Planning the split
Once a teacher has decided to flip a lesson, the practical question is how to divide the work. What goes before class, what goes in class, and how much of each should there be? This article is about that planning. It assumes the basic idea is familiar and concentrates on building an actual lesson from free materials.
A useful starting point is to write the lesson goal as one sentence beginning “By the end of the lesson, students can…”. Then split that goal into the parts that need explanation and the parts that need practice. Explanation tends to go before class. Practice and discussion go in class.
A hypothetical example
Suppose a teacher has a 50-minute class on calculating percentage change. This example is invented for illustration.
Before class (about 15 minutes of student time).
- A short video or reading explaining what percentage change means and how to calculate it. For instance, a price that rises from 40 to 50 has increased by 10, and 10 divided by 40 is 0.25, or 25%.
- Three practice questions with answers provided, so students can check themselves.
- One question to submit: “What step confused you most?”
In class (50 minutes).
- 5 minutes: a quick quiz of two questions, done from memory.
- 10 minutes: the teacher addresses the common confusion revealed in the submitted questions, such as dividing by the new value instead of the original.
- 25 minutes: pairs work on mixed problems, including a decrease, a percentage of a percentage and a real-looking price list. The teacher circulates.
- 10 minutes: students explain one solution to the group and note what they still find hard.
The numbers add up to 50 minutes in class, and the preparation is modest. The balance can be adjusted, but the pattern holds: short input beforehand, a check at the start, targeted teaching, then most of the time spent on practice.
Choosing pre-class resources
Free online material is plentiful, but quality varies, so choose carefully.
- Accuracy. Check the content yourself. A polished video can contain mistakes.
- Fit. The resource should match your learners’ level and your terminology. A video that uses a different method from the one you teach can cause confusion.
- Length and pace. Shorter is generally easier to keep attention on. If a resource is long, point students to the relevant section.
- License. If you want to copy, edit or share a resource with your class, confirm it is openly licensed and follow the attribution terms. Finding open resources in a library or directory is usually safer than copying from a random page.
If nothing suitable exists, a short recording of your own, even a screen capture with a voice-over, is often good enough. Learners generally care more about clarity than polish.
Designing the in-class activity
Engagement in a flipped lesson comes mainly from what students do, not from what they watch. Activities that tend to work well share some features.
They require a response. Problems, questions and decisions get more thought than passive listening.
They allow for different starting points. Include a basic task, a standard task and an extension, so that quicker students are not idle and others are not lost.
They create a reason to talk. Explaining a method to a classmate often shows gaps in understanding. Structured pair or small-group tasks, with clear roles, can help shy students take part.
They give quick feedback. Answer keys, whiteboard checks or the teacher’s circulation let students correct errors before they set in, which is the short feedback loops idea in a classroom setting.
They link to the pre-class work. If the activity could be done without the pre-class material, students will notice and stop preparing.
Keeping the pre-class part honest
Planning should include how to find out whether the pre-class work happened and what students made of it. A short entry quiz, a submitted question or a quick show of hands are low-effort options. Treat the results as information for adjusting the lesson rather than as a way to catch people out. Where a student could not prepare, a brief catch-up reading or a place in a group with someone who did can keep them in the activity.
Remember learners’ circumstances. Some may have limited home internet access, little time or a shared device. If the pre-class part takes more than the time you planned, or relies on streaming, offer downloadable versions, printed copies or time in school to complete it.
Watch the total workload
A frequent mistake is adding pre-class work without removing anything else. Work through the tasks yourself and add a margin, since students new to a topic usually take longer than the teacher expects.
Reviewing how it went
After the lesson, note how many students had prepared, which questions came up, whether class time went to practice or to re-lecturing, and what to change. Simple notes are enough. Where a quiz is used, keep it low stakes; there is a separate question of how online assessment should count towards grades. Over several lessons they show what the split should be for this particular group.
A realistic view of engagement
Teachers often adopt flipped lessons hoping students will be more engaged. Some report that this happens, and some students say they appreciate the extra practice and help. But engagement depends on many things: the topic, the relationships in the room, the clarity of the tasks and whether students believe the preparation is worth doing. Evidence on flipped teaching is mixed, and benefits are not guaranteed. Learner motivation also shifts over a term, so early enthusiasm is not a reliable guide. A modest approach, in which you pilot one unit, collect honest feedback and adjust the split, is more reliable than a wholesale redesign.