Rotation Stations

Rotation stations, station rotations, whichever way you think the syntax is correct, rotation stations are a great way to have the students doing a variety of activities in the classroom while getting them  moving in one period. Most teachers are completing 3 - 5 different activities per period, so rotating them around in stations should not be a big deal. I have used rotation stations successfully with all my Chinese language classes for years, but the system would work for any subject area.

Rotation station basics are that they are;

• different and differentiated activities or tasks each station
• timed station activities
• manageable activities
• classroom setup

What rotation stations promote are;

• blended learning activities
• collaborative learning
• group and individual work
• student centered learning
• more teacher assistance

What activities really work;

• inflipped learning (my blog post on flipping)
• blended learning
• any well-planned activity
• differentiated activities
• entry and exit tickets

What you will need to do;

• Like any lesson, plan your lesson around your aims and objectives. 
• Take into consideration the students in the class.
• Train the students to be quick at moving the tables and chairs about and then getting them back into place before the end of the lesson.
• Have some type of timing device, for example the white board screen with a count down clock.
• Decide how long each rotation will be.
• To manage what will be a hectic lesson, perhaps think about the traffic light system so you do not have students lining up to see you or have them waiting with their hands up for ages, because you will be busy.
• Make sure you have activities that students can do with little scaffolding, or can help each other with. Have extension work ready and differentiate each activity. This is probably one of the key components, so make sure you spend decent time preparing this one.
• Each time you have a rotation station lesson, trial different settings and groups, see what and who works the best in various combinations.
• Have each station clearly labelled or up listed on the board.

During the rotation station activity you will need to;

BEFORE

• Prepare the lesson activities
• Prepare the timer.

START 

• Explain the activities on each station and remind them of the traffic light system and rules of not moving around the class during activities. After a few times, you will not need to explain each activity unless it is new.
• Ask the students to move the tables and chairs into position.

DURING

• Give a one minute warning before the end of each rotation so they can wind up the activity. If the activity is not finished, this can be caught up with if you have a activity completion/teacher help station, next lesson or at home.
• Walk around the class attending to the traffic lights. Answer questions, clarify activities, manage the class.

Being a language teacher, I tried to prepare at least 4 activities. These covered the 4 language skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking, sometimes we had 5 activities as it depends where the students are up to in the course and level. 

For specific rotation station activities and references/resources, please check out the Google slide presentation.

Thanks! Be great to connect or discuss rotation stations with you!

Flipping the Language Classroom, a presentation

Below is a presentation I created for Chinese language teachers. It goes over my experiences with flipped learning, tools and tips to get started.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss anything to do with flipped learning or anything else to do with content in this blog. Thanks for checking out the site.

What is the hype with hyperdocs?

What is the hype about hyperdocs?
Hyperlinked docs have been around in many various forms for some time. With the coining of the term hyperdocs and the development, generous sharing and collaboration with teachers combined with various forms of new technologies, the Hyperdoc Girls, Sarah Landis, Kelly Hilton and Lisa Highfill, have brought edtech another useful resource for the classroom. You can tell how not only popular, but successful a teaching strategy is by the amount of airplay it is getting on the various PLNs.   

Hyperdocs are a great way to engage students and explore theirs and your creativity. Here is a summary of a post I wrote on hyperdocs for a conference I am presenting a workshop for. If you are interested to find out more, you can read the full version here. 

Why should teachers consider using hyperdocs for their students?

Hyperdocs are a functional, practical and efficient way to deliver resources to students. Have students create, collaborate and research to achieve learning outcomes. Hyperdocs are great for blended learning, self-paced, differentiated activities and getting feedback back to students quickly. I encourage teachers to join the hyperodc group via the link at the bottom of the post. The infograhic below illustrates idea of "why use hyperdocs?" nicely.

Image: Jeffco Ed Tech

Are hypedocs teacher friendly?

The great thing about digital technologies is that you can transfer skills from one piece of software or app to another. If you have used any digital software such as Google docs or Word and have linked it to something, then you have created a hyperdoc.

What software or apps can be used to create hyperdocs?

Just about any app or software can be used to create a hyperdoc. I love Google apps. The power of Google apps for me are the functionalities that allow teachers and students to be able to collaborate in real time, share, explore, self-pace, experiment, receive feedback, and much more. You can also use other software or apps such as those in the Microsoft suite, Padlet, and Thinglink to name a few more.

What is a hyperdoc?

Hyperdocs are, in the most basic of definitions, a digital app, for example a Google Doc. This app may include a hyperlink to another app or webpage. Does workflow or app smashing, web quests and Google lit trips sound familiar? Think of hyperdocs as the second generation of these digital forerunners. Hyperdocs can vary in the amount of activities you would like the student to engage with and should include some or all of the components listed below;

• Research and explore
• Critical thinking
• Collaboration and/or sharing
• Create
• Apply 
• Feedback (teacher and peer)
• Reflecting 

How many activities can you create with a hyperdoc?

You can have a hyperdoc with one or one hundred activities, although I do not think anyone
has made a hyperdoc with that many, but it is possible. I would suggest that teachers starting
out with hyperdocs start with one to two activities, then build from there, of course it also depends
on what topic and objective you would like your students to achieve during and at the end of the activity.

How can you get started with hyperdocs?

