What the Flip?
When I came across this article it immediately grabbed my
attention because it talks about Flipped Classrooms. At my school, I have a
very “techy” 5th grade teacher that has a flipped classroom. I
taught 4th grade for 3 years in this building before I became an ELD/ESL teacher, so I was very intrigued to learn more about it especially how it would
look in the ESL classroom.
In first paragraph the author, Synodavis, explained the difference
between a traditional classroom and flipped classroom by using the following
example:
Traditional Classroom
Teacher: Teaches basic lessons on new subject matter in the
classroom.
Student: Does practice exercises and other homework
independently at home.
Flipped Classroom
Student: Learns basic lessons on new subject matter
individually at home.
Teacher: Does practice exercises and other reinforcement
material in the classroom.
The article then explains how a flipped classroom make the most sense because the students are learning the concept at home where they need the least amount of teacher support and then practicing the skills in the classroom where they need the most amount of teacher support. The teacher is still teaching the lesson when the students are learning at home, but it’s through videos. The videos would be like the whole group instruction and then the practice time would be the small group instruction. I know as a teacher I always feel like I never had enough time to meet with all my students. If I could cut out the whole group instruction (because students already were introduced to the skill at home) and focused all my time on teaching differentiated lessons based on the students’ needs in small groups I would be a much more effective teacher.
All of this information is similar to what I learned from my colleague, but what I was wondering is how this looked in the ESL classroom. The article provided a plethora of videos that students could watch to learn specific language skills at home from the website FluentU. This would make it much easier for the ESL teacher to create the whole group instruction videos that students watch at home, because they could just use some of the FluentU videos that pertain to the skill the students will be practicing at school with the teacher.
The article also gave several examples of activities that could be done in a flipped classroom. They all circled around how to incorporate the skills learned at home into showing what they learned into the classroom. One example was the students had to produce a talk show with the theme being around what they learned from the previous night’s skill learned at home. The author, Synodavis, noted that, “if they’re able to communicate the scenario or topic effectively to the rest of the class, then they understand the material!” Another example was an activity called “Speed Dating,” This is where the students partnered up and had to talk about a topic (based on what was learned the night before) for a period of time and then had to switch. When they switched they would need to talk with another partner about a topic.
Overall, even though there weren't any specific activities just for the ESL classroom, the above activities could be used. Also, the article provided a lot of useful videos that the ESL teacher could use in their flipped classroom. Finally, there are a ton of benefits for having flipped classroom in general including a few mentioned from the article:
The article then explains how a flipped classroom make the most sense because the students are learning the concept at home where they need the least amount of teacher support and then practicing the skills in the classroom where they need the most amount of teacher support. The teacher is still teaching the lesson when the students are learning at home, but it’s through videos. The videos would be like the whole group instruction and then the practice time would be the small group instruction. I know as a teacher I always feel like I never had enough time to meet with all my students. If I could cut out the whole group instruction (because students already were introduced to the skill at home) and focused all my time on teaching differentiated lessons based on the students’ needs in small groups I would be a much more effective teacher.
All of this information is similar to what I learned from my colleague, but what I was wondering is how this looked in the ESL classroom. The article provided a plethora of videos that students could watch to learn specific language skills at home from the website FluentU. This would make it much easier for the ESL teacher to create the whole group instruction videos that students watch at home, because they could just use some of the FluentU videos that pertain to the skill the students will be practicing at school with the teacher.
The article also gave several examples of activities that could be done in a flipped classroom. They all circled around how to incorporate the skills learned at home into showing what they learned into the classroom. One example was the students had to produce a talk show with the theme being around what they learned from the previous night’s skill learned at home. The author, Synodavis, noted that, “if they’re able to communicate the scenario or topic effectively to the rest of the class, then they understand the material!” Another example was an activity called “Speed Dating,” This is where the students partnered up and had to talk about a topic (based on what was learned the night before) for a period of time and then had to switch. When they switched they would need to talk with another partner about a topic.
Overall, even though there weren't any specific activities just for the ESL classroom, the above activities could be used. Also, the article provided a lot of useful videos that the ESL teacher could use in their flipped classroom. Finally, there are a ton of benefits for having flipped classroom in general including a few mentioned from the article:
·
Embraces Multiple Skill Levels
·
Increases Student Engagement
·
Provides Flexibility
·
Gives Students More Control of
their Learning
·
and More Time to Teach Student Effectively
With all of these benefits and several resources included it seems silly not to at least
give it a try, right?
Synodavis, (n.d.) What the Flip Is a Flipped
Classroom? Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/flipped-classroom-esl/
I have dabbled with flipping my classroom and most of the students love it. They can work at their own pace and come back to class with knowledge of what the lesson is going to be about. I do not give too many assignments though, because a big percentage of students do not have internet, computers - or both, at home. If I do choose to flip my lesson, I make sure to give it enough time so those with no internet access can do their homework during study hall with one of the school computers. I think this would be a great way for my ESL students to reinforce their language acquisition skills though. The challenge would be in that they would need internet access.
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