How to use Flocabulary to teach digital citizenship and media literacy
In today’s ever-evolving tech landscape, we all—parents, caregivers, educators, and kids—need a toolbox of foundational skills to thrive in the digital world. Flocabulary’s rich library of video-based lessons is designed to build these skills by supporting vocabulary acquisition and comprehension across K-12 subjects. This includes digital citizenship content that promotes how students can navigate the digitalized world safely, responsibly, and respectfully. Flocab uses unique and memorable hip-hop lyrics to remind students how to manage their online presence, engage positively with others, and make informed decisions across digital platforms, from social media accounts to gaming systems.
Flocabulary’s role in online learning and digital citizenship
Flocabulary harnesses the power of hip-hop, storytelling, and visual art to introduce and engage students in essential digital citizenship skills. The Flocabulary library includes engaging videos and activities on digital literacy to spark meaningful conversations about online learning and digital citizenship.
Flocabulary’s digital citizenship lessons cover a range of topics, including online safety, ethical use of information, how to use social media responsibly, and respectful communication. By leveraging these lessons, you can help your students apply these critical skills to real-world scenarios, helping them better navigate the digital spaces they participate in every day.
New to Flocabulary? Teachers can sign up for a trial to access our lesson videos and assessment activities. Administrators can get in touch with us to learn more about unlocking the full power of Flocabulary through Flocabulary Plus.
Using Flocabulary to teach digital citizenship and responsible media creation
1. Utilizing Flocabulary in the classroom
In adopting edtech programs and tools, consider those that ladder up to your classroom’s learning objectives and goals (not the other way around!). Flocabulary combines quality content, sound pedagogy, and thoughtful technology to reach more students and meet their needs.
Did you know that rap music uses two to three times more words per song on average than other music genres? This makes it the perfect tool for vocabulary instruction! Our unique approach uses hip-hop to hook students’ attention, cement authentic connections, and bolster recall through animated videos, making Flocabulary a great companion resource for all subjects and all grades.
Flocabulary’s content can be shared in class with a whole group or individually and can be used to spark interest in new topics or reinforce learned knowledge. By incorporating quality edtech into your instruction, you can find and capitalize on digital content to support personalized learning. These lessons provide engaging online activities that help students understand the importance of digital citizenship, guiding them to make responsible choices online.
2. Understanding content creation and responsible media use
In this day and age, anyone can create content and publish it online. An important aspect of digital citizenship is respecting a content creator’s rights; part of this means understanding everything that goes into content creation.
We show students what this can look like by sharing our own comprehensive production process, detailing the four steps every Flocabulary lesson goes through:
- Research: The Flocabulary team relies on curriculum writers to create a research document outlining educational standards and learning objectives to guide activity development and song production. In this step, we want to highlight the importance of conducting thorough research, vetting our sources, and avoiding plagiarism by adding our style to the topic.
- Audio: Focused on recording, mixing, and mastering, the team uses the power of hip-hop to create authentically engaging songs to aid student comprehension by adding instrumentals and lyrics to a chosen topic.
- Video: Through multiple rounds of reviews, feedback, and edits, the team collaborates with artists and illustrators to craft a unique style and bring each song to life.
- Activities: Last but not least, the team creates resources such as the Vocab Cards, Vocab Game, Break It Down, Read & Respond, Quiz, and Printables to further reinforce each song’s key vocabulary terms and concepts.
We also model how to credit artists and cite resources in each original Flocab video. This shows students how they can respectfully use different resources to inspire their own work, such as exploring their own talents in the Lyric Lab.
3. Digital citizenship skills that last all year
With Digital Citizenship Week approaching (October 14-18), it can be easy to view #digcit as a yearly event, a one-and-done topic. But becoming a responsible digital citizen involves developing an ongoing set of skills your students need year-round.
Digital literacy is essential in equipping students with the skills to make informed choices and positively impact their digital communities. In 2023, four states (California, Delaware, New Jersey, and Texas) even signed digital literacy instruction into law to be taught in all grades K-12.
