A Pleasant Surprise Courtesy of Asynchronous Learning

I have a student who has struggled in my course this year. I'll refer to him as Donald. Donald hasn't quite internalized the demands of the course; specifically, he falls behind and doesn't use homework time to catch up. Donald definitely has struggled with the personal responsibility needed to be successful in my course.

This may have changed! I was pleasantly surprised during this spring break - a much appreciated #eduwin. Donald spent some of his spring break working on the next unit. So far, Donald has taken notes on two videos and completed an entire POGIL. Had this been a different student, I would be worried about spending vacation time doing school work but this is a good move for him. Donald will start the next unit a week ahead of his peers. Not only will this give him a cushion and provide great momentum at the beginning of the final quarter, but I suspect this will also be a psychological boost. I think he'll feel great about being ahead when all year he has been behind. 

Even though I expected some of the exceptional students to work ahead of peers, I didn't foresee this possibility. I use this mastery model to allow students to work at their normal pace but I never intended for a struggling student to use vacation time to move ahead. If Donald has a successful final quarter, I'm quite sure it will be because he took the initiative and took advantage of the opportunity afforded by the asynchronous flipped class model. 

Introducing Alternative Assessment & Peer Instruction in the Flipped Class: Week 7 reflections

Students only had an exploration, video, problem set and Moodle quiz  because I wanted to add some breathing room for students to catch up to my pace. I also instituted peer instruction at the beginning of lessons. Students are all over the place - anywhere from one week behind to one week ahead. The number of ahead students has increased in the last day or so. After next week, I plan to speed up the pace a bit and offer more synchronous activities.

Successes:

One cool thing that has emerged from post quiz conferences is pin pointing each student's conceptual issues. In previous weeks, I suggested struggling students to work through pre-planned remediation modules after a quiz. The pre-planned modules are divided into topics, so students always had the choice of how to spend their time. But these conferences have better equipped me to recommend certain tasks or to create remedial tasks on the spot. A few examples will make the point. Two students struggled on the same quiz but had different issues. One student couldn't couldn't decipher the difference between codominance and incomplete dominance, while another student had some issues solving blood typing Punnett Squares, which included codominance. For the first student, I told him to create a list of traits (the weirder the better.) He had to imagine the appearance of a heterozygote, in situations where the trait displayed codominance and incomplete dominance. I pointed the second student to a blood typing reading and online practice quiz that was already part of the remedial module. I'm also adding more remedial activities to the modules because these conferences are uncovering areas of confusion that I did not anticipate in the planning phase. It would've been difficult to identify and offer specialized remediation without the post quiz conferences built into the class period, courtesy of the flipped model. My eduwin for the week is using post quiz conferences to suggest tailor made remediation.

I really love adding a synchronous activity to the beginning of class. It changes the feel. It's slowed things down a bit and made the class feel whole. I'm glad that I opted to go with peer instruction instead of a tracking journal at the beginning of the class. The tracking journal could've helped with goal setting and slowed down the pace but it would not have the added benefits of peer instruction. I posted a scenario with a multiple choice answer. It was an engaging and conceptually rigorous question. Students thought about their answer individually, with no help. They jotted down their answer and closed their eyes to vote. I recorded the class results. Then students found someone with a different answer and tried to convince them to change their answer. After a few minutes, students re-voted. I shared the results of both votes and asked students to explain their reasoning. I made sure to include students who were convinced of the correct answer. I revealed the answer and had time for explanations and clarification. Once the session was over, I let students resume their work. Students were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about this change. We all craved for communal time. I'm ecstatic that the communal time was a research based approach that was still student-centered. It was the best of all worlds. 

Adjustments:

I expected a two year roll out of the flipped class; year one is flipped videos and associated guided notes and forms, explore flip apply, Moodle quizzes and asynchronous learning, while year two will be standards based grading, blogging and voice & choice. I'm starting to question whether I should institute voice & choice earlier. I have a student or two who have struggled with the Moodle quizzes, despite post quiz conferences and retaking them. Even though there are some real issues with learning the material, the lack of partial credit has been a real detriment here. Moving forward, I will have a paper version of the quiz to administer to a small number of students who struggle. In addition, I ought to institute voice & choice sooner for students to display learning in alternative ways. I've already opened things up a bit. I've asked some students to create their own problems and solve them to convince me of their understanding. Even though I've done this informally and on an as needed basis, it has worked nicely. I ought to build in these alternative opportunities more often and eventually, allow all students to choose from a menu of ways to demonstrate knowledge. 

