Flipped Classroom Strategy For Extra Help

How can we provide opportunities for extra help while preserving planning and preparation time for teachers? Utilizing a hybrid instructional model that includes flipped learning resources may help.

Teachers may post copies of class notes, instructional materials used in class and homework online or within a school email system. This provides access  to the information for students who were not present in class that day. The expectation is that students will download and review the materials and attempt the homework. If a student requires extra help, her or she will approach the classroom teacher with specific questions about the notes or homework.

While the above scenario sounds great it is typically not how the events occur. Many times students come for extra help having not reviewed the information posted. They are looking for the teacher to re-teach the entire lesson. Unfortunately this is not always possible given the time constraints and the number of students who may require assistance on various topics or components of content at the same time.

By developing a library of video tutorials and instructional materials for each topic you may provide an opportunity for students to receive direct instruction remotely. Teachers may consider linking to video tutorials in the Khan Academy or possibly creating their own tutorials or recorded lectures. Over time this library will grow. Students may access and review these recorded lesson prior to seeking extra help. They will receive the benefit of direct instruction in a format this is familiar, has the ability to pause, stop and rewind, and is mobile.

While full implementation of the flipped classroom requires a paradigm shift in "what happens in the classroom", a hybird model like has an easier point of entry and can be a valuable intervention resource for all students.

 

 

Responding to Student Needs With Instructional Strategies

A number of established and best practices in education emulate the principles of inclusive education.  Educators today are better equipped to facilitate meaningful and inclusive education for students at risk.  However, a holistic and comprehensive school plan is an integral component of a school wide effort to provide all students with the education they are entitled to receive.  We must continue to enhance and expand the continuum of options available to our students.  Principles of this systematic plan include staff that is trained in successful instructional strategies, committed to teaching and progress, reflective on student performance, and responsive to the needs of all students.

In looking at instructional strategies, a comprehensive review of the lesson framework and the selection of strategies and practices contained is the first step. We can best meet the needs of our students by designing a classroom environment that provides opportunity for all. Do we design lessons that provide individuals the opportunity to connect prior learning, assess their understanding of content, collaborate with peers, ask questions and explore new learning?

When designing instruction to meet the varying needs of our students the instructional strategies we select are the first step to level the playing field. My colleague and I have designed an interactive pyramid of intervention to provide a toolbox for teachers. This toolbox aides in lesson design, instructional strategies and targeted interventions.  An exploration of the interactive Lesson Framework provides teachers with a toolbox of instructional strategies for each area of the framework.

Math Interventions with the Khan Academy

I have written numerous posting on the benefits of the Khan Academy as well as the positive attributes of a "flipped classroom" The Khan Academy now has mapped all of the common core math standards. Within each standard are links to instructional videos and practice exercises.

Students may use these videos and exercises to review topics covered in class, or to view lessons ahead of their teacher in order to establish prior knowledge. This may also be a great resource for a student who needs to build foundation skills in a particular area.

https://www.khanacademy.org/commoncore

Enjoy!

(Image Credit: http://dumais.us/newtown/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/math_intervention.jpg)

Active Reading Strategies K-12

I have had the opportunity to work with students and faculty across all grade levels K-12. This experience and exposure has without a doubt made me a better teacher, observer, and most importantly filled my toolbox.

My visits to early elementary classrooms offer insight into differentiation and independent learning at a level of depth that is difficult to duplicate in higher grades. Many of the schools I have worked in implement balanced literacy programs with a focus on Guided Reading, Centers, and Reading / Writing workshop. During these early years of literacy instruction there is an emphasis on the skills of what good readers and writers do. Students are grouped by reading level and afforded the opportunity to work with their peers in small groups to learn and apply these skills.

During this time students learn pre-reading strategies such as activating prior knowledge, defining a purpose for reading and identifying text structures.  They also build skills to be implemented while reading such as questioning, making connections, managing speed, predicting,  how to infer and attack vocabulary. After reading students learn strategies such as "how to review", summarizing, and most importantly clarifying questions to ask.

These strategies, while taught as skills in early elementary, are proven to be vital for reading comprehension and learning. They are skills that should not be limited to a Language Arts classroom. Application of these skills should be integrated into all subject areas. As students move to higher grades the focus shifts from skill based literacy instruction to mastery  of content and analysis of text.

During my time coordinating I&RS teams I have worked with a number of students who struggle with reading comprehension. While the struggles manifest themselves in a variety of ways, the consensus is to develop reading skills to aid in comprehension. For that purpose i have found that the instructional strategies and skills taught in early elementary have a place in grades 6-12. All of our teachers would benefit from receiving direct instruction in "what good readers and writers do" in order to integrate these skills into their courses.

