Reteaching in the Flipped Classroom

As I rewatch the “Check Yo Self” virtual session from FlipCon14, I’m struck by something the presenters said, “don’t reteach,” and I TOTALLY agree with it.

Let me back up. The presenters did not say that teachers should never go over concepts with students. Their point (at least my take-a-way) is that teachers shouldn’t repeat what was in their videos. Doing so might discourage students from watching the videos. NOT WHAT WE WANT!

As you know, I’ll be flipping my classroom for the first time this school year, so I’m batting ideas around in my head. If a student says they don’t get something, every fiber of my being as a teacher screams, “reteach it!” However, if we simply repeat our lecture from the video, then our students may eventually stop watching the videos, claim they don’t understand, and expect a lecture from us, thus crippling the flipped model.

Way back in my college days, I had professors that would require us to read a chapter from our text and then come to class “ready” to discuss the material. I completed this assignment a few times, until I realized that the professor was lecturing over the same material that was in the text. Eventually, and I hate to admit this, I stopped reading the chapter and waited for the professor to transmit the text to me in lecture form. Eeek! This is not the pattern we want our students to embrace.

Below, I’ve described an idea that I have for a typical class period in my flipped adventure:

Unit: Foundations of Government
Concept: Types and Systems of Government
Video: Autocracies, and Oligarchies, and Democracies, oh my!
Opening Activity: Did you “geddit?”
Class Activity: Creating Your Own Government

After completing a “geddit,” students will be divided into cooperative learning groups. Each group will include a student who understands the concept and feels that they could teach it to a peer, and students who placed themselves in the other Geddit categories as well.

In order to move from the discussion step, students will be required to complete a short activity in which they describe and provide an example of each of the types of government.

Students who cannot successfully complete the formative assessment after the small group discussion will be sent to the computer lab to watch the video again. When they return, they will be able to begin the class activity. Hopefully, this will discourage students from just not watching the video because they will find that they are most likely behind when they return to class.

If students have watched the video, participated in the small group discussion, and still do not feel confident in the concept, THEN I will ask them to seek help from me. Hopefully, this will help my students become more competent in directing their own learning…not just of my content, but in everything!

There are TONS of tools available to use for formative assessments, and I’ve listed a few of my favorites below.

• Padlet
• Google Forms and Docs
• Geddit
• Kahoot It!

What tools do you use to formatively assess your students in your flipped classroom?

You may be interested in the following posts:
Resources for Flipping the Classroom
Google Docs in the Classroom
Google Forms in the Classroom
Padlet
Do They Geddit?
Student Response Systems
Kahoot It!
3-2-1 Hold Students Accountable!

Thanks for reading 🙂