas from our most valued audience, and we think you will too.

Are you and your students pining for more Flocab jams? Send your adorable mail to:
Flocabulary
55 Washington St., Suite 259
Brooklyn, NY 11201
...

Keep Reading

…and even more coming all the time!

This month, we have six new videos coming at you! As always, we have new Word Up videos (including SAT vocabulary!), plus a bit of Reading and Writing Strategies and Science for good measure. As always, we have even more videos in the works and coming soon!

If you’d like to watch all of our videos, make sure to sign up for a free two-week trial to Flocabulary.

New Videos

Vocabulary

2nd Grade Vocabulary: You Don’t Know Everything About Me
Watch this video to learn ten second grade vocabulary words as you learn just how much you don’t know about these two kids. Watch now.

4th Grade Vocabulary: Why the Sea is Salty
This video retells a story explaining why the sea is salty as it teaches ten fourth grade vocabulary words. Watch now.

SAT Vocabulary: Shakespeare is Hip-Hop
The foundation of the English language is wordplay. Shakespeare did it, and hip-hop does it too. This song contains fifty-five SAT-level vocabulary words. Watch now.

SAT Vocabulary: Pop, Crackle and Snap
Listen to this bonus rap to learn twenty-six SAT-level vocabulary words. Watch now.

Reading and Writing Strategies

Test-Taking Strategies: Acing These Tests
Watch this video to learn some foolproof strategies to ace your next test. Watch now.

Science

Scientific Method of Madness
Teach or review the steps of the scientific method with scientist Galileo Galilei in this video. Watch now.

 
Like these videos? See hundreds more with a free trial to Flocabulary.

This week, we’ll be replacing one of our US history songs with two new songs on Flocabulary.com. ODWM with be swapped out for two new units: Indian Removal and Jefferson vs Hamilton.

This isn’t the first time we’ve swapped out a song. In the case of our US constitution song for instance, we felt the original track wasn’t up to our musical and lyrical standards. We’re replacing ODWM for different reasons: because a few of our lines were being interpreted in ways that we didn’t intend. Two lines in particular were often misunderstood.

The first misunderstood line was: “We’re talking about some Old Dead White Men.”

The title ODWM stands for Old Dead White Men. Some people have felt that this phrase is disparaging to the founding fathers. This was not our intention. We intended the phrase Old Dead White Men to be a comment on the fact that when we study the first years of our republic, we often focus on the political actions of the presidents or those who had a political voice (land-owning white men). This historical approach marginalizes those who didn’t have a political voice: women, American Indians and blacks. If you were a woman, a black person, an American Indian, you really didn’t have a chance to wield political power until much later in our country’s history. Glancing at the portraits of the presidents or founding fathers is a quick reminder that the title ODWM may seem scandalous, but is also factually correct.

But this is not clear enough from the song. It’s too easy to listen to the song and feel that we were dismissing the accomplishments of the founding fathers because of their age, gender and ethnicity. We were not. But our failure to clarify this point in the song itself is a large reason why we’re replacing it.

The second misunderstood line was: “Like Adolph Hitler, [Andrew Jackson] had a final solution.”

This line makes a clumsy and cliched comparison between Andrew Jackson and Hitler. Interestingly, conservative TV/radio host Glenn Beck defended this portion of the song when he was questioned about it. He said that: “It’s accurate. When you look at Andrew Jackson, what he did to the Indians is an abomination.” Historian Kenneth C. Davis has drawn a comparison between the wording of “Indian removal” and “final solution.” Both are passive, innocuous-seeming terms for what were brutal, genocidal campaigns.

But to seemingly equate the type of genocide waged by Hitler with the Indian wars and forced marches under Jackson is factually inaccurate and sloppy. Academics still debate whether or not the treatment of American Indians by European colonists can be characterized as genocide. No one has that debate regarding Hitler. This overly-simple comparison is the other reason we’re replacing the song.

In place of ODWM, we’re adding two new units. One new song is dedicated to Indian removal and written from the perspective of a Cherokee at that time, and the other is written from the perspective of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton as they argue over the size of the federal government. Our goal is not to brush the ugly parts of American history under the rug, but instead to teach American history in a way that is thought-provoking, interesting and accurate.

 If you have any questions about our approach or were in the middle of teaching ODWM, please contact us. If you’d like a copy of the ODWM mp3, you can download it from iTunes here.