The other change I'm thinking about instituting a year earlier than originally planned is an element of standards based grading. In a recent response to a my ongoing course feedback form, a student mentioned that all of the activities were unnecessary to understand the material. I, of course, agree; this is one of the main reasons that I planned to institute SBG next year. In the interim, I've decided to reach out to individual students and discuss making certain activities optional. I won't open things up for all students just yet until I've thought through effective accountability and grading systems. At the very least, I can tell students to complete as many or as few problem set questions that they need. 

Experiencing the Strengths and Weaknesses of an Asynchronous Course: Week 6 reflections

In a shortened week, students completed an exploration, took notes on a video, conducted an online lab and a majority of students needed to catch up and/or take last week's Moodle quiz. 

Successes:

So far, I've focused on the benefit of the asynchronous flip in the context of students moving ahead. But now I'm seeing the benefits of allowing students to work at a slower pace. The most obvious benefit is for absent students. We are approaching a notorious time of the school year for illnesses. Some students have missed multiple days. Sure, a good number return to school behind the schedule but a few haven't missed a step. In the traditional model, all of these students would be behind. But some of my sick and/or absent students were able to watch videos, take notes and even complete problem sets at home. I rarely have to schedule individual tutorage outside of class time. This week's #eduwin is the number of absent students who were able to remain on pace, courtesy of the flipped class. Just as important, since I run an asynchronous class, these students aren't forced to make unreasonable demands of themselves. One student has mapped out a plan to add small chunks to his nightly homework assignments to "catch up" in a week.  

It's interesting how some students get ahead during one week and a different set of students get ahead in other weeks. As of today, four students are a week ahead. It was wonderful because I paired up these excelling students with the students who did not pass the last Moodle quiz. It was a great sight seeing my students provide the one on one tutoring to their classmates that I typically do in class. Aside from using these students as peer tutors, I'll start to recruit lab assistants from this consistently ahead crowd. Again, these opportunities only existed because of the flipped class.

Adjustments: 

I still have not worked in synchronous full class activities and discussions. On a related note, I want the beginning and ending of each class to have clear routines. I loathe to take time away from my students working on assignments because they have been effectively using this time. However, I worry about the frenzied pace of the class and wish to avoid a "study hall" feel. The combination of synchronous discussions and activities with clear daily routines at the start and closing of each class should help with these issues. Since my students work independently, the first few minutes can be used for students to decide and record their goals for the period, then assess their progress at the end of the period. This could help their metacognition and executive functioning. I suspect most students are doing just fine without this requirement but it might uncover poor habits in some students. It will also build in a way to begin and end each period with silence, a major value of our school and a way to slow the frenzied pace of the class. 

Related articles

• Giving my Students what they Need: Week 4 reflections
• Getting into a #Flipclass Groove: Week 3 reflection

Spreading the goodness of the Flipped model: Week 5 reflections

This week, students had a video, problem set, lab challenge, their first POGIL and a Moodle Quiz.

Successes:

An english teacher randomly visited my class today. A few students were watching my blood typing video in the hallway and he stumbled upon the students. He engaged my students in conversation. During one of my frequent hallway check-ins with these students, my colleague inquired about how I run the class and if he could enter my room. He observed and talked to students. He asked me a few questions. He gave me positive feedback and even suggested that there was a part of his class that he could flip. Interestingly, this was the first time a non science teacher observed my class. Even if he doesn't decide to flip his class, this was a success story. An english teacher observed the process and seemingly felt positive about what he saw. Flipped educators can use as much positive advertisement and word of mouth as possible. Another 8th grade advisor told me that students are really starting to get into the model, even though they were apprehensive at first. This is my #eduwin of the week. 