Like any learning activity, plan your lesson using hypedocs with realistic objectives and goals for your students and think of what apps you may use to achieve these objectives. For more information, check out my full post or go to the hyperdoc resource sites below.

1. http://www.kellyhilton.org/  for everything you will need to get started, check out this excellent site for hyperdoc templates, resources and help.
2. Join the Hyperdoc Facebook group for lots of sharing and help.
3. Here is a sample of a recent hyperdoc I created for my Year 10 Chinese language class.

Flipgrid for Language Learning and Teaching

Flipgrid is a cool piece of software that allows you to record videos for many great teaching and learning activities. You basically set up grids, which are sort of like groups or for teachers can be separate classes. Within each grid, you set up topics which are the questions or stimulus you would like the students to respond to.  It works on any device and is really worth having downloading and trialing with your class. 

Flipgrid launched the new look platform just recently and it looks amazing!  The functionality has improved an already impressive digital tool.  The new add-ons make it even more engaging with response tools, which include badges and stickers help increase the engagement factor. Well done Flipgrid team!

Like most of the great apps and links for teaching and learning resources, I came across Flipgrid via a teacher twitter chat, so must thank my PLN for this suggestion. 

After using Flipgrid for a few months with my Chinese language students, I have found it a very useful tool.  Flipgrid is easy to use and you can use it on any device. It's so tech friendly, engaging and easy to use that students and teachers just love using it. 

Lots of teachers use Flipgrid for a variety of exercises, I've used in a variety of activities which include;

1. Recording content and messages when working in groups and collaborating.
2. Respond to questions.
3. Recording monologues.
4. Giving peer reviews.
5. Flipped lessons
6. Use a video feed recording as an audio timeline eg keep other team members up to date on what they are up to in the project by recording a note.

Well, the list is really endless. 

See how other teachers use it in their subject and teaching areas by checking out the Global Grid Connections and the Integration Centre.

I have used Flipgrid with four of my classes. I am teaching Chinese language, so most of what I ask the students to do is to record their responses in Chinese. I try and get the students to talk as much Chinese language as possible in class, but sometimes it is hard to give them as many opportunities as you would like each lesson. The reason being, there is not enough time.  It is difficult to get time to adequately include speaking, reading, writing and listening activities in a 50 minute lesson. Flipgrid gives my students another tool they use to practice their spoken Chinese and also get some feedback, great for formative assessments! 

Lesson Activity - a sample of how I use Flipgrid

All activities need to be integrated into a lesson plan and unit thoughtfully and with an objective and outcome in mind. Flipgrid is a great formative tool as it gives the teacher and student quick and valuable feedback.  Recently in class, we have been learning about "things I own" and "my home" which includes asking about and responding in Chinese regarding location. Usually, after we have learnt the vocabulary and sentence patterns and reinforce these, we practice our oral responses.  An example of how I use Flipgrid is to ask students questions is in the video example below.  In this activity I refer to an image which includes items we are learning in the topic. Students are asked in Chinese "Where is my [item]?" and then I point to the image. They respond saying where the item is in relation to it's relative position, for example, "your mobile phone is on the sofa".

Due to privacy issues I am unable to include any of the students responses here. 

Depending on the objective of the activity, I set anything from one to three questions. This way, returning feedback to students is quick. With classes of 20 students though, it can still take some time to check and return all responses, so you will need to work out when and where to use Flipgrid for this type of activity. 

Feeback

Feedback needs to be effective and make sense to the students. As mentioned above, there are many ways you and the students can leave feedback. I found that customizing the feedback grid in Flipgrid easy and very effective. 

To customize your feedback grid;

1. Go to your topic list (you can also do this in a topic) and click the Action button on the right. 
2. Click on Edit Topic
3. Then in Section 5 down the bottom, click on Custom Feedback
4. Click on Create New Rubric
5. Add your Criteria Heading (the specific criteria you are marking)
6. Add in your Criteria Description, useful for letting the students how you are marking or grading them
7. Set your Minimum or Maximum score

You can also watch the video below which explains this process.

Response Features

Flipgrid is engaging and I think that is part of what motivates students in using the software. Depending on what feedback settings you allow, students and teachers can give feedback in various ways. This can be found in the Topic Actions as well. Some of these are;

• likes/dislikes
• add a video/audio/text reply/feedback
• take a selfie and decorations
• response reactions
• moderation and reply settings

Distractions 

I found the students really liked playing around with the respond actions and some of them can initially spend more time decorating themselves more than tending to their responses.  To curb this distraction, I found that before using Flipgrid, reminding and then discussion with the students what is good digital citizenship and responsible action.  Reinforcing what  the activity's objective saw most of them using it properly as well.  For the class and particularly those prone to being more easily distracted than others, I implemented a rule of allowing students to use a maximum of 2 decorations for each response.  Breaking of this rule would result in banning the respond actions altogether, this also proved effective and quickly got them back on task. 

Functionality

The functionality, appearance and ease of use of Flipgrid has been very thoughtful and well designed. I have used other video/audio apps and software that have some of the Flipgrid functions, but Flipgrid is so far the best one I have used. 

Flipgrid is very well supported by their team and also have a useful Support Centre you may want to visit to help get set up. You can find lots of good instructional videos and handy tips there.

Verdict

Try it out. Flipgrid is a great product and why not trial the free version for one of your classes.  I'd imagine most of those who try it will want the full version so they can get all their classes on board, I did.