Applying the 4 Pillars of Flipped Learning

Video Transcription

Hello, and thank you for joining me today to discuss applying the four pillars of flipped learning. Today we will answer the essential question of, what is the criteria for implementing the four pillars of flipped learning? Let's start by taking a look at our lesson plan.

The way I see this lesson going is that you have middle school or secondary students who are working on the writing process while simultaneously reading a number of short stories, while learning about the different literary terms. They'll learn about a literary terms, such as characterization or imagery or thing, then they'll read a short story that exemplifies that term.

Simultaneously, they will also be talking about the writing process, which includes pre-writing, brainstorming, outlining, an original draft, revisions, a final draft, and more. The writing process is going to be graded on the 6+1 traits of writing, which we'll also be learning about. This will all culminate in the performance event of a well-written essay exploring a character's development over the course of the work. And it should explain how this development contributes to the overall theme of the work.

This is a very traditional lesson plan. So I think it's actually, a really good example to talk about how we can take are traditional lesson plans and incorporate them in a flipped learning classroom.

We're going to look at each of the four pillars, and there are some bullet points under each that we can actually turn into questions we can ask ourselves as a form of reflection. So we're going to start with the first pillar, which is flexible environment. Remember that this means that we're establishing spaces and time frames for students to interact and reflect on learning as needed. This just means we have a flexible space, both physical and non-physical.

Students can move around the classroom. Groups can be easily formed. Or we can put the class in a whole group setting. We have time frames built into the day that's not dominated with the learning activities where the students can reflect.

The teacher in this environment is also continuously observing or monitoring their students for mastery. And based on that, they're making adjustments as appropriate and reteaching. This leads to a lot of differentiation happening in the classroom in more than one way.

The teacher is definitely going to be collecting data through her observations and monitoring of students. And they're going to be correcting any misconceptions that the students had when they learned the content at home for homework. But they're also going to be differentiating. While one student may have mastered the content overnight, well one student may have mastered the content by using the homework, another student may need some one-on-one work. And that possible in a flexible learning environment.

Additionally, some of the learning activities might be learning activities that fall into the differentiated instruction framework, such as jigsaw or stations. When you have a flexible learning environment, these are easily incorporated into the learning day. And it can add to that meaningful interaction with the content that's so important to flipped learning.

In terms of our learning culture, we want to make sure that we're giving students opportunities to engage in meaningful activities without the teacher being front and center. They learn the content at home. So maybe that means they talked about the 6+1 trick of writing of voice. And maybe they learned about the literary term of irony, and read a story about it.

How are we going to interact with that the next day? What are some meaningful activities? The teacher isn't going to be front and center. There's no more sage on the stage. They're not up at the blackboard lecturing. They're walking around, and they're facilitating.

This also means that we're going to have more scaffolding taking place in our learning culture. We're going to scaffold our activities and make them accessible to all students because we're differentiating, and we're providing feedback.

Scaffolding is really, really important. Because we have this flexible learning environment, we're going to be doing a lot of group work. You're definitely able to group kids based on ability. But what you want the most is mixed ability grouping. Because while you scaffold the assignments, you're also going to be having scaffolding occurring in class where the higher achieving students are teaching the students with some deficits, the skills to be successful.

Then you have intentional content. This has to do with the content that the students are learning at home. It's what is given for homework. It's important that the teacher prioritize the concepts for direct instruction. And remember that the direct instruction is happening on their own.

Then after prioritizing the concept, the teacher needs to either create or curate the content. Meaning they're going to either create tutorials, or find assignments from the textbook, or they're going to find things online-- tutorials that already exist, and assign those for homework.

They're also going to differentiate this. What works for one may not work for another. If you're a visual learner, an online video might be the great way to learn about the concept of irony. If you're not a visual learner and you do better with reading, reading a short story might be the best way to get the content.

And then, lastly, we need to be accessible. Remember that unless this is a one-tn-one classroom where students are taking devices home at night, you may have some students who don't have the means to view online videos. You can tackle this in a couple of different ways. You can assign them alternate assignments or you can set time aside at the beginning of class so that the students can access the videos before we get into the classwork aspect of the day, which are the meaningful learning activities.

And then, as always, we need to have a professional educator. We need to make sure that we are performing ongoing and formative assessments before we get that major performance event at the end of the unit. To have formative assessments, the teacher's always taking the pulse of the classroom. Who gets it, and who doesn't? What worked well last night for homework, and what didn't? How can I change these things?

That's another really important part, is making the changes that are necessary. That goes back to differentiation, but it also has to do with reflection. And we'll talk about that more in a minute.

A professional educator is also someone who's collaborating constantly. Hopefully you're not the only person in your building who's doing a flipped classroom. Collaborate with the teachers who are doing them, even if they're in a different discipline. Or even collaborate with the teachers who aren't. They might still have valuable insights into how you can make this work.

And lastly, a professional educator is someone who's constantly reflecting. And there are a number of ways to reflect. Studies show it's really best to write down your reflection, rather than to discuss them with a fellow educator. And remember, there are plenty of ways to do quick easy reflections, like two plus two or plus/minus delta.

Speaking of reflections, let's do that for just a minute. Do you think it would be possible to adapt some of your lessons to a flipped classroom, like this one? Why or why not?

Today we discussed, what is the criteria for implementing the four pillars of flipped learning? And please remember, the teachers who use flipped learning can use the items found on this slide show as a checklist to self-assess.

As you reflect on how this new information can be applied, you may want to explore the Additional Resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to help deepen your learning and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skill set.

