Flipped+Classroom

My new learning...One Saturday learning about the flipped classroom and I was off and running. My great ICoach, Krystal Weiss, helped me to plot out a schedule. she helped me iron out all the little stuff I hate so much. The plan: Have the students watch Brainpopjr videos to teach Economics concepts and vocabulary. The students would then respond using the WSQ form on Edmodo.com Then our time in class would be to apply the learning to our service project-The Lemonade stand. Our service project takes so much time, I needed to pass something to the kids to do independently. To get ready for this unit, I started with some science and social studies videos. We watched some in class and practiced the WSQ. Then I finally passed it to the students. After watching the video and responding on Edmodo, I had them write about the experience as morning work. Since they did not write about the process, I made a quick yes/no flipchart. They answered questions I had about the lesson experience. Two parents had emailed me saying it was a great assignment. I had a lot of kids do the assignment within the first hour of being home. (Success from a mom's point of view!). Okay their summaries were not quite right but that was okay. Some findings from my impromptu survey were: So I felt good about moving forward. I made a "me the teacher' one for math, as some of my parents had asked for it. I am going to try to make one in math per week and one brainpop a week.
 * Title: Flipped Learning
 * 1) 100% enjoyed it
 * 2) Preferred it to the reading homework I cancelled.
 * 3) Only my Above Level kids could do it completely independently.
 * 4) Almost all said their parents liked the assignment
 * 5) 50% however said their parents still made them do their reading homework
 * 6) More than 80% wanted it in other subject areas.

I have asked my new principal if I could have Spanish ( a 50 minute block of time without students) to be next to my block time. This would give me about 1.5 hours of planning that I could use to plan and make new opportunities weekly.

 Questioning becomes the next step. = After the lesson from Steph Harvey's Comprehension Toolkit on thick and thin questions, I am going to take copies of their questions on Edmodo to critique. We are going to sort them by thick and thin by cutting up the list of questions. The students will work in pairs cutting and gluing them down. We will share the results on the activ board. The next day I will present the same questions but we will look through the lens of researching. Again cutting, pasting and sharing our results. Finally we will compare and contrast our different "lenses". Using our learning we will make a class bulletin board with questions. We will apply our learning to our Social Studies project-American Heroes and Science-Bird research. = = As always, they will continue to be monitored through Edmodo with their homework assignments. =

