Flipping the Classroom

Have you heard about some of the benefits of a "flipped classroom"?  Some of our teachers, including Mr. Chris Kyhl, are using a flipped classroom approach to instruction and seeing great results! 

A "flipped" classroom approach will look different from one classroom to the next depending on the purpose, subject, and/or grade level. In Chris Kyhl's classroom, a blend of video instruction and direct instruction is used. On the day I came in to observe, Chris began class with a 10-15 minute lesson on how to find the area of a sector and arc length of a circle. As soon as the lesson was done, the video was quickly loaded to Schoology. Students are able to access this video anywhere at any time to review examples, questions, and concepts when practicing problems related to the lesson. 

The students in his Pre-Calculus class told me they liked the amount of time they are given to work through problems when Chris is present. In addition, they said they were grateful for the easy access to the videos on Schoology when working on any practice outside of class. Many of their questions and/or confusion can be cleared up by reviewing these videos while working on math practice outside of school when Chris is not accessible. 

If you are thinking about how to flip your classroom, Bergmann and Sams (2014) suggest that teachers first think about the question, "What is the best use of your face-to-face class time?" Chris and other teachers who flip their classrooms have found that the best use of their class time is the processing or practice piece of learning. 

Adam Brinkman uses video lessons to teach students new concepts in his math classes. Before class, students are assigned a 7-10 minute. They must complete this video before receiving the homework in class. Class time is then spent working through math practice problems and Mr. Brinkman answers questions and does small group reteaching. His students told me they liked learning at their own pace, being able to pause, take notes, and rewind. 

Over the last couple of months, Scott Hoppel has also seen benefits of video recording in his classroom. He uses a Swivel and iPad to record classroom instruction. He's found the recordings to be beneficial for students who need more time to process and take notes, for students who are absent, and even for parents to review what their students are learning. He's also able to use the recordings for self-reflection. 

You can use video lessons to ...

• teach new concepts

• give directions for an assignment

• review previous learning

• help students prepare or study for a test

• help students with practice assignments

• reteach 

• communicate with families and community members

• reflect on your instruction

The possibilites are endless and there are great tools to use for video recording. Screencastify is an easy one we (including kids) all have access to in Osage Community Schools, but there are other options. Let me, Val, or Kelley know what you're attempting to try in your room and we can learn together! 

Check out the resources below for more information on flipping your room.