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Come organizzare una flipped class

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Pdf of the webinar on Invalsi test

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Keep calm and approach Invalsi English exams

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Unmotivated students? Is it worth using a carrot or a stick?

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Unmotivated students? Is it worth using a carrot or a stick?

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Interesting article from cult of pedagogy a blog full of tips and suggestions by Jennifer Gonzales

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Listen to this post as a podcast:

When I ask teachers what their biggest struggles are, one issue comes up on a regular basis: student motivation. You are able to reach many of your students, but others are unreachable. No matter what you try, they have no interest in learning, no interest in doing quality work, and you are out of ideas.

For a long time, I had no solutions; the problem was too complex. I have had my own unmotivated students, and I never had any magic bullets for them. Still, the issue kept coming up from my readers.

So I decided to do some research, to try to find what the most current studies say about what motivates students. This is what I found:

1. Students are more motivated academically when they have a positive relationship with their teacher.

2. Choice is a powerful motivator in most educational contexts.

3. For complex tasks that require creativity and persistence, extrinsic rewards and consequences actually hamper motivation.

4. To stay motivated to persist at any task, students must believe they can improve in that task.

Stopping the Buck: The Teacher's Role in Student Motivation

The research on motivation wasn't hard to find; it seems as if any teacher with an Internet connection and an hour or two should be able to learn everything they need to know about the topic.

So where's the disconnect? If we as a collective group of educators already know what works to motivate students, why are so many students still unmotivated? When I talk with teachers about the problem, I don't hear much about the research.

Instead, we blame technology: "Students are so distracted by their phones."

Or we blame the parents: "Parents just don't want to be bothered" or "They don't want their kids to fail/experience setbacks/take responsibility."

Or we make sweeping generalizations: "Kids today just aren't like they used to be. They act so entitled."

Are we passing the buck? Maybe. It's certainly easier to blame outside forces than it is to make big changes in the way we teach. Unfortunately, even if ALL of the above statements are true, we can't do anything about those things. The only piece we really have control over is what goes on in our own classrooms.

So let's look at our own practice. When we set aside all the outside factors and just focus in on our time with students, how are we doing? How much alignment is there between our own instructional moves and the research on student motivation?

I have put together a list of five questions we can ask ourselves to see if we really are doing everything we could to boost student motivation. To keep me from getting too preachy, I'll do the exercise with you, reflecting on the years when I was a classroom teacher with middle school students.

Okay, let's go.

The Questions

1. How is your relationship with your students, really?

Multiple studies have shown a significant connection between student motivation and the quality of the teacher-student relationship. A good teacher-student relationship provides students with a sense of stability and safety, which sets the stage for more academic risk-taking. So what kind of relationship do you have with your least motivated students? How well do you really know them? Do you have conversations with them about the things they care about? Or have you more or less given up on them?

My response:
At first, I'm thinking I did pretty well in this area. I taught English language arts and my students kept journals, so I got to know them well. But when I think about my less-motivated kids, I'm not so sure I can say the same. The connection I had to Andre, one of my seventh-graders, consisted entirely of me getting him to make up missed work. It was all we talked about: the missing work, why he wasn't turning it in, how important this stuff was for his future. When Andre saw me coming, he probably just saw a looming cloud of nag. We never really talked about the stuff that mattered to him.

How we can do better:
Just becoming more aware of the value of relationships is the most important step. From there, consider one of these resources:

Jim Sturtevant's book, You've Gotta Connect, is full of specific strategies for building stronger bonds with your students. (Episode 9)

Smokey and Elaine Daniels' The Best-Kept Teaching Secret describes how dialogue journals can help us get to know our students better personally and academically.

If you want something faster, take a look at the 2 x 10 strategy, shared by Angela Watson, which has teachers spend two minutes a day for ten days casually chatting with underperforming students.

Remember that relationships between students matter, too. A well-chosen classroom icebreaker can begin building a sense of community in your room.

2. How much choice do your students actually have?

Study after study points to choice as a major factor in motivation. Most of us have probably heard this, but we may not have fully embraced it. After all, providing choice can be messy, with students completing different tasks at different rates, making it hard to be consistent with grading. It can also mean a lot more prep work: If you're going to give students three different options for an assignment, that means you have to prepare all three options ahead of time. Or do you? Isn't that kind of prep work more in line with worksheet-oriented teaching, where students are doing low-level work that was largely prepared by the teacher? If students are engaged in more long-term, authentic, creative projects, it's much easier to provide them with choices, because we aren't constantly trying to provide them with new busywork every day.

