Flipped Math Classroom/Professional Development Diary: Day 99

Flipped Math Classroom

The Future of Flipped Math Classroom

Assessments

Student performance data from Performance Series standardized tests were recently compared between the Flipped Math classrooms and the 6 control classrooms.  These standardized tests were given in September and in January.  Early analysis of this data shows that overall performance of students in the Flipped Math classrooms, while slightly higher overall than the performance of students in the control classrooms, was not different to a degree that is statistically significant.  However, most of the Flipped Classrooms are at a point in the math curriculum that is nearly two weeks ahead of the control classrooms.  Significantly, students in the Flipped Math classroom have covered more content in the same amount of time without sacrificing performance.

The assessment survey for parents was completed by 40 parents.  Most of these assessments indicated strong support for continuing with Flipped Math classroom.  For most parents, these surveys indicated that their child’s attitude towards math is either the same or better than last year (68% indicated improvement), and that their child’s performance was the same or better than last year.  In addition, valuable comments were given that will help avoid problems when phase 2 is implemented.

Other kinds of assessments will be reviewed later this month.  Student attitudes towards math will be assessed using a survey called the Attitude Toward Mathematics Inventory (ATMI).  This data also compares control groups with the pilot classrooms.   

The assessments of the participating pilot teachers are the most compelling of all.  Each of them has decided to continue with Flipped Math classroom. They do not wish to return to the traditional style of teaching mathematics.  One of the participating teachers, Denise Cote, has been teaching fifth grade students using Flipped Math classroom and has been teaching fourth grade students using traditional methods.  She wishes to have all of her classes participate in Flipped Math classroom.

Although the complete analyses of the assessments will not be available for a few weeks, the early indicators are positive.  Other teachers have learned about the pilot project and have expressed interest in participating in the process.

Hesitations

Kristin Daniels and I walked into a fifth grade classroom of a teacher who had heard about the Flipped Math classroom but did not know very much about it.   We asked her if she would be interested in trying it sometime.  She had excellent questions for us. These are her questions and my answers.

Question:   If I differentiate in the classroom, how am I going to find the time to prepare for 3 different ability groups each day?  Where do I find activities for 3 different groups?

My answer:  The biggest investment of time is on the front end.  The primary role of the teacher is  one of professional learning coach, not a master of content. The teacher strives to make the students the masters of content. To do this, the teacher as professional learning coach adopts a flexible approach to finding what individual students need to be successful. Whether there are 3 groups or 33 groups, different students will exhibit different levels of ease with individual problems or groups of problems. Some students will need to spend the entire time working on the kind of written work they would usually do at home in the traditional classroom setting. In this instance, the teacher tries to find out what is blocking understanding and coach the student through a process of constructing meaning. For the student who is fluent with  solving the problems,  appropriate activities and challenges are needed.  In many instances, the resources for various activities or supplemental materials are available through the math curriculum itself or through materials that can be provided by the gifted/talented specialist.  Other teachers who are participating in the flipped classroom will also find appropriate materials.  Planning a classroom rhythm where these resources are managed is important on the front-end. Once the flipped classroom is in full swing, there should not be as much need for planning and organizing. The pilot classroom teachers have indicated that their preparation time on a daily basis has not exceeded the  preparation time in the traditional classroom.

Question:    What about the looming $10 million budget cuts?  What would be the future of a flipped classroom in an environment of budget reductions?

My answer:   Although there is an upfront cost with training and a few materials, the cost of sustaining the flipped math classroom is no different than the cost of a traditional classroom. Even with budget cuts, the cost for maintaining a flipped classroom is not a decisive factor. We have received grants from the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company and the Partnership Plan to pay for the initial costs of expanding the Flipped Math Classroom.

Question:    What happens if a substitute teacher comes into the classroom, either short-term or long-term?

