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Dr. Helaine W. Marshall is not the first professor in America to “flip” her classroom, but she is the first to do it at LIU Hudson at Westchester. And what’s more, she’s training teachers to implement this way of teaching into their own classrooms.
Flip teaching is a form of learning which allows Marshall, who is director of the institution's TESOL and Bilingual Education Programs, to spend more time interacting with her students instead of lecturing, she said.
By creating instructional videos for the students to watch outside of class, she can more effectively answer her students’ questions during class time.
“My students can watch my videos at home as many times as they want, and then come in the next day to help each other, learn and bond together as a group,” said the campus professor of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).
After unveiling her “flipped classroom” this past semester, Marshall is already delighted with the results. One of her Westchester students is even hoping to bring the concept into her ESL (English as a Second Language) math classroom.
“My students who learned this way learned much better than my previous students did,” the teacher said.
As a technique for teaching English to people who speak another language, this model is unique. A relationship with the teacher is still imperative, even though the students are receiving instruction online.
“ESL students need to view instructional videos created by their own teacher who knows the grammar and vocabulary familiar to them, and with whom they have a relationship," she said.
Flip teaching isn't the first innovative step Dr. Marshall has taken in the classroom. Nearly all courses in her department are taught online with the help of webcams in a virtual classroom. There, students can give presentations, break into small groups via “breakout” rooms and record the audio and visual components of each session for later reference.
More information on TESOL and Bilingual Education programs at LIU Hudson at Westchester can be found at http://liu.edu/Hudson/Academics/Programs/SE/TESOL-BE.aspx.
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