My response:
I was pretty good about letting students choose topics for writing assignments, but I also required a lot of seat work as well. I wanted students to do their work at about the same pace, and I knew next to nothing about differentiation. Now I'm thinking about Matt, another one of my unmotivated seventh graders, who was incredibly smart. He sat way low in his chair in the back of the Gifted & Talented language arts class he'd been assigned to, way cooler than all the others, and he gave minimal effort. I used the same nagging approach I'd used with Andre, with minimal success. Now that I know more about differentiation and choice, I realize I could have had a conversation with Matt about letting him work ahead on some things. I could have allowed him, and his classmates, more input on the larger assignments I gave them. If I had given Matt a more active role in his own learning, he might have been more engaged.

How we can do better:
There are lots of ways you can allow more choice in your classroom without having to completely overhaul your way of doing things. Even adding a small amount of choice to what students already have is an improvement. Consider letting them choose:

seating: Could students do some assignments on the floor? In the hall? Or just in different seats?

work groups: Some students thrive in groups, while others do better on their own.

intake mode: If you want a student to read a particular book, and an audio version is available, you could occasionally make that an option.

output mode: For some assignments, it may be possible to have students deliver their response in an audio or video recording, rather than in writing.

timing: If students don't absolutely have to do the same thing at the same time, why not let them choose the order of activities they do?

3. Are you relying heavily on carrots and sticks...or Jolly Ranchers?

Many, many teachers count on rewards ("carrots") and punishments ("sticks") to motivate students. And those who study motivation tell us that extrinsic reinforcement can be motivating if the task is something easy: If you're trying to get students to clean up the classroom quickly, for example, offering class points toward a party can get them to speed up. But for tasks that require creativity and complex thought, extrinsic rewards actually reduce motivation. In your class, how much of your motivational approach is extrinsic? How often do you use grades, treats, privileges or punishments to prod students into doing something they don't really want to do, something they have no real interest in? If extrinsic reinforcement is your primary approach, you may actually be killing off any natural motivation students might have otherwise had.

My response:
I score myself pretty low here. As a teacher, my classroom management was a mess until I learned how to control students with names on the board, extra credit, whole-class rewards for good behavior, and the ever-reliable bag of Jolly Ranchers. I did those things because they worked. But there's a difference between getting kids to do what you want and truly, deeply motivating them.

How we can do better:
Try to catch yourself the next time you're about to tie a challenging activity to a reward or consequence. When introducing a task, try focusing on its inherent interest or value, or how much students are going to learn, rather than on a separate reward or grade. Consider the difference in these two statements:

I'm going to give you a sheet of math problems. The first ten are required, the last two are for extra credit.

I'm going to give you a sheet of math problems. The first ten should be fairly easy, but I want to see how many of you can do the last two-those are the challenge problems. You guys have learned enough that I think you can solve at least one of them, maybe both.

If you have a tendency to go for the first option, you are going for the easy win, the extrinsic reinforcement. If you find that this doesn't do much to motivate your underperforming students, try moving more toward the second option and see if anything changes.

4. Do your words contribute to a growth mindset or a fixed mindset?

What could be wrong with saying "You're so smart"? It's nice, right? It boosts their confidence, no? Well, it's more complicated than that. Students are motivated to persist at a challenging task when they believe they can get better at it. That requires them to have a growth mindset, a belief that their intelligence and abilities can be developed with effort. Teachers can have an impact on this mindset with the things we say to students. So when we say "You're so smart," "You have natural math ability," or "You're a great writer," we are telling the student it's their natural ability that got them where they are. We're contributing to a fixed mindset. And that's not motivating.

My response:
When I was in the classroom, I knew nothing about growth mindset. I thought kids would feel great if I told them they were smart or talented. I can remember a conversation with Janae, a student who commanded the attention of her peers with ease but got into trouble a lot and did poorly in school. I remember pulling her aside and telling her that I thought she had strong leadership qualities, and that if she could just get her grades up, she had a bright future ahead of her. Yeah, that didn't work. If I wanted her to "get her grades up," I would have been better off noticing a well-constructed sentence or complimenting the way she got her group back on track during a cooperative learning activity, showing her exactly what kind of choices she should keep making to be successful.
How we can do better:

Instead of praising something innate and fixed about a student, focus on specific things students can actually control. So instead of telling a student she's a great student, notice the level of detail in her lab report. Marvel at the level of difficulty she was able to handle on that challenging math problem. Point out how much preparation she must have done for the presentation she gave. It's faster and easier to just tell them they're awesome, but taking the time to be specific and focus on effort will pay much larger dividends.

When you have constructive feedback to give, follow the same principle and make it specific. Rather than telling a student she "needs to work harder" on her assignments, tell her what to work on. Is neatness an issue? Does she need to read the questions more slowly? Is she doing the advanced math right, but messing up with the basic addition and subtraction? If a student knows what to work on, she will be far more motivated to do that work.

