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Session 2. Designing a Flipped Lesson
Objective. Design one flipped lesson: a short home input, a bring-back question, a quick check at the start and a 45-minute class plan centred on practice.
A flipped lesson fails most often for one reason: the home part is too big and the class part repeats it. When the input is short and clear, and the question pupils bring is really used, the lesson changes shape: you explain less, and pupils practise more with you beside them. This session shows how to size the input, use the bring-back question and spend the first fifteen minutes of class so that prepared and unprepared pupils both move forward.
Key ideas
The flipped lesson in three parts
- BEFORE: pupils meet one new idea alone (about 10 to 15 minutes in total) and write one question. IN CLASS: a quick check, a short clarification, then practice with help. AFTER: a short task that fixes the idea.
- Flipping moves the first contact, not the teacher. The teacher's work shifts from explaining everything to checking, explaining the hard part and coaching practice.
- A flipped lesson is not 'homework before, lecture again after'. If the class part repeats the input, pupils stop doing the input.
What goes into the home input
- Choose content pupils can learn alone: a definition, a worked example, a short story or diagram. Keep the hard, easy-to-misunderstand part for class.
- Format follows access: a one-page printed text, a 3 to 5 minute audio or a short video. One idea, plain words, in the pupils' language of instruction.
- Add a small active step: try one example or fill a 3-line note. Passive watching alone gives you nothing to check.
The bring-back question
- End the input with one question pupils write down: 'What was unclear?', 'Solve this example and bring your answer', or 'Give one example from your home'.
- The question is the link between home and class. Read a handful before the lesson (or in the first minutes) and let them decide what you clarify.
- Pupils with no access still bring a question, from the printed page.
The 45-minute class lesson
- 0 to 8 min: entry check of 3 questions and a pair share of the bring-back questions. 8 to 15: clear the one or two most common misunderstandings.
- 15 to 38 min: practice at two or three levels while you move around and coach a small group. 38 to 45: exit ticket and a preview of what comes next.
- Pupils who did not prepare read the printed page in a 5-minute catch-up corner and then join the practice. Never shame them in front of the class.
Shape of a flipped lesson
Why a short input works
New ideas are held in working memory, which is small. Researchers such as Sweller have shown that novices learn better from clear worked examples, in small steps, than from long, dense explanations. A 10 to 15 minute input with one idea, one worked example and one small active step respects this limit.
The input only has to start the learning, not finish it. Practice, errors and feedback in class finish it. So choose the easy-to-self-teach part for home (a definition, a worked example) and keep the part that is easy to misunderstand for the lesson.
Reading the bring-back questions
Collect the questions on slips of paper. In three minutes sort ten or twelve of them into piles: questions you can answer by one sentence, questions that show a common misunderstanding, and unusual questions. The second pile decides what you clarify at the board; the first pile can be answered by neighbours; the third you answer after the lesson.
This turns a one-way input into a conversation. Pupils see their question used, so they keep asking. A pupil who worked from the printed page is as visible as one who watched a video, because the question comes from the same task.
Examples from the classroom
Jasur shrinks the video
Scene. Jasur teaches Grade 8 mathematics in Bukhara. His 25-minute video on linear equations was watched to the end by few pupils. He replaces it with a one-page printed text with two worked examples and a 4-minute audio of the same content, and asks for one question. In class he spends 8 minutes on a check, then 25 minutes on practice.
Insight. A short, self-contained input with a worked example is easier to finish and leaves time for practice.
Malika and the three verbs
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 5 Uzbek language in Tashkent. The home input is a 120-word text; pupils underline three verbs and write which verb was hardest to find. In class she reads six of these questions aloud, then pairs sort 12 verb cards into past, present and future, while she works with four pupils who found no verbs.
Insight. A small active step and a bring-back question give the teacher usable information about who needs help.
Aziz sorts the questions
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 7 physics in Fergana on speed. He collects 30 slips and sorts them into three piles in the first three minutes. The biggest pile shows confusion between km/h and m/s. He spends five minutes on this one point with a single example from a bus journey to Samarkand, then moves to practice.
Insight. Sorting the questions tells you the one misunderstanding worth clarifying for the whole class.
Common pitfalls
- Making the input a complete lesson, so the class repeats it and practice time shrinks.
- Asking for a bring-back question but never reading or using it in class.
- Putting the hardest, easiest-to-misunderstand content in the home input, where no one can help.
- Treating the pupils who did not prepare as a problem instead of giving them a catch-up route.
Redesign a Flipped Lesson
- Read the SAMPLE flipped lesson in the Kit: Grade 7 physics, 'Speed'. The home task is a 28-minute video and the class lesson re-explains everything.
- Pairs (15 min): redesign the home input (content, format, length) and write the bring-back question and a 3-question entry check.
- Pairs (10 min): write the 45-minute class timeline with minutes, what pupils do and what you do. Mark where you coach a small group.
- Groups (10 min): swap plans with another pair. Test: is the input under 15 minutes, is there one question, does the class part avoid repeating the input? One comment each way.
- Alone (5 min): write your classroom action task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- What did you remove from the first version of the home input, and why?
- How does the bring-back question change what you do in the first 15 minutes?
- Where in your timeline do you coach a small group, and who is in it?
Reflect
- Which lesson topic of yours is easy enough for pupils to meet alone?
- What do you usually do in the first 10 minutes of a lesson, and could a check replace it?
- How would you feel about teaching less and coaching more?
Try it tomorrow
- Cut your next input to one idea and one worked example, and time yourself reading it aloud; aim for 10 minutes or less.
- Collect the bring-back questions on slips and sort them into three piles before the lesson or in the first three minutes.
- Count the minutes pupils spend practising in the flipped lesson and compare with your usual lesson.
Further reading and links
A flipped lesson has a short input, one bring-back question, a quick check, a short clarification and most of the class time for practice.