Check out what we stumbled upon in the library!

It’s our very own SAT Vocabulary book, with annotations in Chinese! Now, we do not in any way advocate writing in library books (We’ve got your back, librarians.), but we did think it was pretty cool that a Chinese speaker was studying up on English vocab using our SAT prep songs. You can explore additional ideas about using Flocabulary for English Language Learners.

And the Flocab-China connection doesn’t stop there! Remember last year’s blog post on translating Flocabulary into Chinese? We were contacted by Isabella, a postgraduate student in China who wanted to bring Hip-Hop US History to Chinese students. So she and her team took it upon themselves to translate the lyrics to every song!

Want to learn more about China? Check out our Modern China and Ancient China songs!

Here at Flocabulary, there’s no one we love more than an inspirational teacher. We are so excited to take this week to celebrate the great gifts that our teachers give us. We want to share some videos and stories about teachers who are making a difference every day in their schools and their communities.

1. Ten inspiring teachers give TED talks

Click to watch all 10 TED talks.

2. Creative teachers from Jennings High School in St. Louis motivate their kids for testing

3. Five exemplary teachers discuss their strategies for success

Click to see the other videos and read the full article.

4. Ideas, videos and more for celebrating National Teacher Day from the National Educational Association

Click to see all of NEA’s resources for celebrating teachers.

Teachers, you never stop inspiring us! Thank you for all that you do. Share a note about a teacher who inspired you in our comments section.

Upcoming ELA Songs

• Fiction vs. Nonfiction
• The Writing Process (POWER mnemonic)
• Plot Elements
• Point of View (1st, 2nd & 3rd person)
• Persuasive Language
• Who, What, When, Where, Why
• Using Descriptive Language
• Word Choice (connotation & denotation)
• Five Paragraph Essay
• The Research Process
• Context Clues
• Main Idea
• Source Credibility
• Note-Taking Methods
• Making Inferences
• Bibliography
• Ode to the Library Media Specialist

Upcoming Science Songs

• Parts of a Plant
• Pollination
• The Food Chain
• Adaptation
• Hurricanes
• Life Cycles
• Natural Resources
• Roles of Water
• States of Matter
• Wave Properties
• Gravity
• What Is Science?

Are you as excited as we are?! We hope so! Stay tuned in the 2013-2014 school year for these new topics and more. In the mean time, check out this month’s new additions:

New This Month

6th Grade Vocabulary: Yes We Can

Watch this video to learn fifteen vocabulary words for the sixth grade. “Yes We Can” tells the story of a Latina woman who fights to help her people. Watch now.

6th Grade Vocabulary: We Innovate

Watch this autobiographical Flocab video to learn fifteen vocabulary words for the sixth grade. Hear a bit of the Flocabulary founders’ philosophy along the way! Watch now.

7th Grade Vocabulary: Road Trip

Watch this video to learn fifteen vocabulary words for the seventh grade while you hit the road for an epic road trip! Watch now.

Social Studies: Postcolonialism

In this video, students will learn about the colonization of India and Africa as well as the works of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Watch now.

Social Studies: US Constitution

In this video, students will immerse themselves in the writing of the US constitution in a rap featuring John Locke, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Watch now.

We are SO excited to finally share our new website, which is lookin’ fresh from its back-to-school makeover. You’ll probably notice that everything is prettier, but there have been some major feature upgrades as well. Make sure you check out all of the handy new tools in our toolbox!:

1. CCSS Alignment Guide

We know that Common Core alignment is a major concern for many of our teachers. That’s why we made it easier than ever to browse Flocabulary units by Common Core standard. With our new Standards Alignment guide, you can browse by ELA or math as well as by grade level. See at a glance what videos we have for your specific standard. Explore now!

2. Revamped Unit Pages

Our unit pages are easier to navigate than ever before. You can now turn on Classroom View to optimize the site for projection in front of the class. Menus will instantly disappear, leaving a clean view of the video and the lyrics for you to share with your students. Videos are now higher quality and larger. Clickable Lyrics are back and better than ever; click on a highlighted lyric to bring up an info box and learn more. You’ll also notice that our interactive features — Challenge Questions and Fill in the Blanks — are now easily accessible via tabs on the top of each unit. Printable lyrics, activities and tests can be found on the right of the unit under “Handouts.” Below the handouts, you can quickly view recommended grade levels, CCSS alignment and a unit description.

