As I've presented on my WSQ method many times at conferences and on webinars, I have come to realize that the WSQ is just one tool that helps to address many questions and issues that arise when flipping your class.
While
this list of five questions is not all-inclusive - there really are more than just five things you need to consider - I
really feel like it summarizes the key questions that teachers need to consider
and address in order to have a successful flipped class. There is not a right answer for each of these
questions; rather, each teacher must consider their students, their school,
their personality, and their resources in order to answer them
effectively. In addition, these are not
in "order of importance" nor is one more valuable than another - all
are necessary!
In
summary, a flipped class does not come with a "cookie-cutter" method
that can be replicated across every classroom.
However, you can set your students up for success by answering these
questions:
- How will your organize content and material for students so they are able to easily and consistently access it?
- How will you hold students accountable for watching, engaging with, and interacting with the video or learning object?
- How will you provide your students with structured, guided processing time after the video for them to reflect on and consolidate what they learned?
- How will you gather feedback from students about their understanding of the material before they enter the group learning space? And, how will you use this feedback to guide the activities that the students participate in during class?
- How will you facilitate discussion (and TWIRLS) among students during class time? This includes considering ways for students to improve and deepen their understanding and demonstrate it to you and their classmates in a variety of ways.
I hope that you have answers to those questions, and if not, you will reflect on them this summer in order to answer them. I'll spend the rest of this post explaining how the WSQ method help to answer these questions in my classroom.
Each
unit comes with a WSQ chart that outlines all of the video assignments with
time lengths, due dates ("you can work ahead but you can't fall
behind"), practice and application assignments, guided summary questions,
and anything else necessary for their success in that unit. Students know exactly what is expected of
them for that unit and what concepts they need to understand. It also organizes the process of what they do
when they watch the video - they must "W"atch, "S"ummarize,
and ask a "Q"uestion. In
addition to the WSQ chart, the video tutorials are organized in playlists on
our class blog (we did not have an LMS at the time).
They are hosted on Sophia.org playlists as well as on YouTube via
LessonPaths playlists so students have two ways to access them. For students without internet, they are
loaned flash drives at the beginning of each unit. For students without computers, they are
given DVDs at the beginning of each unit.
The classroom is also open before school, lunch, and after school on
different days for students to use the class computers. The organization
of the content and materials makes students questions and confusions decrease
dramatically. They know where to find
the materials, they know what to do with them, and they know what I expect out
of them.
The
entire WSQ process holds students accountable
for not only watching, but engaging and interacting with the video. Any student can show up to class with
"notes" that "they" took from the video, only to have
remembered nothing. Because they also
have to submit a timestamped Google Form with some original thought given to
the summary questions as well as submitting their own question and trying a few
"secret questions" (which they submitted to me on the Google Form,
because this was before programs like Educanon, EdPuzzle, and Zaption were
available that would allow for students to submit them throughout the video),
they can't just saunter in with "notes" and claim to have watched the
video. They actually had to do something
with it!
Because
the WSQ is submitted via a Google Form (with the exception of the few students
without internet access at home who were able to turn it in handwritten daily),
I am able to use formulas in the response spreadsheet such as Vlookup and
ImportRange to track which students have and have not yet submitted the WSQ
form. Students know before they even
walk into class I will know if they haven't turned it in yet, and their job is
to tell me before I ask them about it!
In addition, it much easier to read through all student responses (or at
least skim) when submitted via a Google Form, which holds them accountable for
writing thoughtful responses and not just scribbling something on a piece of
paper before they come to class.
With
the WSQ, students are asked to do more than just "W"atch the video -
they have to reflect and think deeply about what they learned as well. This helps to avoid the "in one ear, out
the other" syndrome that happens when information just comes at you but
you don't do anything with it. Students
have to be paying attention and the guiding summary questions help to cue them
in to the most important parts of the concept.
Because time is set aside simply for processing
the material, students are much more likely to make personal sense of the
content and come to class ready to dive deeper and discuss questions that they
had. For the "Q"uestion part
of the WSQ, students have to ask a
question, even if they understood everything.
Instead of writing a question they are confused about, they can write a
higher-order thinking (i.e. not a yes or no question, requires a thoughtful
response) question that would be a good discussion question for the concept.
I
receive an enormous amount of feedback
from the students with every WSQ submission.
I usually look at them once at night before bed to get a glimpse into if
they are getting the main points and what type of questions they are asking. I then look at it when I get to school and
make any adjustments or changes to the plans I had for class that day. I am able to see how students explain the
concept in their own words via the summary questions, see if they are using the
academic vocabulary I am looking for, and get an overall sense of understanding
based on the type of questions they are asking.
In addition, because of the "secret questions" they had to
solve on their own, I am able to see how many students were able to solve a
problem correctly independently before class.
The
biggest purpose of having organization, accountability, processing time, and
feedback, is so that we can truly make the "best use of the face to face
time" we have in class - for me, this means students actively involved in
higher-order thinking activities that are student-centered. My goal is that my students deeply understand
the material at both a conceptual and skill level, and that they have
opportunities to demonstrate TWIRLS (thinking, writing, interacting, reading,
listening, speaking) in class on a daily basis.
If a student can explain the concept to another student, that generally
means they understand it well. Class
always begins with a WSQ chat, which has three parts to it:
- Discussion Activity: This comes in many forms… I'm doing a session at FlipCon15 this year called "Winning WSQ Chats" that will go over these in detail. You can find a brief summary / example of 5 types by clicking on these links: Traditional Discussion Activities, Student Created Work & Blogging, Peer Instruction, Hands-On / Kinesthetic Activities, Inquiry & Discovery Activities.
- Checking in / Answering Questions: My students were seated at tables of 4-6 students, so I had 6-7 groups to "check in with". This allowed me plenty of time to ask each student what questions they had, clarify misconceptions, and follow up with the discussion activity.
- Small Group / Going over Secret Questions / Reteaching or revisiting complex concepts: Once the discussion activity was over, there was the opportunity for any student (but students who didn't get the Secret Question(s) correct were highly encouraged to come) to come get some clarification on a tricky problem or go over a couple more examples from the practice together. While we didn't have this every day, it was an option available. With some concepts, I would have a "large" small group of 10-15 students, but we still came to the "U" for focused instruction and allowed the students who felt confident to not have to sit and listen to instruction they already understood.
What
do you do from there? I did a lot of
student-created content and blogging. I
also had a quasi-mastery based quizzing protocol. Some teachers do a lot of project based
learning, asynchronous mastery, gamification… the list could go on and on. There isn't one right version of
"Flipping 2.0".
But,
if you are going to get there, you need to answer those five questions to set
the stage for success. I use the WSQ
method… I'd love to hear how you've answered those questions!
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