5. What are you doing to make your content relevant to students' lives?

I think this is another one of those principles that's been around for so long, we assume we're doing it more than we actually are. But showing students how the content relates to their lives really does make a difference. When students believe they are doing something authentic, something that will improve their lives or have some kind of impact, they are naturally motivated. So how are you doing in this area? Do you regularly provide opportunities for students to connect what they're learning to the world they currently live in?

My response:
I got pretty lazy about this. Just like crafting a good opening and closing for each day's learning, I often cut corners on making my material relevant. I was often much more focused on getting through content and tasks than I was on making it meaningful. I was pretty good about giving writing assignments on topics that mattered to them, but I don't know how clearly I connected what they were doing to how it could help them. For example, with something like argumentative writing-I was probably more focused on "this is how you get a good grade on this" rather than on "this is how you change someone's mind."
How we can do better:

Plan it, then say it: Making material more relevant can be as simple as occasionally stopping an activity to explain its relevance. When students are studying the Lincoln-Douglas debates, show parallels with the current presidential election. When you're studying bacteria, talk about all the places bacteria hang out in students' daily lives. Making these kinds of connections is a natural practice for many teachers, but if you're like me, you might forget to add these connections into a lesson. So just add them into your lesson plan; literally write down a few connections you plan to make some time during a class period, then check your plans before class is over to make sure you did it.

More reflection: Even asking students to think about how course material connects to their lives can make a difference. One study (see the Motivation Matters document in the collection) had teachers ask students to write weekly reflections on how the material they were learning related to their lives; lower-performing students in these classes did better compared to those where teachers didn't use this intervention. Researchers referred to these as "value interventions."

Design tasks that end with a public product: In one of the videos in the collection below, educator Kathleen Cushman describes the highly engaging work students do at High Tech High, a school whose curriculum focuses on project-based learning. Student projects have an authentic, public end product-a video, a live presentation, a community service project, a website-something that will ultimately be consumed by people outside of their own classroom. This naturally motivates students to work harder on a task. So look at your curriculum and see if you can find more ways to build assignments around real, public products.

Where to Go from Here

The purpose of this exercise is not to beat ourselves up. It's just a way of deeply diagnosing a problem most teachers struggle with. There's a very good chance that the technology, the parents, or the entitlement are playing a role in what we perceive to be reduced student motivation. But there's a very good chance that our instructional decisions play a role as well.

So pick one area and start there. Make a small adjustment this week and see what happens. Share in the comments where you think you could improve, then come back and tell us what changes made a difference. To solve a problem as complicated as student motivation, there is no magic bullet; instead we'll need a set of tools that we blend and refine over time. This is a process that will definitely be slower and more frustrating than a single, easy solution, but we're professionals. This is our craft. We can do this. ♦

Keep in touch.
Join my mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration-in quick, bite-sized packages-all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to my members-only library of free downloadable resources, including my e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, which has helped thousands of teachers spend less time grading!

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5 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Unmotivated Students

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If we know what works to motivate students, why are so many students still unmotivated? These five questions will help you determine if your practice is really in line with research.

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Balestrazzi's webinar about Dickens and tv series ( From Dickens to TV series slides)

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QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER TIME  1830-1901 by lizzie

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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S.T. COLERIDGE THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER - by lizzie

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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LORD BYRON AND THE JOURNEY GOES ON AND ON: CHILDE HAROLD by lizzie

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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The Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning

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The Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning

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The Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning Table (GEEFL) is part of the FLGI's roadmap to Flipped Learning professional development. The table makes the core AALAS Global Standards framework easily accessible and actionable. GEEFL divides the AALAS framework into color-coded families, elements, and unique symbols. The table links each family of skills to the specific FGLI courses and certifications where educators can get training and support to develop mastery of the selected best practices. NOTE: Click the center of each element to see details and options.

Copyright FL Worldwide 2018*

The FLGI Flipped Learning 3.0 Certification program is the first Flipped Learning professional development curriculum aligned to the AALAS Global Standards. The training modules display the AALAS elements covered in each training unit.

Together, the Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning and the Flipped Learning Certification Level - I, Flipped Learning Certification Level- II, Lesson Planning Specialist Certification, Differentiation Specialist Certification, and the Higher Ed Certification provide the most comprehensive and clear roadmap to effective Flipped Learning available. The courses are internationally accredited, produced in collaboration with the most experienced Flipped Learning practitioners in the world, and are available in English, Spanish, and Chinese. The program was designed from the ground up to be the rigorous, relevant and comprehensive. We've gone to extraordinary lengths to assure educators, schools, and school districts that the training you receive is rigorous, current, and peer-reviewed. In short, the Gold Standard for Flipped Learning Professional Development worldwide.

