We have been remote learning for 6 weeks. I have learned many useful things over the course of these 6-weeks: how to engage students, how to scaffold instruction for the new learning environment, and how to pace instruction. However, I am also still struggling with many other things that remote learning has made difficult: how to engage and provide access to content for my students who are new to the country and language, how to engage my students who are logging in and not participating, how to have students complete work, and so much more.
Let's focus on my biggest struggles:
English Language Learners - I have two students that are new to the US. Both of these students are just learning English now and in a remote learning environment. In my district we cannot use breakout rooms without a teacher in each room. This means - for me - that I cannot use breakout rooms at all because I do not have a co-teacher or other adult present in my class to provide that supervision support. As you can imagine, this makes facilitating oral language very difficult. While I am providing alternate learning tasks for these students, I still feel like they are not getting the most out of what I give them. Part of this comes from knowing they are not accessing the lessons like other students. I feel ineffective in providing Sheltered Content Instruction. So what is the solution? I have begun using a program with my district called ELLevation. This program provides access to possible strategies to use during instruction with students to facilitate specific language building skills. This last week was more engaging for my students since I began to use some of the suggested activities for my students. I am hopeful that as I continue to build my knowledge base of effective ESL strategies that I will be able to provide Sheltered Content Instruction more effectively.
Students that "ghost" - This has been extremely difficult. Students log in and never respond to anything I say. No matter how many times I say their name. Contacting parents has not always been effective long-term. I find that some of these students have a second "Meet" open that they are in and they are playing video games together or just chatting while our class call is on mute. I know other students are having to handle things at home. Often caring for younger siblings, or needing to do things at home to support their families. And some students just have connection problems. Because I know that some of my students are experiencing these challenges while also trying to learn, I have been providing access to instruction in other ways as well. I make sure students know where to access learning materials and I provide audio and video instruction as much as possible. Possible solution: Totally "flip" the classroom. Do all instruction via video and EdPuzzle and then have students work online to complete tasks and get help with me during class sessions. Right now my classroom is about 75% flipped, so I know I can continue to improve on that. But, how do I engage those that choose not to participate? There has been a lot of talk on gamifying the classroom. I want to try it, but I must confess, this makes me extremely nervous. I plan to work this weekend on trying to plan something that will take me out of my comfort zone, but hopefully engage more of my remote learners into being full participants in their learning. After all, I am now competing directly with Fortnight, Among Us, Netflix, and YouTube!
Incomplete work - Some students will open an assignment and try for a few minutes, some will put full 100% effort into the assignment, some will never even open it. My students are split with about a third in each category. I would say that the 1/3 of students that are completing their assignments are the ones that are truly successful with remote learning. They have adapted and doing well. But, what about the other 2/3? I know that most of them are trying and want to do well. Some are overwhelmed and some don't have the confidence to work independently, while others need more academic support and worry about asking for help. I tried creating a "small group" routine. Students came in for whole-group lesson and then 2/3 left the call and with gradual time limits came back until all students were back in the call at the end. In theory, this allowed me to have the most time with students who need the most academic support. However, it really didn't work. Students were still not asking for help or they would participate in a quick reteach lesson and then the work they did showed they really still didn't understand. I try to scaffold as much as possible. I provide frames and I have content chunked as much as I can. They need a high-level of support that I am having difficulty providing. I do believe that this has a large impact on their ability to complete their work because it isn't comprehensible. And I am slowly running out of ideas to support these learners. What is a probable solution? I am considering adding more choices to student learning tasks. I do provide options for students to complete their work; however, I know I could improve this as well. I am wondering if I can take the gamification challenge I am giving myself and incorporating points earned or badges or something for completed work. I'll be exploring this idea more this week. I also think I need more choice boards with more leveled options. Right now I provide 2-3 options for students to choose from to complete a task. I am thinking of using a learning choice board menu of options that are coded by color for level of complexity. Similar to the interactive learning menus from Shake Up Learning.
I attended a Professional Development offering from my district this week. I know they are trying to help us and take things off our plate and they have some great ideas I plan to try in my remote learning classroom; however, there is a disconnect with the time required for students to complete work. I found that what they recommend would take 45 minutes I could see taking a MINIMUM of 90 minutes and possibly longer. Everything is taking 2-3X as long to do remotely as it did in person. I have been very intentional in designing instruction because of this, but it is still a struggle. How do I accommodate the pace of my students versus the pace of the scope & sequence that we are required to adhere to? Time has always been something we never have enough of as teachers, and yet I feel it more this year than ever before. The state is still requiring standardized testing and I disagree with that decision. The argument is that we won't know if our students are learning, but, as a teacher, the state test does not tell me if they are learning during a good year and definitely will not give me viable information during a pandemic while teaching remotely. I want to focus on supporting my students and engaging them in instruction that is relevant and interesting and, most importantly, I want them to be safe. I am constantly reflecting to change for my students needs. This week I have a lot of changes I need to consider for my students.
What have you changed lately? What will you change going forward?
Comments