I started to think about the flipped
classroom after seeing a TED TV special on the Khan academy a year ago. I had
been looking for a way to give my students ownership of their learning
experience. I’ve often felt that my
strength as a storyteller has allowed me to entertain and engage students during
lectures and I was successful with some students but not with as many as I
wanted to be. Many of my students seemed to be going through the motions of
learning, writing down notes and completing worksheets. Further, students that
were having difficulty with homework would often give up at home and be
frustrated when they received a low grade on their homework. This motivated me to
explore the topic by reading Bergmann and Sam’s Flip your Classroom. The premise of the method described in the
book is to record a PowerPoint or lecture style lesson and post it online for students
to view before the next class. Students are encouraged to pause the video and
view it as many times as necessary to gain understanding of the concepts. The
following day, class time can be spent answering questions generated by the
previous night’s video, and also on activities and collaborative work to
support concept mastery. Since teachers don’t have to spend time lecturing,
they have time to work with individual students or small groups during that
time. I started to think about the
details of exactly how I would apply this method to my 10th grade Biology class. I started researching science
educators that used the flip method. I found that they had several things in
common. Most importantly, they all redirected attention away from the teacher
and put it on the learner.
Many teachers spoke of persuading
students to turn off “distractions” while they were watching the video and use
a note taking method such as Cornell to record questions that come up during
the video for discussion in class the next day. Others spoke of the reception
they received from students and the overall satisfaction they ultimately felt
as time passed and students were more successful.
OK, in my Dad’s words- Nothing to it but
to do it. On Mondays, my students always
receive an outline of the activities to come for that week. This week will look different from the last
one they received. There is no time set aside for lectures. Instead, there is
group discussion time where they will share the 5 questions they developed
while watching the video. I will be going over how to take Cornell notes and
develop good questions for discussion. There is flex-time to work on the
project due next week or watch the video at the library. I’m sure there will be
lots of questions and concerns- bumps in the road and angst. We are starting on
a new path. I will keep some things the same. They are used to having me grade
every thing they spend time on. To start,
I will give them credit for taking notes during the video and developing their
questions but I will have to minimize and change some of that to survive. They
will hopefully see the value these things have in helping them learn the
material and not need to receive points on everything they do to help them
learn. Stay tuned- I’ll let you know how it goes.
5 comments:
Connie- I think that this is a great idea! Please let me know how things go. Too often students are concerned about the "final outcome" -their grade for the project/test/quiz, but get lazy or "space out", or simply worry too much about what will get them that "A" and miss all of the important things such as group collaboration, and note taking. I think it is a great idea to give students credit for taking notes, and for students that may not test well- it affords them the opportunity to raise their grade with "credit checks" for participation in note taking and participation.
Connie,
I always thought of the Flipped Classroom as a cool tool, but until recently, I never truly saw the upside to using them. This year I have a handful of really intelligent students who have struggled handily on assessments. The conclusion I have reached is that they are spending more time processing during class notes, and as a result as they tune out and in, they miss major pieces of the learning. In order to rectify this, a simple solution is to utilize Flipped Classroom to put the lessons online so that the in-class time can be used to support and assist with any aspects of a lesson that the students didn't get.
Connie,
This sounds like an awesome plan! I am anxious to hear how it goes. I also have debated the upside of the flipped model and have recently being coming around to the idea more and more. I think your approach and plan truly benefits the students and places their understanding at the forefront.
Connie- Way to go with trying this! Can't wait to hear how it goes. I entertain "flipped classroom" each year however I guess my hesitation is both for the students home accessibility to the internet and also my internet accessibility in the classroom the next day for those that can't participate at home. I'm not ready to "give up" my daily teaching of topics/units to send it home for them to watch on their own. I think it's a great idea, but I guess I need to really think, plan and figure out how to handle the many students without access. Hopefully in the coming years, my school will become more technologically up to date and I will be able to offer my students the appropriate technology they will need.
I don't know much about the flipped classroom but in theory it sounds wonderful. I'd love to give my students more time in class with hands on experiences and different opportunities to expand their learning. Do all of your students have internet access though? Ann and I did our digital citizenship on access and we were surprised that there were so many people who don't have the access at home. It sounds great and I really hope it goes well for you Connie! I'm just thinking about all the roadblocks I would get and am a little skeptical. Good luck! Let us know how it goes because it sounds like we are all curious! :)
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