I was recently given the opportunity to “flip” my Algebra 1
class. No martial arts or superpowers required. Flipping simply means switching the
roles of homework and class work. Students watch short video lectures and take
notes for the homework. Then they solve problem
sets based on the video lessons, usually collaboratively, in class, where their
peers and teacher are available for help and support.
It went very well, especially considering the novelty and learning
curve, both for the students as well as for me.
If you want to know more, read on.
After the seven weeks with my flipped Algebra class, 17
students responded to a survey that as a group they overall enjoyed the experiment, giving
it a 3.4 on a scale of 1-5, where 3 was neutral. Their perceptions were higher for enjoying the
collaboration, 3.6, and they also believed that they had given and received more peer
help, each 3.6, within the flipped format.
Because students retain 95% of what they teach, this is a very important
piece. I believe that they will retain
this unit much better as a result of their teaching each other as they
learned. The survey showed that they didn’t really enjoy homework or class work
in either the flipped or traditional settings, so some things never change.
My own response to the overall flip would be more like a 4.9;
the experience was extremely enjoyable and worthwhile from my point of
view. Students learned more, and
ironically, I felt like I was a MORE active participant in their learning than
when I had been more center stage in the lessons. It was a real joy to see two previously discouraged and tuned out students begin to engage much more during the flip, perhaps because they saw that help was more readily available. I also got a couple of comments from students who liked that they were assigned more challenging problems during the flip. It was easier to differentiate the lessons, because I was able to stealthily adjust goals higher for some groups than for others.
The foundation for the unit in solving systems of equations was
done the traditional way…with me teaching the lessons on solving systems by graphing in class. The students did some problem solving in class individually, and then were
given sets of problems for homework.
We did one flipped lesson before the official trial.
Students were assigned a video about how to use their graphing calculators to
find a linear regression. This worked out
some of the bugs for us and then the trial began.
The next 8 homework assignments were video lessons from Khan
Academy, which has many hundreds of online lessons in various academic
subjects aimed at students about grade 6 and up. Links to the lessons were posted on Edline.net, our
school’s intranet website. Students
came to class and were given examples to work on alone, then in pairs or small
groups.
This class had only had occasional opportunities for
collaboration prior to this unit. They
would informally help each other and had several partner assignments and quizzes. But during this unit, they were held
accountable to work with someone to find and show solutions together. Because the instructional piece had already
taken place, I was available to circulate among the students, answer questions,
observe students and their work, eavesdrop on conversations, and catch and
redirect them on errors or misconceptions. The students reported, 3.4, that I had helped
them more than previously.
An important advantage of my flipped class was that each
student had reliable internet access at home.
Only one student had some issues, and that was only for a day or two. Students without access at home would have been
able to access the videos in our school media center, even if they had to do so
after school.
This was by far the most difficult unit of our course, and yet
the students did well on the summative assessment. The median grade on the test was 86%, which
was up from 79% on the previous unit test.
Full disclosure. Many
of the students reported that they had completed the homework as often as in
traditional units, but their claims belied the actual homework grades. Homework completion actually decreased during
the unit. The same 4 or 5 kids who had been neglecting homework for the
previous months also neglected to watch most of the videos. My best fix was to make them wait to start
their problem sets, often meaning they lost their choice of work partner, until
they watched the video in class on the Smartboard and showed me the notes they
had taken. This actually only took about
7-10 minutes and did not affect the pace of the better prepared students.
The unprepared students would also have been wasting time (or
worse) when we took 15 or 20 minutes to go over traditional homework.
All but two students said that they had taken advantage of
rewinding and replaying the videos when they needed to hear/see something
repeated. I often have one or two
students who get distracted or just need me to repeat something 2 or three
times. Loving the sound of my own voice
as I do, I don’t mind repeating.
However, the 15 students who are ready to move on are often not as
enchanted.
I fully intend to do some more flipping next year. However, I will probably do more modeling and
instruction on 2 of the key components of the flip. One, students did not seem to really
understand how to collaborate. They
sometimes tried to divide and conquer the problem set, rather than truly
working together. They complained about
their partners at times, mentioning whether they “liked” the partner or
not. Secondly, I would want to set
expectations for how to use the videos and take notes effectively. I would also want to take advantage of more
of the problem sets that are actually available through the Khan
Academy web site.
Some of the lessons from Khan Academy were a bit too
complicated, so I would also like to do a few video lessons myself for my
classes next year. But there is no need
to reinvent the wheel with flipped lessons.
There are many good videos
already available on Youtube and Teachertube.com. I came across a really engaging and amusing set
of geometry lessons from a hip young teacher named Tyler Tarver.
The beauty of this flip is not that there was some cool fad or technology in play. The real value in my book is that flipping paved the way for the much less sexy, but effective, low tech essentials in a classroom. The students and I were relating to each other, sharing the roles of teaching and learning in the classroom. There was engagement and excitement over learning systems of equations like I hadn't seen before. Geeky? Sure. But it was also very satisfying.
