The self paced classroom: Becca's story

Talk to other teachers because they can sometimes have the most amazing resource up their sleeve!
Throughout my education at Eastern Illinois University (Go Panthers!), differentiation was the concept discussed the most. We often discussed how we would eventually be giving all students their own personalized education.

Another math teacher and I were at school working on creating materials for the next unit of our geometry curriculum one Saturday when we started discussing the struggles we noticed. It is so hard for students to get caught up in a math class once they get lost because it builds on itself so much. We had students who would miss because they were sick, participating in a school activity, or leaving early for an athletic event who would come back and be lost. We had some students who did not understand the first unit , struggled on the second and were now failing the third. The way we were doing things (guided notes for class, practice, test) was working for some but not all. I started talking about how nice it would be to give students more time to work on the lessons that they struggled on and that’s when she showed me flippedmath.com.

Flippedmath.com was created by four teachers (the Algebros!) for just this purpose. On their site they have a video to go along with a guided notes packet and practice problems as well as solutions to the practice problems AND more practice problems! They had built each of these resources for each lesson of a full Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus curriculum. The videos were great quality with entertaining factors thrown in to make it so much more interesting than a lot of math tutorials I had found on YouTube previously.

How I structured it
I built the course on Canvas and started it the next week in my Algebra class.

• Each student would need to pass a five question quiz (get at least a four out of five) from the current material we had been teaching in order to start the first lesson.
• The first lesson would then entail watching the video and taking guided notes on one side of the room at individual desks.
• Once they had taken the notes, they move to the middle of the room where the seating is grouped. They complete practice problems and can check them as they go.  
• When they have completed the practice problems and checked to be sure they answered it all correctly, they move to the other end of the room where I have two columns of individual desks. I bring them a five question quiz over the lesson they just worked on.
• When they complete the quiz, they bring it to me and we grade it together. They get to see what they did wrong if they missed a problem and talk through why they may have made a mistake.
• If they get at least four problems correct, they grab the next packet and move back to the video area. If they miss two or more problems, they go back to the grouped desks and keep working on some more practice problems now that they know the mistakes they made on the quiz. ​​

Image from FlippedMath.com

Results!
It was amazing. Here are some of the benefits I saw in switching to a self-paced method.

• The kids who move quickly through the material get to move quickly. No more sitting bored in class through notes! (I even had a student complete everything from the 1st semester in November so he just moved on to the 2nd semester material!)
• The kids who needed to move slowly had the freedom to do so. When I survey students after the first semester, many of them said it took the stress out of math class because they could learn at their own pace without slowing others down.
• I had about a million more questions asked about the material. Some high school students ask questions in front of the class. There are a lot of ways to create a culture in your room where that happens BUT there are some kids that will just never ever consider raising their hand in the middle of a lesson and asking a question. There was no more “middle of the lesson”. I was literally sitting next to them at the table having a conversation so questions are just a natural part of the conversation.
• Students who are absent don’t feel screwed. They know exactly what they missed. I don’t get emails anymore saying, “I’m going to be gone so are we going to do anything in class?” (No, we stopped class because you were gone….) They have options to either work ahead so they don’t feel behind or take things home to work on so they can take multiple quizzes when they come back to school. (Bonus: All of the resources are downloadable so there is no need for internet access!)
• There is considerably less “wasted” class time. As students walk in, they know what they need to work on, no matter what phase they’re in (video, practice, test). They get right to it and we pack up and clean up spaces when there is one minute until the bell and not a second before.
• All of the assignments for the semester are visible. They can literally SEE where they are at in the semester. Do they need to do more work at home? Should they try to go to tutoring? Are they on track? They can tell you the answers to those questions with reference to the semester grade tracker.
• They talk to each other (in a good way) a lot more. I try to sit students together based off of what they are working on. Again, we’re comparing the chances of a student asking another student how to do a problem in the middle of a lesson versus sitting at a table together where they know that they are all working on the same practice problems with the goal of passing a mastery quiz and moving on. They don’t freak out and think they’re the only one who is stuck because they’re sitting next to others who are working at the same pace as them!

Basically, I love it. And my students do, too. I surveyed them at the end of the 1st semester and 83% of them said they prefer the self paced method and wished it could be adapted to other courses they were in. 

Updates to 2nd Semester
For the small percentage who missed a traditional math class, I teach a short lesson twice a week in front of the class. It may be using the guided notes or it may be an activity, but it brings back some of the traditional components that a few of my students were missing. The remaining class time is spent in the same style as 1st semester! 

There is so much more to say about this method and how to make it work better, but we’ll save that for another day! ​