Unit 0

I think I experienced a from of flipped learning back in the '90s while I was at University and there was a teacher who I admired because she gave lessons on History of the English Language and she barely spoke herself during her classes,which were excellent. We, students, did all the talking. We were asked to read some material and then, the lesson would start with the question: 'What did you find interesting?' and we would go on talking and making comments on what our partners said. We were few students, no more than 15, and I would not dare go to class without having read anything. At times, we were asked to go to classes in pairs and only for about twenty minutes, so the class got even more personalised. 

So, being a teacher of English now, teaching English phonetics, I am worried about the amount of time I talk during my lessons, which I find inevitable, because I have many topics to explain. But then, the amount of time my students speak during the lesson is quite limited! And I am teaching phonetics! So, I started thinking how I could maximise class time and specially class time quality for my students. How could I listen to them for longer periods, how could I manage to make THEM do the talking. That was when I remembered my History of the English Language teacher and found out that, in a way, her methodology has a name: flipped learning. I have read about it, and started to combine it with technology, which seems a very good combination. But, COVID 19 appeared and we were suddenly pushed online! So, I think I cannot evaluate how much it is really working at the moment, because the context now is very special. There are students with no connectivity, students who have kids or grandparents to look after, limited time to devote to learning, stress related issues, the lot.

I have enrolled in the #openflip course to discuss experiences, to learn about how to flip classes meaningfully, to know what not to do. One thing I always fear is that students would not read or do the activities assigned before the face-to-face lesson (be it really face to face or virtually) and then I would have to explain again, talk a lot again, and discourage the ones who have actually done the activities and I would not really be encouraging the others to do the activities for the next class. Although I have allowed those students to stay in class and just listen, they make me really uncomfortable. 

I have thought of dividing the class in groups of three, four or five to have more personalised lessons but in this context I believe it may even be negative or intimidating. 

So, let's see how my amateur attempt to flipping lessons can be improved!

Some further thoughts here...