2014-01 Fang Bee Hoon
Instructions
Your personal page serves at least three purposes. It is a place for you to:
take notes
enable your flipped presentation
submit your individual assignment
Use the rough scaffold below as a guide. You may add headers and content, but not remove any.
Part A: Imagine that you are submitting a Wikipedia article on the flipped classroom. Draft your article here. Bear in mind that your writing will be public and subject to scrutiny and critique. What would you write to educate others like your school principal and colleagues about the flipped classroom.
Part B and C: You are a manager of other teachers, Suggest a plan for a group of teachers to flip their classrooms. Prepare a flipped presentation in Part C to get formative feedback on your plans.
Refrain from uploading presentation or other files to this space. Instead, host your files in the cloud and embed them in your page. For help on how to do this, refer to the iTunes U courses provided by CeL in the Resources section or search Google or YouTube.
Name: Fang Bee Hoon Joyce
School: Concord Primary School
Role: LH Math
Part A: Article on Flipped Classrooms
1. Definition and origins of the "flipped classroom"
- Reverse of traditional classroom practices. i.e. Teacher of direct teaching then pupils go home do homework. In flipped classroom, pupils watch video or do their readings first before going to class for participation in engaging activities.
- Teacher centered to student centered learning. Pupils learn to take over the responsibility of learning.
- Idea popularized by two American teachers Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams (2007). Started with filming their own Science lessons to allow pupils to view it at home.
2. What the flipped classroom is/is not
What it is
- optimizing learning time in classroom. General teaching takes place at home through videos or other sources. Allows pupils to come to class to clarify and seek help. Teacher provides more individualized coaching and feedback to pupils in the class.
- allowing pupils to learn at a pace suitable for themselves
- encouraging the pupils to take a more active role in their own learning through interaction, connection and creation of knowledge
- shift from teachers delivering content in class to pupils practicing it in class.
- classroom teachers creating resources to fit their class needs
- allowing more time for meaningful classroom activities to foster the bond between teachers and pupils
What it is not
- videos and e-learning
- increased curriculum time
- Khan academy or any video from across the globe. Materials should be customized by the teacher based on needs and context
- holiday time for the teachers during lesson. Teachers has to interact, facilitate, identify and address learning gaps pupils may have through the class activities
- one size fits all.
- to replace the role of the teacher
3. Designing, developing, evaluating, and managing flipped classrooms
When designing a flipped classroom, careful planning must be done. Not every content or every lesson is suitable for flipping. Careful selection of topic and content is needed. If using video, content should be brief and sharp to bring out the learning objective/s. Due to short attention span of pupils, the duration of the video not be more than a few minutes. Video is not the only option for flipped classroom (could be reading, game etc) , even though that seems to be the most popular choice.
The activities in the classroom for follow up are also important. Learning stations could be one activity to be conducted in class. There should be a station for pupils who did not do their work at home to do so in class. Assessment also needs to be done to assess their learning. Immediate feedback should be given. A station to stretch the fast progress pupils.
4. Flipped classroom issues and solutions
- Pupils did not do their work at home
- No computer and internet access
- Buying in of teachers(not suitable for low progress learners?)
- Preparation of resources and materials for flipped classrooms
- Duration of videos (not more than 5 min?)
5. References
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H4RkudFzlc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjUtSvGvB-0
http://flippedinstitute.org
Part B: Flipped Classrooms in My Context
Outline a plan for mobilizing a group teachers who will flip their classrooms. You might:
Describe your context (what levels, what content areas, how many teachers, etc.)
Devise plans for communication, buy-in, professional development, evaluation, etc.
Provide a timeline
Context
Level: Primary 4B and C
Subject: Mathematics
Background of pupils:
The pupils in these classes are the low achieving pupils. Almost all the pupils in these two classes could not pass their Math and are not motivated when it comes to learning of Mathematics. They generally do not have much home support as the parents themselves do not know how to do. In this group of pupils, there are some who are absent from school quite frequently due their health or some family issues.
