Successfully implement a blended learning program with this step-by-step guide! The Blended Workbook: Learning to Design the Schools of Our Future is the practical companion to Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools. Through real-world implementation exercises it will help you get the most out of the text. From understanding the basics of blended learning to fine-tuning your current program, this workbook gives you hands-on practice that will expand your knowledge base and help you develop a plan for your own classroom or school to create a student-centered education design that personalizes for all students. Key points drawn from over 50 case studies illustrate what works, what doesn't, and how to build a successful blended-learning program. This workbook's organizational structure allows you to jump in at any point to access field-tested exercises that will deepen your understanding of the design process. Blended learning is inspiring K-12 educators with an improved student experience that includes the best of face-to-face and online learning formats to personalize learning and deepen engagement. This workbook provides hands-on training exercises that help you design and implement an effective program with practical guidance from the experts. You will: * Examine case studies that illustrate blended learning * Solidify your understanding of effective blended-learning design * Complete illustrative exercises to further your implementation expertise * Evaluate the many paths blended learning can take, and implement what works best for your students Blended learning is a proven, highly rewarding learning strategy. However, the success of your program relies on proper design and implementation. As a companion to Blended this hands-on workbook helps you reap the benefits and strengthen your expertise.
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Praise for The Blended Workbook
“Blended learning is the rocket fuel for innovation in education. Through this practical guide, Horn and Staker step readers through powerful examples and probing questions which unlock the promise of using technology to transform learning.”
—Richard Culatta, CEO, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
“Blended is a guiding light for the teachers and leaders we support, but implementation is tough and the road is long, so practical workbooks like this are essential tools for ongoing efforts to personalize learning in schools.”
—Shawn Rubin, chief executive officer, Highlander Institute
“Michael Horn and Heather Staker have written an excellent follow-up to Blended. If you need a framework that inspires superintendents and principals to transform education, start by reading their work. It is the best blend of vision, theory, and practical ideas available in our field.”
—Cary Matsuoka, superintendent, Santa Barbara Unified School District, Santa Barbara, California; board member, The Learning Accelerator
“Understanding the theory about blended and its variations is a basic requirement. For successful, sustained implementations of blended learning, it’s key to develop thorough understanding and skills in this arena. If you are serious about education for all students, then The Blended Workbook is essential reading and practice.”
—Dr. Kenneth W. Eastwood, superintendent, Middletown City School District, New York
“The Blended Workbook is a definitive guide for school districts and teachers ready to jump from ‘personalized learning’ as a buzzword to transforming the educational experience for students. The video links and scenarios provide rigorous opportunities for a team to dive deep into understanding the components of blended learning and the steps for effective implementation.”
—Dr. Lisa Garcia, superintendent, Point Isabel ISD, Port Isabel, Texas
THEBlendedWORKBOOK
Learning to Design the Schools of Our Future
Michael B. Horn Heather Staker
Copyright © 2017 by Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker. All rights reserved.
Published by Jossey-Bass
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ISBN 9781119388074 (paper)
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Contents
Praise for The Blended Workbook
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction
Part 1 Understanding the Basics and Getting Ready
Module 1.1
The Basics of Blended Learning
Content summary
Content summary
Appendix
Module 1.2
The Basics of Blended Learning
Content summary
Content summary
Appendix
Module 1.3
Interest and Readiness Survey
Content summary
View benchmarks
Note
Part 2 Developing Your Plan
Module 2.1
Rallying Cry
Content summary
View rubric and benchmarks
Content summary
View rubric and benchmarks
Appendix
Module 2.2
Organize to Innovate
Content summary
Content summary
View rubric and benchmarks
Content summary
View rubric and benchmarks
Appendix
Module 2.3
Motivate the Students
