Comic Strips

Flipped Classroom

Another way to achieve the the flipped classroom is to use a comic strip to give the students information for homework and then talk about it in the classroom.

I created a short story or "comic" on Storybird called Jack and Jeanne. I decided to use storybird, even though it's not much like a comic because I didn't really like any of the other tools. Devolver seemed to kidish for me and Strip Generator was almost overwhelming. It seems that you have to completely plan our your comic strip before you even complete it which almost defeats the purpose of making it online. But I did enjoy the Storybird site, the artwork is beautiful and there is plenty of it. Though it seems that you have to write your story according to the photos you find instead of writing a story and trying to find pictures that match.

The standard covered in this activity is  Standard-ESL1: Language for Information and Understanding. ESL students will use English to collect ideas, discover relationships, concepts, and use knowledge from electronically produced texts. This standard will be tested by having the students activate prior knowledge about vocabulary families and pastimes/hobbies. They will then read the story Jack and Jeanne. In small grounds students will answer comprehension questions in order to collect data and discover relationships from the short electronically produced text. Then they will discuss why the children are imaging the special hobbies their new parents might do and why that is important to them. This will be an interesting concept for the students to discuss.

7 Things you Should Know about Flipped Classrooms Post #1

During my undergraduate work I went to the NCTE conference in Albany. There were many great lectures and workshops there but one of the presentations that really stood out to me was about Flipped Classrooms. This is a really interesting concept to me so I was glad when it was brought up in my technology class.
For class we read 7 Things You Should Know About Flipped Classrooms. Now, what exactly is a flipped classroom? The flipped classroom is when a traditional classroom is flipped on its head. So, traditionally the lecture would be given during the class and the homework would be completed later as a review, but instead the lecture is given as homework and the homework is completed in the classroom. In order to deliver the lectures outside of class short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session. Then during the class students are doing what we consider homework such as exercises, projects, or discussions. Here is a nice chart illustrating the differences:

To me this sounds like an idealistic goal. I would love to do this in my class because the homework can be the biggest struggle because each student gleans something different from the lecture and the teacher needs to supplement or clarify the information but they cannot do that if the student is at home. If the students needs to they can listen to the lecture as many times as they want at home whereas in the classroom the teacher only delivers the lecture one time in hopes that the students are somewhat paying attention. I think that modeling and feedback are key components to learning and teachers simply don't have enough time to do both during the class time. Therefore if the lectures are sent home with the students then they can listen, take notes, and ask questions in class the next day about anything that was confusing.

Though there are implications according to the Things You Should Know About Flipped Classrooms article. An effective flip requires careful preparation. "Recording lectures requires effort and time on the part of faculty, and out-of-class and in-class elements must be carefully integrated for students to understand the model and be motivated to prepare for class. As a result, introducing a flip can mean additional work and may require new skills for the instructor, although this learning curve could be mitigated by entering the model slowly" (EDUCAUSE). I think that thought it take a lot of outside preparation it would be a great model to try. If the teachers are given more tools and planning periods I think the flipped classroom can be achievable.