The Flipped Classroom

After I read the two articles: “Flipping Your EL Classroom” and “Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom”, I have better understanding about the flipped classroom. I like the flipped classroom as it creates engaging learning experiences for our students. Flipped classroom is a broad concept including creating instructional videos, introducing the flipped concept, and practical ideas of different ways to use class time. It is interesting to know that the flipped classroom is not just for the regular school classroom schedule, it goes beyond the classroom teaching. It includes three parts: work at home, work in class, and work after class. The main procedure of the flipped classroom is to emphasize that students need to view the short video lectures at home before the class session, and in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions. The video lecture is the key ingredient in the flipped classroom approach, and a teacher may create the video lectures or select from online resources.  

In the Flipped classroom approach, students access course content on their own outside of class and then interact in class with their teachers and peers as they engage in activities directly related to what they have viewed. To implement effective flipped learning for learners follows a learning cycle: (1) instructional videos; (2) in-class collaboration; and (3) observation-feedback-assessment. Each element needs to be undertaken with supports. The flipped classroom approach is beneficial to students as it is able to increase comprehension of the material, increase interaction with instructor and peers, and increase critical thinking as a natural part of the learning process.

By learning the flipped classroom approach, I am thinking how to implement it in my teaching second language. The articles introduced the flipped classroom targeting English Learners. I think the flipped classroom approach can be useful in teaching any subject. The approach may need to be modified for a specific subject. I am planning to modify the flipped classroom specifically for my teaching Chinese language and culture. I may allocate more in-class time to engage students in conversation practices and classroom collaboration.