3. Favorites

Do you find yourself returning to the same unit over and over again? Or wanting to have a set of videos ready to roll for a lesson? Now you can easily save favorite units to one place. On any unit, click the Star next to “Add Favorite,” and that unit will be saved to your Favorites. Click the Star button on the top toolbar, next to “My Account,” to see the videos you’ve saved.

4. Search

Looking for a specific unit by name or topic? Finding the right unit has never been easier. Use our new search toolbar to quickly find material that fits your needs.

5. How It Works

Need a quick overview or refresher on how to implement Flocabulary in your classroom? Visit our How It Works page anytime for a tour of all of our features, from videos to assessment. And if you’re looking for inspiration, make sure to check out the “Projects and Games” tab for out-of-the-box ideas.

6. Flocab, Month by Month

If you’re looking for seasonal activities, look no further than Flocab, Month by Month. This section is organized by month to facilitate easy planning for this month or the next. Want lesson ideas for election season in November? How about final exams in May? Or maybe even the first day of school? You’ll find it all on Flocab, Month by Month.

7. Spread the Love

Every day, we get amazing emails from educators who want to share their Flocabulary stories. We are thrilled to finally showcase their wonderful words and smiling faces on our website at Flocab Stories. And if you have your own story to share, you can submit it easily here.

Phew! That sure is a lot of new content! We hope you have a blast exploring everything our new site has to offer. As always, don’t hesitate to contact us with questions, comments or concerns.

BROOKLYN (AUGUST 15, 2013) Flocabulary, an online library of educational hip-hop videos, today announced the launch of a revamped site with new features designed to help teachers implement Common Core State Standards. The product release also includes 17 new CCSS-aligned videos for English Language Arts.

With the new deployment, all Flocabulary units for math and ELA are aligned to Common Core Standards. Teachers can now navigate based on grade, subject and standard, and search using key words.

“Our goal is to make educational content more accessible for teachers and more engaging for students,” says Alex Rappaport, Flocabulary’s Co-Founder and CEO. “These new features will help teachers use Flocabulary more effectively to meet their CCSS objectives and bring their lessons to life.”

With the addition of new CCSS-aligned units for ELA, Flocabulary has expanded its robust library of content for teaching the Common Core in grades K-12. Topics include reading strategies like “Main Idea” and “Context Clues,” and writing strategies like “Using Descriptive Language” and “Point of View.” For older students, there are several videos about the research process, including “Note-Taking Methods” and “Source Credibility.” These new units have made Flocabulary’s existing library of CCSS-aligned resources for math and ELA more comprehensive.

For teachers who want to explore the resources, Flocabulary offers a free two-week trial of its digital subscription program. Schools can register for 30-day trials which provide access for all teachers and students. Both options provide unlimited access to all songs, videos and lessons. Paid subscriptions are available starting at $7/month or $63/year for an individual teacher, or $1200/year for a school building.

About Flocabulary
Flocabulary is an online library of songs, videos and activities for grades K-12. Hundreds of thousands of teachers use Flocabulary to supplement their instruction and engage students. Our team of artists and educators is not only committed to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child. For more information, visit www.flocabulary.com.

Brooklyn, N.Y., August 4, 2014 – Flocabulary, an online library of educational hip-hop songs and videos, announces that its The Week in Rap series has been selected by Wisconsin Media Lab as a new resource to be made available for all educators and students in the state. Starting August 1, Flocabulary’s original weekly current events series for kids is available to Wisconsin residents at WIMediaLab.org, as a result of a unique licensing partnership.

“We are absolutely thrilled to be partnering with Wisconsin Media Lab, an organization that shares our commitment to providing students and teachers with access to high-quality educational resources,” said Alex Rappaport, CEO and Co-Founder of Flocabulary.

Wisconsin Media Lab collaborates with educators throughout the state to curate cost-free classroom content designed to meet the unique needs of educators and students. The Week in Rap was selected by Wisconsin Media Lab after a student recommended the series during a call for suggestions to the organization’s community. After an evaluation period by the Wisconsin Media Lab’s community of users, The Week in Rap was chosen for the organization’s collection of educational programs.

