Flipped Classroom: Day 1

I wrote in an earlier post about the "Flipped" classroom. Flipping classrooms is all the rage, and for good reason. It seems to be quite effective and can lead to increased time with students for the teacher, allowing for more activities, more practice, and deeper understanding of the content - all good things. I may be crazy, but I'm implementing flipping at the same time I'm implementing standards-based grading (maybe this blog should have a revised name). However, as flipping pioneers Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann point out, flipped learning, and especially flipped-mastery classrooms, are highly compatible with SBG, so at least my two steps are in the same direction.

The Sell

One of the keys to the flipped classroom is the sales' pitch at the front end. Many students have never experienced this type of learning and may resist it. Since when is change comfortable, right? We wouldn't flip if we didn't think it was what is best for students, but they don't know that. Flipping allows students to go at their own pace, rewind their teacher, here a lecture more than once, access content if they are absent, have their teacher help them with homework, and bounce ideas off their peers in collaborating towards a common goal. I bring all this up in pitching this to my students, which I did today for some of my classes (I'm indebted to Mr. Helberg for showing me the light on all these points!). No longer will students become stuck and be unable to do their homework. And isn't that the point, that students don't get stuck?

It's All About the Learning

My cooperating teacher when I was student teaching always said, "It's about the learning, not the points." Students (and adults) gravitate toward the points (for us, salary). They do this in taking notes on videos as well. We must hold them accountable for taking high-quality notes, and even before that, teach them how to watch a video. Otherwise, they will go through the motions to get the points. Just as you read a fiction book differently from a non-fiction book, you should watch a flipped class lecture video differently from an entertaining YouTube clip. We watched a video in class today, using the pause button liberally and even rewinding to make sure we got it all. I also give students this guide, which includes a checklist of what it should look like if you're getting the most out of your video. 

Buy In

If my students don't buy in to both the methodology of a flipped classroom and the pursuit of learning over "credit," they won't succeed this year. Because the curriculum is flipped, they obviously have to buy in to watching and taking notes on videos. Otherwise, they'll get very limited exposure to key pieces of the content. However, I would argue that the bigger and more profound buy in is to learning over credit. This extends beyond my classroom and into their life-long flourishing. "Buy In" is critical, and the beginning of the year is the critical time to get it.