Toward a Blueprint for Online Reading Classes : Reflections on Flipping the Classroom, Collaboration, and Fluency

The challenges of teaching online Reading classes to Japanese university students were met with a consideration of how to best maximize the online context.To this end, a flipped classroom seemed to be a natural fit, as homework allowed students to complete learning at their own pace outside of the classroom which could be assessed to ensure concepts were correctly understood.Synchronous class time was then used to apply knowledge and skills collaboratively in small groups.Establishing and maintaining a participatory classroom culture maximized the success of such activities.In addition, although the online context presented challenges related to improving reading fluency, in-class timed reading, extensive reading logs, and book reports were moderately successful despite issues related to accountability.Furthermore, the wealth of communication and instructional tools available to facilitate online learning needed to be pared down and carefully considered in order to maintain a focus on learning language rather than learning technology.