“Wisconsin educators have been asking for a current events program. The Week in Rap is spot-on,” said Kristin Leglar, Content and Outreach Manager at Wisconsin Media Lab. “The Week in Rap is engaging, will appeal to many students and ultimately increase student achievement. Wisconsin Media Lab is ecstatic about our partnership with Flocabulary.”

The Week in Rap is a hip-hop music video series highlighting top domestic, international and pop-culture news each week. Schools and educators across the country implement the series with their students to generate classroom discussion and written reflection on important news stories. Each video in The Week in Rap comes with interactive lyrics, allowing students to access more information and additional coverage of the news items featured. Fill-in-the-blanks and activities, such as crossword puzzles or trivia quizzes, also accompany the videos. Flocabulary produces content for all K-12 grade levels spanning the core academic subjects, including math, science, social studies, ELA and vocabulary, in addition to The Week in Rap. Flocabulary’s math and ELA resources are aligned to the Common Core, and its vocabulary program has demonstrated effectiveness in improving student achievement on state reading tests.

About Flocabulary
Flocabulary is a Brooklyn, NY-based online library of educational hip-hop songs and videos for grades K-12. Over 20,000 schools use Flocabulary to engage and inspire students. The company’s team of artists and educators is not only committed to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child. For more on Flocabulary, visit www.flocabulary.com or connect with us on Twitter or Facebook.

About Wisconsin Media Lab
Wisconsin Media Lab is a division of the Educational Communications Board. The multimedia content available at WIMediaLab.org connects to Wisconsin’s academic standards and is vetted by practicing educators. Wisconsin Media Lab’s goal is to provide Wisconsin educators with high-quality multimedia resources that engage students, inspire creativity, cultivate critical thinking, explain difficult content and improve student achievement. Discover hundreds of classroom resources at WIMediaLab.org, then find lesson ideas and giveaways at Wisconsin Media Lab’s Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook pages.

Brooklyn, N.Y., November 12, 2014 – Flocabulary, producer of educational hip-hop videos, today announced a new content series for teaching financial literacy. The collection of 12 hip-hop videos and accompanying classroom activities supports lessons on budgeting, college loans, credits cards and other financial literacy topics. Flocabulary produced the videos in partnership with The City University of New York (CUNY) and the NYS Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC).

“We know that uninformed financial decisions can have a long-lasting negative impact on students,” said Elsa Magee, Acting President of HESC. “Our partnership with CUNY and Flocabulary allows us to provide practical financial literacy education that connects with students in an engaging manner, increases knowledge and helps bring about positive action on the part of students.”

The new series comes at a time of increased emphasis on personal finance education across the nation: this year, 17 states required a high school personal finance course be taken – nearly triple the number of states with this requirement in 2004. In addition, study results released this July demonstrated a financial literacy gap between U.S. teens and their international peers. In the study, American 15-year-olds performed near the average in an assessment of financial literacy, scoring lower than students in China, Australia and Estonia. More than one in six U.S. teens did not reach the baseline level of proficiency in the subject.

“Teachers and students have come to rely on Flocabulary to bring educational content to life across academic subjects,” said Alex Rappaport, co-founder and CEO of Flocabulary. “Personal finance can be a little dry and inaccessible for kids and adults, so we saw this as an opportunity to use our unique approach to teach these important skills and prepare students for life beyond the classroom.”

Each of the twelve units in Flocabulary’s new series teaches a financial literacy topic with an original hip-hop video, providing a subject overview to engage students. Corresponding interactive lyrics offer in-depth explanations of concepts covered, and classroom activities allow students to demonstrate personal finance knowledge through hands-on practice. Each unit in the series incorporates key financial vocabulary to reinforce students’ financial fluency. The series aligns with The Council for Economic Education’s National Standards for Financial Literacy.

“Students need this information to help them understand the real world and make better connections to it,” said Marie Green, a middle school social studies teacher in Michigan who uses the new financial literacy videos in her classroom. “We are always looking for new and innovative ways that reach out to students. Flocabulary does that.”

The complete financial literacy series is now available at www.flocabulary.com.

About Flocabulary
Flocabulary is a Brooklyn, NY-based online library of educational hip-hop songs and videos for grades K-12. The content library includes resources to support instruction in math, science, social studies and ELA, in addition to vocabulary, current events and life skills. Over 20,000 schools use Flocabulary to engage and inspire students. The company’s team of artists and educators is not only committed to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child. For more on Flocabulary, visit www.flocabulary.com or connect on Twitter or Facebook.

