One of the unknowns within the recent school closures is how we are going to make sure that our learners still get access to high-quality instruction in order to continue their learning experience. One of the possible answers to this unknown is providing virtual learning opportunities for our kids. This means that our students are still getting access to the modeled lessons, the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas, and the opportunity to get independent work completed.
While anything that we share with learners is optional, this is a chance to start flipping our classrooms and to explore how to create video lessons that will be helpful to our learners.
Platforms for Online Learning
-
Class Dojo (Free) – see this link for more information
- I Do: you can create stories that share your modeled lessons with videos up to 8 minutes, these could be screen recordings of you working something out on your own device or even you standing in front of a poster and doing your own modeled lessons on poster paper
- We Do: hold conversations by asking learners to post comments on your original posts
- You Do Together: provide a problem or questions and have students comment on the post and start a discussion
- You Do On Your Own: use the portfolios feature to have students submit photos, voice notes, drawings…based on whatever you are teaching. Give students feedback
- Communication: you can message back and forth with parents and your students
-
Canva
- I Do: share a video of you working through your modeled lesson
- We Do: pose a question and have students comment on each other’s work
- You Do Together: provide a problem or questions and have students comment on the post and start a discussion
- You Do On Your Own: create an assignment and have students complete their own work
-
Instagram (Free) – suggestion to create a classroom account instead of using your personal account
- I Do: you can create video lessons in your stories and add them to your highlights, these videos should be just like what you would do during your own class lessons except you are doing it for a video camera instead of a classroom full of leaners
- We Do: ask your learners to comment and use a hashtag to follow each other’s comments
- You Do Together: pose a question focused on your unit of study and have students work it out together…again, hashtags can be really helpful in creating an organized space for everyone to share their thoughts
- You Do on Your Own: have learners send your class Instagram page a direct message showing what they have learned or responding to the exit ticket that you assigned. They could respond using a video, picture, voice recording…
- Giving Feedback: You can respond to your student’s direct messages and share the feedback that you have for them. You can share a “glow” (something they did well) and a “grow” (something that students can improve upon)
What to Share
When we think about remote learning, virtual learning, online learning…we should also be thinking of the opportunity to apply learning, the opportunity to help our learners develop independence as they create a schedule that they must adhere to. Some of what we are doing in our classrooms can be recreated to be done remotely. I am not saying that our learners should solely rely on the online programs that our school offers, that will not be an effective solution at all! Instead, we can provide support through screen-recorded lessons that demonstrate the skills we would like our learners to understand.
We can use programs like Class Dojo or Canvas to share videos and resources. The students can watch lessons of modeled instruction that you have created, respond to each question or prompt, hold collaborative conversations, and even turn in exit ticket work…all remotely! This can be done all on the sites Class Dojo or Canvas, both of which our learners use in class or in their Mindlabs classes.
Trust Circles
Post an image or a thought question on Class Dojo or on Canva. Ask students to share by commenting on the post. Each student can either share a written text reflection or they can share a voice recording or a picture that reflects their thoughts.
Modeled Lesson – record and share
Your modeled lessons can be done in front of a video camera just as easily as they can be done in front of a group of learners! When we are talking about modeled lessons, we are:
-
- introducing the lesson objective
- using language frames
- talking through areas where we think our learners will struggle
Guided Lesson – have students respond to each other
This is the area of your lesson where students work with you to practice the standard before they go to complete it with another student. When we are doing guided lessons, or lessons that learners do together, we are providing them with the chance to ask and answer each other’s questions. Pose a question that is related to the standard you are working on…have students comment on your original post and comment on each other’s thoughts. During this time, you can monitor their thoughts and provide feedback when needed.
-
- Pose a question related to the standard you are working
- Have students discuss the question and share their answer
- Write your own commentary as well
Collaborative Work – pose a question and get learners to work together
Create a post on Canva/Class Dojo/Instagram or whatever platform you are using…have students respond and work together to discuss. This should be a question with multiple pieces to help guide the conversation. You do not want something with one simple answer, you want a question that can actually be discussed.
-
- Pose a different question related to the standard you are working
- Have students discuss the question and share their answer
- Write your own commentary as well
Independent Work – exit ticket sent by completing an assignment
Create an assignment that students can turn in to you on whichever platform you are using! This should be something that the student is given feedback on…meaning that you read it over and comment back to them.
-
- Create an assignment that can be turned in privately
- Read each student’s response
- Respond to their thoughts
How to Hold Learners Accountable
While we want our learners to continue to actively participate…it needs to be clear that the assignments given during the national emergency cannot be made mandatory, so nothing can be counted as a grade. When we comment back on our learners’ thoughts and comments, we are encouraging participation in our class discussions. The same as we would in our classrooms, we should create a space for safe and collaborative learning in our virtual classrooms. This means that our learners can share their ideas and get feedback on their thoughts…feedback that will help them grow and help them recognize where they are excelling.
Supporting Parents
During this time, it is important to make sure that we keep our families in mind! This means communicating with them, providing them with options for helping their children learn. This does not mean assigning a packet of work to be done…instead, this means giving our parents resources, like a schedule, filled with things that we do in our daily routines anyway. The more relevant to classroom learning that we keep our remote learning, the fewer obstacles our families will face. We want to provide learning opportunities that our students are used to completing so that they are not trying to figure out something new without our support!
