Improving the "Unit with Room for Improvement"

Last year I wrote a blog post about "The Unit with Room for Improvement."

So, how'd it go this year?

Much better!

I divided the not-so-successful unit into two units, as I decided last year it needed to be. We did polynomial operations, tested, then moved into factoring.

My students rocked polynomial operations! It was one of the most successful tests of the school year.

(As a side note, I taught multiplication without FOIL, hoping to help students understand it better, and I think it worked. I sort of needed the "OI" part when it came to checking their factoring work, but they seemed to even check their work better this year having NOT been taught to FOIL.)

As we got ready to transition into factoring, I was once again staring at the calendar. So few days left, lots of interruptions coming, but factoring AND quadratics left to go. The panic tried to set in.

But I determined to ignore it. I was going to take my time and make sure students understood material as we covered it, even if it killed me.

So I started factoring in class, sort of in an explore-flip-apply style. And I only covered one thing: the simplest case, all positive numbers.

And I started with an activity that revolutionized my students' understanding of factoring.

I took from a couple of different sources, and created these sum-and-product-X's in each of the different factoring possibilities.

The first day I had the first one on the board, handed the students a sheet as they came in, told them there was a pattern, and instructed them to find the pattern and fill in the rest of the X's.

A few students saw it quickly, and a few struggled. I let them think about it individually for a few minutes, and then let them discuss with an elbow partner. Everybody was excited when they finally "saw it," and they filled in the rest of the page.

By the end of the lesson, they were factoring the simplest case like champs.

Their video that night was the next simplest case.

So I took what was normally a one day lesson (and covered completely in one video last year) and made it two days.

And it paid off in spades.

Students quickly got into the mindset of finding pairs of numbers that gave a certain sum and product. Many students used the X's throughout the factoring unit.

I was a little concerned once we got to the more difficult cases - such as a leading coefficient other than 1 - but even the harder cases were easier after the foundation laid in the simpler cases.

Students did well on the factoring test, and I feel much better about their grasp of the material. Now, will they remember it when they get to Algebra 2 in two years? We'll see....

I still used the Punchline pages more than I would have liked. They gave great, self-checking practice, and I could see while they worked that they were understanding the material, but a few students felt they were experiencing "death by Punchline." I will continue to work on that part of the unit next year.

Balancing time in the classroom is a delicate art. Don't go too fast, don't go too slow, get everything covered. But my flipped classroom has continued to teach me that slower is better than faster. Smaller chunks of material is preferable to large boulders. Student understanding is much more desirable than confusion and tears.

The Unit with Room for Improvement

Polynomials and Factoring.

I'm not sure why these topics always seem to come at crunch time. They have been in two different places in the two textbooks I've used, and they still come at times when I feel crunched. When I'm in a hurry. When I need to cover a lot of material in a little bit of time.

It used to be right before Christmas.

This year, it is right before testing. And nearing the end of the school year. When - after lots of winter weather - I'm behind. Thankful that we're not giving the End of Course test this year, but still wondering how I'm going to get everything covered by the end of the year. Because whether there's an official test or not, my students still need to be prepared for their high school math courses.

My current book puts operations with polynomials and factoring in one chapter. One long chapter. The first mistake I made was to not test on the two parts of the chapter separately but to wait and give a test after we had covered it all. I thought it would save me a couple of days.

As we entered the third week of the material, and I saw the test wasn't going to be until the end of the fourth week, I knew I had made a mistake. I could tell things were getting muddled in my students' brains. I was confident they had understood polynomial operations, but they were not given time to solidify that understanding. By the time we were deep into factoring, I could tell it was all running together.

I did try to rectify my mistake by taking two review days for the "big test;" we reviewed polynomial operations one day and factoring the next. That helped. One student, just a couple of days before the test, said something to the effect of, "So factoring is sort of the opposite of multiplying?" While I had told students that - we developed rules for factoring by looking at patterns in multiplying - they obviously hadn't been given the time or opportunity to make that connection. I was thankful for the eventual "a-ha" and connection, but I wish it had happened a little sooner.