Brooklyn, N.Y., December 2, 2014 – “Coders change the world when they’re puttin’ in the work.” It’s just one of many reasons to code, according to Flocabulary’s newest educational hip-hop video. In time for this year’s Computer Science Education Week, Flocabulary announces a free video highlighting the top ten reasons to code to engage students in computer science.

Computer Science Education Week takes place this year December 8-14, and is an initiative led by Code.org to encourage students to become interested in computer science. With “Top Ten Reasons to Code,” Flocabulary hopes to contribute to the movement of making coding accessible to young people by helping to explain what coding is and why it is an important 21st century skill. The video aims to contextualize how coders are solving problems in the world around us, highlights the perks of working in the tech industry, and also emphasizes the importance of gender equality in the field of computer science.

“I think we’d all take a few more computer science classes if we could do it over again,” says Flocabulary co-founder and CEO Alex Rappaport. “The fact is, programming is something everyone at a 21st-century company should have some exposure to, and good developers are ridiculously hard to find these days. We made this video to build on the momentum behind coding education and hopefully inspire the next generation of students to pursue careers in tech.”

“Top Ten Reasons to Code” is one of several forthcoming STEM videos for Flocabulary in 2015. The new video is available on Flocabulary’s webiste at https://www.flocabulary.com/coding and on Youtube.

About Flocabulary
Flocabulary creates educational hip-hop videos for students in grades K-12. Over 20,000 schools use Flocabulary’s standards-aligned videos, activities and lessons to engage students and increase achievement across the curriculum. The company’s team of artists and educators is committed not only to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child. For more on Flocabulary, visit www.flocabulary.com or connect on Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook.

Contact:
Molly Cronin
Flocabulary
molly@flocabulary.com
718-852-0105 Ext. 28

Brooklyn, N.Y., July 21, 2015 – Today Flocabulary announced the launch of a new suite of features to help teachers, schools and districts assess student knowledge and diagnose needs for differentiation and intervention. In addition to the educational hip-hop videos and interactive activities Flocabulary is known for, each instructional unit now features an auto-graded formative assessment for students. Updated features include a new dashboard for teachers to assign units and analyze student results to inform their instruction.

“Teachers have enjoyed using Flocabulary’s videos and activities to engage students and supplement instruction across the curriculum,” says Flocabulary co-founder and CEO Alex Rappaport. “Our goal with these new features is to allow our customers to use the platform to not only demonstrate student achievement but also to diagnose knowledge gaps and differentiate instruction.”

Using the program’s new features, teachers will have the ability to create classes or student groups on their user dashboards and assign Flocabulary instructional units to students directly. The dashboard features a series of reports that allow teachers to review quiz results at the individual student level and at the classroom level, and make data-informed decisions about planning further instruction. The assessment and reporting features are available to all schools and districts that subscribe to Flocabulary’s online program.

Assignments overview in teacher dashboard

Comprehension Analysis grid in teacher dashboard

“The enhanced teacher dashboard affords teachers the ability to not only differentiate their instruction, but also to better monitor student progress,” said Carl Bucciantini, Technology Integrator at Auburn School Department in Auburn, Maine. “With the increased reliance on data being used to inform instruction, these tools are a great addition to any teacher’s toolbox.”

To support this roll out of student-facing features, Flocabulary has updated its privacy policy and signed the Student Privacy Pledge, introduced by The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) and The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).

“With more data in our system to drive student results reporting, we wanted to be on the forefront of student privacy and security,” says Flocabulary Product Director Aliza Aufrichtig. “Flocabulary has set the bar for engaging curricular content and now we’re in a position to lead the industry in the right direction when it comes to respecting the sanctity of student data.”

About Flocabulary
Flocabulary creates educational hip-hop videos for students in grades K-12. Over 35,000 schools use Flocabulary’s standards-aligned videos, interactive activities and assessments to engage students and increase achievement across the curriculum. The company’s team of artists and educators is committed not only to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child. For more on Flocabulary, visit www.flocabulary.com or connect on Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook.

