3.2 An Example of the Lesson Plan 9

3.3 The innovation of the teaching plan 10

3.4 The Model of the Teaching Plan 10

IV. Conclusion 12

References 13

Appendix I Questionnaire 1 15

Appendix II Questionnaire 2 16

I. The Introduction of the Flipped Classroom 

 With the Internet growing rapidly, and so many new techniques appearing every day, teachers have to search for a better way of teaching. And before adopting a new pedagogical approach, teachers should also make some researches and experiments to make sure that it will not have passive impact to students. The popularity of Khan Academy and also NetEase Cloud Classroom in China hints that more people are willing to study online and at home today, and some people may find it is efficient to study in personal space. Since the classroom which cannot be replaced for providing the place for students and teachers to interact with each other is still the center for teaching and learning, we can use the online classroom as an assistant to promote learning. Wesley Baker brought up the flipped classroom which makes full use of the Internet for education consisting of in-class learning and online-learning. However, different subjects have different characters, so it is necessary to focus on a specific subject with target students for leading into the flipped classroom. As the elementary English teaching developed rapidly, and some students tend to start learning English from an earlier age, it is critical for teachers to pay more attention to each student’s development. Since the time for class is limited and it is impossible for teachers to cater to every student in about 40 minutes and the teacher himself (herself) may has some limits. For example the teacher’s pronunciation may be influenced by the teacher’s dialect. The flipped classroom can provide some materials made by professional and native speaker to rich the teaching material for students and also provide times for the teacher to check every student’s study procedure in the classroom. This thesis will introduce the flipped classroom, list some successful examples of the flipped classroom, explore the elementary student’s psychology and try to build a model based on the flipped classroom for elementary English teaching.

1.1 The Definition and History of the Flipped Classroom

    The flipped classroom is a pedagogical approach first brought up by Wesley Baker (2000). It flips traditional teaching, makes the Internet the center for information-transmission. The flipped classroom has three main features (Zhong Xiaoliu. 2013： 60.):

1. Students accept new knowledge mainly online and learn by themselves.

2. The class time is mainly for interaction and teachers can check the learning outcomes of each student among the class.

3. Require students to make time for making full use of the pre- or post- classroom. The video which made by the teacher is helpful for prevision or revision.

4. The flipped classroom connects the learning platform with the Internet by LMS (learning management system)

    In 1993, King published an article in College Teaching named From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side, which is behind the student-center teaching approach and makes educators consider about the traditional teaching. Then in 2000 Wesley Backer firstly put forward the model of flipped classroom which was described in his article published in the 11th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning.

In 2004, Salman Khan recorded some videos for helping his cousin to learn the knowledge which his cousin cannot understand in classroom and it proved to be efficient. And gradually the Khan Academy was built and adopted by many educators in flipped classroom teaching. In 2006, Dr. Bill Brantley built a flipped classroom model, and described the way to convey the content of the imitate classroom to an online LMS. In 2007, Jeremy Strayer published his research which highlights the importance of forming a teaching method to combine the in-class and out-class activities and researching the positives and negatives of the new method for learning and practicing. In 2013, the flipped classroom was firstly applied in a college chemical class leaded by Dominic Smith and students reflected that they enjoyed the flipped classroom although it took more time to learn knowledge out-class, and before each class ,they would have a quiz , and the class time is mainly for problems solving and also for interaction.