In my department, I instituted a peer observation lunch initiative. Pairs of department members observe each other's lesson and have lunch together to debrief. This week, my partner observed my lesson. I initially thought about rescheduling when I realized that most of my students did not view the blood typing video during the weekend. I knew they would have to watch the video during class. A class of students watching a video on their iPads wouldn't make for an interesting observation. For several reasons, I decided to let the observation happen anyway. I'm happy with that decision. Many times we make sure an observation occurs during a spectacular lesson, in order to impress the observer; however, we don't actually need feedback on the wonderful well-prepared lesson. Rather, we need feedback on the everyday unspectacular lessons. This was a success because I got over the fear of someone seeing an unpolished lesson. If other folks can stop by at any time without advanced notice, I can get really helpful feedback on my craft. Others can point out what I am unable to see, rather than telling me what I already know. 

The POGIL and modified inquiry labs are stretching the thinking of my students. As I reported last week, I've removed data tables and procedures from most of my labs. With the added time for collaboration, this strategy represents an effective use of time. When a student is able to complete the writeup of these labs or complete the POGIL activities, I'm confident that they really understand the material. 

Adjustments:

The biggest source of stress in class is students forgetting to bring headphones to class. First, I should admit that I prefer students to watch videos, take notes and complete the video form at home. Whenever a critical mass of students are watching the same video in class, especially at the beginning of the week, I point out how it's an ineffective use of class time. However, it appears that most students are working at an acceptable pace and an overwhelming number submit work in at deadlines. (I have to remind myself that it's about what students need and not my personal preference.) Anyhow, even if students choose to use class time to watch videos, they ought to bring headphones. It's just not possible to have several iPads blasting asynchronously and students being able to pay attention and think about the material. They really need to bring headphones to class and I promise that the issue isn't about affording headphones - most of these students own iPhones and other equipment that come standard with headphones. I think I'm going to use school funds to purchase a class set of headphones. I'm not sure why I haven't done that yet; it might be a stubborn teacher thing, "they need to take responsibility for being prepared for class!" At this point, I've given up on that and decided its just not a battle worth fighting. Things are going well in my class, even despite the initial apprehension and resistance. If this is my biggest gripe, then I'm lucky! 

Another source of tension is perhaps an over emphasis on collaboration in my class. It's actually a beautiful thing to see students helping each other, dividing the labor and setting schedules and priorities together. However, I've noticed students sharing headphones and one person recording notes in a Google document, presumably to be shared with their partner later. In one sense, it doesn't bother me so much. If a student were absent from a traditional lesson, they would need to copy notes from a classmate. One argument against a traditional classroom is the temptation for students to cheat on homework problems. So many students have been caught copying math homework, for example. I suspect that copying "homework" happens less often in the flipped model because those assignments happen in class in the presence of the teacher. A student copying a problem set in this case would have to be audacious. So aside from the major labs and assignments, students have the best opportunity to copy video notes in a flipped model because those usually take place at home. As a presenter at FlipCon 13 stated, I'd rather students copy the low Blooms work like video notes than the higher application and problem solving work. But with that being said, I still want students doing the work behind taking video notes and not relying on peers. One, there is actually some thinking in the video notes; I have students pause the video at strategic times to answer questions and resume in order to reveal those answers. Two, on principle, a student ought to take credit only for the work they have completed - this is an important lesson in academic integrity. I've mentioned this concern with students that I've "caught" working on "collaborative" notes but I think I ought to address this with the entire group.  

A student inquired about the next quiz and wondered if it would be a "real quiz." After I asked some followup questions, I realized that some students think the traditional one-take quizzes are "real" while the multiple trial Moodle quizzes are not real. I suspected that this was the case, especially when I discovered during post quiz conferences that some students had not memorized the vocabulary required to solve the problems. This conversation confirmed my fear that some students were not taking the quizzes as seriously as I hoped. I suppose this is both a success and an area of needed adjustment. On one hand, the test anxiety is low. One the other hand, I want my students to prepare and make a true effort, even if they have the safety net of multiple trials. I think my response will be to limit the retakes to two, instead of three. I already made the decision before this conversation affirmed the decision. I do have some trepidation though. It's important to me that I give each student what they need to be successful. Some students might actually need a legitimate third chance. I think I will change the default setting to two chances, then a third chance for students who convince me that they need another chance. I might require an email stating how they prepared, what they learned from our post quiz conferences and what they will do to prepare for a third chance.  

