2014-01 Reena Kaur

Instructions

Your personal page serves at least three purposes. It is a place for you to:

1. take notes

2. enable your flipped presentation

3. 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: Reena Kaur

School: Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Secondary)

Role: Subject Head : Literature & Media Studies

Part A: Article on Flipped Classrooms

1. Definition and origins of the "flipped classroom"

Blended learning where students learn new content online. What was previously done in the classroom can now be done at home and what was previously done at home is done in the classroom with the teacher facilitating the learning.

2. What the flipped classroom is/is not

What it is:

1. Allows for meaningful interaction between teachers and students

2. Optimizes learning as it allows for a "tuition effect" where learning can be customized to meet students' needs.

3. Facilitates learning

4. A pedagogical response to changing learning styles

What it is not:

1. It is not just about producing video lectures.

2. It is not about increasing teaching time to complete syllabus as the expense of the student's personal and family time.

3. Not just another mode of content delivery.

4. It is not a technological solution.

Benefits to a Flipped classroom:

1. Meeting student's needs

It allows the teacher to individualise teaching to meet the needs of all students. Weaker students will be able to learn at a slower pace and pause or replay videos so that they can internalize the lesson. Higher ability students will be able to use the extra links or resources provided to move ahead and this will allow them to stretch their ability. Having piqued their interest, the students will be able to then use the internet to read up more about the topic. It also gives the student more say in the way that they learn and more ownership in their learning.

2. Learning anywhere and anytime and by anyone

It is beneficial as it allows for learning to take place in various localities and caters to the student's learning pace and style. Learning will no longer be limited to the four walls of the classroom. Students who have to miss class will no longerbe disadvantaged. This will also allow parents to work with their children on content learnt in school. Increasingly, and especially at higher levels, parents are not familiar with the curriculum and are no table to guide their children. This will allow them to help in some measure.

3. Repurposing time

The very notion of the flipped classroom draws on the fact that time previously spent on content delivery can now be spent more effectively reflecting and working on material to reinforce learning. There is better use of time as students can question lecture content, apply the knowledge they have gained and interact with their lecturers and classmates.

3. Designing, developing, evaluating, and managing flipped classrooms

When designing a flipped classroom, some effects to be considered are:

a) teaching that needs to be done

b) the audience effect

c) content creation effect

The Dimensions of Flipping are:

a) Conventional flipping - where you consider where the flipping is taking place (locality)

b) Content creation - where you consider who is the one who is going to create the content that will be used

c) Role of the teacher - who will play the role of the 'teacher' in the classroom

4. Flipped classroom issues and solutions

Criticism of the Flipped classroom:

Teacher's role:

The dominant mode is still lecturing.Essentially, lecturing is simply content delivery. With technology, students today can get information on their own and teachers no longer hold the key to the gateway of information. Thus, the role of the teacher has to evolve with time.

New generation of learners

Today's generation of learners are quite unlike their predecessors and do not take well to boring and static lectures. They may not even listen to their lecturers in class,thus there is little possibility of them listening to their lectures online when there is nobody there to "enforce" their learning and attention.

Creates a digital divide

This mode of lesson delivery necessitates computer access and knowledge which may affect some students who may have limited access.

Solutions:

- web quests

- surveys

- reflections

- beginning with the end in mind and thinking about the process before embarking on it

- get students to reflect on their learning experience and not simply completing the work

- change the medium of instruction

- change the method of content delivery

- use technology to give students more choice in the way they learn and cater to their individual learning styles

5. References

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf

Http://www.teachthought.com/trends/10-pros-cons-flipped-classroom/

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

1. Context

School:

Open to new ideas and innovations in pedagogy

Supportive management

Good I.T. support and infrastructure

Learners:

Comfortable with learning online

E-learning conducted termly and students regularly use the learning portal

Teachers:

Enthusiastic about new technology

Regular sharing of pedagogy during meetings and at external conferences

Annual sharing of teaching pedagogy at conference organized internally for external parties

2. What to flip?

Subject: Literature - Unseen poetry

Level: Upper Secondary

Traditional method:

Teachers introduce the concept of unseen poetry to the class and spend many lessons going through the various devices that student have to learn to understand the meaning and intent behind the poems. This involves a lot of repetition as many times, teachers go through devices that students have already learnt at lower secondary level. The next step would be to use these devices on the poems to understand the literal meaning behind the poem. Only after these basic comprehension is done can teachers go to the next step which is to explain the implied meaning. The last step is definitely the most difficult and needs more teachers guidance.

Flipped lesson:

Teachers will produce short clips explaining the use of the devices on the poem selected. The video will also include online support where students to can go to revise the literary devices. In class, teachers will spend the time on discussions on the bigger issues of the poem so that students can understand the implied meaning.

3. Communication & Buy-in:

Key Personnel:

Flip a KP meeting or the part of it that involves the discussion on Flipper classrooms

Bring in someone who has tried this method who can explain to them more about it

Discuss feasibility of such lessons

Look closer at school programmes to see which levels / subjects / departments can be involved so that some levels are not over stretched

Parents:

Explain rationale via letters and a demo and talk during the Principal-Meet-Parents talk

Students:

At Level Assembly, explain to the whole cohort what flipped lessons will entail and how they will benefit from it.

In class, the individual teachers could give more details about which aspects of the lessons will be flipped.

Teachers:

Flip a department or staff meeting (or part of it)

Pre: Send them videos of a flipped classroom and the pros/cons of one

During: Discuss concerns and address doubts. Provide direction and reassurance

Post: Provide ICT support and conduct a demo class for them to observe.

4. Timeline

Term 1:

Conduct flip meeting for teachers and key personnel

Discuss and confirm which levels, subjects and teachers will be involved

Allow interested teachers to watch a demo lesson

Confirm deployment

Term 2:

Teachers interested to be form into a team

The team will come together to discuss the actual roll-out of such a programme

The team will come up with a few lesson packages and videos

Term 3:

Meeting with patently and students to explain the new methodology

Roll out lessons

Teachers involved to share the experience and learning points with the rest of the staff during meeting

Part C: Flipped Presentation

Embed your presentation for Part B here. You may include notes in a shared Google Doc if you wish.

Refer to powtoons video: www.powtoon.com/p/dBbvRBcROel/

Your peers will view this presentation before the last session and provide formative feedback.