Flipped Classroom or fLiPpEd OuT?!

Even after our class discussion last week, I still don't have my thoughts on the flipped classroom concept nailed down. The more I think about it, the more aspects I find appealing, but my enthusiasm quickly is cooled by the experiences I'm having in my own classroom. I think that students could benefit from the more hands-on/real world application practice provided by the flipped classroom, but only if they are willing to work. My biggest fear about a truely flipped classroom is that the students wouldn't do their outside work and that their lack of outside work would like to having a classroom on kids who are each on a different level of readiness with the assignment; thus rendering me unable to provide the best possible instruction to any of them. That being said, I think that a flipped concept is possible, but, in my opinion, it would have to be a shift in the culture of the district/school in order to be successful.


As frustrating as social media can be in the classroom, with drama resulting from its use among students, I do believe that it could be beneficial in the school environment. Allowing students to interact using social media (like Twitter, Facebook, etc.) brings our classrooms into the 21st Century. It isn't practical to expect our students to solely interact via traditional methods anymore. Even the most professional people in our society use social media to communicate, not only with their colleagues, but also to keep their fingers on the pulse of their audience. The key to using social media in the academic realm is teaching our students to be responsible-- not only for the content they put 'out there,' but also for themselves; teaching digital responsibility and citizenship MUST be a part of a teacher's lesson plan if he or she is going to incorporate the use of social media in the classroom.

DOK.... ok! :)

Most of my assessment questions on my last assessment were DOK level one and two, though there were a few level three questions and one level four. While my gut reaction was to chastise myself for having so many low level questions, once I thought about what my goals were for the assessment, I didn't feel quite as bad about it. The last assessment I gave was a reading check quiz for Romeo and Juliet, but I could have certainly included more higher level questions... In terms of 21st century goals, incorporating more higher level questions is important because our students won't be limited to low level questioning in the real world.

Rigor/Relevance--- where we fit?

In my classroom, alot of times, I find that my lessons are situated more in the realm of A, B, and C; I have gotten into a few very cool Quad D lessons during my first year as a teacher, but (unfortunately) those aren't as common as I'd like for them to be. However, I have been consistently working to make more of my lessons Quads B & C-- trying to move away from the simple input-output of Quad A.

In 9th grade English, we are reading Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. While a certain amount of knowledge and comprehension is required, I have been trying to incorporate more B/C kind of thinking by asking the students analyze the characters' actions, predict what might have been different if the same situation occurred today, and to consider the motivations of the characters we are reading. I would say that in terms of the Rigor/Relevance Framework that my highest level of achievement with this unit has been a C/D combination, but I think that I could still bump it up to a solid D by asking students to consider how the use of modern technology could have impacted the outcome of the play, explain what could have been different, and then create their own alternate ending using modern day technology, setting, characters, etc..

SAMR, Bloom's, and E-121

One tool that my kids have been using lately is the Shakespeare in Bits app for the iPad. It provides brief snippets of the Shakespeare accompanied by cartoonish graphics. I have been using the app as a Substitution/Augmentation on the SAMR chart. As a class, we viewed the first scene of the play using this app to help foster understanding of the action, etc. after reading the play and discussing as a class. For students who are absent (and therefore miss the discussion), viewing the play after reading helps them to grasp what is actually happening in the play... since Shakespeare--even in modern text--isn't the easiest thing to understand. Another app we are utilizing is No Fear Shakespeare which provides a modern translation of the original text-- this has made teaching Shakespeare worlds easier... the students attempt the original text first then read the modern text to supplement their understanding.

In terms of school programs that we use with our students, I would rate WVWrites as an Augmentation/Modification on the SAMR scale. Not only are students given the experience of writing their piece, but they are also provided with editing and revision suggestions/tools. This changes the game when it comes to the writing process. Instead of taking up to a week to have students write, in longhand, an essay, edit it, revise it, and turn in a final product, WVWrites allows for the student to complete these tasks in as little as a period or two.

I'm still thinking through the SAMR chart and how to bump activities in my classroom up a notch, and the word that keeps sticking out for my is Transformation. If we really want to transform the way that our students learn, retain, and demonstrate their understanding of information, then it makes sense that that very transformation has to begin with us...