I have been doing a lot of soul searching recently in regards to my students who aren't doing their work. Perhaps I need to find some experts out there & see what they are doing in this situation, but it feels like there is an epidemic in my class right now in regards to not watching videos at home. After much contemplation and frustration, I decided to try reverting back to traditional for some of the students. I let them know about this change this past Friday. I looked back at the work turned in on time, and if they had more than 2 late assignments, they were put into the traditional class. If they had less, then they remained in the flipped class. Their eyes got quite large after my announcement. Being very honest with them, I told them that I just didn't think it was working for those kids who weren't doing the work. Then, we set off for the task of the day. As soon as the kids were working, I had about 15 of them swarm me...Do I get to stay in the flipped class? Honestly, I hadn't made the list yet, so I turned it back on them...Did you come to class prepared? Many of them looked so disappointed.
So here's the deal. I truly feel that flipping my class has allowed me to reach so many students that I couldn't otherwise reach. Overall, I'm seeing tremendous strides in both classes. However, I am spending way too much time chasing after students who didn't do their work, and quite frankly, I'm tired of it. I don't want to use flipped class as a carrot to make them do their work, I want them to do their work because they actually see it as important (a girl can dream, right). What I'm struggling with is getting them to care. I should also mention that if students want back in the flipped class, they just need to complete their homework on time for the week.
Anyhow, as it stands, I will have 32 students in my flipped class on Tuesday, and 22 in my traditional class. I look forward to seeing how this plays out during the week.
Anyone reading this who is also a flipper...what do you do when this becomes an issue. It used to be only a handful of kids not doing their work, now it's almost half! I would LOVE any ideas you might have.
How is your parent support? I started having the students call home any day they showed up without the video watched. Within a week, my "no watchers" all but disappeared (still had 2-3 a day instead of 5-10). They HATED having to call home and admit to their parents they didn't do their homework.
ReplyDeleteI'm in high school, so I don't know how different it is in 5th grade, but that has been working for me the last 2 weeks...
Maybe it's because they see the end in sight. My students are starting to "flake out" too. Maybe they need to see the screencasts from a different viewpoint. Try using the screencasts as a resource to help in completing a project. Webquests are great for this.
ReplyDeleteHere is what I did. I was frustrated with the idea of teaching to the lowest kid in my traditional classroom. I took 4th quarter and sort of flipped and/or blended the class. Using videos, PBL's, Worksheets, etc and graded kids based on the number of assignments they completed successfully (we decided 80% was success). So if kids don't watch the videos at home, they spend their class time watching and they start falling behind. They can stay behind or choose to work extra to get caught up. My high achiever kids are getting things done faster than I can get assignments and videos posted. My less motivated kids only hold themselves back. I spend time each day walking around talking with kids and try to motivate the ones who are behind.
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