*No part of the Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning Table may be copied or reproduced without the written permission of FL Worldwide LLC.

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FL 3.0 Gold Standard - Flipped Learning Global Initiative

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The Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning The Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning Table (GEEFL) is part of the FLGI's roadmap to Flipped Learning professional development. The table makes the core AALAS Global Standards framework easily accessible and actionable. GEEFL divides the AALAS framework into color-coded families, elements, and unique symbols.

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Video of the Conference Flipped Learning in Istambul

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Video of the Conference Flipped Learning in Istambul

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Flipped Learning 3.0 Global Standartlar Zirvesi / The Flipped Learning 3.0 Global Standards Summit

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I adapted this from an original video found here: http://youtu.be/OTIBDR4Dn2g. The original presentation was created as a summary of the ASB Unplugged Conference in Mumbai, India 2010. I wanted to add more multimedia and make it more visual as well as adjust a couple of the ideas.

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FROM THE ORIGINS TOTHE NORMANS: HISTORY, ART AND LITERATURE by lizzie

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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Shift from Instruction to Construction : a new perspective

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Shift from Instruction to Construction : a new perspective

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Tiziana Saponaro Apple Distinguished Educator

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Teaching in the digital age: from chalkboards to iPad

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Lesson title : E-safety and health safety. Emerging technologies. The role and impact of IT in society

Subject area : Information technology

Online teaching and learning material :

E-book: English for Information Technology:

Learning objectives/topics:

E-safety, health and safety

Why e-safety is necessary and why data should be kept confidential.

How personal data can be gathered by unauthorized people and how we can protect against this.

Describe potential health and safety issues relating to using computers

Describe emerging technologies, how they work and what they are used for.

The role and impact of IT in society

Explain how technology is used in e-business and evaluate the impact of technology on e-business, society and learning

Evaluate the impact on digital currency

Discuss how organizations mine data

Evaluate how social networking has changed social patterns

Describe video-conferencing and the hardware and software used

Explain what is meant by data mining

Discuss the impact of technology on medicine, manufacturing, in sport, in education

Student learning activities at home : study the e-book, do the exercises, answer the questions and write short summaries

Classroom activities : present your summaries to the class

Formative assessment : present your summaries to the class with a multimedia presentation (Prezi or Emaze)

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A website for Italian students who use computers in an English-speaking environment. It covers the language needed to use information technology equipment, work with computer programs, discuss problems and plan projects. It also helps students understand more about what is happening in the world of technology and learn some useful tech vocabulary through reading, listening, speaking activities, vocabulary, writing, interactive quizzes and lots more.

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Today we're going to discover this brilliant Irish 😉 writer Oscar Wilde; when in 1882 he arrived in the U.S.A. in New York, at Custom Controls he said "I have nothing to declare but my genius".
STEP 1) Watch these 2 videos on his Biography & take down some notes - in Google doc or your notebook. Read his biography in your textbook page 185 and integrate that text with the new info you got in the video.
STEP 2) As regards his life and his relationship with A.Bosie that ended up with him being arrested and sentenced to two years' hard labour (lavori forzati) watch the scene of Wilde's famous monologue on "love that dare not speak its name" during the trial, taken from the movie Wilde (1997) starring Stephen Frye.

" The Love that dare not speak its name in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it and sometimes puts one in the pillory (alla gogna) for it. "

The following video shows the actor Ruper Everett visiting his house in Merrion Square.

STEP 3) The third video is a collection of some of his famous aphorisms. Choose the one you like best. Tell the rest of the class why you like it.

Top 10 O.Wilde's Quotes and why he said them

You have already read his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray as your summer set-book. Now check the video "10 things you should know about The Picture of Dorian Gray" and take down 10 notes you'll report in class. Were you familiar with all the information?

Watch three different trailer versions of the movie and choose the one you like best motivating your choice by comparing it to the novel you've read. Then you'll report in class.

1945 Adaptation: Directed by Albert Lewin; screenplay by Albert Lewin.

2004 adaptation Directed by David Rosenbaum; screenplay by David Rosenbaum. Starring Josh Duhamel as Dorian Gray.

2009 adaptation Directed by Oliver Parker; screenplay by Toby Finlay. Starring Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray; Ben Chaplin as Basil Hallward; Colin Firth as Henry Wotton.

I'm also adding an interesting article from The Guardian about his last work "De Profundis"; De Profundis as one of the greatest love letters ever written. Read it.

