I took a PD yesterday on ASCDOnline over Grading Smarter, Not Harder (Dueck, 2014). In the book, the author mentions that one way he made grading easier and ensured students were able to complete homework was by flipping his classroom. Dueck said that students don’t need help or know what questions they have, typically, during a lecture. They instead need help with discussing questions and completing practice problems. Dueck also said that we can’t know all the circumstances kids have at home and that allowing them the opportunity to watch the lesson at home, then use class time to complete practice helped more kids to understand the learning and increased the amount of time students spent practicing the content.
This got me thinking about plans for my classroom – a mildly flipped version of a classroom – where students can view the lesson at home the night before, then work on the discussion and practice in the classroom the following day. Dueck said his class is flipped, but that he allows students who haven’t completed the lesson at home first to watch the lesson during class instead and complete the practice at home, much like I will run my class. He said, that almost all students chose to complete the lesson at home so they could practice with the teacher the next day, instead of completing the lesson in class. I’m hoping this is what happens in my classroom.
Based on this flipped model, I believe my classroom will fall in the middle of the Continuum of online learning described by Bates (2016) where lesson delivery is done through technology, but students have a classroom experience to help with questions and assignments.
I plan to have most of my assignments online and all my course content online as well, but students will have the opportunity to work on it in person with other students and with me, the teacher, to guide them. The class I’m creating for this 5318 course is fully online and will have collaborative projects, but the courses I’m planning for this school year will be a blend of learning online and in the classroom.
References
Bates, T. (2016). Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. SFU Document Solutions.
Dueck, M. (2014). Grading smarter not harder. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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