Spotlight On Strategies:
Quick Flip 'N Talk
Background
“Flipped Classrooms” are a current educational trend where students are exposed to new material outside of class (readings, videos, etc.) and then use class time to assimilate and further activate that knowledge (problem-solving, discussion, debates, scientific method, etc.). “Carl Wieman and colleagues have also published evidence that flipping the classroom can produce significant learning gains (Deslauriers et al., 2011)” (Brame, 2014)
Flipped classrooms are a great idea, but today’s students are so active outside of the school day that flipping the classroom sometimes stretches the contrast of those who can with those who can’t. Additionally, when students first enter the room an opening activity is often designed simply to focus students towards the subject content of the day. Imagine students entering the classroom to a “Quick Flip” experience, followed by a review discussion (“Talk”) – in essence, an entry activity that focuses students as they enter, provides quality think time, and results in a class engaged in higher thinking and discussion in minutes… meet the “Quick Flip ‘N Talk” strategy.
(Image Source: Brame, 2014)
FOCUS > THINK > ENGAGE with the "Quick Flip 'N Talk"
Example
During the Film Scoring Unit of music class, when students enter the music room they find a copy of “Film Scoring 101,” an article published from the Music Alive magazine, on their desk along with a series of guiding questions on the board:
- Where did Film music originate?
- Define “hit point.”
- What is “Film spotting?”
- How do “Songs” differ from “Themes?”
After providing time for the students to read and respond to the guiding questions, we then discuss the questions as a class. During the discussion, I review the film scoring process explained within the article, which serves as a bridge to the Film Scoring Project students will complete in class.
(Image Source: http://www.musicalive.com)
Challenge
Using Discovery Education or another resource, find a reading passage or article that relates to a unit or project you teach. Using PowerPoint, create a few guiding questions to focus students reading of the passage or article. Then, use your reading and cooresponding guiding questions to facilitate your own “Quick Flip ‘N Talk.”
Image Source: Google Images
Bonus
- Create guiding questions based on the ability level or your students, with Blooms Taxonomy in mind (knowledge, comprehension, analysis, evaluation, etc.).
- Provide the class a variety of articles and corresponding questions and take a jigsaw approach to this SOS, encouraging students who read the same articles to share with the rest of the class for whole class learning.
- Create a true Flipped Classroom by having the students read the article or view the video outside of the classroom, using GoogleDrive for the article and GoogleDocs or a Form for the question responses.
- Add related background music and/or other media to the Quick Flip experience. (This is an easy addition in music class, where the Quick Flip is music-related.)
(Image Source: Brame, 2014)
Resources:
Brame, Cynthia J. (2014). Flipping the Classroom. Vanderbuilt University Center for Teaching. Available online at:
http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/flipping-the-classroom/#theory
Music Alive Website. (2014). Available online at: http://www.musicalive.com