Anticipatory Guides and Collaborative Learning in the Flipped Classroom

While teaching an ecology unit in Biology, I decided to turn a True/False assignment into an anticipatory guide.

First, I told the students to answer the questions about energy flow through ecosystems based on current knowledge.

Next, I told them to find evidence to support their answer or change their answer from the textbook by incorporating the Kagan structure Rally Coach.

I told the students to work in groups of two. Partner A would find support for the first statement. Partner B would find evidence on the second statement, and so on. The students were told to write the page number to support their answer. Partner A was the person whose birthday was closest to that day.

I also told them to correct the incorrect sentences.

When pairs finished, they could confer with another pair (Kagan structure Round Robin).

Finally, we discussed our findings as a whole group.

Things I liked about this activity:

• Prior knowledge was acknowledged and utilized
• Misconceptions were discussed and addressed
• Cooperative learning strategies were incorporated
• Students were allowed to be experts
• Struggling students and students who engage in off-task behavior were on-task and helping other students

In flipping my class, I need to provide engaging activities from bell to bell. This particularly important because Our classes are on a block schedule. As I work to improve my teaching, I will continue to update this blog.

5 Reasons to Flip Your Classroom Now!

1. Additional time for student practice

Allowing students to watch videos outside of class allows students to practice in class instead of at home.

2. Additional time for teacher feedback

Practicing in class allows students to get help and feedback from their teacher as they work through problems or activities.  Previously, students would work alone at home without help, possibly reinforcing misconceptions or allowing them to give up because they did not have help.

3. Additional time for collaborative learning

The additional class time provides more opportunities for collaborative learning and project-based learning activities.  Students should have more opportunities to create products that are authentic learning experiences, rigorous and relevant, and prepare them for college and careers.

4. Increased student engagement

Students should be more engaged at home and in class.  Freed from the traditional lecture format, students can stop, rewind and pause videos to increase understanding.  In addition, they can find additional learning materials online of their own choosing to help them attain mastery of content.  This allows students to own their learning experiences.

5. Increased time for planning activities instead of planning lectures

Instead of planning lectures, teachers can plan activities for students to learn through hands-on experiences.  This also creates more time for reflection on how to further improve your students' learning experiences!

Building a Better Science Teacher

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crucially/412106816/

This academic year marks my 5th year in the teaching profession. I am thinking more about what I want students to know and do as a result of my teaching. While I am guided by state and national standards, I also have ideas about what skills I want students to develop in my courses:

- technical writing


- making and interpreting tables and graphs


- presenting lab data and science content in multiple formats


- thinking/inquiry skills


- reading and vocabulary proficiency


- content knowledge

This semester I will design activities to balance content and skills development. This is consistent with efforts to flip my classroom and incorporate standards-based grading practices. While my students do hands-on activities and experiments on a regular basis, I want to be more deliberate about what I want my students to learn from these activities.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Science_lab_in_Fisher_Hall.jpg

One way I can more deliberately incorporate process skills is having all of my students compete in the Google Science Fair. My intent is to break down their projects into small assignments they can complete before the submission deadline, April 1st.

First, I want them to develop their own research questions. I want them to understand that they can apply the scientific method to many subject areas.

I am hoping that participating in the Google Science Fair will get my students excited about science and help improve their Science understanding and skill set.

Standards-Based Grading and the Flipped Classroom

This week I am attempting to incorporate aspects of Standards-Based Grading into my Biology class.  Here are some of the details:

1. I am introducing a standards-based rubric. 
2. I am providing the students with a learning plan of activities for them to complete throughout the week.  Activities include performing inquiry projects, finishing vocabulary activities, watching relevant videos, and completing online activities.  Students will have to demonstrate mastery by writing open-ended responses to questions about the content as well as take quizzes and a unit test.
3. Students will have the opportunity to retake an assignment to demonstrate increased levels of mastery.
4. I will also create an online standards-based gradebook on Google Docs.

I believe standards-based grading is consistent with the flipped classroom movement because:

1. Allowing students to watch videos outside of class gives them more time to develop and demonstrate mastery in class
2. The additional activity time gained by flipping a classroom should provide additional time for teachers to help students attain mastery.
3. Flipped classrooms should be classrooms with evidence of student work linked to content and process standards.

I will write about how this process worked in this unit during future posts!