Giving my Students what they Need: Week 4 reflections

During this week, students took their first Moodle quiz. They also had two videos, a lab challenge and two problem sets.

Successes: 

I'm not sure if this comment is a success story in the normal sense of the phrase, but rather it's an interesting share. My #edwin this week is a quick anecdotal. I own a love bird who chirps all day. In some videos, he is happily chirping in the background. I do what I can to minimize the distraction but some students noticed the sound. It made for an interesting discussion with a few students after class. We exchanged bird stories and had a few laughs about their seemingly notorious way of making the most noise when you need quiet. Perhaps the bird chirps were less of a distraction and just another way to help me connect with a few students. I'm just a little bit more human to those students who exchanged bird stories with me. 

I can feel students, who were once resistant, are starting to buy in to the flipped class. A parent emailed to let me know her student has done an 180 degree turnaround on the flipped model. 

So far three students have taken advantage of the opportunity to work ahead. They are almost a week ahead. I'll be interested to see how, or if, they continue this trend. One benefit for me is that I'll have at least some students ahead to point out issues. One student informed me of an incorrectly phrased question on a problem set. I was able to make the change before any other student saw it. This will force me to set up materials and learning cycles at an appropriate pace. (Getting fruit fly cultures, which require ample time before shipment, will be an organizational challenge for me.) I'm even thinking that students who are ahead could help me set up labs; they will learn new laboratory skills and I will get much needed help. This could be a great situation. 

The wonderful thing about my class is that I'm gaining real insights into the thinking of my students, especially through their questions. I'm taken aback by how many questions I get in a period. I wonder how students got their questions answered in the traditional model; there just isn't enough class time in that model. I bet there are just more questions now because I've made myself available for them. But what about the other questions? Did students call a classmate, talk to their parents or a tutor? Were these people able to help them without doing the thinking for them? Did my former students copy someone's work? I'm happy to answer these questions. I'm even more ecstatic that I can redirect questions to help my students think through their confusion. Usually my first response to a student's question is another question. It must be frustrating when you're used to someone giving you what you want as soon as you want it. My approach is to give you only what you need, not necessarily what you want. Whether it's asking a question to remind you of a step you skipped, what improvements can you make, or what was your motivation, it's important that my students are doing the hard work of thinking. 

The flipped model allowed me to provide one on one feedback to every student after this week's quiz. For each student who performed under the set benchmark, I had a conference with them to look over their incorrect answers. They resolved each problem in front of me after our check-in. I was able to see patterns in mistakes. I saw students who skipped steps, did not study vocabulary, did not use scrap paper, did not read the entire problem and took short cuts. I gave stern but, hopefully, encouraging feedback. After reworking each problem, I made them explain what they did incorrectly. We even had time for take home messages - where they identified what caused their unsatisfactory score. This is where students admitted to rushing, skipping steps, etc. I'm sure there are teachers who conference with their students after assessments to discuss errors. The english teachers at my school are excellent about meeting with students to look over their papers; there's hardly a period where I don't the English teachers in a case conference with a student in a random crevice or classroom. The difference here is that I was able to use class time to conduct my case conferences without falling behind in the curriculum or giving busy work to students. And more importantly, for most students, the quiz scores rose significantly after the conferences. The flipped model opened up class time to make this happen.

The other beautiful thing that happened was the video form responses proved to be helpful to me in a practical, not just theoretical, way this week. The students watched a video on chi squares, which I knew would be difficult. Next to protein synthesis, it is always the lesson that gives me the most anxiety before doing it. This is a difficult concept, especially for 8th graders. The lower than normal video ranking (2.4 compared to 2.75 out of 3) is clearly an indication. However, I see this as a success story because I wrote down all of the student names who indicated confusion and we spent the first few minutes in a small tutorial group going over chi squares. I knew going into this process that some students would struggle with some of the video lessons - this is why I use class time to provide remediation, tutoring, etc. The part unseen is the majority of students who understood the concept from the video and can now move on, without being slowed down by their peers. In my opinion, this is exactly what should happen in all classes: students getting what they need!

