Recently, I have been approached by several people (2 people
can legally be considered several –correct?) to write about my experiences
“flipping” my classroom. After a
rather active #sschat tonight that I attempted to moderate regarding this
model; I felt the need to get some thoughts down on paper. What follows are those disjointed
thoughts.
Prior to those thoughts a few disclaimers:
1)
It is the middle of my summer so be gentle.
2)
I am not an expert on this model so be gentle.
With that said, I am going to concede some high ground to
people who have issues with the model or the term in general. Here are my concessions:
1)
Yes, this is still hw. I understand all the issues and opinions around hw in
general but I work in a district that strongly encourages hw. Y
2)
Yes, some kids will “never” complete their
hw. I would argue there are
numerous initiatives you could attempt to get those children to engage in any
sort of class.
Here are a few more thoughts before I really start:
1)
I did not coin the term “flipping” but like any
blanket term - it can be
manipulated in any number of ways.
Think of the numerous images your neighbors would think of when you say
the term “teacher”.
2)
Like a great pitcher in MLB (none of which can
be find in the NY Mets bull pen), “flipping” is one more pitch in my repertoire.
3)
Often, I hear about kids not having the tech at
home; I am sure there are a few cases where I would be forced to concede this
to you. I would like to
submit this to you; how many of your kids can sit in their room and watch a 5-9
minute video on their phone. My
kids don’t need a desk/pen or anything that they don’t normally have with them.
Step 1 – Back story.
After attending #educon and longer pattern of research, I
decided to “flip” my Freshman World History Class. We stayed “flipped” from basically February through
June. I have been blessed to steal
some ideas from great educators that I have worked with in brick and mortar
colleagues and my PLN that I lovingly refer to as my Twawgs (Twitter =
Dawgs). Ultimately, I flirted with
becoming an old school “Sage on the Stage” teacher too much early in my
career. Moving towards this model
would ensure I never ended up hating teaching or my career.
Step 2 – How It Worked.
After a few missteps, here is how it looked in my class by
June. Students were asked to watch
videos as HW. They were not asked
to take notes or do anything besides watch the video and think about what they
watched. I moved towards having
videos “due” on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday and Thursdays.
Class would begin with some form of discussion or practice
quiz on the videos. Less and less,
I would grade these quizzes.
More I used this to clear up confusion. We had some great discussions after the videos. Several of the discussions started with
simple prompts like – “This video reminded me of….” – “The thing I did not get
was…”.
Each unit had a list of objectives and students were allowed
to select from a list of ways to demonstrate understandings of these
objectives. Most units included
DBQs – where kids used primary source documents to answer questions.
- I believe 25 1:1 conversations are so much better than 1 25:1 conversation. “Flipping” took my handcuffs off. The videos allowed me to cover content in a valid professional way. It allowed me to use class time to speak with students individually regarding their understandings, their misconceptions, or their concerns.
- The trade off is so worth it. These videos and the model allowed me to do more activities in class. The best in-class discussion I have ever been a part of happened this year. I was able to step out of their way and they discussed serious issues regarding peace and justice. Being able to attempt lessons that looked like chaos (some kids working in a writing lab, others completing a reflection on a primary document, others structuring a debate) made it all worthwhile. This created opportunities for students to create content or articulate their beliefs. The best benefit I have received from this model is the amount of time – we got to spend working on reading or writing skills.
- Answer this questions – when do the kids need you? I feel like moving to this model, I was able to present for my kids when they truly needed me. I feel like when I was a kid, we sat and got the info and then were sent home to do the important/difficult stuff at home- alone! I would rather be in the room when the kids are doing work that is moving them up Blooms Taxonomy. In a way, I look at the typical pyramid structure of Blooms as an indicator of how much; I want to be in the room with the kids.
Hopefully, this year I will continue to improve as an
educator. Slowly but surely I am
getting better out of the kids way.
Thanks to tonight’s conversation, I have numerous ideas on how to better
implement this development in my instruction. Please feel free to reach out to me here or on
twitter to ask questions or (better yet) give me advice.
6 comments:
Great post; thanks for sharing your experiences and insight!
Since you are required to give homework, a 5-7 minute video seems about as innocuous as possible. I agree the point is to create opportunities for students to verbalize their thoughts and have conversations. The most important thing though, regardless of my stand on homework, is that it seemed to work for your class.
Great to hear that a fellow social studies teacher has committed to the flip. It was also interesting to see the #sschat response to the flipped class. I think there is much more common ground than one would expect by viewing the conversation.
Interesting how you mentioned Blooms, since I heard Ramsey Musallam discuss how he described flipped as a flip in Blooms as opposed to a flip in homework. He explains in the flipped learning podcast.
If interested, some fellow social studies teachers are posting their reflections to flipping the class here: www.flipped-history.com
Love to hear of other social studies flippers. I flipped my 7th grade history class for approximately the same amount of time that you did and am excited to improve it for this coming year. I look forward to reading more of your endeavors
Great post, Brad. There's always someone who will argue with anyone trying to be innovative-I've experienced the same at my school, for sure. But the feedback I've received from flipping, even at a small, start up level, has been tremendous. I love using Edmodo with the flipped approach because those engaging conversations happen immediately right after viewing, and I can refer back to the feed during and after...I love where you say "Answer this questions – when do the kids need you?" - when I keep this in mind, my teaching is always much improved!
Interesting read. I'd like to see an example of a video you had for your W.History students. Do you have a classroom website that students have access too?
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