Lectures, homework 'flipped' at Lamar High

Geometry teachers Jenalle Kamla, Chris Sweno, and Jake Staffel work on teaching plans during a teacher training session at Lamar High School. Photo By R. Clayton McKee Geometry teachers Jenalle Kamla, Chris Sweno, and Jake Staffel work on teaching plans during a teacher training session at Lamar High School. Photo By R. Clayton McKee Photo: R. Clayton McKee, Freelance Photo: R. Clayton McKee, Freelance Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Lectures, homework 'flipped' at Lamar High 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

When Lamar High School students listen to teachers lecture this school year, they'll be able to pause, rewind and even translate their presentations.

That's because Lamar High School teachers will present most of their classroom lessons by video this school year for students to watch at home from the laptops they receive through Houston Independent School District's PowerUp one-to-one laptop program.

During their time in the classroom, teachers will answer students' questions about the lessons and reinforce the learning with hands-on activities.

Lamar is taking this teaching approach, known as "the flipped classroom," campus wide this school year after introducing it on a limited basis during the 2014-15 school year. During summer break, teachers have been training and rewriting lesson plans to prepare.

"The lowest level of learning is knowledge/comprehension," Lamar Principal James McSwain said.

Knowledge/comprehension learning refers to memorizing facts, from multiplication tables to vocabulary words.

"In education we've done a lot of that," McSwain said. "Those were the things you did in the classroom, and you went home to do the more complicated work."

It traditionally has been during their homework when students have been expected to apply the concepts presented in the classroom. And if students struggled with that process, it often was up to their parents to help them.

When schools flip that model, McSwain said, students complete activities that would have been done as homework in the classroom - with their teachers there to guide them. And the work usually moves beyond the realm of worksheet and textbook assignments to more creative activities.

"The kids are much more engaged at the activity level, and they don't learn to do things incorrectly," McSwain said. "When students learn to do something the wrong way, it takes five to 10 repetitions of doing it correctly just to get back to zero."

Eric Mazur, area dean of applied physics at Harvard University, developed the flipped classroom in the early 1990s to help pre-med students who were struggling in his course. These were strong students, McSwain said, but they didn't necessarily have a strong foundation in physics.

"This was a way of bridging the gap."

During the last year or two, Lamar teachers have trained in the flipped classroom with Mazur, as well as flipped classroom advocate and instructor Alan November.

The homework Lamar's students will now do, under the flipped classroom model, might call for watching a video of their teachers, or possibly finding and watching three videos on a subject from a list of appropriate sources.

Students also will be taught to take Cornell notes, which will help them relay to their teachers the portions of lessons they don't understand.

And most parents will be able to help their children with their homework now, McSwain said.

"They can see what their children's assignments are, watch the videos together and talk about what they don't understand. They don't need a college degree or strong English skills."

The flipped classroom also works well with multidisciplinary lessons, the principal said. In the International Baccalaureate program, for example, students might be told to imagine themselves as employees of the World Health Organization.

Food relief is being sent to a country in need, but a large portion of the population is still starving. The students would have to research the problem, identify the probable cause and write a proposal for addressing it.

"Our objective is to get kids to work at a higher level and know that their work really does affect the real world," McSwain said.

These engaging experiences also are designed to help students retain what they learn longer.

People are wired to remember more details about events with emotional significance or personal meaning of some kind, McSwain said.

"So for students to grab and keep information, we have to assign relevance to it. The least effective way to teach is lecture and rote memorization."

Keri King, who teaches IB and freshman biology, adopted the flipped classroom model last school year as part of Lamar's pilot program.

"My students were a lot more involved in class because we could do more hands-on activities," she said.

Teacher Alex Brahm used the new teaching model last year, as well. "With the students having the one-to-one laptops, it increases engagement," said Brahm, who teaches Advanced Placement World History, IB World Religions and IB Theory of Knowledge.

"Lamar is moving toward project-based learning, and the flipped classrooms are perfect for that."