Content summary
Content summary
Content summary
View rubric and benchmarks
Appendix
Module 2.4
Elevate Teaching
Content summary
Content summary
Content summary
View rubric and benchmarks
Appendix
Module 2.5
Physical and Virtual Environment
Content summary
Content summary
Content summary
View rubric and benchmarks
Appendix
Module 2.6
Choose the Model
Content summary
Content summary
View rubric and benchmark
Module 2.7
Culture
Content summary
View rubric and benchmarks
Appendix
Notes
Module 2.8
Budget
Content summary
Content summary
View rubric and benchmarks
Appendix
Module 2.9
Discovery-Driven Planning
Content summary
Content summary
Content summary
View rubric and assess your plan
Appendix
Module 2.10
Implementation Plan
Content summary
View rubric and assess your plan
Part 3 Polishing Your Plan
Module 3.1
Finishing Touches and Next Steps
Content summary
Bringing It All Together
Next steps
Index
EULA
List of Illustrations
Module 1.1
Figure 1.1
Blended Learning Models
Module 2.9
Figure 2.1
Be Expansive about the Assumptions
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Introduction
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Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the generous assistance of many educators in Texas who allowed us to use their blended-learning plans to provide the critical examples that make this book come to life. In particular, thank you to the following schools, school systems, and educators who are doing all they can to help every student they serve succeed:
Austin Achieve Public School’s Emily Morrison, Development Director; John Armbrust, Founder and Executive Director; Joe Ten Brook, Vice Principal; Greta Kwedar, Vice Principal; Julia Barraford-Temel, Computer Science Teacher;
Birdville Independent School District’s Randy Sumrall, Senior Project Leader; Cheryl McKnight, Project Manager;
Cisco Independent School District’s Amy Dodson, LRC/Blended Learning Director; Kelly West, Superintendent;
Clear Creek Independent School District;
Georgetown Independent School District’s Alma Guzman, Executive Director of Professional and Digital Learning; Kim Garcia, Director of Digital Learning;
Grand Prairie Independent School District’s Sharon Thornton; Jennifer Oliver; Maury Ayres; Elizabeth Hart;
KIPP Houston Public Schools;
Leander Independent School District’s Wendy Jones, Director of Instruction, Learning, and Innovation;
Mineola Independent School District’s Kim Tunnell;
Pasadena Independent School District’s Dr. Karen Hickman, Deputy Superintendent of Academic Achievement; Vickie Vallet-McWilliams, Director of Instructional Technology; Jeanne “Nina” Conway, Executive Director of Business Services; Toni Lopez, Executive Director of Curriculum; Stacey Barber, Principal; Roneka Lee, Principal; Steve Fleming, Principal; Catherine Birch, Teacher; Stefanie Cantin, Teacher; Lori Deardorff, Instructional Coach;
Point Isabel Independent School District;
Round Rock Independent School District’s Dr. Patricia Ephlin, Principal, Robertson Elementary; Dr. Amy Grosso, Grants Coordinator;
Spring Branch Independent School District’s Julie Hodson, Director of Grants;
Temple Independent School District’s Luann Hughes, Director of Technology; Jason Mayo, Principal; Lisa Adams, Executive Director of Secondary Education; Jacki Wright and Jessica Mays, Instructional Technology Specialists;
Tulia Independent School District’s Daniel Keith, Director of Instructional Design;
Ysleta Independent School District’s David Medina, Principal at Pasodale Elementary; Norma Corral, Principal at Ysleta Elementary; Kathleen Mendoza, Campus Technologist, Pasodale Elementary; Maria Rivas, Campus Technologist, Ysleta Elementary; Micha Villareal, Innovative Learning Director; Brenda Chacon, Associate Superintendent.
In addition, Pamela Barrier has provided critical on-the-ground support to help Texas educators in crafting and implementing their blended-learning plans, as well as advised us with this book.
We also thank our colleagues from the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, where this work began for both of us. In particular, Julia Freeland Fisher, Thomas Arnett, Clifford Maxwell, Ann Christensen, Hayden Hill, Katherine Mackey, and, of course, Clayton Christensen, remain wonderful colleagues and inspirations to us.
Our agents, Danny Stern, Kristen Karp, and Whitney Jennings of Stern Strategy Group, remain valuable supports for our work. We owe a debt of gratitude to Kate Gagnon, our editor, Cathy Mallon, and the rest of the editorial team at Wiley who helped bring this project to fruition. Anne Hoffman, senior director of curriculum and assistant professor of practice at the Relay Graduate School of Education, also helped us improve the rubrics used throughout the book. Anthony Kim, Mike Wolking, and Janice Flynn Vargo from Education Elements also contributed valuable insights.
