Thursday, August 7, 2014

Flipping Your English Class to Reach All Learners

Judi Holst is one of my former Douglas County colleagues, and she has provided me with many inspirational ideas over the last several years.  She recently reviewed a book called Flipping Your English Class to Reach All Learners.  Here is the link to her review:

http://www.middleweb.com/16163/flipping-english-class-reach-learners/

Knowing Judi as I do, and based on her review of this book, I immediately ordered it for myself.  It is challenging enough to meet the needs of 30-35 sixth graders in less than an hour.  Then I consider the fact that I have five classes for a total of 150+ students.  I also think about the wide range of interests, abilities, and motivation levels, and I know that I am definitely ready to try something new.  I want to make the most of every moment I have with my students - especially since I only see them four out of every five days.

I like the fact that this book is geared toward the secondary English Language Arts classroom.  Like Judi, I have attended several sessions and read lots of books about flipping my classroom, but none of that information was directly applicable to my situation.  This book sounds like a perfect fit!  I was also pleased to see that the author included sample lesson plans and tips for creating the videos.  I know they need to be dynamic and engaging if I expect my students to watch them.

My book should be arriving in the next few days, and I am eager to check it out.  I will definitely keep you posted about my new flipping adventure!

3 comments:

  1. Excited to read about what you learn and implement in your classrooms.

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  2. That sounds amazing! I was wanting to try and get more out my writers' workshop as well. I want the time spent in class to be more conferring and thinking about our writing as opposed to spending time getting the initial brain dump. Also, I agree with Jodi that flipping would be a great tool to differentiate lessons. "

    My main goal while reading this book was to find out how to give my struggling students, along with my gifted students, more individual attention. I wanted to make learning more student-centered."

    I'm going to try and get this book too. I wonder how much time we could save if we did our grammar lessons via video. There is just so much to cover in a little amount of time.

    Thank you for blowing my mind!

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  3. Let us know if the book could be helpful for 4th grade as well!

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