FINAL DIGITAL TASK OF MODULE: Choose one among the 4. Then paste link into the Padlet below. DEADLINE: BY NOVEMBER 4th. This task is Optional but gives extra-credit according to the complexity of product.

1) A false FACEBOOK page or TWEET of Oscar Wilde or of a character from The Picture of Dorian Gray.

2) A video trailer of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (for the video-making lovers) 3) A Google site or Adobe SparkPage of 5 websites that O.Wilde would have liked. 4) An audio interview to Dorian Gray using the app Spreaker ( in 2 or 3)

For Fake Tweets or FaceBook use this site http://www.prankmenot.com Here's my VideoTutorial

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Today we're going to discover this brilliant Irish 😉 writer Oscar Wilde; when in 1882 he arrived in the U.S.A. in New York, at Custom Controls he said "I have nothing to declare but my genius". STEP 1) Watch these 2 videos on his Biography & take down some notes - in Google doc or your notebook.

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Il blog didattico per i docenti di Tiziana Saponaro 

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Il blog didattico per i docenti di Tiziana Saponaro 

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I attended the following course, taught by Jon Bergmann, available here: http://flglobal.thinkific.com/courses/TechCourse

This one-hour, free course helps educators avoid the 17 biggest mistakes educators routinely make when choosing flipped learning technology.

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TEACHING WITH iPAD IN A FLIPPED CLASSROOM

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I attended the following course, taught by Jon Bergmann, available here: http://flglobal.thinkific.com/courses/TechCourse This one-hour, free course helps educators avoid the 17 biggest mistakes educators routinely make when choosing flipped learning technology.

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Accredited
FLIPPED LEARNING Professional Development

Strengthen your skills and your resume with online masterclasses in the most advanced best practices, technology, and research for effective Flipped Learning in grades K-12 and higher education.

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Strengthen your skills and your resume with online masterclasses in the most advanced best practices, technology, and research for effective Flipped Learning in grades K-12 and higher education.

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Tiziana Saponaro e i suoi studenti che spiegano la Didattica Capovolta

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Tiziana Saponaro e i suoi studenti che spiegano la Didattica Capovolta

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Gli studenti dell'ITIS Marconi di Verona spiegano come studiano l'inglese con il metodo della flipped classroom

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a Flipped, Blended and Gamified Learning

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a Flipped, Blended and Gamified Learning

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Inspiring a generation of digital explorers, creators and leaders

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Jon Bergmann: a reversed prespective and flipped learning as a metastrategy

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Come si attua la flipped classroom

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Cosa sognifica caovolgere una classe in Italia

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L' innovazione a scuola spesso nasce da un' esigenza concreta. Raramente un insegnante si sveglia la mattina con in testa un'idea geniale che rivoluzioni il modo d'insegnare; la maggior parte delle volte si deve risolvere un problema, e la sua soluzione, apparentemente banale, diventa una di quelle cose che ci fanno esclamare: " Perché non c'avevamo pensato prima?!".
La flipped classroom è una di quelle cose. Talmente semplice, talmente immediata da essere geniale.

Per chi non lo sapesse, la " classe rovesciata" o " classe capovolta" è nata negli Stati Uniti circa sette anni fa, grazie all'iniziativa di due docenti di scienze e chimica: Jonathan Bergmann e Aaron Sams. Jonathan ed Aaron non insegnano in un grande campus, ma in una high school in Colorado. Una piccola realtà rurale, niente di apparentemente sfavillante in termini di risorse ed utenza. La classica scuola americana devota allo sport ed alle attività secondarie, così come siamo abituati a vedere nei film o nelle serie televisive.

Vuoi per le partite delle varie squadre delle scuola, vuoi per le altre attività, vuoi per le malattie, gli studenti di Jon e Aaron saltavano un sacco di lezioni importanti. I due insegnanti si domandavano come potessero fare per evitare che i loro ragazzi rimanessero indietro, quando un giorno Aaron trovò la risposta in una rivista di tecnologia: esisteva un software che permetteva di registrare voce ed annotazioni sopra ad una presentazione in PowerPoint. Nel 2007 YouTube non aveva raggiunto la popolarità di oggi, ma i due provarono a registrare una lezione ed a condividerla con i loro studenti. Avevano appena creato la flipped classroom. Gli studenti guardarono a casa la lezione registrata ed arrivavarono in classe già preparati, pronti per fare esperienze laboratoriali, ma anche con quesiti che approfondivano quanto avevano visto il giorno prima.

Jon ed Aaron si resero subito conto del potenziale di questo nuovo modo d'insegnare, e forse dovremmo rendercene conto anche noi. Ma perché sarebbe bene provare almeno una volta la flipped classroom? Eccovi nove buoni motivi.