Finally, this project would not have been completed without the support of two critical members of our team. Heather’s development associate at Ready to Blend, Theresa Carter, stepped in time and again to provide research support. And Nancy Messegee contributed heroic efforts on tight timelines to help us identify and fine-tune the blended-learning examples and explanations that appear throughout the book. We could not have done this book without her.
About the Authors
Michael Horn is the co-founder of and a distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a nonprofit think tank. The chief strategy officer for Entangled Ventures, an education technology studio, and a principal consultant for Entangled Solutions, which offers innovation services to education institutions, Horn speaks and writes about the future of education and works with a portfolio of education organizations to improve the life of each and every student. He is the coauthor of the award-winning book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. Visit him at www.michaelbhorn.com.
Heather Staker is founder and president of Ready to Blend, a training and consulting firm that provides keynotes, workshops, and multiday deep-dive professional-development programs that help school leaders and teachers use blended learning to improve the achievement and well-being of K–12 children. She is also the co-founder of Brain Chase Productions, an online program that challenges students to learn in the context of a larger adventure story involving real buried treasure. Prior to these roles, she was a senior research fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation. Visit her at www.readytoblend.com and www.brainchase.com.
Introduction
This workbook is for all educators—teachers, teachers-in-training, school leaders and administrators, and parents—who are involved in designing learning environments in schools and want something more for students. It will help you get the most out of our book Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools.
In this book, we walk you and your team step-by-step through exercises that mirror the design process in Blended. Most of these exercises were developed and refined in workshops that we, along with our colleagues at the Clayton Christensen Institute, have given over the last several years to help educators design and implement blended-learning environments. The origins of several of these exercises lie in the work of our friends at Innosight, a consulting firm that Clayton Christensen cofounded, before we adapted them to an education context. We are grateful for their foundational work in helping organizations innovate.
Throughout the book, we not only provide concrete exercises for you to work through in designing a blended-learning model but also provide sample answers from real schools that have designed blended-learning environments. These examples serve as tangible models for you to reflect on, see what is possible, and build your capacity to design and evaluate. Many of these examples—good, bad, and mixed—have been culled from real answers to these very exercises by teams in school districts that designed their own blended-learning models in workshops facilitated by Ready to Blend, which Heather Staker founded.
This book is organized sequentially. It starts with helping you understand the basics of blended learning and assess whether you’re ready to get started. Then it helps you mobilize to bring together a team around a purpose for blending. Next, it walks you through a design process that builds on itself, by starting with helping you design the ideal student experience, then the ideal teacher experience, then the ideal physical and virtual environment, and then finally bringing it together in a coherent set of instructional models. The book concludes with implementing: helping you establish a winning culture up front, prepare a budget, and mitigate the risks as you innovate.
Even though the sequence builds on itself, you can dive into any part of the book that would be useful to you. If, for example, you already understand the basics of blended learning and which models are disruptive to a traditional classroom, then skip Part 1 and start with the module where you need support. If you are doing blended learning already, focus on the modules that will help you improve what you have in place. Just as learning should be personalized to maximize student success, it should be personalized to maximize your success as well.
Whenever possible, we recommend using this guide with a team of your fellow educators to maximize your vision and impact across a school or district.
It’s time to design the future.
Part 1Understanding the Basics and Getting Ready
MODULE 1.1The Basics of Blended Learning
Key objectives
Identify what is and is not blended learning
Recognize and distinguish the models of blended learning
Predict the types of circumstances where each model works best
Content summary
Overview of blended learning
The future of education
Today’s students are entering a world in which they need a student-centered schooling system. Student-centered learning—the opposite of what we call today’s predominant factory-model school system in which students learn in lockstep—is essentially the combination of two related ideas: personalizing learning and competency-based learning (also called mastery-based learning, mastery learning, proficiency-based learning, or sometimes standards-based learning).
Personalizing learning
There are several notions of what personalized learning is, but when we say it, we think of it as a verb: personalizing learning. That means tailoring learning to an individual student’s particular needs—in other words, customizing or individualizing to help each individual succeed, given that students learn at different paces, possess different background knowledge, and harbor different interests that ignite their learning. The power of personalizing learning, understood in this way, is intuitive. Research shows that when students receive one-on-one help from a tutor instead of mass-group instruction, they typically do significantly better. This makes sense, given that tutors can do everything from adjusting their pace if they are going too fast or too slow to rephrasing an explanation or providing a new example or approach to make a topic come to life for a student. A personalized approach also implies that students can receive a one-on-one learning experience when they need it, but can also partake in group projects and activities when that would be best for their learning.