In class, the teachers often have to explain the same concept a few times and very slowly for pupils to understand. The teachers also face disciplinary problems because the pupils are not interested or cannot understand and started to disrupt the lessons. The teachers are also trying out various ways to entice and motivate pupils to learn.
Through the use of flipped classrooms, we can probably entice and motivate the pupils to learn due to the following reasons:
- The pupils are excited whenever they get a chance to work on the computers.
- Pupils would not be stressed out with doing pen and paper homework which they often grapple with at home.
- Classroom time can be used for more interacting activities and teachers can have more time to assess pupils learning through the interaction.
- Pupils can still access the videos from home and learn something when they are on medical leave. (In traditional classroom, they will miss out on what the teacher has taught if they are absent)
- The parents can also learn from the videos.
Background of teachers:
There are altogether 3 Math teachers. 2 teachers are teaching 4B, one is an adjunct teacher who does parallel teaching. 4C only has one Math teacher because the class size is relatively smaller compared to 4B. The adjunct teacher will not tap on to prepare for the flipped lessons. The other two Math teachers are young and IT savvy. They can easily learn the web tools to be used. They are also very keen to find ways to motivate their pupils. There is also an AED attach to the Math department. She will be trained and robed in for this assignment so as to learn and help out with the others when the flipped classroom concept is rolled out to the others.
Plan
Making use of PLC sessions as a platform:
1) Do a flipped PLC session to get the teachers curious. Invite the 2 Math teachers to form a team together with me to implement flipped classroom for these pupils. Rope in an AED into the team and Technical Assistant(TA)to assist in technical issues. (Adjunct teacher has a choice to decide how much she wants to be involved)
Teachers to watch the videos before the PLC session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQWvc6qhTds
http://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=vn0RzX_n35A
2) Explain the concept of flipped classroom to the team (include the TA). Explain the rationale for want to flip the classroom for these pupils. Train the team on what is and not a flipped classroom. Use the videos and readings
http://www.magnet.edu/files/2013-conferences/flip-n-out.pdf
Train teacher/s on the use of web tools for online learning e.g. Padlet, Powtoons, Screencast-o-matic etc
(Teachers may also make use of the training sessions to do up the videos)
3) Select the topics for flipping (e.g. Decimals 1 and 2)
4) Draw up a time line needed to prepare the lessons and implement the lessons.
5) Plan a duty list. E.g. Find out who is more comfortable in doing up the resources (e.g. video) and who wants to plan for the lesson activities in the classroom.
6) Prepare the online resources, source for and create suitable platforms for uploading and easy access for pupils.
7) Book computer labs to teach pupils how to access the resources online and explain what they need to do at home. Establish rules with the pupils with regards to watching the videos at home. E.g. Pupils have to treat this video watching like their homework. They have to complete this before watching TV or play.
8) Write letters to communicate to parents about what their child needs to do and the rules communicated to the pupils.
9) Collate a list of pupils who do not have computer/internet access at home. Inform librarian to allow these pupils to use the computers in the library to watch the video before they go home. (Librarian will help to jot down the time in and out of these pupils.
Timeline
Term 2
Week 8 – Flipped PLC session. Speak to relevant personnel to form a team.
Week 9 – Select topic. Draw up time line. Do up duty list and division of work.
Week 10 – Training on online learning resources and creation of resources
June holiday
Week 1 – Creation of resources, lesson plans. Prepare pre and post test.
Week 4 – Collation and editing of lesson plans and videos. Upload resources online. Prepare letters to parents.
Term 3
Week 1 – Lab lessons for pupils on how to access the resources and what they need to do. Issue letters to parents. Conduct pre-test.
Week 2 onwards – Implement flipped lessons. Get pupils feedback regularly through conversations, exit cards, Google docs etc.
Last lesson of topic - Conduct post test. Collate feedback from pupils. Review the process for improvement.
Part C: Flipped Presentation
Embed your presentation for Part B here. You may include notes in a shared Google Doc if you wish.
Your peers will view this presentation before the last session and provide formative feedback.