Contact:
Molly Cronin
Flocabulary
molly@flocabulary.com
718-852-0105 Ext. 28

Last week, we rolled out some brand new features on our site. We’re really excited about how these updates will not only help teachers to check student comprehension but also to use Flocabulary for planning, differentiation and intervention in the classroom. Our new online assessments offer students a more interactive experience, allowing them to demonstrate what they learned from our videos and activities. And with these student features, we’ve created some great new assigning and reporting tools for teachers, too!

Explore our new features and what they’ll bring to your classroom below:

Check comprehension with a quiz
Now, in addition to the videos and activities you see in all of our instructional units, you’ll also find online, auto-graded formative assessments for students. See how the quiz fits into our updated recommended lesson sequence by checking out the new video on our Lesson Resources page.

New quiz feature for students

Assign a unit
We’ve updated our our teacher dashboard, so educators can now set up classes or student groups on their Flocabulary accounts. Teachers can quickly and easily assign units directly to students, notifying the group about work to complete when they login to our site. Assign a unit to the whole class for homework or as an in-class activity, or create groups to support differentiated instruction – the assignment feature creates more options for integrating Flocabulary in the classroom seamlessly.

My Classes in teacher dashboard

Use reporting tools for planning
Our new teacher dashboard includes several handy reports to check in on assignment progress and view students’ quiz performance (see more about the reporting tools here). Teachers can scroll through their class list to check out individual student scores or use the Comprehension Analysis grid to see how the group performed as a whole. Whether identifying trends in student understanding or pinpointing areas for reteaching or independent practice, use these tools to make more data-informed decisions for planning instruction. And with individual student logins, assignment notifications and quizzes to complete right on our site, the updates make Flocabulary an even better blended learning tool for students.

Comprehension Analysis grid of quiz results in teacher dashboard

Our assessment and reporting features are available for school-wide and district subscriptions. Have a school subscription and want student assessments enabled? Get in touch with us! Have questions about how the assessments or new teacher tools work? Check out our FAQ page. Have a school-wide subscription, but don’t want to use the new features? Don’t worry – we still have our shared student logins available for schools that prefer to implement Flocabulary that way.

To support this roll out of student-facing features, we’ve updated our privacy policy and signed the Student Privacy Pledge. Check out our new privacy policy here.

Flocabulary, creator of educational hip-hop videos, activities and assessments, today announces the launch of TheWeek in Rap Junior, a weekly program that engages elementary students in cross-curricular learning through age-appropriate news stories. With a new video, standards-based exercises and an interactive creative challenge each week, the dynamic series provides a unique platform to teach core subjects through real-world news and promote the development of important skills like reading, writing and critical thinking. The new program reflects Flocabulary’s commitment to bringing value to a wider range of students and educators while continuing to deepen and enrich the curricular experience on its online learning platform.

“We have learned that helping students make connections to the broader world around them is a powerful way to bring the core curriculum to life and get kids actively participating in the learning process,” says Flocabulary CEO Alex Rappaport.

The Week in Rap Junior is a spin-off of The Week in Rap, Flocabulary’s popular program for grades 5-12. All units in the new series start with an educational hip-hop video, offering students a selection of news stories, and emphasizing age-appropriate vocabulary pertinent to each story. With an emphasis on creating connections to elementary science and social studies curricula, the program draws on global and domestic news to build on students’ existing knowledge while introducing new themes and concepts, from countries and cultures, to innovations and discoveries. Activities included in each edition are inspired by stories highlighted in the week’s video, and provide opportunities to develop core skills like reading, writing and critical thinking. Each weekly unit also includes a contest with an interactive challenge to engage students in the creative process. A winner will be chosen each week and featured in an upcoming video. Educators new to Flocabulary can sample the first editions of the The Week in Rap Junior series free at flocabulary.com. The series starts weekly production in early September.

“In the process of developing the program, elementary educators we spoke with were enthusiastic about a resource that naturally integrates social studies and science content into their curriculum,” says Emily Helfgot, Curriculum Director at Flocabulary. “We also know that there is a huge push to get students writing and creating, and we built each Week in Rap Junior offering with activities that ask students to form opinions, organize their thinking, and produce work that is thoughtful and original.”

Beyond TheWeek in Rap Junior, Flocabulary continues to create new content across subject areas, while building out entirely new subjects for 21st-century learners. Last month, the company announced the release of auto-graded assessments and data tools to help educators use Flocabulary for planning, differentiation and intervention.