Competency-based learning
The second critical element of student-centered learning is competency-based learning; that is, the idea that students must demonstrate mastery of a given subject—including the possession, application, or creation of knowledge, a skill, or a disposition—before moving on to the next one. Students don’t move on from a concept based on the average pace of the class or within a preset, fixed amount of time, as they do in the traditional factory-model school system. Competency-based learning embeds aspects of perseverance and grit because in order to progress, students have to work at problems until they succeed; they can’t just wait it out until the unit is over. If students move on to a concept without fully understanding a previous one, it creates holes in their learning. No wonder Sal Khan and many other luminaries have latched on to the many studies that show competency-based learning producing better results than time-based learning.
Blended learning as the enabler
When implemented well and jointly, personalizing learning with competency-based learning form the basis of a student-centered learning system. An important part of student-centered learning is that students build agency so that they can ultimately be effective lifelong learners, which is necessary in today’s rapidly changing world, in which knowledge and skills become outdated quickly.
The challenge lies in how to implement student-centered learning at scale. Paying for a private tutor for every student would of course be wonderful, but it’s prohibitively expensive. Differentiating instruction for each child—a step toward personalizing learning that teachers across America try valiantly to do—is difficult in today’s factory-model education system. Similarly, allowing all students to progress in their learning as they master material may be possible in a school with a small student-to-teacher ratio and flexible groupings, but it is taxing on an individual teacher who has to provide new learning experiences for students who move beyond the scope of a course, and it therefore strains the resources of most schools.
This is why blended learning is so important. Blended learning is the engine that can power personalization and competency-based learning. Just as technology enables mass customization in so many sectors to meet the diverse needs of so many people, online learning can allow students to learn any time, in any place, on any path, and at any pace—at scale. At its most basic level, it lets students fast-forward if they have already mastered a concept, pause if they need to digest something, or rewind and slow something down if they need to review. It provides a simple way for students to take different paths toward a common destination. It can free up teachers to become learning designers, mentors, facilitators, tutors, evaluators, and counselors to reach each student in ways never before possible.
Of course, just because a school adopts online learning does not guarantee that learning will be personalized or competency based; we wrote Blended and this accompanying workbook to help educators and students around the world realize these benefits. The blend of online learning into schools marks the most powerful opportunity the world has known to make student-centered learning a widespread reality.
What is blended learning?
Blended learning is critically different from—but easily confused with—the much broader trend of equipping classrooms with devices and software. The common use of “blended learning” in education circles and the media suffers from a Goldilocks problem. People use the term either too broadly, to refer to all education technology (“edtech”) crammed into a classroom, or too narrowly, to point to only the types of blended learning that they like best.
Beginning in 2010, we interviewed the educators behind more than 150 blended-learning programs to arrive at a “just right” middle-ground definition that is broad enough to allow for variation but narrow enough to differentiate it from the bottomless category of edtech in schools. The definition has three parts.
Blended learning is:
Any formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace;
The student learns at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home;
The modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience.
One note for clarity. When we say “modalities,” we mean the different mediums and formats in which a student learns—whether the learning occurs online, offline, in a project, through direct instruction, and so forth.
Blended examples
Blended provides a breakdown of each of these parts of the definition. This section offers hypothetical situations to help you understand whether a student is experiencing blended learning.
Scenario 1
Dominique’s teacher posted all of his lesson plans, assignments, and quizzes on Blackboard’s learning management system. Dominique can access this class page online from her brick-and-mortar classroom or from home using the tablet her school loaned her.
This is not blended learning. Because the Internet is only hosting information and tools for Dominique’s class, but is not managing the delivery of content and instruction—the face-to-face teacher is doing that—Dominique does not have control over the time, place, path, or pace of her learning. The class is learning the same thing at the same time and moving through the curriculum as a single batch, or perhaps in a few groups, instead of using an online platform to serve each student the right level of content at each moment of learning. Dominique is in a “technology-rich” classroom, but not a blended one.