The other thing I didn't do well with this material was plan classroom activities. I see these topics as being skills that students need adequate practice with to become proficient. I have a good set of self-checking worksheets (Punchline Algebra) that provide this practice, but they weren't good after a few days in a row of use. Students became less focused and engaged as the unit went on. I had flashbacks to my teach-then-assign-book-problems days and memories of my first thoughts about the flipped classroom when the thought of practicing crowd control while students completed boring assignments was not appealing.

I still could have used the Punchline pages, but I needed to structure each class period differently, with several different types of activities. I brought in a couple of different activities throughout the unit, but not enough. The two review days involved different activities, and that helped tremendously, but the whole unit (or what should have been two units) needed more.

The flipped classroom needs lots of varied activities. This has been one of my favorite aspects of the flipped classroom. Students need to be active and engaged and almost unaware that they are learning (my students often share how surprised they are that they've learned so much when it hasn't felt like "work").

I don't know why I reverted to old ways.

Well, I do know why. I'm feeling the time pressure, so I tried - again; you think I would know better after "The Too Long Video" - to save some time, and I let the stress and time of year get in the way of my best planning.

So...I've made lots of mental notes - and have recorded this blog post - so I can improve this unit next year. One idea I just had was to make more explore-flip-apply type videos/lessons.

My students are resilient, and after some focused reteaching and making connections and lots of review the few days before the test, I feel like they had a good grasp of the material (I haven't graded the tests, yet, so we'll see).

But hopefully next year's students will have it a little easier and an even better grasp.

EDIT: I've graded the test, and I'm pleased with my students' grasp of polynomials and factoring, overall. There are a few who did not master the material, but most of those will choose to go through the retake process and improve their understanding.

I am thankful all the time I teach resilient young minds who can recover from my missteps.

The Too-Long Video

The weeks since Fall Break have been incredibly busy, and I haven't had time to blog! I try to record topics as blog titles as I think of them so I'll remember what I want to reflect on when I actually have a few minutes to reflect.

It happened.  I made a video that was too long.

When we returned from Fall Break, after taking the ACT Explore, we began our lessons on slope. Slope is completely new to these students, so I had a lot of "back story" to give.  I talked a LOT in the video. I taught how to find slope from a graph and using the slope formula. Our book doesn't really develop finding slope from a graph, but kids need to understand it when graphing lines in slope-intercept form, so I thought it important to spend some time on it.

There were only 3 Smart slides, but the video was over 20 minutes long.  Like right at 22 minutes. Most videos are between 12-15 minutes long.

I warned the kids ahead of time.  There were groans. "She said we would never have videos over 15 minutes long!" Well, I never said "Never," but that was my intention.

It was material I would have covered in one class period, so I figured the extra 5 (ok...7) minutes would be fine.

I was wrong.

The kids were frustrated with the length of the video.  They seemed confused by the material. They struggled with the practice in class the next day.

While many things have contributed to the challenging nature of the last 3 weeks (more on that in a blog post to come), the too-long video was the beginning of a shaky foray into graphing linear equations.

So...a definite revision of this video is in order.  It will be 2 videos next year: one on an introduction to slope and finding slope from a graph, and a second one on the slope formula.

In my mind, neither one of these things should really take an entire day for my 8th grade Algebra 1 students. I had 2 days of applications of slope planned.  Should slope really take 4 days? Isn't that too long? This year's experience should convince me such is not the case. I've already taken more time this year with our introduction to linear equations based on what I decided was an insufficient understanding of the topic from previous (non-flipped learning) students. One more day on a foundational concept in mathematics will not be a day wasted.

It's got me to thinking about my traditional classroom lessons.  How many times did I throw too much at students, counting on them to sort it all out - on their own - through homework? Then answer a few questions and move on to the next thing.

I've said it before, but flipped lessons have allowed me to have a much better feel for the pulse of my students. And having a better grasp of what they are and aren't understanding, I am no longer able to continue plowing through material when I know there are issues to clear up. Thankfully, flipped lessons also allow me the time to creatively reteach and not necessarily lose valuable instructional time.

