Leyden flipping instruction, homework
By Mark Lawton mlawton@pioneerlocal.com January 30, 2012 8:56PM
West Leyden chemistry teacher Dalia Zygas talks to sophomore Ulises Covarrubias of Northlake about a graphing assignment during honors chemistry at the school . Students watch online video lectures at home and complete assignments in class. | Ryan Pagelow
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Updated: March 3, 2012 8:16AM
Teachers at West Leyden High School lecture in class. Students go home at the end of the school day and study.
Flip.
Some students in Leyden District 212 now watch teachers lecture at home via computer. Class time is used for one-on-one help or working in small groups or other activities that are better done in the classroom.
Its called “flipping classrooms.”
While that may sound like a gymnastics exercise, it’s actually the reversal of a routine that’s been around as long as high school.
The concept started a few years ago with a pair of high school chemistry teachers from Woodland Park, Colo. named Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergman. Many of their students were leaving class early for sporting events, according to a post in the Electric Educator blog.
Because the students missed information in class, they had trouble with their homework that evening. That caused the two teachers to question the system. Why lecture only in class and have problems done only at home?
Flip. Sams and Bergman started to record their lectures and post them on iTunes. Students watched the lectures at their convenience. Class time was instead used for one-on-one help with what was once called “homework.”
Flipping classrooms is not required in District 212, but a dozen teachers have tried it to some degree. Among them is Dalia Zygas who teaches honors chemistry at West Leyden.
Zygas, whose been teaching in the district for 34 years, started using videos developed by Sams and Bergman at the beginning of this school year.
“Its not so much flipped as blended,” Zygas said. “We do lecture a little less.
“The more they can learn at home, the more they can get help in class for problems that give them challenges.”
During a class last Thursday Zygas did lecture while an overhead projector showed her writing on a list of elements. But the material wasn’t entirely new to the students.
“You probably saw this on the (video),” Zygas said.
Cheyenne Salazar, a sophomore in Zygas’ class, finds watching the lectures at home useful.
“It actually helps,” Salazar said. “You can go back and listen to (the video) again instead of asking the teacher to repeat it.”
Selina Novielli, a junior, also likes the reversal.
“If the lecture is at school and I do homework in the evening, I sometimes forget what I learned, especially if it’s early in the morning,” she said.
Flipping classrooms could have a couple other advantages for students, said Mikkel Storaasli, assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum and instruction.
First, students could potentially be doing their homework completely wrong, Storaasli said. With a flipped format, teachers can make sure student get it right the first time.
Second, flipping addresses the theory that all students in a class learn at the same rate.
“That is the myth,” Storaasli said. “That’s how education in America has evolved. It’s the easiest way to deliver to a big group of people.”
Storaasli continued, “We know people learn at different rates. Teachers, students, adults. (Flipping) allows students to work at their own pace.”
Chris Aylward, a math teacher who has taught in District 212 for 14 years, agrees. He started creating his own videos at the beginning of the school year for honors pre-calculus.
“Some kids get things the first time you say it,” Aylward said. “Some require a little extra instruction.
“Everyone is wired a bit differently.”
Flipping may also address a social aspect of teaching. Aylward said that some students will avoid asking questions in class.
“They don’t want to seem like the only person in class who doesn’t get it or they don’t want to slow the class down,” the assistant superintendent said.
There are challenges associated with flipping. First, it involves a lot of up front work for teachers to record videos.
“I don’t have enough videos,” said chemistry teacher Jeff Vail who has been teaching in District 212 for 23 years. “It will take me a year or two or three or four.”
Nor are all videos equally good.
“Creating that content and making it engaging takes time,” Storaasli said. “It’s as easy to do a bad lecture on video as it is in front of a group of people.
“Kids give us feedback and (teachers) are getting used to the technology and working with sound and video.”
While flipping sounds good in theory, it’s too soon to tell if it’s helped student performance. Storaasli guesses that more teachers will flip their classrooms to some degree next school year when every student in the district gets his or her own laptop.
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