The challenges to overcome...
My week started with focused observations of three 'traditionally' delivered maths lessons in class number 1. This, as per my previous post, presented many notable results; engagement levels were an issue during the 'input' for around 50% of my observed group in particular. Whilst one of these children caught up and made good progress throughout the activity, his early #disengagement distracted two others who are usually very focused - so this was something I was keen to look into further.
The child is very able, however, tends to like to appear ahead of the rest. Subsequently, he shows unwillingness to engage in 'input' activities, as he often feels he is being told something he already knows. However, this is not the case and, consequently, he did not make the progress he was capable of during the lesson - needing the concept re-modelled a number of times. Another child also falls foul to being very hard to engage - only her reluctance is for the duration of the lesson, which often takes teacher time/focus away from those whom she could be utilising the time to extend. Moreover, the disruption led to her, more often than not, distracting another child whom is happy to be distracted.
This child is very able but finds it tricky to focus and participate when new concepts are being introduced, as she lacks confidence in trying new things for fear of failure - NOT something that is mainstream at DC, due to their High Performance Learning approach encouraging learners to embrace mistakes and see them as learning opportunities. For these reasons, I really did think that the #flippedlearning approach would potentially work particularly well for these three children, as it would give them time to watch the video inputs as many times as they needed to, without distraction from others and to self-regulate by re-watching excerpts when required to help them make independent decisions about the answers they were giving to the in-built AfL activities and tasks.
Furthermore, this also would allow me to put #JiTT (Just in Time Teaching) into practice, by reviewing their responses and feeding additional content to their assignment list to close the gap prior to the lesson and also using the results to tailor my questioning and activities during class-time to extend and deepen their understanding. This approach to encouraging higher-order learning opportunities reinforces Doha College's commitment to High Performance Learning and promoting self-challenge.
Setting the Assignments using @Edpuzzle
#Edpuzzle is an incredibly simple, user friendly tool through which you can create video content, incorporate your own Assessment for Learning strategies. These can come in the form of strategically placed audio clips, to pose a question or reinforce content in a manner which you know your children will recognise - this gives it a much more personal feel and allows the children to feel your presence and familiarity and my children loved to feel like I was right there with them). Also, you can add in questions - multiple choice, open-ended and a comments section - where you may ask for their response to the content. These questions work particularly well to facilitate JiTT, as you can clearly see how the child has answered and notice gaps to inform any further content you wish to send to #CTG, or questioning in-class.
Once you have created your content, you can assign the task(s) to your class and provide a due date, to encourage them to review it in enough time for you to see their results prior to your lesson.
This page shows who has watched the video, what percentage they have watched/completed and also their grade. It is a good snapshot to quickly see to whom you may need to give a gentle nudge to complete the assignment!
Once you click into each assignment and a child's progress in said task, you can see their score and a breakdown of their responses. This, coupled with the timeline of their viewing, which shows how many times they have re-watched each section, is super helpful for me to feed additional individualised content to learners to close the gap prior to the lesson. The results of viewing the timeline also provides a basis for more specific higher order questions in class-time to deeper understanding, focusing on areas where the child has re-watched the content a number of times and may need consolidation. This allowed me to notice that one child found the concept of time passing in units of 5 minutes on an analogue clock and, as a result, I set her a 5 times-table task song task in #Edpuzzle. Catching this gap Just in Time (#JiTT) really helped her when it came to independent in-class activities.
The fact that the parents were engaged in also supporting their children's accessing of the content, is a testament to the commitment to learning that #DC also expects of their parents. This, at a different school, could potentially be and has been reported to be, a barrier however.
How did it go with this class?
The results so far are beyond encouraging! The children arrived prepared, engaged and super keen to get started with their tasks - including the three who were tricky to engage during 'traditional' lesson observations. They were all extended and worked independently or with super limited support, (only at first).
Following a quick starter to refresh their memories on what they had watched / learned, they got straight into their work - asking for extensions almost right away. EVEN the children who at times found completing the regular learning objective challenging previously - due to their lessened engagement and listening skills. I did notice during the third 'flipped' lesson of the week, that they had lost a tad of their engagement - although it was still higher than during the observed 'traditional' levels. I put this down to them having watched all of the week's content in one go - out of keenness, (which is of course wonderful), regardless of the due dates. I set all of the work far in advance, to give them time to complete - bearing in mind the advice given to me by others whom have #flipped KS1 learners previously. This approach was necessary for their circumstances, due to children at their schools being hard to engage in home-learning and also potential absence of at-home ICT provision. However, at DC the children all have the luxury of access to 1:1 iPads and this desire to challenge themselves and hunger for further learning is all part of them being a High Performance Learner. On reflection of this, I will 'drip-feed' the content for each day, the day prior to the lesson with the second class I will be 'flipping' next week - to encourage engagement levels to hopefully be on-par for all #flipped lessons.
Nonetheless, the number of children who progressed on to 'spicy' (1) and 'hot'(2) challenges, beyond the 'mild' (1) L.O., was unquestionable. The results speak for themselves.
I am now planning my intervention and observations in class 2 of Year 1 here at DC for later this/next week. The results so far, plus how and why to #flip I will be presenting at a staff meeting which Hannah and I are leading across both campuses this week - along with our recommendations for apps to use in the classroom to further extend and facilitate effective learning.
This weekend we were also visited by our university mentor and had a wonderful time socialising with teachers from both campuses at the swanky #Backyard event in West Bay.
This is such an incredible opportunity and we are both super keen to soak up every possibility - so watch this space and thank you for your patience during my long-overdue waffle!
Thanks for reading!
