Entry 49 IDT1415 The Flipped Classroom

Hello everybody,

I would like to share an input session I designed called: Planning Receptive Skills Lessons which is part of a series I called Methodology Pills for Induced Reflection for language teachers both on and off CELTA courses. I can say that, in retrospect, I created the materials while unknowingly implementing Wiley's (2014) 5Rs: I initially came into contact with materials regarding lesson planning upon training as a CELTA tutor a decade ago and through the years the materials were 'Retained', 'Reused', and more than anything 'Revised' and 'Remixed' as my own beliefs, understanding and learning grew and changed shape via my own experience, peers and Continued Professional Development. I can confirm that the process followed this sequence and upon reflection this answers the question I posed at the tutorial regarding whether the order in which they were presented reflected the order in which the process of implementation was enacted. The last stage of 'Redistribution' only effectively started in 2009 when I started sharing my materials initially with my trainees via Dropbox, then COPY and subsequently with the public at large via my YouTube channel and my blog. I believe the reasons for this gradual sharing is reflected in Conole's words (2010b in Beaven 2013:62): “teachers lack the necessary skills to make informed judgements about how to use technologies and are bewildered by the possibilities”. Up until 2008 I was only a peripheral user of technology lacking those skills that would allow me to move from a print literacy to a texting, hypertexting and multimedia literacy respectively within the language focus realm before progressing towards the different stages of the information, connections and (re)-design foci as described by Dudeney et al. (2013:6).

My current state of affairs reflects then a continued adaptation and struggle to make informed decisions so as to implement the right 'active, problem-based learning activities' that provide the learners with more than a video to watch before the session (Lowell et al. 2013) through my 'little' Open Educational Resources (OERs) as defined by Cormier & Siemens (2010).
 

Flipping the Session

Session: Planning Receptive Skills Lessons

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this session, you will...

• Understand the stages and procedure for exploiting reading and listening texts.
• Have practised devising tasks based on reading and listening texts.
• Understand the rationale behind receptive and productive skills lesson frameworks.
• Have explored practical receptive skills tasks which can be transferred to your classroom.

Before the session...

The video is made available before the session and trainees are asked to:

1. Watch the video and come up with 3 questions they want answered during the session.

2. Answer the following questions while watching the video:

·         What stages are common to both receptive skills and language focused lessons following a Guided Discovery framework?

·         How many stages are there? Which are they?

·         What's the difference between the skimming and scanning stages?

·         Does the order in which of the above stages come in a lesson matter?

·         Make a mind map of the session and be ready to share it with the class. (This is part of your portfolio).

During the lesson...

Step 1 - Trainees are assigned to groups and given 3 min to briefly discuss their answers to the questions.

Step 2 - Group plenary addresses questions and issues. Questions are acknowledged and set to be answered during the session.

Step 3 - Following a Guided Discovery approach, trainees' attention is focused on the first part of the presentation (up to slide 2) and then given sample lesson plans for them to identify the different parts.

Step 4 - Q&A mini stage to see if trainee questions match input at this stage.

Step 5 - Adopting a trainee-centred presentation the remaining part of the presentation continues while focusing on the different stages for receptive skills and requiring groups to add ideas to the ones already suggested in the video.

Step 6 - Q&A mini stage to see if trainee questions match input.

Step 7 - Sample Lesson Plan Analysis - trainees finish identifying lesson stages in sample lesson plans and complete HOs.

Step 8 - Reflection and Wrap up: pair work reflection task on a. content of the lesson, b. 3 things new to them, c. 3 things they still find challenging, d. discussion of how they plan to address lesson planning.

Step 9 - Setting HW: 1. Write a general set of guidelines which they would recommend other trainees to follow when planning a Receptive Skills Lesson and then check against the video below how similar or different the suggested ones are. 2. Pay attention to the Language-focused Lesson Frameworks mentioned for the following session and write 3 questions as to re-start the cycle.

Watch Methodology Pill no. 18 Language & Skills Lesson Planning Guidelines.

References

Beaven, T., 2013. Use and reuse of OER: Professional conversations with language teachers. Journal of E-Learning and Knowledge Society, 9(1), pp.59–71.

Cormier, D. & Siemens, G., 2010. “Through the Open Door: Open Courses as Research, Learning, and Engagement.” Educause Review, 45(4), pp.30–39. Available at: http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume45/ThroughtheOpenDoorOpenCoursesa/209320.

Lowell, J. et al., 2013. The Flipped Classroom : A Survey of the Research. Proccedings of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, p.6219. Available at: http://www.asee.org/public/conferences/20/papers/6219/view.

Wiley, D., 2014. The Power of Open Educational Resources. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/opencontent/the-power-of-open-educational-resources-32336823?qid=ff3f974a-5ada-4c14-9660-9ec677cd6838&v=qf1&b=&from_search=1.