My first class was 5305. I felt like we were dumped into a show already in progress. In less than 3 weeks we had to come up with some BIG plan we intended to roll out in our organizations. The DLL/ADL program turned out to be nothing like what I expected and I wasn’t prepared to come up with a big initiative -- I didn’t realize that’s what I’d signed up for. That said I came up with an innovation proposal for something I felt good about rolling out in my classroom. It was a project I had started before joining the DLL program and felt would be helpful for my classroom and my school to build upon.
In my innovation plan, I describe that I want to do a version of a flipped classroom in my precalculus classes. I had been recording my lessons for about a year and posting them on my google classroom site for students who had been absent, or for students to review concepts. After reading several articles and the book “Blended” (Horne, 2014) in 5305, I found that I could use what I had already learned about recording my lessons to flip my classroom and in the process give my students choice over when and where they watch as well as the pace at which they watch it.
I knew a stumbling block in my innovation rollout would be my administration. Previous attempts to suggest that my students could learn from a video had met with resistance. Parents expected live lessons for their students, so the admin decided we couldn’t use video to deliver first-time instruction. This was prior to Covid. When the pandemic hit we had to adapt quickly to prepare for students to learn in three different ways: in the classroom; live, online; and asynchronous. I was well prepared for the year having already recorded videos that I could edit to make better. While many students didn’t do well learning from home, some thrived and students found that the videos were helpful no matter what mode of learning they were engaged in daily.
With 2 years of successful integration of video in my class, I felt prepared to ask my admin for permission and support to roll out my flipped classroom. This year I received approval to start my flipped classroom!
My innovation plan felt forced at first but has become more authentic as I made it my own. As I said, trying to come up with something I could roll out over the course of the year to make a big impact on my classroom and my organization in a couple of weeks wasn’t easy. It felt very inauthentic and like I was just creating something to get through a course. I tried to make it my own but I didn’t feel strongly enough about it at first. With time and research, the idea grew on me and I made other changes in my classroom, too.
I’ve integrated COVA and a learner’s mindset in more than just flipping my classroom. I have also incorporated it into the ways I assess student learning. We have three types of assignments: checks for understanding (daily work), relevant applications (assignments where the students create some part), and summative assessments (tests). I have incorporated a learner’s mindset into each type of assignment.
All daily work I create has unlimited attempts. Using the Schoology LMS has made this possible. If we were still using worksheets the students would have to rely on me solely for feedback. Using Schoology and EdPuzzle, I can set up understanding checks and the students can complete them as many times as needed until they are sure they grasp the concepts.
If I had a choice, I would not give tests in the traditional way, but it is a district expectation to test individual students for the knowledge they have and how they can use it. That said, if a student doesn’t do well on a test, I have them make corrections to their test so they can learn where their previous thinking failed and move forward from there.
Where I really get to give students a real COVA experience is in the relevant applications. I have struggled for years with finding a way for the students to relate math to their everyday lives or what they might do in the future -- or at least finding a way to make it interesting for those that just don’t find math “fun.” I use relevant applications to create real-world projects for the students. Using our relevant application assignments students have mapped out weather patterns to decide on a time to take a trip, designed a lot for a house, created works of art using polar equations, and explained how music can be created with sign functions, just to name a few examples (you can see some of them here).
For as “cool” as some of the student products are, one of the biggest issues I’ve had with letting students choose how they wish to complete a project is helping them get started. Students are not used to being given a set of general parameters and getting to choose how they wish to fulfill them. Even on projects that seem really easy, students will stall because they don’t know where to start. Freedom in learning is not something they’ve had, so it’s something we need to teach.
References
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2014). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 1118955153
Kommentare