Thank you for joining me. And happy teaching.

Video Transcription

Hello, and thank you for joining me today to discuss applying the four pillars of flipped learning. Today we will answer the essential question of, what is the criteria for implementing the four pillars of flipped learning?

Let's start by taking a look at our lesson plan. The way I see this lesson going is that you have middle school or secondary students who are working on the writing process while simultaneously reading a number of short stories while learning about the different literary terms. They'll learn about a literary term, such as characterization, or imagery, or theme. Then they'll read a short story that exemplifies that term.

Simultaneously they will also be talking about the writing process, which includes pre-writing, brainstorming, outlining, an original draft, revisions, a final draft, and more. The writing process is going to be graded on the 6+1 traits of writing, which they'll also be learning about. This will all culminate in the performance event of a well-written essay exploring a character's development over the course of the work. And it should explain how this development contributes to the overall theme of the work.

This is a very traditional lesson plan. So I think it's actually a really good example to talk about how we can take our traditional lesson plans and incorporate them in a flipped learning classroom. We're going to look at each of the four pillars. And there are some bullet points under each that we can actually turn into questions we can ask ourselves as a form of reflection.

So we're going to start with the first pillar, which is flexible environment. Remember that this means that we're establishing spaces and time frames for students to interact and reflect on learning as needed. This just means we have a flexible space, both physical and non-physical.

Students can move around the classroom. Groups can be easily formed. Or we can put the class in a whole group setting. We have time frames built into the day that's not dominated with the learning activities where the students can reflect.

The teacher in this environment is also continuously observing or monitoring their students for mastery. And based on that, they're making adjustments as appropriate and reteaching. This leads to a lot of differentiation happening in the classroom in more than one way. The teacher's definitely going to be collecting data through her observations and monitorings of students. And they're going to be correcting any misconceptions that the students had when they learned the content at home for homework.

But they're also going to be differentiating. While one student may have mastered the content overnight, while one student may have mastered the content by using the homework, another student may need some one-on-one work. And that's possible in a flexible learning environment.

Additionally, some of the learning activities might be learning activities that fall into the differentiated instruction framework, such as jigsaw or stations. When you have a flexible learning environment, these are easily incorporated into the learning day. And it can add to that meaningful interaction with the content that's so important to flipped learning.

In terms of our learning culture, we want to make sure that we're giving students opportunities to engage in meaningful activities without the teacher being front and center. They learn the content at home. So maybe that means they talked about the 6+1 trait of writing of voice. And maybe they learned about the literary term of irony and read a story about it.

How are we going to interact with that the next day? What are some meaningful activities? The teacher isn't going to be front and center. There's no more sage on the stage. They're not up at the blackboard lecturing. They're walking around, and they're facilitating.

This also means that we're going to have more scaffolding taking place in our learning culture. We're going to scaffold our activities and make them accessible to all students, because we're differentiating and we're providing feedback. Scaffolding is really, really important.

Because we have this flexible learning environment, we're going to be doing a lot of group work. You're definitely able to group kids based on ability. But what you want the most is mixed ability grouping, because while you scaffold the assignments, you're also going to be having scaffolding occurring in class where the higher achieving students are teaching the students with some deficits the skills to be successful.

Then you have intentional content. This has to do with the content that the students are learning at home. It's what is given for homework. It's important that the teacher prioritize the concepts for direct instruction. And remember that the direct instruction is happening on their own.

Then after prioritizing the concept, the teacher needs to either create or curate the content, meaning they're going to either create tutorials or find assignments from the textbook. Or they're going to find things online, tutorials that already exist, and assign those for homework.

They're also going to differentiate this. What works for one may not work for another. If you're a visual learner, an online video might be the great way to learn about the concept of irony. If you're not a visual learner and you do better with reading, reading a short story might be the best way to get the content.

And then lastly, we need to be accessible. Remember that unless this is a one-to-one classroom where students are taking devices home at night, you may have some students who don't have the means to view online videos. You can tackle this in a couple of different ways. You can assign them alternate assignments. Or you can set time aside at the beginning of class so that the students can access the videos before we get into the classwork aspect of the day, which are the meaningful learning activities.

And then, as always, we need to have a professional educator. We need to make sure that we are performing ongoing and formative assessments before we get to that major performance event at the end of the unit. To have formative assessments, the teacher's always taking the pulse of the classroom, who gets it and who doesn't, what worked well last night for homework and what didn't. How can I change these things?

That's another really important part is making the changes that are necessary. That goes back to differentiation. But it also has to do with reflection. And we'll talk about that more in a minute.

A professional educator is also someone who's collaborating constantly. Hopefully you're not the only person in your building who's doing a flipped classroom. Collaborate with the teachers who are doing them, even if they're in a different discipline. Or even collaborate with the teachers who aren't. They might still have valuable insights into how you can make this work.

And lastly, a professional educator is someone who's constantly reflecting. And there are a number of ways to reflect. Studies show it's really best to write down your reflection rather than to discuss them with a fellow educator. And remember, there are plenty of ways to do quick, easy reflections, like 2 plus 2 or plus/minus delta.

Speaking of reflections, let's do that for just a minute. Do you think it would be possible to adapt some of your lessons to a flipped classroom like this one? Why or why not?

Today we discussed, what is the criteria for implementing the four pillars of flipped learning? And please remember, the teachers who use flipped learning can use the items found on this slide show as a checklist to self-assess.

As you reflect on how this new information can be applied, you may want to explore the Additional Resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to help you deepen your learning and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skill set. Thank you for joining me. And happy teaching.