Monday, October 12, 2015

The Flipping Continues

This September marked my third year of flipping classes. Well, pseudo-flipping. I wasn't requiring or asking my students to front-load the material on their own at home, but I was turning the classroom over to them: students are choosing how they are learning the material, what resources they will access to do so, and choosing their pace of learning.

Most of my success so far has been in very skill-based courses like math. I've struggled, though, with how best to present a variety of resources when the learning goals are more broad (like in general science).

With my grade 12 Earth and Space science class this semester, I was ready to revamp things and try again. But there were also two new factors forcing me to up my game: firstly, I had made it my goal to introduce more rich assessment tasks and project-based learning into my science classes, and I wanted to follow through.

Secondly, I knew I had a student coming in who has been literally learning geology and fossils - particularly as they pertain to our local area - since the age of three. His knowledge is astounding; there would be no way I could teach the geology components of the course in the traditional sense and still keep him engaged. I really had to step back from the idea of being the expert in the room. Change was afoot!

New Format

After toying with the idea of layered curriculum (à la Kathie Nunley) or an equivalent point system, I decided to go with a rich assessment project that tied together the components of the units, and then choice boards for the individual lessons.

Here's what one of our lessons looks like:

Just the Facts

Each lesson starts with the learning goals, as well as materials for learning the basics. These include my PowerPoint notes (now uploaded to Slides, as well as Screencastified videos with me talking through them), textbook references, and a vocabulary list.

Choiceboard

Students need to choose one activity from each row. They can do these in any order, and the options are usually open for them to complete the task however they choose (verbally, on paper, visual presentation, 3D model, online graphic, etc.).

You may notice that the rows are roughly themed. The first row is a check of the basic knowledge (Knowledge/Understanding in the Ontario curriculum, or an entry level in Bloom's Taxonomy), the second is Thinking/Inquiry, and the last row is more Application/Evaluation (or, a higher level in Bloom's Taxonomy).

Again, the students can do these in any order - some start with the synthesis tasks and then come back to the specific details, others choose to take the notes first, familiarize themselves with the vocabulary, and then tackle some of the larger tasks. A couple of students, for this particular lesson, loved the idea of creating an online model of a rock record in Google SketchUp, and jumped right in with that before looking at any of the resources. A great hook!

I'm seeing a good range in what the students are choosing, and I'm getting an excellent variety of projects - from the SketchUp files for the task previously mentioned, to a marker-and-paper design, to a pair of students who are reconstructing the rock record seen in one of our local waterfalls in a 3D physical model:

Bridal Veil Falls, Manitoulin Island
image labeled for noncommercial use by wikipedia.org

Unit Project

The unit project is tucked away at the bottom of the document, but was available from the day we started the unit. Those who were interested (my in-house palaeontologist included), found it right away and jumped right in. Others waited until I pointed it out and walked the class as a whole through the idea.


Again, some students started brainstorming immediately after the class-wide discussion, while others waited until finishing the lessons (there were three in this unit, all set up similarly to this one) before starting. I have been super impressed by the creativity the students are applying to this project - some of their "futures" are hilarious! - and am looking forward to seeing how they tie the final product into what we have learned. 

This project was my first attempt at creating a rubric on my own using the method picked up from assessment PD in the spring, and I'm glad to see the students making use of it to fine-tune their work.

Take-away?

Overall, I'm very impressed with how this class is functioning. So far, I've been successful at both introducing more project-based learning and rich tasks, as well as meeting every student at their level: the students seem engaged, and students of all backgrounds are finding entry points and ably demonstrating their learning. 

It is a lot of work to frontload each of the lessons, but by opening up the class like this, I find students are taking more risks when they are ready for them:

Some are bringing in their fossil collections from home to identify and learn more about them, many are getting out and exploring their local area from a geology point of view, and one student - in the hopes of possibly teaming up with a local university to re-create the famous Miller-Urey experiment - even emailed a student (now Professor Emeritus) of Stanley Miller in order to find out more about the experiment. We are getting good at breaking down these classroom walls! 

I'd love to hear suggestions or comments - I'm always looking to make learning a great experience!