1) IL VERO APPRENDIMENTO PERSONALIZZATO. La scuola dovrebbe essere ritagliata attorno ai nostri studenti, ma le classi sovraffollate, il poco tempo e le poche risorse a disposizione lasciano che spesso e volentieri non si applichi davvero questo principio. Con la classica lezione uguale per tutti abbiamo "sparato nel mezzo", penalizzando non solo quelli che avevano difficoltà, ma anche le eccellenze. Grazie alla flipped classroom ogni alunno diventa davvero protagonista della propria formazione (non solo sulla carta delle programmazioni di noi insegnanti). Chi ha bisogno di guardarsi la lezione due o tre volte, può farlo tranquillamente, mentre chi è più dotato può approfondire. Davanti al video ogni studente procede con il proprio passo.

2) UN NUOVO RUOLO DELL'INSEGNANTE. La mattina l'insegnante diventa un tutor, un facilitatore, una guida per le varie esperienze laboratoriali, di gruppo o individuali. Potrà predisporre attività di recupero o consolidamento per chi ne ha bisogno, ma anche sfidare le eccellenze con qualcosa che li valorizzi davvero. Inoltre, prima d'iniziare la lezione, potrà sempre fare un rapido brainstorming per puntualizzare nuovamente quanto espresso nel video che ha fatto vedere ai suoi alunni.

3) ABBASSARE LA FRUSTRAZIONE E VINCERE L'ABBANDONO SCOLASTICO. Un alunno in difficoltà, da solo a casa di fronte ad un problema di matematica, una versione di latino, degli esercizi di grammatica, è molto probabile che provi frustrazione, e si arrenda. Quella stessa frustrazione potrebbe risucchiarlo in un vortice di insuccessi che rischierebbe di portarlo in pochissimo tempo lontano dalla scuola. Eseguire gli stessi compiti in classe, affiancato da insegnanti e compagni riduce il senso d'inadeguatezza e previene l'abbandono.

4) NON E' VINCOLANTE. Aaron e Jon hanno iniziato con un video. Non dovete per forza registrare tutte le lezioni che farete: iniziate con una o due e vedete l'effetto che fa sui vostri alunni. Sarete sorpresi della reazione.

5) LA RETE E' UNA MINIERA D'ORO. Non ve la sentite di registrare dei video? Vi imbarazza? Nessun problema! Forse non avete idea della mole di video educativi presenti in Rete. Dal 2007 ad oggi i contenuti disponibili per il settore education si sono moltiplicati a dismisura. Potete fare affidamento su contenitori di risorse già pronte e molto valide come YouTube EDU, BIGnomi, Repetita Treccani, OilProject.

6) CREARSI LA PROPRIA MINIERA. Col tempo, tra risorse esterne e risorse personalizzate, riuscirete a mettere da parte un numero consistente di video, materiali ed attività, i quali vi permetteranno di fronteggiare qualsiasi contenuto, qualsiasi classe e qualsiasi alunno.

7) REGISTRARE LE LEZIONI E' DAVVERO SEMPLICE. Ci sono applicazioni e software totalmente gratuiti che sono facilissimi da utilizzare (e quando dico facili intendo "Schiaccia un pulsante e parla"). Per registrare lo schermo del vostro computer potete usare il sito Screencast-O-Matic, mentre su iPad e tablet Android avete davvero l'imbarazzo della scelta. Tra le migliori vi segnalo: Show Me ( iOS), Educreations ( iOS) ed Adobe Voice ( iOS), oppure Lensoo Create ( Android) e UTGreat Whiteboard ( Android).

8) TRASFORMARE GLI OGGETTI DI TUTTI I GIORNI IN MEZZI PER APPRENDERE. Nei video che Aaron e Jon hanno girato nelle loro classi per spiegare il funzionamento del loro nuovo metodo non si vedono grandi laptop, computer nuovi di zecca o tablet costosissimi. I ragazzi guardano i video che li guidano negli esperimenti con i loro cellulari, o addirittura con degli iPod. Chi l'ha detto che per fare innovazione servono sempre grandi fondi a disposizione?

