Pre-Class Assignment Ideas

Examples of Pre-class Assignments

• • Many examples are located in the MyOpenMath course owned by Tiffany Ledford called "Precalc and Calc Preclass Assignments"

  • Sample Guided Practice Assignment and Google Form that is attached

Possible Open-Ended Questions for Pre-class assignments:

• What did you find difficult or confusing about this section? If nothing was difficult or confusing, what did you find most interesting? Please be as specific as possible.

• What questions do you have about the reading?

• What does it mean when the reading says …?

• Which example in this chapter for homework or in the previous activity/lecture is the most helpful in understanding the topic and why?

• Write down everything you remember from…

• Start-of-class writing assignments to “prime the pump” for the day’s discussion.

  • Ask students to comment on a controversial point

  • Pose a problem that has multiple solutions or interpretations and ask student to generate ideas.

  • Post a problem on the board for student response.

  • Have students write about the previous night’s pre-class assignment.

• Early finishers (or if students need a break in the middle of a block), give them writing prompts such as:

  • What are you still confused about, even after the activity? Write down five things you don’t understand from the activity/lecture.

  • Write down the steps used to solve ____ type problems.

Quote from Robert Talbert:

From: http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/category/teaching/inverted-classroom-teaching/

What I used to think: Pre-class activity in a flipped learning model is about mastering content-oriented instructional objectives.

What I think now: Pre-class activity is for generating questions.

From a talk by Jeremy Strayer:

The purpose of pre-class work in the flipped classroom is to “launch” the in-class activity.