Adjustments:

During the first day of post quiz conferences, I made a list of students and called them to me when I was ready for them. I was stationary that day, so I probably didn't do a great job managing subtle behaviors like students working too slowly. Perhaps I'll be more strategic about which problems I go over. Next time I should jot down notes about each kid and prioritize which problems to discuss during the conferences. I worry that these conferences can start to become a time drain. I also need to stress that students should be more strategic about when they take their quiz, only take it when they are ready. I don't want to spend time in a post quiz conference with a student who just didn't study. The other students need my guidance; it shouldn't be wasted in that capacity.

A large number of my students are not updating their tracking sheets. I sent an email to them explaining changes to policies in order to encourage them to update tracking sheets. 

Excerpt below:

I'm seeing a lot of red on the tracking sheets, even the simple inheritance one which most people have finished. Starting tomorrow, I won't allow quiz taking until your tracking sheets are filled in. You also won't pass a check-in without showing me your tracking sheet. Please update. 

Quick explanation: this is really important to me because I need to know where you are in the learning cycle. If you are behind, I need to figure out a way to help you. If you are ahead, then I need ample warning to set up and order lab supplies, make photocopies, etc. You might be ready for the next step but not have any materials. So please, I implore you to update those tracking sheets.

In a related note, I believe that I've identified a student who has not been watching videos. I won't get into how I know for fear of spreading a way to game the system. The take home message is that I designed my accountability systems, like mandatory check-in and tracking sheets for a reason. I need to hold myself accountable for relying on these designed systems. My attitude moving forward is that the steps of the learning cycles are designed in such a way that students either need to demonstrate they don't need the step or that they have completed the steps. I will need to do a better job holding all students accountable for this. Most students are doing quite well with completing the learning activities. I just don't want any student falling in between the cracks. 

Now that students are starting to get the hang of asynchronous learning, I do want to build in time for full class activities, like peer instruction, jigsaws and Socratic seminars. I want to harness the power of rich discussions, especially when confronting ethical considerations of the science they are learning in class. Even if I have to supplement these discussions with online forums, I will carve out some time to start these talks during class time. 

Related articles

• Getting into a #Flipclass Groove: Week 3 reflection

Importance of Adjusting to Student Feedback - Week 2 reflections

This was a shortened week since we had our annual overnight grade trip. Even so, we managed to get an exploration activity completed and some tweaks to workflow. 

Successes: 

Hands down the highlight of the week was when a student encouraged me to patent this way of teaching. He sounded disappointed when I informed him that thousands of teachers flip their class. That is my #eduwin for the week!

A new student joined the 8th grade and it became obvious during the exploration activity that he already knew the content for the upcoming week. We agreed that he didn't need to watch the next video, take notes nor submit the associated Google Form. He'll skip to the problem set to demonstrate proficiency, and if successful, work on an alternative project or move on to the next learning cycle. In the traditional model, he would've suffered through one period of lecture, demonstration and sample problems. Flipping the class will allow this student to use class time much more effectively. 

After some anxiety about students understanding the content presented in the videos, I'm relieved to share high ratings regarding the helpfulness and clarity of the videos with average ratings of 2.7 out of 3. (The average would've been higher but I neglected to have a 3 rating as a choice and was made aware by students who wanted to use a rating of 3.) In addition, students answered the understanding level questions correctly on the Google form responses. A handful of negative reviews can be attributed to students assuming the video would give information about something that I opted to put into a different video or an upcoming activity. A few incorrect answers on the Google form appeared to be careless arithmetic errors. Two students mentioned that they preferred the old method and one wanted to a question answered in the moment. 

On a personal but related note, I'm becoming less concerned with perfecting videos; rather, I'm focusing on getting useful videos published in a timely manner. I can now appreciate Jon Bergman's joke, "do I need the video to be perfect or do I need it on Tuesday?" This new focus should reduce stress and anxiety. The hours I put into earlier videos created an unsustainable workflow. The encompassing theme of the Flip seems to be intentional use of time and energy for students and teachers alike. Think I've internalized that message, finally!