The limit exists.  Fifteen minutes, max.  Some would say even that is too long for 8th graders, but my Pre-AP students seem to handle that length just fine (they definitely like it when they're shorter, though). Any longer is too much.  And will automatically become two days.

Whether my "I don't have enough days to cover everything as it is!" brain likes it or not.

Is There Any Doubt?

I've been looking forward to today's TeachThought Reflective Teacher Blog Challenge prompt:

Which learning trend captures your attention the most, and why?

Since the name of my blog is "Mrs. Gibbs Flips Algebra 1," there's probably little question as to which learning trend intrigues me the most.

This blog started because of the flipped learning trend.  Until the 30-Day Blog Challenge, ALL the posts were about flipped learning. And after the 30-Day Challenge the posts will return to the subject of flipped learning.

I talk a LOT about my flipped classroom, but I don't mind at all talking about it some more.  I want to keep spreading the news!

I first heard of flipped lessons from our district tech coordinator when all teachers got iPads in the spring of 2013.  I thought, "Hmmm....Sounds neat, but how could that ever happen?"  It was mentioned again last year when our middle and high schools went 1:1 with iPads.  Same thoughts.

Something clicked for me this past June.  I don't even what exactly made me decide to jump in.  But I suddenly realized I WANTED to flip my algebra classes and I WOULD find a way to make it work.

What captured my attention?  Time.  I thought about what could happen in my allotted 51 minutes with each class if I moved direct instruction to a video.  And I could no longer resist.

I blogged extensively here about what the use of time now looks like for me and my students.

There are many other side effects of flipped lessons that continue to make me a believer. My students have less homework stress. I have a better finger on the mathematical pulse of my students and classes. I am able to have more one-on-one time with more students. More students are more engaged than ever before.

And just today I got to experience - again - one of my favorite aspects of the flipped classroom.  Last night's video (transformation of formulas) was brand new for my kids and something they find a little challenging at first.  Students came to class a little unsure.  But as they worked through today's activity, I got to see the lights come on. I got to see the understanding grow.

In my traditional classroom I rarely got to see that part of the process.  At the end of a challenging lesson I got to see my students leave confused and worried about completing their homework. I got to see them come to class the next day with lots of questions or unfinished homework because they got frustrated and gave up.

But now I get to see more of the part of learning that excites me.  That "A-Ha" moment.  The light bulb moment.

The moment the switch is flipped.

Using Time Wisely

Every teacher relates to this

 Due to my participation in TeachThought's 30-Day Reflective Teacher challenge, I haven't blogged specifically about flipped lessons in two weeks.  And I'm going through withdrawal.

So today is a #flipclass post day!  (I might answer the Reflective Teacher prompt later; the day is young.)

Week before last we had a holiday-shortened week plus test prep and testing, so it was a week with only one flipped lesson.  This week we returned to flipped lessons full-force.

It's still going well.  I'm getting to do so many different practice activities with my students.  I know better than ever before what my students are getting and what they need more help with.  I'm hearing students comment on how much more manageable their math homework is than in years past.

There are challenges.

I have about one student in each class who seems to have made a habit out of not watching videos consistently.  But I have a better handle on how to respond to this and encourage student responsibility.

We had a school network issue that was preventing some students from accessing videos, but it has been fixed.

As videos begin to include more new material, I hear more "that confused me," or "I didn't understand that video" as students enter class.  But then I get to see understanding come as students work with the new material in class.  I have to admit that's pretty neat!  I also need to remind students to not just "get through" the videos but go back and rewatch parts that were unclear to them the first time.

I am beginning to really feel the effects of the time and effort required of me to make this endeavor successful.  I have had more than a few 10 hour days and am working Sunday afternoons.  I'm tired. But thanks to the sources I read before, I knew to expect this and am confident next year will be easier.  I am also trying hard to protect what free time I have and to really rest when given the opportunity.

What I really want to talk about today, though, is time.

A guiding question of those in the flipped learning community is "What's the best use of my face-to-face time with students?"  That question is answered - to start with - by moving some or all of direct instruction outside the classroom.

