A lot of teachers these days, including myself, use a technique called 'flipping' the class using a learning platform. You may have heard of it before, you may not.
So what is it anyway? In a standard classroom students turn up. Teachers spend the bulk of class time explaining new concepts and tasks. Typically, anything unfinished is then set for homework. In a flipped classroom situation, the process is reversed. Homework is done before coming to the class, usually sent online explaining a new concept or task. This can take a variety of forms- reading a section of a workbook or watching a podcast is fairly typical. Students then usually contact the teacher (again before attending the class) and let the teacher know if they understood the explanation. Sometimes, this can be conducted using a simple poll, again online. Then, upon arrival at class, students who understand what they are supposed to achieve immediately get on with the work, so that the teacher can spend time with students who are struggling. There are a lot of advantages, even in the little groups of 3 or 4 that I teach. I can post different materials to each student. This means that I can teach a variety of standards at once. It also means that students can ask for help when they are doing the task. I can check on their progress and give them feed back on their work straight away. They don't get home and then discover that they really didn't understand a concept leaving them unable to do the homework. It also means, students that are time poor do not have to get a lot done in an already busy homework schedule. For music theory groups, it is great! Nearly all of a student's time is spent working steadily. They can get help straight away when they have a problem. Students can go at a pace they feel comfortable with and there is very little 'homework' as such, leaving more time for practice.
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teaching blog
News, ideas and views about teaching the violin, viola and classical music theory by Rosalie Westphalen. Archives
January 2021
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