The FormEmailer Google Form script works marvelously. This script sends email responses to form entries directly from the spreadsheet, rather than necessitating the crafting of separate email messages to each student. One concern I had about the Flip is the inability to answer questions during video-viewing or shortly after. One way to alleviate the concern was the addition of a Google Form, where students can submit questions. Adding the FormEmailer script greatly decreased the turnaround time for a response to student questions or concerns. I typed my responses into the spreadsheet, clicked a button or two, and students got an email response. There's some setup required but it is well worth it. Some of my email messages were sent minutes after the students submitted their form. I plan to enhance this with other scripts that can indicate which students have not submitted a form response. 

Gradebook Pro (on the iPad) has proved useful as well. If you take the time to input or import student email messages and determine values for each assignment, you can send a grade report to students directly from the app. The report can inform the students which assignments they are missing, current grade and even notes that you recorded about assignments and/or conduct. After sending these periodic messages, my inbox shortly gets flooded with Google Drive share notifications, indicating students submitting their work. On one or two occasions, the message prompted a student to correct a mistake I made in record keeping. 

Since we're on the topic of Google Drive documents, I reminded students in class that I needed to see their video notes. Apparently, I must have mentioned printing the notes as a submission option. A student replied (and I'm paraphrasing), "it's better to share on Google Drive with Mr. Wilson because his best use of class time is working with us, not checking assignments." Wow...this student is really starting to internalize my daily message - think about YOUR best use of class time. 

After class, I informally chatted with two students and asked whether the new assignment sheet format (more info on that later) was an improvement. They both agreed, one more emphatically than the other. The one criticism was deadlines were missing from the assignment sheet. Before I responded, the other student said, "that's the point, you're working at your own pace." Sounds like more students are starting to buy into the philosophy here. I met with the student who desired due dates and helped him set daily deadlines. This doesn't have to be an "all or nothing" approach. It's about giving each student what they need to be successful. If some students work more effectively with deadlines, then I can make adjustments for that student without handcuffing the others.

Adjustments:

I got some really helpful feedback about a video. A student mentioned on their Google form evaluation of the video that they would love more practice on the concept, while others felt they understood the concept just fine. Since there is always an application in class, I took this to mean that the student wanted just a bit more practice before coming to class. Typically in the form confirmation page, I share the answer key to the form questions, in order to give students instant feedback. Now, I'm adding a link to additional practice problems with answers. This way, students can choose whether they want the extra practice or not.  

The great thing here is that some students are submitting questions with answers in their Google form response. These questions can behave as formative assessment for the students who submitted them and extra practice for future students.

I'll need to add a table of contents to videos. On several occasions, I referred to a specific part of an instructional video. This will be helpful to allow students to pick parts of videos they need, instead of watching the entire video. 

On my tracking sheet, I have students input the date on a completed cell and change it from red to green. Even though this seems like a simple 2-step task, is it really necessary? It occurred to me that they can input the date and I can set up conditional formatting to automatically change cells with dates into green and set empty cells to red.

I also found a simple solution to the ridiculous issue in the mobile version of Google Drive Sheets, where students accidentally erase other entries because the entire row gets highlighted when a student edits a cell. 

   I switched the rows and columns so if a student edits a cell, they are only editing their row. I suspect they will be more careful and aware of their actions if their entire row can get ruined due to careless editing.

After a brief love affair with Mentormob playlists, I've opted to use an online assignment sheet with links to all resources. [I alluded to this change earlier in this blog post.]

Multiple Playlists vs...

One Assignment Sheet

Even though the playlists are aesthetically pleasing, it became clear that the extra step of navigating through a playlist was an unneeded obstacle. In addition, a student pointed out that a web page with multiple playlists takes quite a bit time to load. I should have expected this because last year's evaluation responses indicated students found the online assignment sheet with links to documents all on one page to be useful. I'm unsure how I got to this point; perhaps it's because I loved using Mentormob to learn about different topics. It's still a great tool but the online assignment sheet just works better for my students. 

Related articles

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• Reflections on my First Attempt at Flipped Learning