Scenario 2
Matthew is a full-time student at Mountain Heights Academy. He completes his work on his own off campus but connects with his online teachers live via webcam and Skype video-conferencing software. He also uses Skype to connect synchronously with the school’s virtual chess club and virtual student government.
This is not blended learning. Matthew is not learning in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home. He is a full-time virtual school student, not a blended learner.
Scenario 3
Twenty students in a class are working on Khan Academy at their individual, appropriate level. Meanwhile, the teacher is working with ten other students who are all struggling with the same concept.
This is blended learning. Because students are learning at their own pace and the online and offline learning are connected—that is, the teacher is using the online activity to inform how to target instruction and what students do offline—it is blended learning.
Check for understanding
Is it blended?
Here are some opportunities for you to practice identifying whether a student is experiencing blended learning. The answers and explanations are in an appendix at the end of this module.
A teacher assigns students a group project in which they use Google Docs to collaborate on the writing and research.
Blended learning? Yes No
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
A teacher shows an online video in class during a lecture to help illustrate a point.
Blended learning? Yes No
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Students choose from a list of learning resources that include videos, texts, and simulations to master content so that they can pass a quiz testing their knowledge of tectonic plates.
Blended learning? Yes No
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Students play Minecraft after completing their regularly scheduled class work in geometry.
Blended learning? Yes No
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Students use a math program that provides practice problems with varying difficulty based on the questions they answer correctly and incorrectly. Meanwhile, the teacher uses this data to track the progress of the class.
Blended learning? Yes No
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Students work independently through an online course as a teacher periodically calls them into one-on-one meetings to discuss their progress.
Blended learning? Yes No
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Content summary
Models of blended learning
Blended learning generally looks different across different classrooms and schools, but typically fits somewhere within the broad parameters of four main models.
Rotation model
This category includes any course or subject in which students rotate on a fixed schedule or at the teacher’s discretion between learning modalities, at least one of which is online learning. Other modalities might include such activities as small-group or full-class instruction, group projects, individual tutoring, and pencil-and-paper assignments. Students learn mostly on the brick-and-mortar campus, except for any homework assignments. Broadly speaking, there are four different types of Rotation models:
Station Rotation—a course or subject in which students experience the Rotation model within a contained classroom or group of classrooms. The Station Rotation model differs from the Individual Rotation model because students rotate through all of the stations, not only those on their custom schedules.
Lab Rotation—a course or subject in which students rotate to a computer lab for the online-learning station.
Flipped Classroom—a course or subject in which students participate in online learning off-site in place of traditional homework and then attend the brick-and-mortar school for face-to-face, teacher-guided practice or projects. The primary delivery of content and instruction is online, which differentiates a Flipped Classroom from a class in which students are merely doing homework practice online at night.
Individual Rotation—a course or subject in which each student has an individualized playlist and does not necessarily rotate to each available station or modality. An algorithm or teacher sets individual student schedules. An individualized playlist is a curated set of online and offline resources, lessons, and activities through which students learn. In some cases, students have a prescribed pathway; in others, students have the choice of how to navigate the playlist.
Flex model
This category refers to a course or subject in which online learning is the backbone of student learning, even if it directs students to offline activities at times. Students move on an individually customized, fluid schedule among learning modalities. The teacher of record is on-site, and students learn mostly on the brick-and-mortar campus, except for any homework assignments. The teacher of record or other adults provide face-to-face support on a flexible and adaptive as-needed basis through such activities as small-group instruction, group projects, and individual tutoring. Some implementations have substantial face-to-face support, whereas others have minimal support. For example, some Flex models may have face-to-face certified teachers who supplement the online learning on a daily basis, whereas others may provide little face-to-face enrichment. Still others may have different staffing combinations. These variations are useful modifiers to describe a particular Flex model.
A La Carte model
This model encompasses any course that a student takes entirely online to accompany other experiences that the student is having at a brick-and-mortar school or learning center. The teacher of record for the A La Carte course is the online teacher. Students may take the A La Carte course either on the brick-and-mortar campus or off-site. This differs from full-time online learning because it is not a whole-school experience. Students take some courses A La Carte and others face-to-face at a brick-and-mortar campus.
