A professional learning community for teachers using screencasting in education.

Flipped Not Working

So far my experience with flipping has not been the best. My district has a student population of 29% Hispanic, 44% White, and 22% Black with a free and reduced lunch rate of 78%.

So far the students have not been watching the videos, which COMPLETELY throws off my lesson for the day. Any ideas?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Weingarden on October 30, 2012 at 9:45am

I have questions for you Matt:

- In previous years, did your students do the homework (video or otherwise)?

- Do you ask students to take notes on the videos? (I ask students to take notes on the videos and only give credit for homework if they can show their notes)

- What percent of your students have access to a computer and the internet at home?

- Have you asked your students if there is anything that would motivate them to watch the videos at home? And, if so, what sorts of things would motivate them? (Teachers are good at thinking up incentives that students have no interest in)

- An alternative to consider is a notetaking guide for the book. Everyday, read through a section of the book and make a list of questions that students should be able to answer after reading the same section. Then, either hand that out or make it available on the internet or both. Then, give students credit for filling in the notetaking guide from the book. This could be instead of videos or as an alternative to the videos.

- Maybe you need to either pick different videos or make up some videos that are fun and interesting to watch. Perhaps you could even get several kids to help you make the videos. Have you seen yaymath? The teacher's goofy, but fun. There are several teachers like him who have made entertaining videos.

Ok, that's it for now. Hopefully I've asked some thought provoking questions.

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Permalink Reply by Kim Wiest on October 31, 2012 at 1:03pm

I have the same questions as Michael; We can help if you give us more information. I have found that the students that generally don't do homework won't watch the videos either. Also, I start out the year by showing the videos in class with a projector, and model how to watch by pausing and telling the students what to write down in their notes. I also provide 'follow-along notes' that they fill in. I check homework completion by checking to see if the notes are filled in, and/ or I give them an open-note quiz.

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Permalink Reply by Marc Zimmerman on November 6, 2012 at 6:07pm

Kim, I am in between where you are and where Matt is. I have about half doing the online work and half are not. i did talk to all the students about a "technology/access plan" one on one. I have two students who refuse to do it. It turns out that they both have a study hall with easy access to computers in the school but they refuse to use it to do the work. Since it is available, I am digging in my heels and refusing to let them off the hook for not doing work. The grades are closing so I guess I will see what happens soon. One parent is already angry with me about this but I believe that the two boys would not do this work since they do not do most of the traditional work anyway.

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Permalink Reply by Kim Wiest on November 7, 2012 at 5:18am

Marc, You are correct, and from my experience they will try to blame their failure on the flip, but if you remove that as a requirement for them, they will fail anyway because they just don't do anything outside the classroom. I would make them watch the podcast in class, then assign them traditional worksheets for homework and see what happens.

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Permalink Reply by Scot Rainear on February 28, 2013 at 8:44pm

I agree with Kim, I'm fortunate enough to work in a district where 99% have access to the internet. This is my first year doing FC and it has been successful but I still have a handful of kids resistant to it and saying they would rather have a traditional classroom....but none of them can give me a legitimate reason why. Talking to other kids they tell me that the ones who don't like it have been the same ones who have a track record of being slackers in a traditional classroom. The reason they are so resistant is because FC makes them accountable. No longer can they do their usual routine of : 1) not do the required outside of class work, 2) fly under the radar. 3) bomb tests and blame it on the teacher for whatever BS reason. I no longer have rows of desk in my class; I have pods. Not through design, but through just natural evolution they are holding each other accountable. You are always going to have misguided parents looking for a scapegoat instead of placing the blame where it belongs. Stick to your guns...FC works! The small amount of time we have in class should be used with kids being active instead of passively taking notes.

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Permalink Reply by Sheila Fisher on November 18, 2012 at 6:57am

I teach 5th grade so it may be a little different for me. I give my students 2 days to watch the videos. If they have not watched it by then, they have to watch it in class and complete their WSQ while the other students are doing a game or activity with partners or small groups. When they finish, they may join a group if there's time. Students also know they can watch their video as soon as they come in class in the morning if they have not watched it already.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Flynn on November 18, 2012 at 1:19pm

What is a "WSQ"?

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Permalink Reply by Cheryl Morris on January 10, 2013 at 7:46pm

WSQ is a method that Crystal Kirch came up with to track her students' homework completion. It stands for Watch - Summary - Question. There's more at her website: flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com.

WSQ is pretty fantastic.

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Permalink Reply by Kristina Wambold on December 18, 2012 at 11:59am

I also teach 5th grade and have adapted my flipped model to be more of a relearn, refresh then new information. I have a few students approximately 3 out of 28 without internet access at home; therefore, I introduce the video in class and then post it on my website for review or for those who are absent. If it is material that only a few will need or tutorial (how to access Google Drive, ect..) I simply post it and let the students know it is there. I am lucky to have 1:1 via tablets in the classroom so often times I provide time within the day for students to access the learning modules I designed. When they are accessing the learning materials within class I then have the time to meet with students 1 on 1 or in small groups to meet specific needs.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Flynn on November 7, 2012 at 6:03am

So we finished the unit, and it ended with favorable results. The test average went up when compared to previous years, and we were able to do A LOT more engaging and relevant activities in class. Here are the anonymous comments from the students.

I liked the whole unit because it was up to you to learn.

It was good. It worked and I had no problems doing it.
I liked how the notes are online. It gives me TONS of opportunity to learn more in class along with all the other kids.
I liked it because you wouldn’t have homework but sometimes you forget.
It was helpful and better because I missed a day and I could go to YouTube and take the notes.
Well I only watched one video, but it worked pretty good. It went a little fast but I could always go back and relook at what I missed.
This worked out well for me. I liked it all. Great job. Keep doing it through the years.
I liked how we had notes on the computer.
I liked the videos because it was at my pace. I don’t like class notes because I couldn’t see. I like the youtube homework.
Yes, I liked doing the notes online because we can work at our own pace and pause it when we needed to. We could go back and listen to it again if we didn’t understand it.
I liked doing notes on the computer with no homework. I thought it was easier than regular notes.
I liked doing the video notes and it was easier to do them at home.
I liked doing the flipped notes because if I didn’t hear something, I could replay it. I also liked it more because then we wouldn’t really have homework just the notes that took 15 minutes. I would rather do notes this way.
At first I thought it was not going to work, but afterwards I thought it was pretty cool and the videos were short. We could learn something in 15 minutes that took an hour before. I think the rewards make people do it.
I liked it because we don’t have to sit in class and be bored. At home I can watch the video and do other things at the same time.
Doing notes at home was better because you have more time in class to learn more if you have questions.
Yes because we get to work on more things in class.
I liked being able to go online and take notes. We were able to do it on our own time.
I liked how you explained notes on the videos.
I like doing the notes at home and the class should stay like this.
It was easy. All classes should do this.
I think it was a good experience. I had never done it this way. It was less work and since I’m always on the Internet it wasn’t hard.
I did not like that we had to watch the videos because it was hard to remember. I liked that we could control it and pause it or make it go faster.
I liked watching scenes but didn’t like how fast it went.
I don’t like it because I don’t have internet.
I think it was good but I couldn’t’ do the notes a lot because of stuff going on at home.