Can Religious Schools utilize the power of the flipped classroom?
Jonathan Bergann and Aaron Sams, two science teachers from South Dakota are pioneers in the way instruction is given in the classroom “The Flipped Class” is a method of teaching which involves flipping what happens in the classroom with what happens at home. Instead of lectures happening in the classroom, they happen at home via Vimeo or YouTube. Reinforcement of the learning which happened at home now occurs in the classroom.
How can Religious Schools take advantage of this methodology?
Possibilities:
- Use FC (flipped classroom) for Hebrew instruction. Have the teacher read a prayer, or lines from a textbook. Record it and post it on YouTube. The students can learn need letters, reading techniques, or learn about the meaning of the prayers at home.
- Use FC to pre-teach a Torah story. Use G-dcast.com or retell the story yourself and ask crucial questions in the video. Use class time to process the base of the pyramid of Bloom’s Taxonomy such as Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation and use the video to teach Knowledge and Comprehension.
- Use videos to teach about a city in Israel. Dress up in costume and play disco music and teach about the modern city of Tel Aviv. Show up in your bathing suit onscreen and teach about the Galilee, the Dead Sea and the Red Sea.
- Use the video to teach rituals for a holiday such as Shabbat or Sukkot and then spend class time having children make ritual items or make their own how to videos.
- Tell a story about a midah or value using a puppet or while dressed in costume or find a video online which teaches a Jewish value. Check out Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zahGeyGfNps
Challenges
- Religious School students “don’t do homework.” How are you going to get your students to watch these videos before they come into class?
- What if one or two students don’t watch the video? Are you going to show it again in class and if you do, doesn’t that defeat the purpose?
- Where are you going to find the time to make these videos and post them?
- How will you edit the videos without any training?
Other Resources on the Flipped Classroom
- http://flippedclassroom.org/
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFEUsudhfs
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aGuLuipTwg
Bloom’s Taxonomy http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html
Avrams.Blog 
Really interesting concept. At first I was a skeptic but after listening and watching video it really make’s sense. If the student’s come in to class already having knowledge on what theybwill be discussing they can learn much more and take their knowledge further in a shorter period of time.