I am looking for advice/suggestions from teachers and students who have been involved in a flipped classroom setting.

A brief bit of background: I am not a teacher. My mom teaches several subjects, because her classes are for GED prep and college prep at a community college. She is re-writing all of her lessons to begin using the flipped classroom approach for her classes in the Spring semester. She has enlisted my help, and I am trying to learn everything I can to help make this a smooth transition for both my mom and her students.

If you are or were a student who has experienced one or more “flipped classrooms”—where the lecture and/or reading is assigned for outside of class, and assignments or projects or discussions are held in class—I would love to hear your perspective on the experience. What was effective? What was not? How do you compare it to other learning environments you’ve experienced?

For teachers who have implemented flipped classrooms, I would be glad to hear your perspectives on any or all of the following questions:

· How do you keep students attending? It seems like a lot of students might easily assume that if the learning is occurring outside the classroom anyway, then the classroom aspect may be superfluous. Do you allow them to make up assignments for missed classes? Do you draw a line, allowing it under some conditions but not in every case? Where do you draw the line? Is attendance even a problem for you?

· Along those same lines: how do you approach creating assignments/projects for class, to keep it effective and engaging? Do you include class discussion? How do you balance assignments/projects with discussion?

· If you have a high ratio of students to teachers, how do you keep the learning individualized in the classroom?

· On the homework front—how do you teach outside the classroom? Is it all videos? Do you use a combination of recorded lectures and assigned reading? How do you keep your videos concise, and still offer all the information the students will need? I know this will vary from subject to subject, but I’d be glad to hear your different approaches.

· How do you keep students accountable for doing their homework/learning outside the classroom?

· For those teaching in high-poverty areas, how do you ensure that students have access to the devices and Internet that the students will need for outside learning? Do you consider school library and computer labs which are accessible to students at lunch and after school to satisfy that need? My concern with this is that it puts a time and scheduling constraint on poorer students that more well-to-do students don’t need to worry about. Do you use apps that are accessible on smart phones? Are there grants or other resources you know of for obtaining laptops or tablets which students could “check out” from the classroom?

· For those teaching in a college or university setting, how do you address the gap in technical ability your students may have? Many of your students will be younger generation who are fully knowledgeable about their devices and how to use them, but some returning to higher education after getting their GEDs or graduating high school decades ago will be less knowledgeable. How do you make sure your less technically adept students have the skills and tools they need, while avoiding redundancy for other students?

· Both outside of class and in terms of class attendance, there is a higher level of self-accountability for students. How do you get the less-engaged students invested? I understand that this is a question that teachers face in any classroom setting, but it seems like a different question in a flipped classroom.

· Are there subjects for which the flipped classroom approach is less effective? What are the drawbacks? Do you feel that flipped classrooms are advantageous enough to be worth getting around these drawbacks? If so, what to you do to make it more workable in spite of the drawbacks, or how do you get around them?

Thanks for taking the time to read, and my mom and I both would really appreciate whatever thoughts or suggestions you all might have.

Submitted December 22, 2018 at 02:14AM by Coyotes_fan_19 http://bit.ly/2AcBdBH