Why Flip Your Classroom?

   By studying the given topic at home, flipping the classroom gives students more of an opportunity to collaborate with peers in the classroom. This gives students more opportunities to practice their language skills which helps to further the second language acquisition process. Rather than the class time being focused on a teacher delivering a lecture, the time is now more focused on student to student interaction and second language usage. 

     Flipping a classroom is a term I was unaware of until just recently. For those of you who have also not heard of it, according to "Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer" written by John Graney, classroom flipping is the idea of having students prepare for a lesson or topic before class rather than being instructed by the teacher in class. This instruction can take place by assigning videos, textbook readings, going through a slideshow, etc. The students then come to class with the material being learned and then practice applying their new knowledge in the classroom with the guidance of the instructor. This gives students who usually struggle on homework the opportunity to work more closely with the teacher in order to better understand the material and the practical application of it. If the instructor finds that students are struggling with a particular skill, a mini lesson or lecture can be given in class and long with a small homework assignment to further cement the students' knowledge of the topic.

     Besides helping students who generally struggle on homework, classroom flipping can be beneficial for ESL students in a few other ways. As mentioned in "Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom" written by Helaine Marshall, three of the main reasons to flip your classroom include: comprehension, interaction, and critical thinking. With regards to comprehension, This learning method gives ESL students the opportunity to learn at their own pace rather than trying to follow along in a classroom. This in turn would definitely increase their comprehension. Providing students with various mediums to learn also gives them a structure for both new content and language. 

     The last reason mentioned in the article for flipping the classroom involves critical thinking. Once, a student has learned the material, and mastered and applied their new knowledge in class, students are then ready to take one step further and think more critically about what they have learned. By doing so, students can reach their full academic potential and the class can move on to more complex topics. As an end result, ESL students can then focus less on comprehending material in class but rather they can use the material they have learned and mastered at a much higher level of cognition. 

     Considering the multitude of ways that this method can be applied with regards to the distribution of learning materials and the options for classroom interaction and practice, flipping the classroom is a great way to help students learn better, master material, and do so in a more fun, engaging and personal way. This is teaching method that I am very happy to have discovered and will surely be using with my future ESL students!

The Future of Education

     The current education system is not working. It has been obvious for some time now. Drop out rates are increasing, people aren't doing their homework; they are bored, unmotivated, and disengaged. As mentioned by Sugata Mitra in "The Future of Learning, Networked Society." education was first developed by the Victorians with a goal that education will create cookie cutter beings; they will all be taught in the same manner and will know the same things. While that may have worked for them at the time, the world is a constantly changing place and with that comes ever evolving systems; including education. 

     Students are bored and unmotivated. Why? For the most part, they sit for six to eight hours per day and are talked at. Of course that is not always the case, but it is the majority. For some, that's okay. They take notes, are able to remember everything, and then perform well on exams. But that is only one part of the student body and our current educational system fails to account for the rest of the students. So much for "no child left behind" right?

     Students needs to be engaged. They need to be able to explore; find their own answers. Learning should be in a fun interactive environment; not a chore Monday through Friday with a dread for homework after school hours. Give a student the resources that he/she needs, teach them how to use it and watch what they can do. In the same video mentioned above, Sugata Mitra placed a computer in a slum area in India; a place where kids have never heard of a computer let alone internet. Within just hours, a group of children working together were browsing the internet. 

This brings me to the future of classroom curriculum. In "Future Learning" Sugata Mitra discusses the evolution of curriculum. He states that 200-300 years ago one was taught how to shoot a gun and ride a horse. If you told anyone during that time period students would not be taught how to do either of those things in the future, they would be astonished. Nowadays, shooting and horseback riding are sports. Will mathematics someday no longer be taught in schools because it too will be a sport? Sugata Mitra closes with what he believes should be the future of our curriculum: 

      "[R]eading comprehension is the most critical skill at this point in time for a      
       generation that is going to read off screens for the rest of their lives. Information              search and retrieval skills; if people know what are key words, follow a link or not,            it's a key skill. If arithmetic is an outdated skill, this is the skill that will replace it.            Finally, if a child knows how to read, if a child knows how to search for information,          how do we teach them how to believe...if we can do it really really early, we would          have armed that child against doctrine; not just religious doctrine but doctrine in all        forms." 

Giving a student the knowledge of how to search for information, read it, and believe will be some of the most powerful educational tools in the future if it is not the most important. With a virtually unlimited source of information the learning capabilities a student has with the abilities to search,read, and believe are endless.