One of my favorite books regarding the teaching of reading comprehension strategies is Mosaic of Thought. While this book is typically found in elementary PD sessions or book clubs, it would be well placed in a high school as well.  US History II teachers would benefit in turn-keying instruction in monitoring meaning, activating prior knowledge, questioning, drawing inferences, imagery, and analyzing text structure.

As schools look towards increased differentiation and the elimination of levels our teachers need to fill their toolbox with strategies to reach all learners.  Recognizing that the teaching of reading strategies transcends grade levels and subjects is a great first step.

I have developed an active reading strategies chart that we share with teachers and students to aid in the development of comprehension. Active Reading Strategies Chart

Assessing Mental Math

In latest issue of Educational Leadership Marilyn Burns (founder of Math Solutions, (www.mathsolutions.com) wrote an article that highlights an assessment strategy in Mathematics that departs from our more recent assessment strategies. She discussed how the Common Core State Standards for mathematics will require teacher to strengthen students' numerical reasoning and mental math skills.  

After reading this article and reflecting on my observations in classrooms I started to make a connection to the significance of assessing mental computation.  Knowledge of how a student mentally computes math problems would provide a wealth of information for teachers. This formative assessment strategy would not only provide insight into the strategies utilized by your students but it would also assess their development of this important life skill.

"Solving math problems mentally too often receives limited attention in classrooms compared with paper and pencil computation. Although developing written computation skills is important, mental computation helps develop facility with many of the practice standards - for example, reasoning quantitatively, constructing a viable argument, and looking for and making use of structure." (Burns, 2012)

Ms Burns has developed a free online tool to assess math reasoning. This tool requires short 10 minute interviews as well as independent paper based computation by the student. At the completion of the assessment the teacher is provided with an analysis of the students math reasoning skill. The entire program includes video tutorials, assessment rubrics and explanations of reports.

This individualized, verbal assessment strategy appears to be a great resource for teachers in grades 5-8.

http://www.mathreasoninginventory.com

Burns, Marilyn. "Educational Leadership." Educational Leadership. 70.4 (2012): 42-46. Print.

Image - http://mathandtech.pbworks.com/f/1268839944/math_art.gif

 

Virtual Author Visits

What do good writer's do? Why not listen to them tell you. NBC Learn  has curated a number of video taped interviews with well-known children book authors. These short interviews provide an insight into their creative writing process. Current authors interviews available include:

Moe Willems, Doreen Cronin, Peter Brown and many more.  Full transcripts of each interview are also available.  It might be interesting to paste the text from each interview into Wordle to identify the common language and ideas shared by these authors?

http://www.nbclearn.com/writersspeak

Flipping The Instructional Design In Core Subject Areas

One of the highlighted additions to the Common Core Standards is the focus on informational text. Students are required to demonstrate comprehension of such text as well as the ability to produce written text  grounded in research, analysis and argumentation.  In order to develop these skills and to prepare students for college and career readiness a paradigm shift must occur in many of our content areas. In many schools the approach to addressing this shift has been the integration of literacy instruction and application into core subjects such as social studies and science.

The design process looks something like:

What do we want our students to learn?

What content must we cover?

How can we integrate literacy into this process?

With the help of the Literacy Design Collaboraive teachers can now Flip this process in order to have a more focused approach to literacy instruction without minimizing the content. In  fact, teachers who have implemented the "template tasks" developed by the LDC have discovered students develop greater and deeper content knowledge.

This model involves:

Select a Literacy Based Template Task

Select a topic from your curriculum

Fill in the blanks in the task from the topic

Select the content/ text students will read

Select the text the students will write.

The task templates are available for download on the LDC website. The tasks are designed to be integrated into LA, Science or Social Studies.

An example task is:

 

[Insert question] After reading _____ (literature or informational texts), write _________ (essay or substitute) that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the text(s). L2 Be sure to acknowledge competing views.

Sara Ballute and Timothy Lent in New York City used that template to create a teaching task for high school world history:

Were the achievements and growth of the Industrial Revolution Era worth the cost to society? After reading secondary and primary sources pertaining to the British Industrial Revolution, write an argumentation essay that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the texts. Be sure to acknowledge competing views.

Monica Cressman, Sean Houseknecht, and Alex Shubert of the Elizabethtown (Pennsylvania) School District used the same template for middle school science:

Should animals be kept in zoos? After reading the information texts provided, write an essay that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the texts. Be sure to acknowledge competing views.

The integration of the template tasks provided by the LDC represent a paradigm shift in core content instruction. While this model has proven to be effective it requires significant PD for all. This is a great opportunity in high schools for interdisciplinary PD. Having English teachers host PD on writing instruction for content area teachers, developing common writing rubrics and developing PLC's with a focus on this topic are some ideas worth exploring.