Flipped Algebra Classroom by Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Larson

Much like many subjects, Algebra 1 has a demanding curriculum. When planning lessons, we used every second of class to teach the students the objectives, but we were always touching on the surface and running out of time. A typical class period would consist of a quick warm up, grading and discussing last night’s homework, taking notes over a new concept (or expanding a previous concept) and then assigning homework. We weren’t touching higher DOK levels and we always felt rushed.  Not to mention, a missed class period had students feeling behind, and class was routine and didn’t seem “fun”. 

After discussing the idea with students, taking a class vote, and holding a class meeting to alleviate concerns, we decided to flip our Algebra courses.  A flipped classroom is where the teacher creates video notes and the student take notes at home. When looking at a typical class period, note taking is the “easy” part. We are passing along information, which can easily be recorded at home. This takes place of the traditional worksheet or assignment that goes home. We do not find videos already made on YouTube, but make the videos ourselves using programs such as iPevo, Doceri and Screencastomatic. Students respond better when they can hear or see their teacher. We contacted parents to let them know what we were doing, and got positive feedback!

We provide a detailed calendar to our students. The calendar contains 5 columns which provides information about the date, mandatory work, in-class activities, stretch activities and homework assignments. The students are aware at all times when assignments are due or expected to be completed. Homework is not assigned on a nightly basis and the term “homework” refers to video notes.  To remedy the issue of internet access at home, students can always ask to have the videos air dropped to them before the end of the day. Otherwise, they’re placed on Canvas a day or two ahead of time.

When students arrive to class, we do a quick check to make sure that they took the notes. We then ask if there are any questions and typically work over an example or two if needed. This is a great formative assessment tool to make sure we are ready to begin our daily activity. This is where the fun part takes place. We are now only 5 or 10 minutes into class and have the rest of the period to dive into higher levels of DOK and/or participate in hands-on activities that wouldn’t regularly fit into our schedule.

Algebra students were recently tasked with booking vacations to Paris and New York City. They researched through travel agencies, wrote a system of equations to represent each city, solved using 3 methods and compiled a digital poster on www.postermywall.com. We didn’t skip or extend any objective to allow class time for this project. The use of a flipped classroom provided the time needed to successfully apply math to a real life situation.

We could go on and on about the success of our flipped classroom and the progress that we are seeing in the Algebra course. However, we asked the students to complete the sentence, “I love my flipped Algebra class because…” and the results were amazing! Students are responding well, parents are thrilled to have help at home and we are excited to be able to hit our math targets and have students digitally step outside of our classrooms!