My answer:   In a traditional classroom,  a substitute teacher experiences the situation of being responsible for teaching the content even if he/she is unfamiliar with that content or the process for content delivery.  In the Flipped Math classroom, the short-term substitute is not responsible for content delivery in the usual sense.  The students are already in a rhythm where they have responsibilities for solving problems or participating in classroom activities. The substitute role, like the role of the classroom teacher, is to be a guide for individual students or small groups of students.  A long-term substitute might need  some training from a technology integration specialist or might need to take an online “Transitioning to a Flipped Classroom” course using Moodle.  The long-term substitute needs to know how to access quiz results or create some instructional videos if there are still videos that need to be created. During the pilot phase, long-term substitute teacher Jennifer Ryan successfully stepped into the classroom teaching role halfway through the project and maintained the Flipped Math classroom without undue stress.

Question:   How do I know I will be supported if I begin this?  Will support be only half-hearted?

My answer:   Support is an important part of  successful implementation of the flipped classroom.  Support for the Flipped Math classroom in our district will come from three distinct and important sources.  First, technology integration specialists will provide support and leadership in both direct and indirect ways.  Second, the participating teachers themselves will support each other through a collaborative journal.  Third, an online Moodle course (Transitioning to the Flipped Classroom) will provide resources and answers to some common questions.  Sections of this Moodle course include classroom activities, creating flipcharts, assessment, managing Moodle quizzes, and creating instructional videos.

Question:    How much time is expected of me outside of class time?

My answer:   The teachers who participate in the Flipped Math classroom will share resources and information with each other.  At the beginning of the transition into the Flipped Math classroom, time outside of class will be needed to plan the overall classroom structure, learn how to use Moodle to create quizzes and access the results, prepare flipcharts, and create instructional videos.  An Institute Day will help teachers get started with these elements.  A division of resource responsibilities among the participating teachers (flipcharts, videos, quizzes, activities) will make the burden for any individual teacher much less.   In the second year of a Flipped Math classroom cycle, less work is required because most of the instructional videos will have been created.

Question:   What about students who don’t do their “home” work.  If I’m not teaching content during the class time, where do they get the content?

My answer:   Whether a classroom is traditional or flipped,  the work a student does in a home environment is part of that student’s overall educational process.  We try to do what we can to improve each student’s educational progress by encouraging them to devote time for education both at school and at home.  In either the traditional classroom or the flipped classroom, the student who does not do their problem-solving written work is at a disadvantage in learning the information.  In the Flipped Math classroom, this student needs to get the content no matter what method is used, even if this means watching an instructional video during the first part of a classroom session. The classroom teacher ensures that the student receives this content whether by going to a computer lab to view the movie, viewing it with an iPod touch and headphones, or some other method.

Question:  What about the students who do not have internet access?

My answer:  Access to high-speed Internet access grows every year with the parents and students in our school district.  Most students now have access to the Internet at home.  For those that do not, however, we prepare DVDs for them to view at home.  If they do not have a DVD player,  we provide them with an iPod touch that has all of the instructional movies on it.

Question:  If I now have all this extra time available to teach during the class time, what classroom strategies do I use?

My answer:   Teachers  in the Flipped Math classroom pilot phase did not find the additional class time to be a disadvantage.  They found it to be a blessing.  They discovered they had more time to work with individual students.  Their classroom strategies included a little bit of content review, coaching individuals, and providing flexible access to activities for students in need of additional challenge.  Other strategies emerge when time allows the Flipped Math classroom to mature.  When teachers participate in a communication network with each other, they are empowered by borrowing strategies from each other.

Question:  Where do extension activities come from?

My answer:  One of the biggest challenges facing the teacher of the Flipped Math classroom is providing support for students who master the concepts quickly and easily and seek higher levels of challenge.  These students are present in both traditional and flipped classrooms.  The extension activities for these students in particular is a high priority.  The Math Expressions Curriculum has additional challenges available in each lesson for this purpose.  Our district’s Gifted/Talented Specialist has been very helpful in providing additional resources.  As our Moodle course matures (Transitioning to a Flipped Classroom), extension activities can be shared as common resources.

Question:    I don’t have all that much knowledge about technology.  How do I know if I have the skills to do this?

My answer:  The most important criterion for a new flipped teacher is a desire to restructure the classroom environment to maximize differentiated learning experiences for students.  Technology knowledge, while an asset, is not a requirement.  One of the participating teachers in the pilot phase was a self-proclaimed “extremely low-end technology user.”  In the expanded phase of the Flipped Math classroom (see below), participating teachers will learn the basics of working with the Moodle course, create an instructional video with coaching, and specialize in the overall workflow process in a way that matches their technology skill level and interest.

