My district's return to learn plan provides the students two options: to return to in-person learning on a modified HyFlex schedule or to remain fully remote. In a HyFlex model, learning is provided in-person and online simultaneously. For example, a student might be asked to Zoom into a live class from home. A HyFlex learning model is different from a Hybrid or Blended learning model. In a Hybrid or Blended model, the teacher purposefully designs a blend of in-person and online learning and gives the students some control over the time, pace, path or place of their learning. In this post, I will share my planning process for HyFlex instruction and give you a sneak peek into my Sensation and Perception unit.
HyFlex Model
In 2020, students across the United States have had their education disrupted by Covid-19, forest fires, hurricanes and tornadoes. The HyFlex model grew out of a need for a more accessible option for students whose access to the school building has been disrupted. One advantage to the HyFlex model is that it is designed to include remote learners in daily lessons. The students are brought "into" the classroom and they have the opportunity to interact directly with their peers and teacher.
However, there are disadvantages to the HyFlex model. First, it requires all of the participants to have reliable access to technology. I think the pandemic has laid bare how large of a tech gap many students face. Secondly, the teachers are required to plan twice for the same class - for the F2F learners and remote learners. Thirdly, there are few resources available to help teachers navigate this change. Lastly, HyFlex puts the responsibility of learning almost fully on the learner. Whether this is good or bad can depend on the maturity and abilities of the learner. Some of our students need more guidance and support than others.
Developing a HyFlex course would be challenging even under normal circumstances. During a pandemic, it can almost seem impossible. If you have found yourself in a situation similar to mine, I encourage you to use the tools that you already have in your toolbox. Now is not the time to reinvent the wheel. Whenever possible, use the resources that you already have developed. To determine what I should use I asked myself the following questions when developing my HyFlex learning plan:
- Do I want all of my learners to be doing the same thing everyday? This will determine if I will use a synchronous, asynchronous or blended approach.
- What do I want to spend my "in-person" time doing? If I have limited face to face time with my students, I would like to use that time for things that are difficult to replicate online; class discussions, conferencing, application, demos etc.
- How can I include my students who are fully remote in my live classroom? I want to make my classroom both inclusive and equitable.
Instructional Models
Once I answered these questions I was able to explore different instructional models and determine which model best meets the needs of my students. Some of the models that I considered were synchronous instruction, blended/hybrid instruction, a flipped classroom, using a station rotation or a playlist. Honestly, I will probably be using some combination of all of these at some point this year!
1. Synchronous Instruction: This model of instruction involves teaching all of the learners at the same time. This is how many teachers taught during remote instruction. The difference is that in a HyFlex model the remote learners would Zoom into the live presentation of the material. To make this instruction more seamless and interactive for both groups, I suggest using a tool like Pear Deck that elicits answers from both the in-person and remote learners.
2. Hybrid Instruction: This model of instruction involves a combination of synchronous and asynchronous instruction. In my situation this would involve staggering sections. For example, our student body has been divided into a RED group (last names beginning with A-K) and a BLUE group (last names beginning with L-Z). The students would alternate between synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities based on the days that they were in-person or remote.
3. Flipped Classroom: This model of instruction involves off-loading the instruction and using the class time to focus on the application of the information. The teacher can share the content using screencasts, other informational videos or even readings.
4. Station Rotation: This is one of my favorite models of instruction! I used it extensively in my pre-Covid classroom. This model allows people to rotate through online and offline stations. You can even incorporate flipped videos onto the station rotation.
5. Playlist: This is a model that I want to explore more in my own classroom. In this model, the teacher breaks down a topic or unit into a series of tasks. The tasks should include a variety of learning modalities and activities. The students then progress through the tasks at their own pace. The teacher's role is to meet with the students when they reach "check-in" points that are built into the playlist and to provide support to the students as they progress through it. This learning model reminded me a lot of what I learned from The Modern Classrooms Project.
Sample Unit: Sensation and Perception
What does this look like in the real classroom? As many of you know, I teach AP Psychology. I was about to begin my Sensation and Perception unit after we transitioned to HyFlex learning. I'd like to walk you through my process in designing this unit. First of all, I decided to start small. I did not want to design an entirely new unit from scratch! Instead, I repurposed many of the same activities that I had already developed but updated them with tech tools like Pear Deck, EdPuzzle, Breakout Groups to make them more accessible and engaging for my remote learners. Secondly, I identified my "must-haves" for the unit.
1. I wanted the amount of synchronous and asynchronous learning activities to be balanced. I love the flexibility of asynchronous learning but I wanted to anchor it with synchronous time.
2. I purposefully used tools like Pear Deck and Zoom Breakout Groups to encourage interaction between my "Roomers" and "Zoomers."
3. If I was showing a video in class I used EdPuzzle to create an asynchronous lesson for students who were remote. The quality of the video is much better than live streaming.
Something new that I added to this unit - and the only thing that I created from scratch - was the station rotation. I chose to redesign this lesson because in prior years my students have struggled mastering the anatomy of the eye and ear. Turning this into a station rotation allowed me to flip these lessons. The students could then go back and access the material any time that they needed to. In addition, I added a teacher-led station into the rotation because I wanted to build in time to meet all of the students one-on-one, not just the ones in the physical classroom.
This station rotation includes six stations. Each station is 20 minutes long. The stations are progressive and build off each other. For example, the students need to complete the flipped lesson on vision before they build the eyeball. Therefore, it is important for the students to follow their groups rotation schedule. You can access my write up and schedule here. There are three instructional components to a station rotation; online, offline and teacher-led.
Online Stations: My online stations included flipped lessons on the process of vision and hearing, self-grading mastery checks and online demos.
Offline Stations: The students built a model of an eye using a ping pong ball. They also completed demos like finding their blindspots, seeing an afterimage and experimenting with retinal disparity.
Teacher-Led Station: The students met with their teacher individually and explained the process of vision using their eye models.What I love about the station rotation model is that it includes a variety of learning opportunities and gives me the chance to talk to all of my students! If you would like to see, use or modify this station rotation you can download it using these hyperlinks: Google Drive or on Canvas Commons (3.5-3.7 Vision and Audition Station Rotation).
If you told me last year that I was expected to teach two groups of students at the same time I would have told you that this was not possible. Yet here we are and teachers across the United States are doing the impossible. Covid-19 has upended and disrupted education in a way that was unimaginable before. It is causing educators to re-think and re-imagine what education could and should be. This process is painful and exhausting. However, I can honestly say that my classroom will never look the same again and I think that in the end it will be even better than before.
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