You’ve Started Your Flipped Classroom, Now What???

About a month ago, we posted the first of Jennifer Hlentza’s and Kristi Vilberg’s guest blog series (check out Part 1 & Part 2) regarding how to flip your classroom. Particularly, we discussed how to use tools to create videos, find a hosting site for them, and post content to a discussion forum, but what we didn’t have time to discuss was how much the teacher’s role changes in this model and how to adjust.

Pacing of the Flipped Classroom

The first year or so that we flipped our classes, it was tremendously chaotic and always felt like we were swimming upstream. Students seemed to not understand the expectations, couldn’t get access when we needed them to, or just were forgetful to complete the assignments. A big change we instituted this year was with the pacing of each unit (roughly 2 weeks of double-period instruction). Instead of assigning a video every night (or every other night), we now front-load our videos (so the entire unit is posted as soon as the previous unit ends). We found that doing this allows more students to both self-regulate their schedule of when they watch the videos as well as lessen the confusion of what assignments are due when. An added bonus is that the teacher now doesn’t have to worry about which videos are posted on specific days since everything is up all at once.

In this model, the first week of a unit is exclusively for students to watch the videos and learn the content. We find that this gives better support to our in-class instruction, so much so that recently several of our students have come to class and exclaimed “Hey, this is so much easier to learn now that I watched the videos!” Because they build a basic understanding by watching the videos, we can now focus the second week of a unit on finding deeper understanding. This second week includes an Edmodo post that we review in class first before assigning, generally lending itself to a discussion amongst peers. Additionally, in the second week, we focus on a writing assignment in class that allows students to draw evidence from the unit (using notes from the videos) to make conclusions related to the content. We specifically use the CER (Claim Evidence Response) method that stresses the Next Generation Science Standards’ emphasis on evidence-based writing. Having our students translate their learning from videos into both verbal and written assessments has made their understanding of the concepts that much more concrete.

Monitoring Progress

Once a teacher begins to flip, he/she realizes that the monitoring of student learning becomes something very different. Instead of correcting a physical homework assignment that gets handed to you in school, the teacher must avail themselves digitally to evaluate the students’ progress in learning. We have found that having only one location (for us, that’s Edmodo) where students are both watching and responding to the videos helps to maintain some consistency in both your practice as well as your students, who sometimes need some prodding to learn this new style of homework.

Additionally, when you do decide to flip your class, you need to choose if you want to monitor how frequently students access the videos. Tools like EduCanon, Sophia, and many others allow students a specific log-in, where you can monitor when each student views the videos and often times even embed ‘check for understanding’ questions within the videos. In our case, we found that knowing when the students watch the videos was not as helpful to us as checking their understanding via classroom activities, discussions, and Edmodo responses, but many teachers have found those tools useful for their classrooms and should be considered depending on your student population.

Supporting Students

So far this academic year, we have taught two full units, with accompanying homework packets (based on videos), and given two exams, yet some students are still having difficulty coming on board with the new process. Remembering that flipped learning is very different from anything used in their previous educational experiences is important. This year we are trying to be especially gentle with them, and the benefit is that we see more and more of the students completing the homework (for example, Unit 1 completion was about 65% and Unit 2 was over 80%!). We are encouraging students to come before or after school if they have trouble with access (although most of them do not) and also by providing extra credit to students if their entire group and/or class completes the unit packet. We are hoping to create a community of learners that encourage each other to complete their work and then slowly realize how much easier class time will be once they’ve watched the videos. As I mentioned previously, some of our students are already saying this in class!

No matter what specific model we use, whether it was our first year or this year, flipping has dramatically changed both our students as well as our own practice. We have become much better teachers, more intuitive about our students’ learning, and more reflective in our lessons as a result. If you do choose to flip, or have already, we suggest that you never settle and constantly revise your strategies to make it work for your current students. Even though flipped learning might be one of the most innovative practices teachers are doing today, it definitely can get old if you let it. So we urge you to listen to your students and make changes when appropriate! After all, this is for them and the more connected they feel, the better they will learn!