Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Marilyn Shea on June 20, 2012 at 7:47am

Hi, Kristen!  

I teach a very diverse group of students that includes those with severe mental and physical challenges, students who come for literacy and math two or more levels below the expected functioning level for their ages and students who are very bright but who have trouble in their gen. ed. classrooms due to emotional and behavioral challenges.  Now I have not done much with the Flipped Classroom this past year though I was very gung ho in the beginning.  My district wiped the Camtasia program from my computer's hard drive and I have not been able to get it back.  With it went the lessons I had been composing.  These are the things that happen in schools.

What I do a lot is adapting work for my students so that I get the maximum understanding from students with the minimum of fear and anxiety.  I also have students who do not speak English in the home.  Your students may be the same.  The general guidelines I follow are:

--Provide a lot of visual examples.  These students often have auditory processing challenges.  Use a lot of visuals and cut down on verbage.

--Make the words you do use count.  When you are introducing new vocabulary, use it more than once.  I have found that students, encountering new vocabulary, may not understand the words you are explaining the new vocabulary with. "The Milky Way is a galaxy," for example, may be a double stumper.  What's the MIlky Way and what the heck is a galaxy?  With my ESL students, this extends to very everyday terms.  Students may not know what a menu is.  If you are talking about a menu, show a menu, and make sure they understand your definition, "a list of choices."  Really.

--A time honored method is to abbreviate a lesson or alter its complexity for those struggling with the material, so you might consider having two parts to the lesson, a very rudimentary part and then an advanced part for those on a different level.  In my experience, my kids who are at a more elementary level will still want to participate in the harder part.  They love to have me say, "Well, this next part is really tough.  I don't know if you can handle it!"  Of course, they may need prompts to answer correctly.  I would show the introductory part of the lesson to all, split off the ones who are in the lower levels, give them something hands on to do that relates to the lesson, and while they're doing that, the others can view the Part Two.  Later, when the Part Two students are following up with an activity, the beginners can watch the Part Two with some support from the teacher so they are energized and not discouraged.  This takes a lot of prep time for the teacher but once you have the video, you can use it again and again, unless your district wipes your computer's hard drive!

--On the subject of challenge, you might interrupt the video, or make it part of the video, to have pop quizzes.  My kids go wild for a pop quiz.  They want to be smart!  They know they're smart, but in gen. ed. classes, they don't get the opportunity to shine like they do with me.  If I have a student who has trouble articulating answers, I play the pop quizzes as a team sport with two or three students.  They pick out crazy names for their teams, "The Dudes,"  "The Lover Boys," etc. and they are told they must confer with teammates before they answer.  Then they share the glory as a team, instead of one person shouting out the answers every time.  We have a big scoreboard on the board.  It's really fun.  Great way to review the material in the video.

I hope I haven't bored you with my suggestions.  

Thanks for becoming part of the group.

Marilyn

Permalink Reply by patty odell on March 31, 2013 at 6:51am

Sounds like you do a lot to boost your kids and encourage learning. Sorry about Camtasia. I'm sure you were devastated when you realized the loss, but am glad you are bouncing back. That tells me you are seeing sufficient success that it is worth repeating the process.

In the coursework you mention, are you teaching your own curriculum or are you pre-teaching vocabulary from core curriculum to give them additional boost in general ed classes/