Flipped Classroom Innovation Plan

By Jennifer M. Turnbow

 

Background information:

• CHS is a BYOD and one-to-one campus. Students have the option to checkout a Chromebook from the school unless they have a device of their own that they wish to use.

• CHS uses Google Classroom as its Learning Management System.

• Class periods are 48 minutes long.

 

Why do I want to do this?

Class periods on my campus are only 48 minutes long. A majority of that time is spent in teacher-centered lessons where I am going over the material. My students are not getting enough time in class to ask questions and do their work. At home, students struggle to complete assignments without the support of someone who understands the material. On top of that, we are dealing with learning gaps created by schools switching to virtual last year due to the Coronavirus. Utilizing a flipped classroom will allow students to first see the lesson outside the classroom which will allow for in-class time to be spent on student-centered activities. These activities could be: discussions to clarify the material, projects, collaborative groups, and blended learning opportunities through sites like Desmos. Using more student-centered activities should lead students to a deeper understanding of the material. Students will also be able to access flipped classroom content at any time and watch the videos as many times as they need to understand.

 

What has worked for others?

Flipped classrooms have been used at schools around the world. Successful flipped classroom programs have the following characteristics: well designed process, ways to communicate outside of the classroom while students are doing the video learning, assessments of out-of-class learning, in-class question and answer time, hands-on collaborative activities for in-class, and a good mixture of technology and traditional learning.

 

What didn’t work for others?

The ability for students to connect to the internet outside of school is a big must. If a student cannot connect to the internet to watch the videos that are necessary for the flipped portion of the class, they will struggle with understanding what to do in the classroom. Class size should also be a consideration because group work in the classroom can get out of hand unless you have excellent student management skills and set your expectations from the beginning.

 

How do we apply what we’ve learned?

When designing a flipped classroom, a school must think carefully about all the different pieces involved. Teachers need to be trained in how to create video content and how to manage the flipped classroom. Flipped classrooms cause a big paradigm shift that teachers and students will not be used to, so some programs struggle to get a handle on it at first. Ways for students to communicate with each other and the teacher must be established for the flipped portion so that they can ask questions to clarify their ideas learned at home. Assessments should be used during/after the video to make sure that students are learning what they need to from the videos. When in class, teachers need to allow students to ask questions that were not answered while at home and quickly review the material. Teachers need to find activities that work to help students actively learn in the classroom.