Question:  Is flipped classroom going to simply be “one more thing?”

My answer:  This type of question usually comes from a veteran teacher who has seen various initiatives come and go over time.  In the very busy professional lives of classroom teachers, time is invaluable.  Wasting time on initiatives that have little long-lasting value should be avoided by all educators.  Is the flipped classroom such an initiative?  The teacher who believes this should avoid joining the flipped classroom bandwagon.  Our participating pilot teachers believe otherwise.  Through their experiences these past few months, they have recognized a significant pedagogical shift has resulted, and they want to continue riding the wave.

Expansion

For me, the anecdotal evidence is more powerful than the statistical evidence.  The pilot teachers have each established a rhythm with the Flipped Math classroom that works for them. They have experienced an expanded attention to individuals in the classroom, and they have observed the power of instructional movies in home environments for delivering content. They do not wish to return to a traditional way of teaching.  Of all the possible ways to assess the efficacy of a pilot program, this seems to be the most potent and revealing.

In Stillwater we will immediately expand the Flipped Math classroom to include other teachers and other grade levels.  We will stay with the mathematical content area for now, but we will consider the possibility of expanding to other subject areas next fall.  The expansion will begin on February 17 for a larger group of fifth grade teachers and new pilot groups of 4th and 6th grade teachers. Through direct contacts with individual teachers, we have identified nine new 5th grade teachers that wish to begin the Flipped Math classroom during the second half of this year.  We have identified nine 4th grade teachers and five 6th grade teachers who also wish to flip their math classrooms.

The six pilot teachers will continue their Flipped Math classroom using the same processes they have used during the first half of this year.  They will initially have more work ahead of them for one month.  After that time, however, the workload for them becomes much easier because the new teachers will join them and contribute to the communal resources.  When they began this pilot project they had several months to prepare and create instructional movies, quizzes, and other resources. They will each need to create three instructional movies fairly soon so that they will have the resources they need to carry them through the month of February.

The new teachers who will join the pilot group of teachers  will receive training in a one-day Flipped Institute on February 17 and a half-day hands-on work session on February 20  Funding for this Institute came from generous grants from the Partnership Plan in Stillwater and from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publishing company. This grant will pay for substitute teachers on the Flipped Institute days, video creation costs, and a few hardware/software items. The Flipped Institute days will introduce the new flipped teachers to the information we think they need to make their flipped classroom experience a powerful and productive one.  During the Flipped Institute, they will hear what we have discovered about differentiation in the classroom environment, organizing and managing the Moodle course for teachers and students, and creating instructional videos with flipcharts.  The 4th and 5th grade teachers will select one of 4 possible roles for the remainder of the school year: flipchart creator, instructional video creator, differentiated activities management, or manager of the Moodle course.  We will also introduce them to the resources we have prepared in an online Moodle course called “Transitioning to a Flipped Classroom”.

Following the Flipped Institute, the new flipped teachers will “ease in” to the flipped experience during quarter three.  During this “ease in”  period of time, they will use the flipped model one or two days each week and the traditional model the other days.  During this six week time period, they will each write a short journal entry that describes their experience, shares problems they encounter, and posts questions that need to be answered. These journal entries will be shared so all of the participating teachers can learn from each other.

The various aspects of Flipped Math classroom (managing the Moodle course, creating resources for classroom activities, creating flipchart lessons, creating videos) will be divided up among the participating teachers according to interests and technology skill experience.  The sixth grade teachers will have an advantage with instructional videos.  The math curriculum they use (Holt McDougal Mathematics) already contains instructional videos in the form of DVDs.  Nevertheless, creating instructional videos will be part of their experience as well.

The fourth quarter will be the time when all participating teachers flip their classrooms full time.  Continued journaling will be encouraged so that there can be a method for mutual support that is ongoing.  The assessment methods from the pilot phase will be used during this phase as well. Teacher observations, student observations, parent observations, and statistical data from standardized tests will be gathered and shared.

The progress of this expanded phase of Flipped Math classroom in Stillwater will be shared in a presentation at the annual conference of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in San Diego, California, June 27, 2012.

Day 100: Recap and Reflections