Flocabulary offers free trials for teachers, schools and districts year-round. For more information on Flocabulary, visit www.flocabulary.com.

About Flocabulary
Flocabulary creates educational hip-hop videos, interactive activities and online assessments for students in grades K-12. Over 35,000 schools use Flocabulary to engage students and increase achievement across the curriculum. The company’s team of artists and educators is committed not only to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child. For more on Flocabulary, visit www.flocabulary.com or connect on Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook.

Flocabulary is guided by a mission to engage students and increase achievement across the curriculum. But just how well do we do that? To find out, in June we invited classroom teachers who use Flocabulary to complete a multiple choice survey about how their students respond to our videos and activities.

We wanted to examine three branches of engagement:

• Behavioral engagement – a measure of persistence and participation, and of complying with classroom rules.
• Emotional engagement – a measure of students’ feelings about school, their teachers, and their classwork.
• Cognitive engagement – a measure of how students feel about their abilities to complete work and how hard they’re willing to focus.

Because student engagement is, in part, a measure of how invested a student is in learning and applying knowledge, it has strong ties to academic outcomes. As examples: a behaviorally engaged student is more likely to listen and participate in classroom discussions; an emotionally engaged student is less likely to skip school and more likely to respond to teacher directions; a cognitively engaged student is more likely to focus on and work through tasks he or she perceives as difficult.

Across the board, teachers attribute engagement and achievement benefits to Flocabulary, but teachers who use Flocabulary more often — weekly or more — report the strongest results. For instance:

• 96.5% report that students focus on Flocabulary longer than on other lessons
• 89.4% report their students work harder on all subjects because of Flocabulary
• 95.6% report Flocabulary increases achievement
• 96.4% believe Flocabulary increases engagement in school, generally
• 88.6% believe that their students are more invested in school due to Flocabulary
• 99.1% report that students voluntarily participate during Flocab activities (vs 72.8% for non-Flocab activities)
• 100% report that students complete Flocabulary activities when asked
• 85.1% report that their students’ behavior has improved since using Flocabulary
• 90.3% report that Flocabulary increases critical thinking amongst their students
• 97.3% report that it increases retention
• 87.6% report that Flocabulary increases test-taking ability

Based on the strength of these responses, we are confident that Flocabulary has the
ability not only to engage students across all three metrics of engagement, but also to improve academic outcomes. To see more results from Flocabulary, please visit: https://www.Flocabulary.com/results/

Here at Flocab HQ, we’ve been thinking a lot about the news topics that seem to come up week to week. For every Week in Rap video we release, we try to make sure to give you a quick summary of a bunch of major headlines – and sometimes, we don’t have time to dive deep into the larger, important issues (we’re working with a two-minute rap video, you know?!).

That’s why we’ve decided to kick off a new type of video – the Week in Rap Extra. With this series, we’re providing a more in-depth resource to help explain complex topics and events. We will release these videos throughout the year as different issues dominate the news cycle –  you can use them alongside our regularly scheduled Week in Rap programming.  And like our weekly videos, you’ll see each WIR Extra video comes with challenge questions, interactive lyrics and activities for classes looking to spend more time on the subject.

For our first edition, we decided to cover ISIS, since the the Week in Rap has featured many headlines about the group over the last year (because of ISIS’s nature, this video is appropriate for students grades 5 and up). To create this video, we did a lot research, looking at reputable news sources (like the ones we link to in our interactive lyrics) to offer the background and context you might be looking for. We hope this video helps you learn and talk about a topic that can be confusing and scary.

With the launch of our first edition of Week in Rap Extra, we’d love to hear what you think! Share any thoughts and feedback by filling out this quick survey. We’re all ears – and we’ll keep your answers in mind when we create our future editions.

Breaking news: we’ve got a fresh weekly program for elementary students called The Week in Rap Junior! Drawing on stories from the news, the program teaches students in grades K-5 about the world while reinforcing core skills across the curriculum. And like its popular older cuz (The Week in Rap, for grades 5 and up), The Week in Rap Junior will serve up new videos and activities every Friday (starting after Labor Day)!

So what will you find when you tune in to The Week in Rap Junior?

