Flipped Mastery

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The flipped mastery model teaches a number of objectives as students learn and work toward predetermined objectives at their own pace. The idea is to allow mastery of one objective at a time within a number of subsequent objectives, with students working in small groups, with buddies, or individually at a pace that advances them forward rather than holds them back. Formative assessment is the driving means for evaluation to guage student understanding and guide them along the way.

Here is what a Flipped Mastery Model might look like:

• All students work on different activities at the same time.
• Students conduct experiments and/or pursue inquiry-based activities
• Students watch video in learning centers
• Students listen to audio in learning centers
• Some students interact with a Whiteboard
• Some students work in a computer center or on personal devices.
• Some students work one-to-one with the teacher, conferring or getting feedback.
• Teacher circulates the room and offers assistance, coaching, etc.
• Students who struggle are provided with individualized remedial assistance using an alternative form of assessment to allow them to apply mastery in an individualized, differentiated way.

The goal of a mastery classroom is to move from one topic to the next in a comprehensive, differentiated way using interconnectedness among activities.

Components of a Flipped-Mastery Classroom

1. Set clear learning objectives that connect to the state standards and what students should know and be able to do.
2. Determine the objectives best achieved through inquiry, and separate them from those best achieved through direct instruction.
3. Create a video, podcast, PowerPoint, online place such as edmodo.com or Moodle, where students can access alternative and preliminary instructional material.  Share this content, create this content generically, and/or find this content on the Internet and use what you can publically access without violating copyright.
4. Assure that students have access to the content: work with the IT department, look at access options in the community, speak to parents about what technologies are available to students outside of school.
5. Incorporate engaging follow-up learning activities for the classroom, and create multiple versions of each summative assessment for students to work mastery into each learning objective.

Benefits of the Flipped Mastery Model

• Makes learning the center of the classroom.
• Increases face-to-face time with the teacher.
• Involves all students in hands-on learning.
• Allows for more engaging content via teacher-led demonstrations of learning.
• Teaches students how to take ownership and responsibility for their own learning; it builds their capacity.
• Creates a way to personalize and differentiate learning
• Provides students with instant feedback about their work, thus reducing teacher paper load.
• Provides opportunities for remediation by offering individualized attention to students who struggle.
• Allows for multiple entry points for learning content, with multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding.
• Changes the role of teacher from “instructor” to “facilitator” of learning.
• Is easily reproducible, scalable, and customizable, with reproduction possible in a variety of educational settings.

Bergmann, J., Sams, A. (2012). Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

What makes the Flipped Mastery Model a mastery model? Share a resource found on the Internet that you feel aligns with the Mastery Model.