Week 14: New Tool- BrainPOP

What is BrainPOP? 

BrainPOP is an educational platform that provides videos and resources to students. This site covers topics ranging from science and math to art and SEL. After students watch the videos they have different ways they can engage with the content. Students can take a quiz, create a video, find related readings and more. Teachers can choose to assign work or students can explore independently. While BrainPOP is not free teachers can buy a membership for their class without the district/school needing to provide a subscription. Additionally, families can purchase accounts for their students to use this tool at home. 

How does it work? 

Once you have a BrainPOP account you need to connect your students. BrainPOP is linked to Clever which is a single sign-on platform. If you do not use Clever, BrainPOP will give you a class code and your students can manually sign in and become apart fo your BrainPOP class. When all your students have joined your class you can begin assigning content. BrainPOP covers hundreds of different topics that teachers can look through to find materials that aligns with the content you teach in class. When a teacher finds a video they would like to assign they can either assign just the video or additional activities that can check for student understanding. With each video, BrainPOP has quizzes that students can take, they can make a movie based on what they learned, find related readings, play a game or complete a vocabulary activity related to what they learned. Teachers can assign whatever extension works best for their students or let them choose. Teachers can then assess the work their students completed and check for understanding. Additionally, teachers can have students use BrainPOP as an extension. Students have the ability to navigate the website at their own pace and find topics that they are interested in. 

How I use it in my classroom?

I mainly utilize BrainPOP for student research. My students struggle with finding helpful and clear resources. For our unit on Notable Americans I had my students find their Notable American on BrainPOP and take notes on the information they learned from the video. While the other sources my students were using were written, offering a video helped engage some of my lower readers. Additionally, I use BrainPOP for holidays and big events. BrainPOP is up to date with what is going on around the world. My students watched a BrainPOP on the coronavirus and this was able to answer a lot of questions and address some of the fears my kids had. 

Tips:
  • The first time using BrainPOP allow students to explore the site a their own pace. This can help with their engagement and excitement when using this tool. 
  • Go over your expectations with all the activities before you assign any extension. That way students will feel prepared to demonstrate their learning independently. 

How could it work in your classroom:

  • Assign a video and activity as homework on a topic you are working on in class. 
  • Have students use BrainPOP as a resource when working on a research project. 
  • As a way to launch a new unit. 
  • Assign videos to students who need additional support on a topic. 
  • Use as a rotation activity in class. 

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