Friday, April 12, 2013

A Simple and Successful "Flipped" Spelling Lesson


We have heard a lot about flipped learning and wonder if changing the manner information is presented to students really makes a difference in learning.  I’ve been “flipping” my spelling and vocabulary lessons for about a year now, and would like to share the success my students are experiencing. 

The lesson starts with a video I create on Educreations that introduces the concept of the spelling unit (in this case, apostrophes).  The video is short (in general, less than 2 minutes).  The videos are then posted on my class webpage, where the students can later review it before the final assessment.  They can’t do that if I simply lectured the information.


Also on that page is a Google Form I create for the students to complete after viewing the video.  For the apostrophes’ lesson, it was to correct 12 sentences that had errors.  Watching the video and completing the Form was done at home. Wow! What an eye-opener.  A quick glance at the spreadsheet the next morning showed me there were a lot of errors and that the students needed more work on this concept.


I quickly (there’s that word again!) embedded a Padlet wall on the class webpage and assigned one of those sentences to a team of 2 or 3.  Their task was to write the sentence correctly and tell us why the word(s) needed the apostrophe (single possessive, contraction, etc.).   All were done correctly.  It was evident that the students were more successful discussing a solution together than working independently.  That Google Form was an easy way to assess where the students were, and then design a fun, easy lesson to reinforce what they needed to know.  For more practice, they have a NoRedInk assignment ready for them.

If you flip your lessons and would like to share what your students do, please comment and let us know!  

CC Connection: In addition to meeting the standards that fall under the Conventions of Standard English (1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. 2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing), flipped lessons also allow teachers to manage classroom time more effectively.  Students work on necessary skills and problem-solve in collaboration with others.

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