Enriched Virtual model
This category includes any course or subject in which students have required face-to-face learning sessions with their teacher of record and then are free to complete their remaining coursework remote from the face-to-face teacher. Online learning is the backbone of student learning when the students are located remotely. The same person generally serves as both the online and face-to-face teacher. Many Enriched Virtual programs began as full-time online schools and then developed blended programs to provide students with brick-and-mortar school experiences. The Enriched Virtual model differs from the Flipped Classroom because in Enriched Virtual programs, students seldom meet face-to-face with their teachers every weekday. It differs from a fully online course because face-to-face learning sessions are more than optional office hours or social events; they are required.
Figure 1.1 offers a diagram of the terms. In many cases, schools use multiple models and combine them in different ways to create a custom program. The purpose of these terms is to provide a shared language to describe the basic building blocks of the various combinations.
Figure 1.1: Blended Learning Models
Understanding and using the vocabulary of the blended-learning models serves two purposes. First, it helps you communicate your vision to other stakeholders. When you explain that your design involves a Flipped Classroom combined with a Flex model, for example, other people with at least a basic familiarity with blended learning get a preliminary idea of your intentions in only a few words. Second, naming the models helps with your research and development. Other blended programs across the world are tagging their designs with the names of the models. Enter the model name in an online search at the Blended Learning Universe or in Google, for example, and you will find examples of other blended programs that resemble your design.
Blended model examples
This section provides hypothetical situations to help you identify the different models of blended learning.
Scenario 1
A class begins with a whole-group discussion. Students then break into groups and rotate at fixed times through three stations:
Small-group direct instruction, in which the teacher uses resource books and works closely with individual students
Individualized learning, using online software to practice reading skills
Individual modeled and independent reading, in which students read paperbacks or listen to an audio book
This is the Station Rotation model. Students are rotating on a fixed schedule among learning modalities.
WATCH CLIP 4: Aspire ERES Academy uses a Station Rotation to facilitate differentiated instruction.
www.wiley.com/go/blended4
Scenario 2
Students rotate between traditional classroom learning and a computer lab for their online learning, where they learn at their own pace.
This is the Lab Rotation model. Students are rotating on a fixed schedule and go to a lab for online learning.
WATCH CLIP 7: Rocketship Education relies on a strong culture and an innovative staffing model to facilitate its Lab Rotation.
www.wiley.com/go/blended7
Scenario 3
Students watch Khan Academy videos online at home and then come to school, where they engage in practice and projects with their fellow students and the teacher.
This is the Flipped Classroom model. Students are learning online from Khan Academy at home in place of doing traditional homework and then attend the brick-and-mortar school for face-to-face, teacher-guided practice and projects.
WATCH CLIP 9: Some teachers at DongPyeong Middle School flipped their classrooms to engage their students and boost learning.
www.wiley.com/go/blended9
Scenario 4
All students rotate once in their math class, but while one child learns online by himself for both rotations, another child works in a small group with the teacher and then in a group project for her second rotation. Still another child learns first in small-group instruction, but then learns online with a virtual tutor.
This is the Individual Rotation model. Each student has an individualized playlist and does not necessarily rotate to each available station or modality, but all students rotate at a fixed time.
WATCH CLIP 10: The Individual Rotation model at Carpe Diem in Yuma, Arizona, relies on a unique facility and staffing design.
www.wiley.com/go/blended10
Scenario 5
Students in a center take a course online, while an in-person teacher moves around to help them one-on-one or pull them out into small groups when it makes sense to do so.
This is the Flex model. An online course is the backbone of student learning, and students are moving on an individually customized, fluid schedule among learning modalities. The teacher of record is in person.
WATCH CLIP 11: At San Francisco Flex Academy, students learn online and get help on a flexible basis from academic coaches and teachers.
www.wiley.com/go/blended11
Scenario 6
A student takes an AP course online with a virtual teacher for her sixth class of the day at a traditional brick-and-mortar school.
This is the A La Carte model. A student is taking a class entirely online with an online teacher but also learning at a brick-and-mortar school for the rest of the day.
Scenario 7
A student learns online from home three days a week to accommodate her training schedule for ice hockey. The other two days, she learns at a traditional school with her fellow students and teacher.