9) RISPONDERE IN MANIERA DIVERSA AI GENITORI. " Come si comporta mio figlio a scuola?". Sta seduto, è educato, non disturba né l'insegnante, né i suoi compagni. Tutto qui? Vogliamo continuare a concentrarci solo sulla singola prova scritta oppure quella orale? Con la flipped classroom possiamo raccontare molto di più ai genitori. Possiamo farci domandare: "Mio figlio sta imparando?". Potremo quindi rispondere sì o no, ma comunque forti del fatto che all'interno della classe vengono proposte attività che puntano all'apprendimento, ma anche all'esperienza. Avremo il polso della situazione, perché saremo presenti nel momento fondamentale dell'apprendimento che prima ci vedeva assenti, quello che prima si svolgeva nelle case dei nostri studenti.
Funziona!
I risultati di un sondaggio del 2012 organizzato dal sito ClassroomWindow parlano chiaro:

88% degli insegnanti che hanno sperimentato la classe rovesciata provano maggiore soddisfazione in ambito lavorativo;

67% riporta voti più alti nei test;

80% ha notato un miglioramento nella vita di classe, soprattutto nel comportamento degli studenti;

99% avrebbe continuato ad usare la flipped classroom anche l'anno seguente.

Se volete continuare ad informarvi su questo nuovo modo di fare scuola, leggete La Classe capovolta, Innovare la didattica con la Flipped Classroom di Maurizio Maglioni e Fabio Biscaro, pubblicato da Erickson.

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Classi a testa in giù: 9 consigli per capovolgere la scuola

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L' innovazione a scuola spesso nasce da un' esigenza concreta. Raramente un insegnante si sveglia la mattina con in testa un'idea geniale che rivoluzioni il modo d'insegnare; la maggior parte delle volte si deve risolvere un problema, e la sua soluzione, apparentemente banale, diventa una di quelle cose che ci fanno esclamare: " Perché non c'avevamo pensato prima?!".

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Percentages of success of students working with flipped learning in the USA

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Percentages of success of students working with flipped learning in the USA

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The Evidence Indicating That Flipped Instruction Works Continues to Grow

Have you ever come across statements online, or overheard people in dialogue, claiming that there is just no evidence supporting the effectiveness of incorporating technology in the educational process? Doesn't that just drive you nuts? This is simply an uninformed and wrong-headed claim.

Google " evidence supporting effectiveness of technology in education " and check out the results. No evidence? Think again.

Of course, here on this site, were focused on one specific technique that relies on technology make teaching and learning more effective - the flipped classroom or flipped instruction model. Flipped teaching and learning is making further inroads in schools across the world every day as teachers across the world discover and adopt it.
Here are 10 published findings and studies that offer qualitative and quantitative results that support the effectiveness of this technique:

This article discusses the use of flipped teaching and learning techniques at Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The article includes the following specifics re: measured success with the use of flipped instruction (the "new program"):

"The combined first-time pass rate under the old, traditional learning style program was 83.9 percent, college data show. The combined first-time pass rate for the new program is 96 percent, a more than 12 percentage point increase.

Overall costs of the program have been reduced for the student because every time a student failed an FAA test they would have to go back and retrain, Goertzen said."

A few excerpts from this article:

"Using mixed-methods, we examined learning experiences and perceptions of the flipped classroom model and assessed changes in students' self-perceived knowledge after participation in the course. We used pre- and post-course surveys to measure changes in self-perceived knowledge."

"On a scale of 1-5 (1 = lowest rank, 5 = highest rank), the mean overall rating for the 2013 NextGenU/Flipped classroom students were 88.8% compared to 86.4% for traditional students (2011). On a scale course was 4.7/5 compared to prior years'overall ratings of 3.7 (2012), 4.3 (2011), 4.1 (2010), and 3.9 (2009)."

"At Villanova, Weinstein helped lead a pilot program for flipping engineering courses. New data from the program given to U.S. News shows the bottom third of students' grades were more than 10 percent higher than in a traditional classroom (the difference between a D+ and a C) and more than 3 percent higher for the class as a whole (moving from a C+ to a B-)."

Here is an abbreviated excerpt from the report's abstract:

"The study examines students' assessments of the use of the flipped classroom approach in an undergraduate course in the Business Department at the College for Academic Studies in Israel ... students reported that watching videos between lessons enhanced interest, alleviated boredom, and enriched the learning. To a lesser extent, they reported it increased their involvement in learning, understanding of the learning material, and confidence in their ability to understand it."

This is the first part of a pilot we ran at The College of Westchester in 2014. I'll soon be publishing results from the full pilot (which included 4 additional classes), which showed similar encouraging results.

"The most startling and beneficial result of the Partial Flipped Class pilot was the drastic reduction of DFW rates (Ed Note: DFW = D's, F's, and Withdrawals).

As the graphic below indicates, DFW grades were eliminated in the pilot of GEN300, and radically reduced in NET125. Similar results occurred in comparing prior offerings of the course taught specifically by the same instructor who taught the pilot course."
Excerpts from this article:
"For years, Scott Freeman taught Biology 180 - a gateway class - by standing in front of his students at the University of Washington and lecturing about biological systems, evolution and the chromosome theory of inheritance, 17 percent routinely flunked his class - a failure rate he considered "gruesome."

