Introducing, Ask a Researcher:
Every week, I try to reserve a few hours for answering questions, reading colleagues papers, reviewing proposals for conferences, offering school and job advice, and generally being of service to other educators. Most of this has happened over email for the last few years, but now if I write up anything that might be of interest, I'll post it here under Ask a Researcher. If you have your own question, hit me up with the contact button at right.
Ask a Researcher:
I'm seriously considering "flipping" my US History classes starting next year. (I'd even like to do it before the end of the semester if possible.) Our 11th graders will be in a 1:1 environment next fall as they will all have iPads, and I thought flipping the classes might be a good alternative. I've looked at some testimonials and groups which have discussed this.
I have a few resources about Flipped here:
I think the two key questions to ask around flipped are:
1) Where is the most cognitively difficult work being done?
2) How can we make permenant ephermal content delivery?
Re: 1. In the math classroom, flipped is a slam dunk because traditionally students collect content in class and then apply learning at home. Applying is harder than collecting, so the applying should happen in school with peer and teacher support.
In contrast, most literature classes are already "flipped" in the sense that the hard part happens in class. Content delivery happens while reading at home, and analysis happens during class discussion. So as you look at your curriculum and what to flip, consider asking the question "Are students doing the most cognitively difficult work in class?" Where they are not, consider flipping.
Re 2: The other thing flipping does is make ephemeral content delivery (lecture) permanent and archived, so students can get the content if they aren't present (mentally or physically) in class, or if they didn't understand something, or if they need to recall something months after it's been taught. So another question for class is "When do I deliver content that gets lost if people aren't in class?" Wherever that is the case, consider how screencasting or recording could make ephemeral teaching permanent.