One of my constant complaints as a teacher has always been that I don't have enough time.  I have 51 minutes of class time.  In my traditional classroom, the first 15 minutes were used for checking and answering questions from the previous night's homework.  Then 20-30 minutes of delivering new content.  Then 10-15 minutes (if they were lucky) for students to begin working on the new homework assignment.

Warm-ups?  Spiral review?  There was no time!  Answer EVERY question about homework?  Never. I would have to limit questions so I could cover the next material. Exit slips?  Students who were taking advantage of time given in class didn't want to stop working on homework to answer an exit slip prompt.  Many students didn't yet know what they did or didn't understand about the assignment because they hadn't processed or practiced it, yet.

And the wasted time!  I would go around and do a "5-point check" to see that everyone had attempted all the homework while students were (supposed to be) checking answers.  I loved seeing every student's work and letting students know the assignment was important to me.  But many students wouldn't bother checking their work (answers would be posted on the SmartBoard).  Or it would take them several minutes to get started.  And if they finished checking while I was still walking around the room, it would get noisy. And be hard to get them quiet to begin the "real" part of class.

Homework time given at the end of class?  Many would not take advantage of it.  There would be a lot of non-mathematical conversation and more than a few off-task students.

I would waste time, too.  After lecturing for 30 minutes, all I wanted to do was crash at my desk. Papers that needed to be graded often wouldn't be.  I would not circulate among the students as well as I should have to check for understanding and redirect as needed.

The amount of time I had and the use of that time always frustrated me!

My flipped classroom is the most efficient my classroom has ever been.

Several students have mentioned how they realize that what is taking 15 minutes on a video would take at least twice that long in class.

Students have something engaging and active to do when they enter the room:  a warm-up reviewing concepts from the video or including spiral review, prepping a foldable, or using partner-matching cards to find their partner for the day.

Students are constantly doing something.  We move from one activity to the next.  Activities are finished before class is over (I am still figuring out timing for some activities), so there is no temptation to quit working and say, "I'll just do this at home."  The percentage of truly engaged students in my classroom is at an all-time high.

A side effect of the use of class time is when there is the need for independent practice, my flipped students are more willing to sit and work quietly than I have ever seen.  I think there are a couple of reasons for this.  We do such a wide variety of activities, and many of the activities are truly active and involve the use of a partner or group; students don't rebel at a quiet session of practice every few days. Knowing the practice will be finished in class also motivates them to stay busy.

My use of time in class has also improved.  While I am always walking around and assisting and discussing with students, I have small chunks of time here and there where I stand at my podium and grade a few papers or check a few formative assessments.  Sit at my desk?  Forget about it!  But I am getting things graded and returned quicker than I ever have, and I am bringing fewer things home to grade than I ever have.

I also believe the flipped classroom model is the best use of my students' time, not just in class but out of class, too.  If I were giving traditional homework instead of videos, there would be more than one student a class period not completing homework on a regular basis.  Students - while there are still the "What, we have homework tonight?!?" complaints - are willing to give approximately 15 minutes of their time to watch a video and take notes.  Students used to share with me that some algebra homework assignments would take an hour or even longer.

I feel a little sneaky (but satisfied) that I am forcing a dedicated 45 minutes or so of practice time a day. When "homework"/practice time is in class, we use ALL that class time for activities dedicated to mastering the material presented on the video.  In my traditional classroom, I couldn't have guaranteed that amount of time for every student every day.

I've mentioned this before, but my students (and their parents) seem to really appreciate that they can watch videos when it is convenient for them.  Many students (more than I would have expected) are watching most, if not all, of the videos for the week during the weekend.  While the early-watchers do seem to be mostly girls, I had a football player mention he watched Wednesday's video early due to the away game Tuesday night.

For the first time in my teaching career, I am not feeling helpless when it comes to the amount and use of time.  I am not wishing for a blocked math period just to get by (but the thoughts of what I could accomplish with a flipped classroom AND a blocked period make me a little excited).  I am not shaking my head and wringing my hands at my students' misuse of class time.  And while my pre-algebra classes are not flipped (yet!), elements of a more efficient classroom are showing up in those classes, too.  I had no idea that answering "What's the best use of my face-to-face time with my students?" would be so transformative.