But first, Chapters 6-8 of Troy Cockrum's Flipping Your English Class offered more specific suggestions for the flipped model of English teaching. Chapter 6 focuses on grammar instruction, and unfortunately seemed to have the same attitude (even if not intentionally) that grammar instruction is something nobody wants to do on either side. Regardless, there was some interesting material here. The lesson on page 64 does highlight one issue I foresee in the flipped model. It asks students to watch a video describing eight parts of speech (at home) then to (in class) identify words of these types in student writing samples. While the lesson itself seems valuable, at least on the lower levels of Bloom's, there is a question of retention here. Students will either need to already know the parts of speech, take good notes from the videos, or rely on their partners in class to complete the assignment. If they do not even watch the video, the assignment is basically dead in the water. Perhaps a handout (or print reference) should be distributed during the class meeting. Videos are nice for a lot of things, but a list of eight concrete materials cannot easily be cross-referenced from them on the fly. I think it is better to err on the side of caution and have a backup when trying this assignment.
I appreciated the vocabulary lesson on page 66, in which the teacher presents a few words for the assignment in the flipped portion of class and students essentially become individual experts and teach one another. This seems like a practical application of the flipped model, as students can focus on just a few new words instead of digesting a lecture (or similar) in isolation. Even if the students miss out on the videos, they will have a trial by fire in class that seems realistic for them to pull through. On a similar topic, Kinlock and Faulkner's "Innovative Writing Instruction; Reducing Vocabulary to Increase Vocabulary" had a unique perspective on vocabulary lessons that fits the flipped model to some extent. Essentially, they suggest reducing the number of words taught to students, but having students do more elaborate activities with their assigned words. I like the idea of fishbowling or jigsawing the words a lot; I can recall vocabulary lessons being mostly mindless and forgetting all of their content by the end of the year, but assigning short presentations or simply giving students a responsibility to some words does make the work more meaningful. Realistically, people are always learning new words over time, so clumping tons of words into a single year is not as important as making sure they are actually understood.
I scanned the first five chapters of Teaching in the Digital Age, but specifically read B.J. Neary's "The Digital-Age Booktalker." Essentially, Neary gives an overview of a book trailer assignment, in which students use tools such as Animoto to create short clips that summarize or try to sell peers on books. This looks like a good assignment for a reading class, and probably for middle school as well. Over the years browsing internet discussions, I have learned that many humans are terrible at summarizing stories without revealing any spoilers. The Booktalker assignment gets students thinking about how to get the point of a story across without ruining it for others, and can be used as an assessment as well, particularly for book clubs or other lower-stake readings. Other articles suggested ideas I have come across in other courses, such as the creation of comics seen in "Language Learning between the Panels" by Christopher Shamburg. Shamburg's focus on the gap of time between panels makes a good point that we often fill in the lines of texts we read. Struggling readers often have problems with visualization and other reading strategies, so studying comics makes a lot of sense for them. The medium of study will always depend on the class's needs.
Many of the writings focused on context, particularly audience. Kristen Turner's “Digitalk as Community” was a curious read, but not too surprising to someone studied in linguistics. Turner hits the nail on the head by pointing out that teenagers' proficiencies with digital language demonstrates they are comfortable with an experimental, complicated variant of English that many studied adults can barely read. If there ever needs to be proof that teenagers can meet high expectations, look no further. The assignment Turner suggested is a code switching exercise, in which students identify which variants of the language should be used in different social situations. I have seen this idea championed a lot in my studies, but I do question using class time on it to some extent. Unfortunately, Turner does not cite any relevant standards, but a case could be made for Meaning and Context standards. I think the important thing is for students to walk away from the lesson seeing why it applies outside of the lesson, perhaps even more so than in other assignments. The way they choose to communicate throughout school and professionally is a nontrivial matter.
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