Rallying Cry

Time.  A simple word, yet something all educators can connect with.  As a result of the increased pressure to have high performance scores on state and district assessments, along with the current generation of students’ desire for new approaches to learning, many educators, myself included, have found themselves struggling to cover their content standards in the amount of time they have with their students each day. In a traditional classroom setting, a large percentage of instructional time is spent lecturing over new material. Moving forward into the 21^st Century, technology has entered the world of education, allowing instruction to move out of the classroom and into the homes of students.  Thus, providing more time in class for individualized instruction and student practice.

Changes to the middle school schedule came with the start of the 2018-19 school year in all middle schools across my district.  The daily middle school schedule was altered to provide each core class 53 minutes, instead of the previous 45 minutes.  In the process, English Language Arts and Reading were condensed down to one class, English Language Arts. This dropped instruction time from 90 minutes per day (five days per week) to 53 minutes per day (five days per week).  The new schedule was meant to allow more flexibility in the structure and design of the school day.  However, many teachers have felt the new schedule has actually hindered the flexibility of daily schedules due to the overlapping class times for sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade, and when elective classes meet. 

ELA teachers have wondered what kind of specific impact the decrease in instructional time has had on student learning.  This past school year was a struggle with figuring out what needed to be combined, condensed, or altogether cut from units in order to cover everything that was taught in previous years.  It was suggested that the writing curriculum, according to the Kansas Standards for English Language Arts, be woven into the other courses through an interdisciplinary model.  However, ELA teachers found that students still had a difficult time mastering basic writing and grammar skills.

In an age when instructional time has been limited and students expect diverse learning methods in order to stay engaged, new approaches to instruction, such as blended learning and flipped lessons, makes sense.  By creating a lightweight team within each school, involving at least one ELA teacher from each grade level, flipped lessons can be discussed and created in a way to make sure all content is vertically aligned.  Team members can work together to establish lesson structure (for instance, will videos be created by the teachers or found online) and help design/create activities based on the grammatical concepts which would be utilized in class following the viewing of the flipped video lesson.  This may even involve editing and revising previously written work to include the new concepts.  Flipping grammar lessons allows for each ELA teacher to gain back valuable in-class time to meet individual student needs. 

In his article Why You Should Flip Your Grammar Instruction in Your English Classroom, Anthony Risko points out five reasons why he flipped his English Language Arts classroom and started the web-based tool, GrammarFlip.

#1. To Use Class Time Wisely.  When class time is valuable and limited, time is of an essence.  Students don’t want to “Sit and Get” while listening to a boring lecture (and let’s be real, I don’t enjoy lecturing all day long).  Using class time on the interactive and collaborative activities is the way to go!

#2. To Automate Objective Tasks.  Since grammar is an area that can be assessed objectively, perhaps even by a computer, time is better spent on the subjective tasks, such as essays, projects, and speeches.  Objective tasks can be automated to free up the time for other activities.

#3. To Level the Playing Field Through Video.  Video lessons level the playing field for all students, assuring that no one is left behind or held back from learning.  Video lessons and practice exercises allow students to learn at their own pace.  Some can work ahead, while others can spend more time on a topic until it is mastered.

#4. To See Their Writing in Action.  Guided writing application allows for students to apply their understanding of the material, which is far more information gained than a multiple-choice assessment can offer.

#5. Aspiration to Become a Better Teacher.  Using technology effectively allows for more students to be reached in a shorter amount of time.  Student progress can be tracked and managed more effectively and accurately.  This prevents students from falling through the cracks.

Utilizing a flipped lesson structure takes planning and dedication from everyone involved.  I am excited and eager to look into the possibilities of using it for future grammar lessons in my classroom!

References:

Risko, A. (2018, November 30). Why You Should Flip Your Grammar Instruction in Your
            English Classroom. Retrieved June 2, 2019, from https://www.grammarflip.com/to-flip-or-
            not-to-flip-that-is-the-question/