With one-to-one technology, where each student has a school issued computer or Ipad, there are more opportunities to do flipped classroom. For example, once a week my students would watch a short video and respond to simple questions in a Google form. These videos would also be used for contexts when students answered bigger questions each week.
How I Created The Videos
I would find the videos on Youtube and use a Google Form to create the assessment. The Google Forms were beneficial because they graded themselves. I would listen to the Youtube video and write down 10-18 multiple choice questions that I thought were relevant to what we were doing in class. The questions were always in the order that information was presented in the video.
I would use videos like crash course U.S. History to make my Google Form assessments.
How I Used The Videos In Class
Using videos in my classroom allowed me to increase the amount of time I spent working with students one-on-one.
I would give the students the video in class. When students were working on the 10 to 15 minute video, I would complete tasks like enrichment activities with some students, check grades from another assignment, or do administrative duties. Often times, the students would need more time than the length of the video because they would rewind and search for answers or double check their work. I encouraged students to listen carefully and use the rewinding tools to search for answers. I also told them to use the closed captioning option on the videos so they could read and listen at the same time.
I do not think using the videos as homework would work because not all students have an opportunity to do work after school and I believe students will cheat off one another. Having them complete the videos in class under my supervision guarantees that the students will work on the assignment.
How Did I Grade The Videos
At the end of each class, I went through the Google Form and wrote down how many questions each student got correct. I told the students that they were never allowed to miss more than two questions; if they did miss more than two, then they had to retake the assessment. Students who received an unsatisfactory score received points in the gradebook, but I marked it as incomplete in the gradebook. My school had a no missing or incomplete policy; students who had incompletes on the video assignment knew they needed to take it again.
If students completed a video and were waiting for the rest of the class, they could work on their passion projects (National History Day).
My theory was that watching videos was a simple exercise and students who received a low score were not taking their time. I discovered students with special needs did need more attention; I let them watch their videos with tutors or teachers during class, their study hall or homeroom time. During class, I would still ask them to make an attempt and familiarize themselves with the video as much as possible.
There is more information in the History Forge project Skills Based Grading and Grading For Mastery
My gradebook had six categories, one of which was called “memorization/recall.” Under this category I would put assignments, in which, students accomplished some type of activity where they showed me their ability to recall information. Admittedly, students did not need to recall the information from the videos for long; they simply remembered the answer from the moment they heard it up to the point they wrote it down. I still believe there was a benefit to these videos since students were able to listen to context information about the time period we were studying.
Weekly Video Lectures (from Native American civilizations to Reconstruction)
To get to the quizzes, click on Crash Course Video Quizzes. This will take you to a Google folder with 28 Google forms. If you want the quiz yourself you will need to open the form, click file, and then click “make a copy.” Once you have done this you will have your own file in your Google folder that you can edit.
Good luck!
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