An Edugraph Writers Circle Offering: A Student’s Take on Flip Teaching in Literature Class

Time passed with excruciating pace as my teacher’s monotonous explanations of a purportedly phenomenal play made even the peeling white paint on the walls seem exhilarating. Our form of entertainment that day? Watching the clock tick by.

It was only when the new literature teacher walked in, wearing a smirk and a gray cardigan that literature appeared to us as it really was.

Aside from my dramatisation, it was really this teacher that made learning fun in a way that metamorphosed studying into learning- the thin line between those words made evident to me with her sensational teaching.

My most memorable learning experiences have always been in her class, but the best would be the day she put us in her shoes- flip teaching. This instructional strategy, though increasingly ubiquitous, was positively distinctive in her class. The lesson plan was so spectacularly tailored that it amalgamated some indispensable skills into an amazing journey, with its ebbs and flows.

We were first divided into groups tasked with the creation of a lesson plan and relevant documents around a play called The Dear Departed. While the task seemed easy at the beginning, what with students undermining the teacher’s efforts, it proved to be challenging. Greeted with initial apprehension, this task pushed us to the boundaries of collaboration and cooperation. I struggled with this immensely, being a perfectionist and having a penchant for the arts- the task drove me to reform this attitude.

This task also increased the students’ connection with the subject matter, an aspect that was manifest in the outstanding grades that followed. Standing up at the front of the class after weeks of preparing and a million documents while being assaulted with questions (and occasionally calculator covers) led me to empathise with my teachers in an insightful journey of learning.

The writer Akshara Dalan is a class 9 student at D Y Patil International School, Nerul, Maharashtra.

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