This weeks post looks at how to do your planning for a flipped classroom.

Last year I did my planning in two different ways and one of these was clearly the winner.

You might be asking how planning for a flipped classroom is any different to planning for a regular classroom. Not flipping yet and would like to know more click here.

If you consider that on average at least 50% of your class time is spent on giving students direct instruction where they sit and listen to you tell them what to do and how to do it and flipping your classroom reduces this direct instruction time to less than 10% of your lesson what do you do with that extra 40%.

In my classroom there isn’t really any direct instruction but the beginning of the lesson is a conversation about what we learnt in preparation for that lesson, this takes maybe 10 minutes. My lessons are 70 minutes long. Previously I would have spent about 30-40 minutes teaching a new concept, so what do I do with that extra time? An extra hour and 2o minutes a week?

This is the reason that your planning needs to change. Sure my students are going to spend extra time working on their maths problems, I’m going to spend more time questioning, but that might get a little boring. We all need variety to learn.

Jon Bergmann suggests that splitting a course in maths 70% practice and 30% activities or fun stuff is a reasonable split. By changing the way that you plan you can ensure that you are accomplishing this.

Traditionally at the beginning of the term I use the school wide Unit plan to produce my own summary unit sheet (below). I give this to my students so they know what they can do if they are away. I used this sheet for one term with my flipped class and it failed terribly. It failed for two reasons: I didn’t account for how they would spend their extra time and there wasn’t enough information for students to keep on track.

The following term after Beta testing the Flipped Learning Level 1 certification course I used the model that you see below. (There are a few modifications that I will make this year and will share that later on). Students liked this version much more than the previous. Firstly it was clear what they were expected to complete at home and what activities they would be doing in class. Secondly it linked the goals of the unit to the work that they were completing and was explicit in the exercises that they were expected to complete. This outline also helped me to keep on top of the videos that I needed to produce for my students because I had  already thought through when they would need them, how many they would probably need and what activities they should do.

Please note that this style of planning will not be enough for everyone and I also construct all my notes and questions prior to my lessons. The above represents what I will cover for the term and how I will cover it, not lesson plans. Students also have access to the full electronic course for this subject. All videos from this unit can be found on Clickview.

Top 5 Things to Include

1. The date or time frame when the lesson should be completed.

2. The learning goal or outcome for the lesson

3. What videos go with the lesson

4. Any activities that students should complete prior to class

5. Activities that students will need to complete in class

Remember that the activities that students need to complete should be contextual and offer opportunities for extension and collaboration.

Could this planning work for you in your flipped classroom? What else would you include? Comment below or on our facebook page.