This is the Enriched Virtual model. The student has required face-to-face learning sessions with her teacher of record but then learns online remotely for the rest of her learning.
WATCH CLIP 12: Henry County Schools in Georgia provide a learning space and face-to-face teachers to enrich students who are taking online courses at Impact Academy.
www.wiley.com/go/blended12
Check for understanding
Which blended model is it?
Here are some opportunities for you to practice identifying which model of blended learning is being used in the different scenarios. The answers and explanations are in the appendix.
Aaron Sams uses online learning to teach his students science. Watch this video to see how he does it:
www.wiley.com/go/blended8
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Which model of blended learning is it? _______________
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
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In Spanish class, Zach and Paula spend the first twenty minutes learning about irregular verbs with their whole class. In the next twenty minutes, Zach goes with half the class to the computer lab to practice irregular verbs online; the online program assesses his abilities and sends the results to the teacher. Paula and the other half of the class pair off to practice speaking and listening to irregular verbs. In the final twenty minutes of class, the two groups switch while the teacher uses data from the online program to inform the next day’s lesson.
Which model of blended learning is it? _______________
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Destiny has trouble understanding the teacher’s lesson on finding the area of a circle. The teacher directs Destiny and a group of students to work on Chromebooks in class, where Destiny solidifies her understanding of a circle’s radius through online practice problems. After thirty minutes, another group of students work online while Destiny and her group work with the teacher. After gaining a better foundation of knowledge and with the aid of her teacher, who had gained a sounder understanding of where Destiny’s gaps were, Destiny now grasps how to find the area of a circle.
Which model of blended learning is it? _______________
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Naveed has independent work time all Friday morning, during which he chooses how to learn from a variety of online resources that his teachers have compiled about sediment formation. He watches videos and does practice quizzes in class until he feels ready to take an assessment on the topic.
Which model of blended learning is it? _______________
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Students work through their online learning playlists during personalized learning time and then complete skills-based projects and collaborative projects facilitated by the teachers in their classes. Watch this video to see how this model looks:
www.wiley.com/go/blended17
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Which model of blended learning is it? _______________
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Bo’s school doesn’t offer Chinese, so he takes an online Chinese course in the library with a certified online teacher.
Which model of blended learning is it? _______________
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Annie’s homeschool co-op meets in person on Mondays and Wednesdays. The other days, the students complete online coursework from home. During the in-person meetings, Annie meets in a small group or individually with the teacher to get help with the online course. She spends the rest of class time either meeting with other students to finish their team project or continuing to work online, depending on her deadlines.
Which two models of blended learning are these? ____________
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Marco watches his teacher’s recorded calculus lecture on his smartphone as homework. The next day at school, his class spends thirty minutes reviewing the online lecture (if necessary) and completing online practice exercises, as well as thirty minutes completing a group project on Riemann sums.
Which two models of blended learning are these? ____________
Why?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Apply the learning
Visually represent each blended model
The blended-learning models are classified based on how students move among different learning modalities and on their interaction with their teacher. Drawing—or diagramming—the different models can be a helpful way to deepen your understanding of the models. In the space below, diagram each of the seven different models in whatever way helps you visualize how students experience them. Our diagrams of the models are in Appendix 1.2 in Chapter One of Blended.
Apply the learning
When is each model a fit?
Educators often get hung up trying to decide on the “best” model of blended learning. That question is a dead end. A better way to think about it is to consider the types of circumstances that are well suited to a particular model and the types of circumstances in which a model is a bad fit.
Deepen your understanding of the blended-learning models by thinking about that question and filling in the following tables. Try to think of three or four circumstances for each box.
Station Rotation
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a good fit
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a poor fit
Example:
A third-grade teacher has 30 students and wishes she had a way to do small-group instruction.
Example:
Zack is capable of working twice as fast as the rest of his class in math, but all of the stations in the rotation are for the same math unit.
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Lab Rotation
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a good fit
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a poor fit
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Flipped Classroom
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a good fit
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a poor fit
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Individual Rotation
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a good fit
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a poor fit
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Flex
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a good fit
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a poor fit
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A La Carte
Imagine a few circumstances in which this model is a good fit
