Embracing the Backchannel in my Flipped Classroom with Padlet

However, these same wonderful conferences nearly make my head explode! I feel like I’m on information overload, and after three days at the METC conference, I feel like I need to take the rest of the week off to let my brain sort everything out!

What a wonderful “problem” to have 🙂

As I’m sitting here at Starbucks (life is rough today…whew!), I’m sifting through all of my notes from these great sessions…and trying to avoid catching up on grading 😉

The first idea I have to share is about a tool I love and have used at least twice weekly since I stumbled upon it.

Padlet.

If you’ve read my posts before, you know how much I love this tool. Students can use it to brainstorm ideas, to post answers to Bellringers, to communicate their opinion on an article I share with them. They use Padlet to become more engaged in the content of historical films, and hopefully keep their minds from drifting while they’re watching.

As I was sitting in Glenn Wiebe’s Tech and Social Studies integration session, a participant shared how he uses Padlet in his class.

As he lectures, he encourages his students to backchannel using Padlet. They post questions, comments, insert videos, links, articles, etc that are relevant to the content being discussed. It’s awesome!

As he was sharing this idea, I thought to myself…I flip my classroom, I don’t run a typical lecture classroom…how can I make this work for me?

Then, the lightbulb came on!

Since I’ve modified my flipped classroom to an “in-class” vs “traditional” flip, my students have the benefit of direct instruction that is characteristic of the flip, but they also have the luxury of me sitting in the room with them. They can pause the video and ask me questions as they go. It’s worked pretty well.

The only issue I’ve come across with this set up so far is that a student will ask a question, and then a few seconds later, another student will ask the same question. This forces be make into the hated and outdated routine of answering the same question over and over again. NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Enter Padlet.

Here’s my plan.

I will create a Padlet wall for every class period for each unit that we cover. For example…1st Hour Padlet for the Executive Branch. On this wall, students can post questions/comments about the content as they view their instructional videos for the unit.

Hopefully, this will allow students to work together to answer questions they have about the content, and allow me to answer content questions only once…on the Padlet wall. This will also create an additional resource for them to use unit and EOC review.

I’ll keep you updated on this activity!

If you’re interested in using Padlet, check out these posts. If you haven’t used Padlet yet, seriously check it out!

Thanks for reading 🙂