Flipped Classrooms
A new concept in education is the idea of the "flipped classroom". This concept is turning traditional ways of education completely upside down. The flipped classroom is a form of blended learning, . This means that the "homework" that is generally done at home, is done during in-class time, and the "new" homework that students do at home, is learning the new material or content. The at-home portion of learning is often done by watching videos or recorded lectures. Once the students have learned the information outside of class, they come to class and discuss and solve questions. The in-class time is spent interacting with the content and exploring the concepts that they learned about at home. This approach offers more guidance, and less lecturing. In simple terms, the "flipped classroom" approach has students learn the content outside of class and then the students apply the information in class.
The infographic below helps to explain the flipped classroom in more detail.
The infographic below helps to explain the flipped classroom in more detail.
Created by Knewton and Column Five Media
Examples of a "Flipped" Lesson
The following two examples demonstrate how videos of flipped lessons, and the accompanying work that would take place in class the next day (based off of what was done or learned in the video). I chose the following two lessons because they are in varied content areas (math vs. reading), grade levels (fourth grade vs. kindergarten), and in video length (11-minutes vs. 2-minutes). These examples help to demonstrate how different lessons can be taught using the "flipped classroom" method, and how different flipped classroom videos can greatly vary.
Example Lesson #1: Math, Grade 4, Long Division
|
In this video, a fourth grade teacher teaches an 11-minute lesson on how to do long-division. In class, she gave the students a three part "homework note sheet" to accompany the lesson. She has the students write down 1) important vocabulary, 2) example problems and the steps to do the problems, and 3) problems to try on their own.
The next day in class, the teacher would answer any questions the students had on the example problems they were assigned to try on their own. The teacher also has students write down information (real world applications; how would they use long division in real life?) to bring and share with the rest of the class the next day. Another important part of the "flipped lesson" that this teacher emphasizes is the fact that if the student is confused at all, they can pause the video or rewind it and re-watch the information again, until they understand. |
Example Lesson #2: Reading, Kindergarten, The Letter "B"
|
In this video, a kindergarten teacher teaches a 2-minute lesson on the letter "B". She begins by showing her students how to write an uppercase and lowercase letter "B". After she has done that, she shows her students three examples of things that she found in her apartment that begin with the letter "B". After that is finished, she gives her students an assignment (to look around their houses for five items that begin with the letter "B" and then have a parent or another adult write the names of these five things on a piece of paper and bring it to class the next day). The next day in class, the teacher would most likely either ask the students to share the names of the items they found in their homes, or else she may collect the lists that the students brought and compile a list of all the different objects (and possibly have an activity for the students to do, based on their responses). |