Components of a Flipped Video

One of the questions I originally had about flipping my classroom was, “what do I put in the videos?”

At first, I thought I would just record one of my lectures and put it online. Then I realized, my lectures are geared to (hopefully) fill a 50 minute class period. How many high school students will go home, access YouTube, and watch their teacher’s 50 minute rant about checks and balances? Not many.

When I took time to reflect on my class lectures, I began to realize how much of my lecture was actually content, and how much was just “filler” information. As you can probably guess…I had a lot of filler! Filler information is the funny anecdotes, funny sometimes only to me, the stories, the off the wall questions from students, and the random discussion that can sometimes overwhelm any classroom, but especially a high school classroom during the prom season.

So, what will I actually put in the videos? CONTENT! Next year, when I actually flip my classroom (so excited!) I will look at my units, pick out the big ideas and concepts, and include those in the videos. I’ll also include content that will continuously appear throughout our curriculum. Here’s a sample:

• The United States Constitution
• “Big Ideas” (videos)
1. Articles of Confederation
• What was it?
• Why did we have it?
• Why didn’t it work?
2. Basic Principles of the Constitution (pt 1)
• Popular Sovereignty
• Federalism
• Judicial Review (Marbury v Madison)
3. Basic Principles of the Constitution (pt 2)
• Checks and Balances
• Separation of Powers
• Limited Government
4. Basic Structure of the Constitution
• Preamble, Articles, Amendments
• What the Articles include
• What the Amendments are (actual amendment discussion in class)

1. Opening (maybe a question about the content, draw on prior knowledge, etc)
2. Objective (by the end of this video, you should be able to…)
3. CONTENT
4. Student self-assessment (ask a question, tell the students to pause the video, give the answer to the question later…OR use a tool like Educanon or EDpuzzle to embed questions into my video)
5. Conclude (summary of what was discussed)
6. Accountability (instruct students to complete an activity proving they WATCHED the video and were attentive…most likely a Google Form, or activity embedded in the video)

For more information about the flipped classroom, check out the Flipped Classroom Resources at the top of this page!