I am a rule-follower by nature. In fact, being compliant and sweet was my best form of revenge against my older brother and childhood tormentor - the better I was, the "worser" he seemed. I like structure and organization and the safety that comes with staying within well-defined boundaries.
When I first began teaching at one of the first charter schools in the state, I was still a college student myself. I knew the formula for academic success. Show up, do the work. That's it! Students who can manage to come to class every time we meet AND do the work that I assign WHEN I assign it tend to do a lot better. Pretty simple rules for success. This was my comfort zone.
But in the comfort zone there is mediocrity, not excellence. And mediocrity is NOT my legacy.
I flipped my class for mastery and completely changed the rules for success. Showing up definitely helps, but it's neither required, nor is it a guarantee. Doing the work I assign also correlates positively with success, but again, it is neither a guarantee, nor a condition.
For my students now the rules are: Learn the content, show me that you've mastered the concepts and skills.
How do we learn the content? I have a list of options for you to try, or you can show me something else you found that works! How do you show mastery? Usually it's a quiz online or on paper, but I'm open to suggestions - oral quiz, performance assessment, project. Back up your CLAIM with EVIDENCE!
When I first began teaching at one of the first charter schools in the state, I was still a college student myself. I knew the formula for academic success. Show up, do the work. That's it! Students who can manage to come to class every time we meet AND do the work that I assign WHEN I assign it tend to do a lot better. Pretty simple rules for success. This was my comfort zone.
But in the comfort zone there is mediocrity, not excellence. And mediocrity is NOT my legacy.
I flipped my class for mastery and completely changed the rules for success. Showing up definitely helps, but it's neither required, nor is it a guarantee. Doing the work I assign also correlates positively with success, but again, it is neither a guarantee, nor a condition.
For my students now the rules are: Learn the content, show me that you've mastered the concepts and skills.
How do we learn the content? I have a list of options for you to try, or you can show me something else you found that works! How do you show mastery? Usually it's a quiz online or on paper, but I'm open to suggestions - oral quiz, performance assessment, project. Back up your CLAIM with EVIDENCE!
This means that homework had to change. I know many educators think that in a flipped class, the homework is to watch a video and that I am supposed to keep track of who is watching which videos so I can hold them accountable. But since I started with mastery, it just didn't make sense to say "Achievement is constant, while time is now the variable," and then give an accountability grade for doing assignments within the same time frame... It just didn't fit. Pick the work that you need to do to get to the next level, then decide where is the best place for that work to take place. If you're not sure where to start, I can give you some ideas of things that other students have tried in the past that seemed to work well.
Once you DO something, we can evaluate, adjust, iterate, and improve. I don't really care WHERE you do it - in class, at home, at the lunch table with your friends - just understand that the purpose of the DOING is to accomplish the LEARNING. Completing assignments earns you NO points in my class - but learning the content and demonstrating mastery will lead you to success every time, whether you take baby steps or gigantic leaps to get there.
Once you DO something, we can evaluate, adjust, iterate, and improve. I don't really care WHERE you do it - in class, at home, at the lunch table with your friends - just understand that the purpose of the DOING is to accomplish the LEARNING. Completing assignments earns you NO points in my class - but learning the content and demonstrating mastery will lead you to success every time, whether you take baby steps or gigantic leaps to get there.
Demonstrating Mastery
|
|
Create a photo/video record of your lab experiment - share it with others via Animoto. Better than the typical "Obervations" section in a lab report!