As my class is testing out our half-flipped classroom, we are truly focusing on the idea that each person learns at their own pace.
Today, was the first day that the quiz was available for the students to complete. Ideally, I would have liked them to come into class and be ready to write it, but with everyone working at their own pace, this was not possible. I had the opportunity to conference with students and talk about where they are with the content, what they are worried about and what their next steps/goals were. What an amazing feeling to be able to do this in a classroom of 20 students!
I try to touch base with all of my students throughout the period, but some days, especially days with longer "lessons," it is sometimes just not possible. With all of the students working at their own pace and independently, I had the chance to talk with each student today. The chat was at the pace that the student wanted it to be, not at a pace that I needed to set to get through all of the conferences in a short period of time. If the student had a lot of questions, then we were able to answer them and have that 1-1 time. If the student was OK with everything and wanted to get right back to work, that was able to happen as well.
Back to the quiz writing ... after conferencing with a student, we set a plan together on what they will accomplish in class, over the weekend and when they will feel the most confident in writing the quiz. The students get to pick when they are learning, how long they must stay on a topic for and when they show me their own knowledge. The students were really appreciative and excited that they were able to pick when they wrote the quiz. If they were struggling with remembering all of the material, then they had the chance to write the quiz in sections (a couple questions each time, throughout a single class or multiple classes). It was up to the student when they were ready to demonstrate their knowledge.
Now I can already hear a bunch of educators reminding me that I have a limited amount of time to cover all of the topics and that I need to make sure that the class is progressing, and we are. All of the students know that they must write the final unit test on Wednesday. If they find that they need more time to learn or process the material, then they need to put in time outside of class. If they are confident earlier than Wednesday, then they have the opportunity to take "break" classes or use the time to review further. It is up to them; but all test must be done by 3:05pm Wednesday.
From the quizzes that have been accomplished (we also did a quiz like this the previous week), the scores have been outstanding. Many of the student's have improved the level that they are currently working out; it will be interesting to see if this continues throughout the unit test!
How do you allow student pace in your classroom? How do you let the students demonstrate their knowledge when they finally "get it"?
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