Since I started flipping my world history class this year, many educators
have asked questions about the model and its implementation. Chase Moore (@moore2cw), a fellow world
history teacher interested in the flipped model, recently posed the following questions. He had recently
read my post about the flipped mastery model in our history class (which has
since changed a bit, more below).
I thought posting this brief conversation could
further the discussion online with others interested in the ways that the
flipped model can be applied to the social studies classroom.
“How do you develop
your Standards?”
After a few units of flipping, I started applying a standards-based-grading
approach. In sum, their grade was not
going to be based upon a combination of homework, classwork, and summative assessments. Instead, I would assess them based on their proficiency
of three particular standards over a 2-3 week period (further discussed
below).
I have since changed the terminology to “learning goals,” since this resonates
with the students more than “standards.”
I have also started using
Connecticut’s Social Studies Framework to choose particular learning goals for each
topic.
For
example, one learning goal will be from Standard 1: Content Knowledge. The second, more challenging learning goal is
from Standard 2: History / Social Studies Literacy. The third, and most challenging learning
goal, is from Standard 3: Civic Engagement.
I chose learning goals that aligned with the topic we covered in the
last unit, which was “conflict in the middle east.”
Here
is a link to the document I provided the students:
Learning
Goals
“Do you break your
curriculum into Units, then into Standards? Or do you simply break up your
class by each standard?”
I break each unit into
three topics. Each topic (ex. Cold War
Era) runs for approximately 2-3 weeks.
For each topic, I choose three learning goals (mentioned above). I am going to revise the curriculum once
school is out, but this basic format seems to work for the students.
“Roughly how long
would it take the average student to complete a standard / how long do you
give?”
I assign the entire
2-3 week topic at the start, and the students progress through the three
learning goals over that time period at their own pace. If students do not demonstrate proficiency in
all three by the end, they can still do so, but on their own time. The class moves on to the next topic.
“Do you collaborate
with colleagues to develop assignments for components 1 - 3 or are you working
on this alone?”
I work in a very small school, so I am actually the only World History
teacher in the district. However, next
year we will work on department (and interdepartmental) screencasts that focus
on skill development. For example, all
department members will create screencasts on evaluating historical
significance, detecting bias in a source, etc.
We are also going to make “guest appearances” in other screencasts. For instance, I will work with our civicc
teacher to create an end of year recap screencast. As Jon Bergmann (@jonbergmann) and Aaron Sams
(@chemicalsams) suggest, conversational screencasts seem more interesting to
students.
“Roughly how many
different assignment choices do you plan on offering to students for components
2 - 3?”
I
usually offer 2 – 3 assignment choices, but they are allowed to develop their
own assessments as long as they can clearly demonstrate proficiency in the
learning goal. For instance, one student
asked if they could just be interviewed by me during class. In the end, it was clear to me that the
student was proficient, so they simply moved on to the next goal. I first heard of this approach from Brian
Bennett (@bennettscience).
As
with all of us, this is a work in progress and continuously evolving. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or
questions, please do not hesitate to comment below or email at thdriscoll@gmail.com