Freeman is now part of a new wave of Washington college instructors who are rethinking the college lecture hall ... Some are seizing on a relatively recent idea: "flipping" the class, by turning a lecture or other basic materials into homework, and spending more class time in practice and problem-solving.

Freeman says fewer than 4 percent of his students flunk the class today. About 24 percent earn an A, compared with 14 percent before he switched his methods. And he believes the material he's presenting is now harder, not easier."

In this article, teacher and administrator James Szoka writes about his experience as an administrator at a rural secondary school district in America. He observed teachers who implemented a flipped classroom with materials they designed and created. Over 250 video podcasts were made district-wide to provide content instruction.

"We performed research at that rural school to compare the effectiveness of the two delivery models of Algebra II/Trigonometry. There was a large enough sample of students to compare in a lecture delivery model and the flipped classroom model. Data was collected during the first term of the 2010-2011 school year (the test group for the flipped learning model consisted of 20 individuals and the test group for the traditional delivery method included 31 students). At the end of second semester the students in the podcasting delivery method had a GPA in their math class of 3.2/4, a B average. The students in the traditional delivery method had a GPA of 2.52/4, a C+ average. The percentage of students in the video podcasting class receiving a grade of A for the second semester was 50% whereas the percentage of students in the traditional class receiving a grade of A for the second semester was 39%."

A professor at the University of British Columbia, Louis Deslauriers, studied 850 undergraduate science students taking a required physics course. At the beginning of the term, students were placed in two groups. Both groups for the first 11 weeks of the course received instruction in the typical lecture delivery format by competent and well regarded instructors. At the 12 week mark, students in group 1 received instruction in a flipped classroom manner. Class time was spent on problem solving and discussion and content acquisition was left to be done by the student outside of the classroom with reading assignments. Students in group 2 continued in the typical lecture delivery format for the 12 th week.

At the end of the 12 th week, all students were given a test to determine their acquisition of content for the 12 week period. The test was scored on the correct out of 12 and the results are pictured above. Group 2 using the lecture delivery method had an average score of 41% and Group 1 had an average score of 74%.

This is a slightly different twist on the measurement of benefits of flipped teaching and learning. This thesis documents research conducted by a student in pursuit of a M.S. in Science Education at Montana State. The document abstract explains,

"In this investigation, the effect of the flipped classroom and associated differentiation was studied to measure the impact on student achievement and student stress levels. For the second semester of their senior year, students watched video lectures outside of class and completed assignments during class time."

Jumping to the published conclusions,

"Students reported lower stress levels in this type of classroom environment compared to other classes. Results of the study indicated that use of differentiation and independent study, through the implementation of the flipped classroom model, was successful. The grades from semester one and semester two were significantly different, with the majority of students seeing an average increase of three points in semester grades."
Edited excerpt from the abstract:
"This paper provides a comprehensive survey of prior and ongoing research of the flipped classroom. Studies are characterized on several dimensions. Among others, these include the type of in-class and out-of-class activities, the measures used to evaluate the study, and methodological characteristics for each study. Results of this survey show that most studies conducted to date explore student perceptions and use single-group study designs. Reports of student perceptions of the flipped classroom are somewhat mixed, but are generally positive overall. Students tend to prefer in-person lectures to video lectures, but prefer interactive classroom activities over lectures. Anecdotal evidence suggests that student learning is improved for the flipped compared to traditional classroom. However, there is very little work investigating student learning outcomes objectively."

This last study makes a key point, which is that there are few formally structured, rigorous studies focused on outcomes. It is also important to note that not all published findings and studies focused on the flipped classroom have reported positive results. For example, this recent report on EDUCAUSE did not find any statistically significant improvements in flipped classrooms in a couple courses studies over 2 years.

Conclusions

There are many factors that play into the effectiveness of flipped instruction, and only time will tell if continued professional development and experience with the technique yield predictable, repeatable increased performance.

There has been consistent growth of the use of this technique over the 7+ years since Sams and Bergmann began their efforts (which IMHO have been a primary catalyst in this grassroots movement). As more and more teachers gain experience and share and apply best practices, I have little doubt that there can be continued evidence coming forth supporting the effectiveness of flipped teaching and learning when carefully structured and leveraged.

It remains to be seen if administrators, parents, school boards, and other stakeholders governing education ultimately help or hinder the potential that is clearly displayed in these encouraging findings.

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10 Published Results Supporting the Benefits of Flipped Learning

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Have you ever come across statements online, or overheard people in dialogue, claiming that there is just no evidence supporting the effectiveness of incorporating technology in the educational process? Doesn't that just drive you nuts? This is simply an uninformed and wrong-headed claim.