Flipping the Elementary Classroom
A question I have been frequently asked is how do you flip an elementary classroom? Does the flipped methodology work for the younger grades? The answer is yes–sorta.
My current role is that of a K-8 technology facilitator. I work directly with an amazing staff who has taught me much about students in the younger grades.
Here is my advice for elementary teachers
Don’t flip a class: Flip a lesson.
- Think of the flipped class as another technique in your arsenal.
- Start with a lesson that students struggle with and make a short video. An easy way to determine what to make a video of is to ask yourself: What do I constantly have to repeat or what do kids really need extra help on?
- Keep the video to no more than 10 min and shorter if you have younger kids. I think the rule of thumb might be 1-2 min per grade level.
- Make sure you figure out how the students are going to access the video. Are you going to post it to your website, to YouTube (this might be tricky with younger kids since some parents might not want their kids on YouTube). Also make sure that all kids have a way to access the videos. If you teach in a school with access issues, then make sure you solve this problem before class.
- You might also not assign the video as homework, but make it a center in your classroom for students who struggle and/or need extra help.
- Figure out how you will check to see if they have watched the video. You could have them take notes on paper or you might have them give feedback via a google form. There are lots of ways to check student work.
And one thing more: Ask yourself–Where should the video go in the instructional cycle? This came from one of my great teachers, Caryn Friedman, who is an expert in reading literacy. When we chatted about the flipped class she feels that the place for the video is not at the beginning of learning cycle but rather in the middle. She tells me that if a student watches a video and learns something incorrectly, then she will have to help the student un-learn the content before they re-learn it correctly. She sees the flipped videos as being better suited (for her purposes) as remediation and practice. So make sure you think through where the video (or if a video) is best suited for a particular lesson.
[...] a site by Jon Bergmann supporting teachers adopting flipped classroom techniques. Flipping the Elementary Classroom is a post by Jon specifically looking at practical ways of using ideas from the flipped classroom [...]
Also, with the Flipped model, the self-pacing component in the elementary grades can be challenging. You will need to teach time management. Being a fifth grade teacher who flipped her math class last year, i realized time is an abstract concept for my 10 year olds. I discovered that if I let them self pace within a week time frame and taught them how to make a plan for that week, they were better equipped for the self-paced environment. I'm starting off this coming school year with activities that have them estimate time to complete tasks and then they test it out. My goal is for my students to create benchmarks for time to help them pace out their assignments for the week. It will probably take the first three weeks of the school year for these activities before they are ready to flip.
That plan of helping yoru 5th graders set self-pacing plans for themselves I think is the key to what some of my sophomores will need this coming fall. They need the self-control and focus to make progress. One week at a time seems manageable. Helping students do that first will help them more in the long run.
The Flipped Classroom is a very interesting learning model. I would like to get feedback from teachers who have used it in an ESL classroom setting.
I think these are great ideas, and I especially like the suggestion of teaching pacing for lower grades. One week is about what their minds are capable of handling, so I am going to design my units/classroom around the one week premise (students will complete progress reports weekly to identify what they have done and what they will be doing next week, including an assessment of how they felt they met their goals).
I'm very interested in doing a version of the flipped classroom in my second grade this year. We will be starting this year with one to one iPads for all students do you have any suggestions or know of anyone that is doing this?
A 1-1 is a great place for flipping. My school is starting a 1-1 for grades 2-4 with iPads. Some of my teachers will start making videos for partial implemnation of a flipped class. I would also encourage you to post your question to http://flippedclass.com where we have over 7000 teachers talking about the flip. Many of them are also in 1-1 schools.
[...] What an interesting idea! I had never heard of flipping a classroom before this week. I think that it could be a useful tool in some classrooms. Dr. Coffman stated, “Many interpret this approach as a way to transfer lectures to video and have students view the videos outside of class. Class time is spent working on worksheets or writing papers.” What do I think about this? I feel conflicted, I don’t think this is what a flipped classroom should look like. Well, I don’t think that the majority of class time should be spent doing worksheets. I think that if this allows teachers to meet with students on a more individual level during class time while students are working then it could be useful. I also think that the work should be engaging. If it involves writing then perhaps students are doing research and the teacher is there to guide and assist. I teach kindergarten and I try to have interesting and engaging lessons and activities that don’t revolve around a worksheet. I found a website with a post about flipping an elementary classroom. I felt like this concept was much better suited to upper grade levels and I wanted to look for ideas that I could use with my younger students. The post had some good ideas and I added the RSS feed to my Google Reader account. Here is the link: http://flipped-learning.com/?p=883 [...]
[...] What an interesting idea! I had never heard of flipping a classroom before this week. I think that it could be a useful tool in some classrooms. Dr. Coffman stated, “Many interpret this approach as a way to transfer lectures to video and have students view the videos outside of class. Class time is spent working on worksheets or writing papers.” What do I think about this? I feel conflicted, I don’t think this is what a flipped classroom should look like. Well, I don’t think that the majority of class time should be spent doing worksheets. I think that if this allows teachers to meet with students on a more individual level during class time while students are working then it could be useful. I also think that the work should be engaging. If it involves writing then perhaps students are doing research and the teacher is there to guide and assist. I teach kindergarten and I try to have interesting and engaging lessons and activities that don’t revolve around a worksheet. I found a website with a post about flipping an elementary classroom. I felt like this concept was much better suited to upper grade levels and I wanted to look for ideas that I could use with my younger students. The post had some good ideas and I added the RSS feed to my Google Reader account. Here is the link: http://flipped-learning.com/?p=883 [...]
[...] Flipping the Elementary Classroom [...]