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Flipping in Social Studies

Hi everyone - anyone tried/plan to try flipping their social studies class? About 90% of the info out there focuses on math & science courses and I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to use class time when you flip a social studies class. With science & math you are teaching a skill using content and while we of course teach skills with social studies, it is so content heavy that I wonder how class time would look in a flipped social studies class.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremiah Smith on June 28, 2012 at 6:25pm

I too am wondering the same thing. I believe you can make videos on your lectures and then in class use a variety of activities and primary sources to add o he lecture video.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Stevens on July 2, 2012 at 4:14pm

It seems there is a growing number of folks in social studies either beginning to do this, or beginning to plan for it. I will be doing a "Blended/Flipped Unit" this Fall combining the study of Reconstruction and The Jim Crow Era in U.S. History. As long as you keep your pacing guide in mind, and monitor student progress, it should work out well for most students.

If anyone is interested in more of an explanation of what I am planning, I will expand my explanation.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Goetz on July 7, 2012 at 8:29pm

Hi Mark,

Yes, I am interested in hearing more. Will your flip include videos? Will the videos cover material that the students will have read or could have read? Will the flip part cover the "lower" sections of Bloom's Taxonomy (remembering and understanding)? If the flip part covered at home is mostly content about the era -- events, primary documents, commentary -- what will the students be doing with that material back in class?

I've been hearing about the Explore - Explain - Apply (or Explore - Flip - Apply) methodology, and I've been hearing about the Inquiry approach to flipping from Ramsey Musallam. Do either of these teaching philosophies ring true with what you're planning? Ramsey recommends including the lower Bloom material in the home videos, and doing the analyzing and evaluating part in class.

Thanks,

Peter

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Permalink Reply by Mark Stevens on July 9, 2012 at 11:42am

Hello,

Yes, my flipped class will include videos. Short little ones based on chunks of the content. Such as the Reconstruction Amendments, Reconstruction Policies and Problems (according to the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Ed), Leaders of Reconstruction (there are 3 they require), People of Jim Crow, Plessy v Ferguson, Jim Crow Laws.

The students will NOT have been assigned pre-unit reading, but there are resources that will be made available for their use if they desire.

The initial video watching will indeed be focused on the bottom two parts of Bloom’s taxonomy. However, we will be doing a Summative Assessment after the Reconstruction part of the unit that should call them into the Applying, Analyzing, and possibly the Evaluating stages. It will be a Structured Academic Controversy that required them to do more in-depth thinking. The notes guides that will be provided for each module video will prompt them to gather enough information to reach those higher levels of thinking. There will be differentiation in the note guide structure to give support to our LEP and SPED populations.

The unit approach will be structured to allow students to do the basic content video watching and note taking either at home or in school. The socioeconomic background of many of our families (61 % Free and reduced lunch) prevent me from requiring the videos to be watched at home. One of my students VERY much wanted to take part in some virtual class study sessions, and did have a computer at home, but no internet hookup. At the same time it was not safe for her to go any remote location by herself. That is one reason I must have more flexibility.

During in class time students will be either: a) working on viewing the next module video, b) getting coaching based on what the Formative Assessment indicates about their level of understanding on the previous module they attempted (there is a Formative Assessment for each module), or c) working on one of about five Extension Activities.

They will have a Google Docs doc with a table that will allow both student and teacher to track their performance and pacing.

I’m sorry I can’t name the theoretical background of the approach I am trying. I just plan what seems to make sense, and think about it from multiple perspectives to analyze for shortcomings. I plan to gather data this first time, so that should help with the revision of method. I am reading Bergam and Sams’ recent book Flip Your Classroom, and hope to get some good ideas from there.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Goetz on July 11, 2012 at 5:09pm

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the explanation. Sounds very exciting in spite of the challenges.

I really like the idea of using formative assessmeents with each module. I plan to have a little assessment with each video (or each reading), using a little online quiz. That way, the kids can see how they're doing remembering and understanding the content, and I will be able to see who is getting it and who not, allowing me to better plan the next day's activities. I may use a google form with flubaroo, or edmodo (which our school has been using), or Canvas, an LMS that I am currently previewing, for the online quiz.

I also like the iidea of extension activities. I'm wondering if extensions should only be done by those who don't need coaching. Am also considering including a space on the online assessment asking students to pose one open-ended question about the material just covered - questions then to be used in extension.

Will get Flip Your Classroom. Will also attend a workshop in August put on by CUE in Northern Cal, and will be sharing notes from there.

Cheers,
Peter

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine Clark on August 7, 2012 at 7:06am

Hi Mark, we also have the same student population you mention, here our a couple of solutions we have come up with;

putting media on a jump drive or DVD as we found out the 97% of our students had a gaming system that supported one or the other of these.
Purchased the small gray DVD players tha weigh just onces, and signed those out to students without gaming system, the cost $25-$38 new, and can be purchased through mini-grants, Wall mart is a good resource.

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Permalink Reply by Ridvan Aliu on August 10, 2012 at 5:01pm

Hi Mark,

Here is an amazing learning environment to add your flipped course content on: www.eduongo.com.

Please find some time to watch a video intro form their blog: http://eduongo.com/?params=en/home/blog

EDUonGo is FREE, so you can start creating your courses and deploy your Multimedia content. Let me know your thoughts after you play around with EDUonGo.

Thanks,

Ridvan

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Permalink Reply by rully ronggo on September 15, 2012 at 11:41am

Is there anything like EDUonGO that more suitable for primary students (grade 5/6)?? Btw, i'm a grade 6 teacher in Indonesia...

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Braaten on July 3, 2012 at 8:19pm

I am attempting to flip my three preps:

AP Government and Politics (1 unit)

American History (1877-present) (2 units)

World History (Enlightenment-Present) (One Unit)

I will use Moodle as the class platform and am attempting to use a Mastery-Flipped Classroom.

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Permalink Reply by Lindsay Henry on July 7, 2012 at 7:00pm

I teach US History II (same as your 1877-present) & also plan on using the Mastery-Flipped Classroom. The mastery part is what is making it challenging to picture the day-to-day; since kids will be at different places along the curriculum, it's hard for me to develop a unit that isn't just a to-do list for the kids to work through but rather consists of meaningful work that also includes the group dynamic....

PS - I am using Schoology; I used to use Moodle but have found Schoology to be a much better platform.

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Permalink Reply by Catherine Cabiness on August 7, 2012 at 10:13am

Hi Lindsay,

I am also trying to grasp what my students will be doing in class. What I'm thinking about doing (with all of the extra instructional time I'll have) is to give students more opportunities to truly examine primary and secondary sources. In the past (before testing took over my curriculum), I used to have students move from station to station examining primary sources using the GATE Thinking Tools. It was a powerful lesson that now could be done over a couple of days and we should still have plenty of time for debriefing. I also used to have the students engage in mini-debates at their tables, but instead of rushing them in class, I could allot plenty of time for them to actually debate a topic, complete a writing prompt, and even share out in class. I also foresee myself hogging our school's mobile laptop cart so that I can integrate long-term technology projects as well. I don't know if I'll be able to give my students too much freedom to progress at their own pace because I teach a semester course and I have to give the district benchmarks at a finite time. I still haven't wrapped my head around how to deal with that (yet).

My school doesn't use a LMS, but I use Edmodo and Wikispaces for community building and collaboration.

Catherine