A Great Student Question!

I had a great lesson come as a result of the Flipped Class with my year 8s the other day. We were working on solving linear equations, and during our WSQ conversations at the start of the lesson a few students in one group asked "How do you solve an equation with 2 variables? Is it possible?" Great question, I thought! With that small group I briefly explained that you need to have 2 equations to solve for 2 variables and went through a quick and simple example. Originally I thought I'd give some of the students that as extension work the next lesson, but instead I decided to start the next lesson with the whole class working on this problem:

There are some rabbits and chickens in a field. Altogether there are 62 heads and 190 feet. How many rabbits and how many chickens are there?

I didn't give them any strategies or hints to solve this, and most did trial and improvement to try to work it out, which, in my opinion, at this stage is a valid strategy for this type of problem. 

Once they had had a few minutes trying to work this out (and after clarifying that chickens had 2 feet each and rabbits had 4!) and about half the class had worked out the solution we discussed some students' strategies together on the board. 

After some giving explanations of their trial and improvement I moved them on to creating equations to represent the word problem, which some had attempted to do on their own. They had no problem understanding that the "heads" part of the problem could be written as:

r + c = 62

and that the "feet" part of the problem could be written as:

4r + 2c = 190

I discussed with the that if we only knew the total amount of "heads" in the field that it would be impossible to know how many of each animal we had, and that we needed the second bit of information about the amount of feet to solve the problem. So we agreed that with equations, if we have 2 unknowns then we need at least 2 equations to solve them. 

The next bit was more challenging, as I showed them how to use substitution to solve. It helped that the problem was in context so rearranging the first equation to give:

c = 62 - r

was easy to understand - simply the amount of chickens was 62 minus the number of rabbits. The substitution bit took longer for some to get than others to get and I'm not convinced they would all be able to solve a problem like this on their own, but the fact that they have all now been introduced to simultaneous equations at year 8 (normally we teach it in the last half of the year in year 9) was good enough for me. The students were then given the choice to work on solving "regular" linear equations or simultaneous equations problems for the rest of the lesson.

I thought this was a great example of how, because of the WSQ structure that goes along with the video tutorials, the students asked a questions that led to a lesson that I would not have normally taught them at their age. The questions actually changed what I had planned to teach and moved them beyond the curriculum, and the whole class had some sort of challenge presented to them. What an awesome "teaching moment!"

Week 1 Reflections

I officially flipped my maths classes this week, and so far I am extremely happy with the results. I know it is VERY early days, but it's been a great start.

I teach 2 year 9 classes, one is all girls and the other is co-ed. The dynamics in each class are very different. The co-ed class is pretty quiet overall (I think part of it is this is the first year they aren't in single sex classes, so they are taking some time to get used to each other). They are well-behaved but sometimes the problem is they don't ask many questions during the lesson and some of them would prefer to sit there doing nothing than ask the teacher for help so they can get on with their work. The girls class is exactly the opposite, they are very boisterous and chatty and ask so many questions that it can take a long time to get through the "teaching" part of the lesson. They are also pretty teacher dependent and lack resilience for the most part.

All maths classes in year 9 are taught in mixed ability so there is a wide range of abilities in the classroom,  and I would say that at the beginning of the year the majority would have said they don't really enjoy mathematics (however this is just based on my feeling when I started, not any hard evidence! There are of course students who love maths and work hard every single lesson as well).  Anyway, my point is that for the first few weeks of the school year I was not feeling great about how much learning was actually going on in my lessons, hence the desire to try something different.

So this is what happened this week. Our first lesson together I went through the WSQ process in depth with students. We had already practiced watching videos, taking notes and writing summaries so the only new part was the "question" part. That night the students went home to watch the video. I knew not all would watch but was unsure about what the completion rate would be. 

In the co-ed class half of the students watched and half didn't. I was ok with that as I knew there would be hiccups to begin with. I had the students who hadn't watched the videos sit in the back of the class to watch them, and had the rest of the class sit in groups at the front to discuss their summaries and questions, and they then worked through the practice questions. Most students were able to complete all the questions I had assigned in class, which the students who watched the videos saw and this had an effect on how many watched the video in advance the next day. I signed the WSQ sheets in pink if they completed their work on time, and yellow if it was done late or in class. The next lesson only 4 students didn't watch the video and again they worked well all lesson, and I was pretty happy with their progress and the amount of time I was able to spend with students who needed help. So that was all good.

The real success was the girls class. This class overall was much more apprehensive about flipped learning. Many of them were a bit panicky about it, telling me they were not able to "teach themselves". I reassured them they were not expected to master the material in the videos and that I would reteach it if necessary in class. The first lesson all but 3 had watched the videos. They had fantastic summaries and questions and worked so hard throughout the lesson. They were really excited about coming to lesson with their notes and just getting onto the work when they were ready. I was able to explain some things in depth to students who were interested that I probably wouldn't have done with a whole class (like graphs of trig functions, when we are just doing basic right-angled triangle trigonometric ratios). And, most importantly, they asked me LESS questions while doing the work than they would have normally. They worked together in their small groups so much better than when I taught the lesson from the front of the class. I was SO impressed with how independently they worked already after 2 lessons. It was incredible! They left the class happy and thanking me, and I just felt like they had a sense of success they hadn't had previously in maths. And, in the second lesson EVERY student came in having completed their WSQ.

