Introducing the “Flipped Classroom” in the First Days of School

赛波 2013-09-12

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Introducing the “Flipped Classroom” in the First Days of School

by Carolyn Fruin

No matter what age your students are, introducing the concept of a flipped classroom, and your expectations are imperative in the first few days of school. Because every teacher, classroom, and collection of students is different, every flip class model will be slightly different. And if you haven’t already heard, that is okay! For that very reason it is important before you launch your videos to go over exactly what is expected in your class. Just like you would go over classroom procedures on the first day of class for behavior and work turn in, so should you go through the procedures required for their homework.

Establishing the Flipped Class

One of the easiest ways to begin this process is to explain what the flipped classroom is. And believe me when I say you might tell them this a hundred times through the course of the year, I did this with my students last year, they will still probably forget the terminology. Again, that is okay! As long as they understand the basic structure of what you do in class, and what takes place out of class, that is what really matters.

One of the best things that my students took away from my class last year was the ability to take notes similar to that of a well-seasoned high schooler. To me that kind of note taking is an important lesson as a middle school teacher to impart on my students transitioning to high school. They learned by the end of the year the ability to only stick to the main ideas, and how to use short hand. That was not automatic, and if anything I only saw it occurring towards the end of the year! It was something that we needed to practice and work on, and practice and work on, again and again. I like to start out the year with some basics on note taking, and highlighting. Even in a digital classroom the basics still apply! See my Sophia tutorial on How to Annotate and Highlight a Text! This tutorial is actually one I use later in the year to reteach the concepts that we went over in the first few days of school.

The Power of the Pause Button

One of the biggest concepts to master for the flipped classroom is the “Power of the Pause” button. The whole idea of a flipped classroom is to allow your students regardless of background or influence to go at their own pace. That can only happen if the students understand how to guide their own learning. Having a small video that teaches the concepts of a flipped classroom (this goes back to the first topic) for instance. This is also helpful to show them instructional cues in your videos. For example I use a graphic of a pencil to tell my students where they should be taking notes. The students found this to be extremely helpful throughout the year, in fact when my student teacher forgot to use the pencil on her very first attempt the kids were beside themselves! This exercise is also a great place to practice their note taking in class with you before venturing out on their own at home. If you are lucky enough to have a smart board, like I do, show them how important the act of pausing the video to take their notes actually is by touching the board every minute or so to allow them to catch up. Going even one step further and allowing a student to come up to the smart board and touch the screen is the icing on the cake. This will demonstrate, whether the students know it or not, that this activity isn’t being lead by you the teacher but instead by individual student needs.

Summarizing and “HOT” Questions

I follow the Crystal Kirch method of using a WSQ with my class, so going over the specifics of what that means including giving them a copy of “HOT” question starters (higher order thinking) is a must at the beginning of the year. Some example activities might include getting the students into small groups, and using a white board and their “HOT” question starters, give them a random topic (Topics on summer, the latest pop culture craze etc. you get the point, be creative!) and then tossing out candy for those questions generated that are the best or even most creative using the question starters.

The first big test I give the students touches on the components of a paragraph and/or summary of nonfiction, so throughout the first two weeks of school we are working towards the basic understanding of a proper summary of information, see my Sophia playlist, and then throughout the rest of the year they continue to practice the fine art of summarization with every video tutorial on Sophia!

Discussion and Collaboration

Often with middle school students this concept takes time, as you build a culture in your room that supports free discussion, they need to get to know one another! However, depending on your teaching style, using a video to show proper discussion and collaboration techniques or doing a “fishbowl” activity works well here. I have also done a lot of get to know you games and activities that worked really well in my speech and debate class not just my flipped English class. The basic idea that the more comfortable they are with each other and the knowledge that they are going to have to speak, and speak often, needs to be explained early.

Bottom line, set the bar high for these students, it’s okay to have high expectations, they will rise to the occasion if you believe in them. But most importantly in order to start the process of moving the onus of responsibility from teacher to student, which I believe is one of the most powerful parts of the flipped classroom model, it certainly helps to be clear about your expectations from the very start of the school year.

About Our Guest Author

Nichole Carter has been a middle school classroom teacher for ten years, teaching honors language arts for the last five. She currently uses the flipped classroom model with over 150 students, as well incorporating a blended learning environment in a 1:1 iPad school. Nichole is no stranger to technology integration, she is also a tech coach for her staff, co-authored a chapter in the soon to be released book Flipped 2.0, and has presented for the last two years at the AMLE conference. She also works for Clarity Innovations, as a content developer for their educational apps, and web based content. Her school is a proficiency based model, and a fully integrated STEM school across all core content classes.