Flocabulary supports student digital literacy by continually rolling out new content on these topics. Our lessons cover crucial issues such as cyberbullying and plagiarism, in order to keep kids safe online and help students become savvy and ethical technology users. The accompanying activities provide additional practice and exposure at varying levels of rigor to scaffold instruction. Some of these core lessons include:
- What is the Internet?
- Internet Safety
- Screening Screen Time
- NEW: Being a Good Digital Citizen
- NEW: Types of Computers
- NEW: Caring for Technology
4. Digital literacy
Librarians, media specialists, and classroom teachers recognize the critical eye that today’s students must develop, whether they are researching projects, learning how to stay safe on social media, watching the news, or reading online articles. You are uniquely positioned to provide guidance on ethical information use, media literacy, and digital research skills. By teaching students how to access, evaluate, and use information responsibly, you help students become critical thinkers and informed digital citizens.
Our Flocabulary lessons support and enhance students’ digital literacy skills, enabling them to evaluate information critically, create responsible digital media and content, and interact safely and respectfully in digital spaces. These lessons strategically provide the necessary word exposure to support vocabulary acquisition and increase understanding and comprehension.
Ready for a comprehensive list of all of our lessons for your digital citizenship curriculum? Simply go to go.flocabulary.com/digital-citizenship to find lessons that you can weave across the curriculum, including Internet Safety and Being a Good Digital Citizen.
5. Media literacy
When it comes to media literacy in action, we aim to develop students into informed consumers and thoughtful creators. Core to media literacy is critical thinking and communication skills, two of the 4Cs of 21st-century learning. These are the five key questions one should ask when reading or listening to online content:
- Who created this message?
- What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?
- How might different people understand this message differently from me?
- What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in or omitted from this message?
- Why is this message being sent?
Flocabulary’s Week in Rap provides a curated and well-vetted option for learning about current events and real-world connections that can be added to your daily instruction. Our multimedia digital citizenship lessons use rigorous and authentically engaging instructional experiences to accelerate learning and vocabulary acquisition (including digital citizenship vocabulary words!). Check out our standards-aligned lesson about Fake News coupled with our Week in Rap lessons.
6. Building healthy digital habits with online behavior
At the end of the day, digital citizenship for students is all about instilling healthy habits so that we are well-informed and well-intentioned digital citizens. We strive to make each online interaction, every click, one that propels us toward our academic, social, and emotional goals. These online behaviors and habits are key to our overall well-being. Instilling common sense digital behaviors empowers students to navigate the online world responsibly and confidently.
Flocabulary is committed to helping educators build a positive school culture through digital citizenship and broader technology topics. We aim to empower students to become thoughtful and informed technology users who understand the significance of our digital footprints and how we can contribute positively to our school community. We all need daily reminders of how the landscape is evolving (hello, AI!) and how we can avoid a digital misstep. It’s important to teach students to be digital citizens who understand how to protect their personal information, avoid inappropriate content, and consume media responsibly. Keep healthy online habits top of mind, such as creating strong passwords and enabling two-factor authentication, by sharing these catchy lyrics and videos with your students:
Start using Flocabulary to teach digital citizenship
At Flocabulary, we aim to give students the confidence and knowledge to navigate the digital landscape with integrity and awareness through our growing suite of digital citizenship topics. Whether you’re looking to teach digital citizenship for elementary students or searching for digital citizenship lessons for middle school students or anywhere else on the K-12 spectrum, Flocabulary has you covered.
Flocabulary’s commitment to high-quality content ensures that you have the support to prepare students to navigate digital challenges throughout the academic year and beyond. Make this your year to introduce digital citizenship or refresh your current digital literacy content with Flocabulary’s ever-growing library of impactful lessons.
New to Flocabulary? Teachers can sign up for a trial to access our lesson videos and assessment activities. Administrators can get in touch with us to learn more about unlocking the full power of Flocabulary through Flocabulary Plus.
