1. The flipped classroom approach involves students watching video instruction at home and completing practice activities in class with teacher support.
2. Teachers began flipping classrooms to make more class time for practice and application after realizing lessons were spent giving students information.
3. With the flipped model, teachers can check understanding from homework, answer questions, and provide differentiated practice and feedback to students during class.
1. The flipped classroom approach involves students watching video instruction at home and completing practice activities in class with teacher support.
2. Teachers began flipping classrooms to make more class time for practice and application after realizing lessons were spent giving students information.
3. With the flipped model, teachers can check understanding from homework, answer questions, and provide differentiated practice and feedback to students during class.
1. The flipped classroom approach involves students watching video instruction at home and completing practice activities in class with teacher support.
2. Teachers began flipping classrooms to make more class time for practice and application after realizing lessons were spent giving students information.
3. With the flipped model, teachers can check understanding from homework, answer questions, and provide differentiated practice and feedback to students during class.
What is it and why is it important? 2 Students watch the video for homework The flipped classroom is an approach where classroom instruction In the previous lesson, the teacher sets the classroom is given to students at home via a video, and application usually instruction task as homework, usually with an accompanying given for homework is completed in class with the teacher’s activity to check understanding. Students do the tasks support. at home. The task that checks understanding might be completed online as this allows the teacher to check Teachers began flipping their classrooms in subjects such as understanding before the lesson and make adjustments science when they became frustrated that many of their lessons to their lesson plan if students have found the language were taken up with giving students information. Students who particularly easy or difficult. Alternatively students may bring struggled to complete their homework without the teacher there the completed task on paper to discuss at the beginning of to support them were unable to master the topic. the lesson. The teachers exploited new technologies by creating short videos that provided classroom instruction. Students watched these 3 In class review in their own time before a lesson and then class time was spent In the lesson, the teacher begins by checking students’ on applying that information with the teacher there to support understanding of the content of the video. It could be them. The teacher could differentiate tasks for different learners through checking answers to the homework task, oral to ensure that everyone was challenged and supported at an questioning or a quick paired quiz. Students are given the appropriate level. opportunity to ask questions. In language learning terms, flipping the classroom means students listening to or reading information about language 4 Practice, practice, practice at home before a lesson, leaving more time for practice of that Students are then given several practice tasks to complete for language in the classroom. Alternatively, it could be information the rest of the lesson while the teacher monitors and offers about an exam technique or how to write an informal letter. support. This practice might be individual at first as they Lessons then provide more opportunities for practice of language complete written exercises. It can then be communicative and skills development with the teacher there to support, correct as students work in pairs or groups to complete oral tasks. and challenge the students as they complete tasks. Students can Fast finishers can move onto new tasks so that they are work on the same tasks, or work in groups on different tasks to challenged. Weaker students can receive extra support such ensure they work at a level suitable for them. as prompts. The flipped classroom is still a fairly new approach and so research on its efficacy is ongoing. Anecdotally, teachers who flip their 5 Reflection on performance classrooms believe that the approach allows students to become Finally, at the end of the lesson, students reflect on what they more independent in their learning. They learn how to learn. have learnt to help them identify progress and areas where Rather than receive information in the classroom, they have to they still need to improve. These reflections allow students take more control and ensure they learn it outside the classroom, to gain a greater understanding of their strengths and watching the video or re-reading written material several times if weaknesses, and encourage them to set achievable learning necessary. In class, they have time to ask the teacher questions if goals for future lessons. they still don’t understand and choose when they need support. This autonomy motivates students and results in a higher level of Efficacy engagement according to teachers. In terms of language learning, Keeping track of learner progress is one way of finding out students can gain more practice time and receive more feedback whether flipping the classroom is effective or not. This can be from the teacher on performance. through progress tests – or speaking and writing tasks – to assess Current best practices and methods whether students are improving their use of language. It can also be through self-reflection. For example, you could ask students The following are the typical stages of a lesson when flipping the to feed back using questions such as the following, offering a classroom. ranking of 1–5 (1 = not, 5 = very). This can be via a questionnaire or orally in class. 1 Preparing the homework • How useful are the materials you do at home in learning new Teachers can provide instruction through video or written language? material. These can be created by the teacher or sourced from an alternative source e.g. their coursebook or online. • How easy is this material to work with? If teachers make videos, they are usually five to ten minutes • How helpful is the extra time for practice in class? long and comprise the teacher recording themselves • How helpful is the teacher’s support when doing tasks? with their device, standing at the board and explaining • How much do you prefer this approach? the language. Alternatively, a video can be made using screencasting software which allows voice recording • Are you making more progress using this approach? over slides.
How does Gold Experience second To take it further … edition help me with that? Here are some tips to help you to flip your classroom effectively: Gold Experience provides the following resources that will help Tip 1: If you create your own videos, personalise them you to flip your classroom. Just as we would try to personalise language in class when we clarify it for students, try to personalise it in videos too. For Grammar presentations example, give a short anecdote about yourself using the target The Active Teach software contains presentation slides with language. You can then use sentences from that anecdote to step-by-step walkthroughs of the grammar points taught in each explain how the language is used, formed and pronounced. lesson. These can be used by the teacher in class, when explaining Tip 2: Motivate student to want to complete the homework language, but they can also be printed out for students to read tasks at home when flipping the classroom. The slides contain detailed It’s important that students complete the homework because if information about the meaning, function and form of the target they don’t, they’ll find it difficult to complete the practice tasks language with examples. There is a final task that checks students’ in class. Pose a question and elicit answers but don’t give the understanding. correct answer. Tell students that they have to do the homework task to find out. For example, before a lesson on future forms, write the following sentence on the board: By the time we next see each other, you’ll have all done your homework, won’t you?! Tell students that this sentence is clearly factually correct (!) but ask if it’s grammatically correct. If you make your own videos, engage students by teasing the context so that they want to know more and have to watch the video to find it out. Let’s imagine that you tell a short anecdote in the video using the target language before explaining it. You could show a photo that represents the anecdote or tell the beginning of an anecdote but not the end. Elicit what the anecdote is but don’t tell the students the correct answer. Workbook support They do their homework to find out. The workbook contains exercises on the grammar points Tip 3: What to do when students don’t do the homework taught in each unit. These can be used as homework prior to If possible, arrange for students who haven’t done their the Grammar lesson in order to check what learners already homework to go to the back of the class and do it while the other know. With students at this level, the grammar is unlikely to be students start to practise using it. Make technology available completely new to them and so a test, teach, test approach can there if the homework is a video. Once students get into the habit be used. of a flipped classroom, they tend to do the homework but even Alternatively, the workbook exercises can be completed in class to the best students sometimes forget or are unable to. provide as much practice as possible while the teacher is available Tip 4: What to do when students don’t have the technology to offer support and clarify any confusing aspects of Try to arrange for all students to have access to any online the language. material they need do the homework after school or before school if not everyone in the class has a device or internet access at home. Alternatively, create study pairs or groups where at least one student has a device and can watch the video with someone who does not. Tip 5: Help learners to become more independent in their learning As discussed in the section Independent learning, students often need to be trained to work independently. To help them do this, make learning goals clear so they know why they are doing the homework before the language lesson and how it will help them. Teacher’s Book support At the end of the lesson, encourage students to reflect on their In the Teacher’s Book, prior to a Grammar lesson, there are notes performance in the lesson so they can identify progress and for the teacher on what materials are available when flipping the recognise strengths and weaknesses. This can help them to set classroom. personalised learning goals and progress more quickly.
Explain to students that the next lesson will focus on
future forms. Ask them to complete the exercises in the Workbook in preparation for this.