Did you know there is more than one way to flip your art room? In the AOE online class Flipping the Art Room, 7 different flipping methods are presented beyond the traditional approach of having students watch videos at home.
One of these methods is the “watch and do” flipping method. This approach works well for students who struggle to remember detailed steps (basically every 6th-8th grader). It’s not perfect for every lesson, but for something like color mixing, (example to follow) it works wonderfully. Here’s how it works.
You play a video for your students in class. While the video is playing, students work along with it in real time. Your job during the video is to circle the room to answer questions and help students. If things go too fast, you can stop the video and wait for students to catch up.
Here is an example of the type of demonstration video students would watch during a “watch and do” flipped lesson.
This method is also a great way to scaffold learning through a gradual release of responsibility, which is particularly helpful for repetitive yet complicated tasks like color mixing. Here’s how it works.
– The first 5 minutes of the video is the “teacher does” portion, where students watch the video and the teacher passes out supplies. (It is easier than you think to train students to not touch supplies while they are being passed out. Plus, passing supplies out during this part of class is a huge time-saver.)
– Then, the video is started over and the “we do” portion begins where the students paint with the video.
– Lastly, during the “you do” phase, students complete the remainder of the wheel without video instruction. At this point, students that are ready to move on to the next video can do so without having to wait.
– The last part of the video allows students to watch clean up expectations just before they start the clean-up process. It is extremely helpful to include clean up instructions within the videos.
If you’d like to try this lesson in your room, download your own copy of the Color Wheel handout used in the video!
Feel free to use the video, too, so you can try out a pre-flipped lesson for yourself. Once you get comfortable, get crazy and make your own flipped videos tailored to your students and your teaching style. If you want to learn more about flipped teaching, sign up for AOE’s class, Flipping the Art Room. Throughout this month-long course, participants actually create three complete flipped lessons to take directly into their classrooms!
How are you already using the “watch and do” method in your art room?
What other ways do you differentiate for students that work at different speeds?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
Article 