Some example WSQs

We also had a parent/teacher meetings on Thursday night and every parent I talked to about flipped learning was really positive about it. Lots of "I wish this is how we had been taught maths when I was at school". And the other Year 9 teachers have been very positive about how their classes are going as well.

I couldn't have been happier with how the flipped learning introduction went this week. It was the type of week you dream of having as a teacher. And also, as a result I was much less tired then I normally am on Friday afternoon. And now it's Sunday and I can't wait for the week to start again (Ok, seriously, if I could sleep in tomorrow instead of going to work I would, let's be serious... but there is no "Sunday night blues" feeling!)

Next week my year 7 and 8 classes will start flipping and I am looking forward to how things go with the younger students, especially my Year 8s who are a very challenging all boys class.

Focus!

For the past few months I have been reading a lot about flipped learning (mainly on the internet, with the exception of Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams book - which is well worth a read). There are so many educators out there who have done such amazing things with their classrooms - it is all very inspiring. The main problem for me right now though is it's maybe too inspiring. Is that possible? Like, I want to try everything everyone else is doing. I want to have a perfectly set up structure, class room, units of work for the whole year mapped out, and lots of videos already made. But, I have realized, I am only human and I have limited amounts of time. I also have a husband who I am driving a bit mad with all this at the moment!

So, I've decided I need to focus. First things first. I need a structure, and ideally I would like the first units of work for Years 7, 8, and 9 mapped out with most videos completed by the start of Term 2 (which is next week April in Australia). I am almost there.

So the structure I've decided on is borrowed heavily from Crystal Kirch, and materials she has on her blog, Flipping with Kirch. Her blog has been an invaluable resource for me, as is her idea of homework being a "WSQ"(pronounced "whisk") which stands for Watch, Summarize, Question. This is the format students follow when watching videos. They watch videos and take notes, summarize the video in their own words and then ask a question relating to the content.

In Term 1, I "practiced" watching videos and taking notes with my students in class. We watched the videos together (at first with me pausing the video at certain points, gradually moving to another student pausing the videos, to then them watching videos on their laptops individually or in pairs). I introduced them to the Cornell note taking system and we peer assessed and discussed good note taking and note taking that "needed improvement". So the students already know what is expected of them when they take notes. The new bit for them is the "Question" part at the end. I know that will be a bit of a struggle at first to get good questions from them, but I am planning on gradually introducing the notion of HOT (Higher Order Thinking) questions and Bloom's Taxonomy throughout the term. One step at a time...

The WSQ will ideally form the first 10 minutes or so of class, when students will work in small groups to discuss their summaries and questions. I will go over the main points with them briefly as a class, but I am hoping to keep the "teaching from the front" to a minimum. The majority of class will be spent with students working on problem sets.

At the moment, I have mainly relied on the textbook resources for the class work. Shameful, I know. One of the key reasons I am doing this is to have less dependence on the textbook, and more problem-solving or open ended activities. That is the overall vision for me. Since starting at this school I've noticed that in maths the students are heavily reliant on the textbook and seem confused and scared when you try to get them to do something more open ended (the exception to this are my Year 7s, who are keen to try everything - which to me shows that they are being taught well in primary and come to secondary loving maths and being very open, and then we, their secondary teachers, do somthing to kill that openness and creativity. Not good!) But, I realise that this whole flipping thing will be a huge culture change in itself. The students are used to the teacher regurgitating the textbook as a powerpoint, mindlessly copying it down and then doing some questions from the book. They are usually fine with the basic skill and drill type questions, but as soon as they come to word problems they flounder. They are not used to having to think for themselves, or take responsibility for their own learning. So, I figured if I try to change everything all at once I may be setting myself up for an epic fail. I thought, flip first, get them used to the video lectures, summarizing for themselves, and asking good questions. Then I will gradually introduce more "rich" tasks. And lets face it, part of the reason I've stuck to the good old text book is time. It's taken a lot to get to grips with recording the tutorials and screen recordings, and set everything up. And I figure that although I'm almost set for the first few weeks of term, I will spend a lot of that time reflecting and tweaking things that haven't worked, so I want to be as prepared as possible.

So the goal of the first few weeks of this term is to get the students watching the videos as homework and submitting quality WSQs. Once that is in place it will be time to spice up the lessons!

Sample resources I'm using this term are here (Year 9 Unit on Trigonometry)

Cover sheet
WSQ Sheet
Practice Quizzes
Youtube Playlist