“Hafoch Bah v’Hafoch Bah” –
Flipping the Judaic Studies Classroom
Reflections on my flipped class journey and lessons from ISTE
Over the past few years,
“flipped classroom” videos of the Khan
Academy variety have
become increasingly popular and widespread among educators, particularly with
the proliferation of (free) whiteboard apps.
Teacher-generated video lessons can be valuable tools for
differentiating instruction and enabling students to work at their own pace.
They shift the focus away from lecture-style presentations onto
teacher-guided work or activities, wherein students apply the
lessons learned from the video. They may
serve as anchor activities for students who have moved ahead in class. And of course, videos enable busy students to
pause, rewind and re-watch their teachers whenever and however often they
want. The flipped class methodology—which
generally entails units built around short videos which students watch at home,
followed by “homework” done in the classroom where the teacher is available to
clarify and guide the learning—has been shown to make assignments more
effective, and to increase student engagement as well as achievement.
In the Jewish educational
context, I had certainly seen (and created) YouTube videos of the how-to
variety (“how to have an aliyah”) or the talking head variety (“weekly d’var
Torah”), some of which were quite engaging and some which were as dull as any
classroom lecture. But I had never
encountered instructional videos that were integrated in a systematic way into
a class setting. Wondering if flipped
videos could be applied to a day school Jewish Studies classroom, and excited
and intrigued with the possibilities, last year I set about experimenting with
flipped videos for my middle school Tanach and Mishnah classes.
My initial thinking has been
to create video content on relatively broad topics which are not overly
curriculum-specific. That way, they could
be utilized by our Judaics faculty across grades, years and curricula, since
they could potentially be applicable to a variety of content matter and
re-watched in various contexts. Additionally,
they could serve as online resources to other students or educators beyond our
walls. So, for example, I made several
videos about broad concepts in Rabbinic/Torah Commentary, such as “Kal
Va-Chomer” and “Gematria.” Since we use iPads in our middle school, I initially
have worked with Educreations, which the students can easily pull up through
the app on their iPads or watch through a link on our website. Educreations (or the comparable ShowMe app)
is also useful for students to create their own instructional videos as class-work,
an enrichment activity or a summative assessment.
At the end of last year, I
asked for student feedback regarding the videos, and they gave positive reports
regarding their level of engagement, desire to watch more videos, and using the
videos at their own leisure. Based on
their surveys and their work in general, I felt it was a successful “beta-test”
year. However, I knew there was room for
improvement in many areas, including editing capability and interactive
questions.
Thanks in part to a grant
from AVI CHAI, I was fortunate to attend the ISTE ’13 conference, where I was
able to explore in greater depth some best practices for integrating
technology, including creating flipped classrooms. There is certainly much to be said about the teacher
practices and pedagogy which must accompany flipped videos, to ensure real
learning. But sticking to tools and
resources, here is just a small sampling of new info and insights I came away
with from ISTE:
·
Web Content
Concerns. There is always anxiety, with good reason,
regarding what students will come across when watching online content. Quietube is a great way to share
videos online without the distractions and “crud” that accompany many Youtube
videos. You may choose another video
platform like Vimeo, or distribute video files by uploading to an
internal class platform like Edmodo, instead of via the internet.
·
Flubaroo. This is a
mechanism for managing online assignments with a Google Form, for
students fill in after watching. With this
tool, teachers can include quick formative assessments with the video to check
for understanding. This increases the
interactive element, and gives teachers a sense of where students’
understanding is and how to tailor instruction for group-work in class. A follow-up also can be created to engage
parents.
·
Aaron Sams’
Video Rules. The flipped class
guru, whose book I got at ISTE, preaches several rules for flipped videos. Some—like animating your voice and adding
humor—can be done regardless of what software or video tools you use. Others—like adding zooming, callouts and
annotations—are much more difficult with the free products (you get what
you pay for). Over the year I was
fortunate to receive a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation in Cherry
Hill for Camtasia screen capture software.
Camtasia is the industry standard – superlative editing tools,
but not as simple or user-friendly (or free).
·
Captions
and Subtitles. A teacher may choose to use a script to read
off of to narrate the video. If a script
is used, then it can be synced with the video once uploaded to Youtube. (Instead of Educreations, which uses its own
site, try Screencast-O-Matic or Aww – A Web Whiteboard, for
this.) Save your script as a plain text
(txt) file. Then, in the Edit menu on your Youtube video, choose Captions and
upload your file; your words will now appear on screen, enhancing the level of
engagement and interaction.
·
Whose videos? The consensus is that making
your own videos is the best course of action when possible, because it creates
a more personal connection with your students.
Ultimately, good teaching is based upon relationships, and flipping the
classroom can help foster this. But teachers
should also make use of the myriad videos that are already out there, and not
feel it’s necessary to reinvent the wheel for every topic. Sites like Blendspace (Edcanvas) list
video content by subject, and can be shared to Edmodo for students to watch and
discuss. My hope is to see more Jewish
Studies videos out there in the near future to share and collaborate with!
The
Mishnah teaches, “hafoch bah v’hafoch bah
d’kula vah – turn it [Torah] around and around to find everything inside.” Likewise I hope that flipping the
classroom around will be one more tool to help students reach deeper levels of knowledge, insight and understanding.
Micah Liben is the Rabbi in Residence at Kellman Brown Academy.