“Back to you, Robin”
You’ll get to know Robin Cruz, our host, along with her sidekicks – reporters in field, Corey Lox and Jean LeBlanc, and Weatherman Bob, who happens to be a fish.

Relevant stories to bring the curriculum to life
With younger students in mind, we’ll select stories that create relevant connections to elementary science and social studies curricula. We’ll also use maps, graphs and other text features each week to support reading and math literacy.

News stories in the series will build on students’ existing knowledge, while introducing new concepts, from countries and cultures, to innovations and discoveries! We’ll also include stories about young people doing inspiring things that students can relate and aspire to.

Cross-curricular vocab
In each video, you’ll find new key terms from the stories highlighted on screen and defined in context, so students acquire new vocabulary as they watch each week. This vocabulary is relevant across subjects – add it to a classroom word wall to use throughout the year to help with reading and writing instruction!

Activities that challenge students to think critically
As with all of our units, The Week in Rap Junior comes with activities to promote development of important skills like reading, writing and critical thinking. Weekly activities will help students practice organizing their thinking with graphic organizers, and expressing themselves in the written word through thoughtful, non-fiction writing prompts.

A chance to win a shout out for your school!
Activities each week will give students the chance to be recognized for their creative work through our Shout-Out contest! Every week, we’ll spotlight a winning school in The Week in Rap Junior video.

And because we want all elementary educators and students to get the chance to check out The Week in Rap Junior, we’re offering the first editions free! If you’re new to Flocab, you can also sign up for free trial here. We can’t wait to hear what you think about The Week in Rap Junior – let us know in the comments!

The Flocab team skipped a few pool parties these past few months – we spent the summer hard at work! Since last fall, we’ve added nearly 100 new units to support learning across the curriculum, and we’re not slowing down! As you kick off the first few weeks of school, here’s a recap of the new things you’ll find on Flocabulary.

The Week in Rap Junior
We just launched our weekly news program for students in grades K-5, The Week in Rap Junior! With a new video, standards-based exercises and a shout-out contest each week, the series connects real-world news to elementary science and social studies curricula and promotes the development of important skills like reading, writing and critical thinking. Read more about The Week in Rap Junior in our recent blog post here.

Geography
You talked and we listened! We added a new collection of geography units – part of our social studies resources for elementary and middle school – based on popular requests from our educator community. We rolled out new units this summer like “Longitude and Latitude,” “Landforms & Bodies of Water,” “Five Themes of Geography,” and our very latest – “Oceans.”   Check ‘em out – and check back soon to see even more!

Social & Emotional Learning
Maybe you’ve seen the first few units in one of newest subjects, SEL! The videos tell relatable narratives – through rhyme of course – to help students learn about topics like bullying, conflict resolution and managing frustration. During the fall, we’ll continue to support learning of more important SEL skills with new units on empathy, managing worry, active listening and more.

Plus – new features: assessment, planning and differentiation!
Over the summer, we announced some major updates to our site with student assessment features and reporting tools for teachers. With auto-graded quizzes now on every unit, educators can assign our units directly to students online! And with a series of reports to check assignment progress and quiz performance, educators can use Flocab to make data-informed decisions for planning instruction. Have questions about how the assessments or new teacher tools work? Check out our FAQ page.

Tell us what you think about Flocab’s freshest in the comments below. And don’t forget – if you’re new to Flocab – you can try our resources free by signing up for a trial here.

We want Flocabulary to work for every one of your students, in every classroom setting. One of the top-requested features we heard from teachers was to have the ability to control the speed of our videos. Well, we listened. Now, you can adjust the speed of every video on Flocabulary!

There are two big reasons we developed this feature. First, we want to make Flocabulary more accessible. If the content is presented too quickly for your students, now you can adjust the speed so that the lyrics are more easily understood. And secondly, we want Flocabulary to be more useful. You can listen to a song once at full speed, and then slow it down while students read along with the lyrics or write out the fill-in-the-blanks to support deeper learning experiences.

Try it yourself: in the upper left corner of any video, click the button that says “Original Speed.” There, you’ll find two other speed settings to choose from. And don’t worry! That button disappears when the video plays so it won’t disrupt your Flocab viewing pleasure.

Teachers and students alike can now slow down every Flocabulary video to improve comprehension, focus on specific ideas and make it easier to read along! Let us know your ideas for using the speed adjustment feature in the comments below!