Flipped Classroom without the Flip

(This is an update to my July 23, 2014 post "Fraction Review with ThingLink".)

Fractions is one of those concepts that my students always struggle with.  It's not something I should be teaching according to the eighth grade common core curriculum, but it's a skill they really need for some of the other topics this year.  In the past, I have spent way too much time reviewing fractions (like a whole month!), so this year I decided to take just one week and have the students use my "Know Your Fractions" ThingLink for an independent self-paced review.  It's sort of a flipped classroom model without the actual flip -- they weren't watching videos at home and coming to school to practice and apply what they learned.  Instead, in class everyday they watched the video(s), completed practice problems, and took one or two ThatQuizzes.  Some of my students were able to complete the classwork without any help from me, but for those who needed me, I had more time to devote to helping them than if I had been teaching a whole group lesson. 



This concept of self-paced learning worked so well with my classes!  The students were all very engaged in the lessons, did well with the practice problems, and the classroom management was a breeze!  They all knew the routine and moved from one activity to the next with minimal direction from me.  Some of them even went back and watched the video again if they were having trouble before they asked me for help.  The class completed a section per day, with the exception of "Fraction Operations".  I actually split up that section into two days, one for adding and subtracting, and the next for multiplying and dividing.  Each day there were a few students who finished the classwork early, so I had some additional activities for them.  

I will definitely use this again next year, with a few tweaks.  I did not have a review of simplifying fractions, which all of my students could really use.  I actually took a day off last week from my ThingLink lessons to review simplifying fractions before they moved on to the next topic in the ThingLink.  I will be adding simplifying to the first section of my ThingLink which is currently just "Equivalent Fractions".  I will also be switching the "Mixed Numbers" section and the "Fraction Operations" sections so that students will be able to write their answers to the operations problems in mixed number format instead of leaving them as improper fractions.  I don't know why I didn't think of these things when I created this, but we learn from our mistakes, right?

Even though this went super well, I would not use this style of instruction all the time.  It was perfect for these review lessons, but as for teaching a new concept, I really prefer the more traditional lesson for my special education students.  When I asked them what they thought of learning like this, they all said they liked it, but I miss the interaction with them and the class discussions we have in my usual style of teaching.  

Another added benefit of this flipped-but-not-really-flipped style is that I was out sick on the last day of the fraction review, but the lessons went on as planned without a hitch.  I wonder if they even knew I wasn't there??? 

Fraction Review with ThingLink

At the beginning of every school year, I spend several weeks reviewing basic math concepts like fractions with my students to recover from the summer slide. With so many new concepts to teach during the year, I really hate to waste so much time on fractions, a concept they have learned and reviewed for many years in a row. There's never enough time to teach my students all of the 8th grade Common Core Standards that they need to learn before state testing. 

This year, since my students will have 1:1 Chromebooks, I'm planning on trying something new. I created this ThingLink as a way for the students to review the fraction topics at their own pace. I purchased enough pairs of earbuds from the dollar store, in case someone doesn't have their own, so they can listen to the videos I made with Explain Everything that are linked in the ThingLink.

There are 4 numbered sections for the students to move through, "Equivalent Fractions", "Fraction Operations", "Mixed Numbers", and "Fractions & Decimals". In each section is a video (or two) to watch. Then I will have some practice problems for them to work through, which I will use as a formative assessment to see if they are understanding on their own. If they are still struggling, I will be able to give them one-on-one or small group instruction to go along with the video instruction. Once they feel they have mastered the topic, they can click on the link to take a quiz which I created in ThatQuiz. (This is not the actual ThingLink I will use with my students. I have another copy of it which has different links to the ThatQuiz quizzes that my students must sign in before they can take. This one has practice quizzes only so you can try them out.)

Since this is self-paced, I anticipate a few students will finish before the rest of the class. I will have some extension activities, possibly word problems, for them to complete. Stay tuned... I'll let you know how this independent learning works out!

I updated my ThingLink on 7/26/14 for the #TLChallenge. This week's theme was "Turn It Up a Notch with Sound". Our challenge was to use Audioboo to add sound to our ThingLink and incorporate UDL (Universal Design for Learning - check out this video for more info on UDL). I used the Audioboo sound clips to read the directions in each section to my special education students who might have difficulty reading them on their own.