According to Melanie Kitchen, Instructional Technology and Staff Development Coordinator at Erie 1 BOCES, educators can meet the challenge of teaching during a pandemic by adapting their approach to instructional design in the following ways:
- Teacher Collaboration is More Important than Ever
- working closely with specialists to make sure lessons and materials meet the needs of all students
- partnering with others in our content areas to plan instruction
- working together on cross-curricular projects
- dividing up all the things all students need (like digital citizenship) among teachers on a team or grade level so students aren't doing the same lessons over and over and our work isn't duplicated
- "Face-to-Face" Time Should be used for Active Learning
- Online instruction is made up largely of asynchronous instruction, which students can access at any time.
- Keep direct instruction, things like brief video lectures and readings, in asynchronous form, using checks for understanding like embedded questions or exit tickets.
- Use synchronous meetings for more interactive, engaging work
- Consider establishing "campfire groups"--permanent groups of about four students that stay together for long periods of time, allowing students to get to know each other better and establish more trust.
- Small group strategies might include the following:
- jigsaw activities
- discussion strategies adapted for virtual settings
- using best practices for cooperative learning
- visible thinking routines
- Content Needs to be Simplified and Slowed Down
- Hybrid/Remote instruction is not conducive to covering large amounts of content so teaches will have to choose wisely, teaching the essential standards at a slower pace.
- Some questions to consider:
- What really holds leverage for the students? What has endurance? What knowledge is essential?
- What knowledge and skills do students need to have before they move to the next grade level or the next class?
- What practices can be emphasized that transfer across many content areas? Skills like analyzing, constructing arguments, building a strong knowledge base through texts, and speaking can all be taught through many different subjects.
- What tools can serve multiple purposes? Teaching students to use something like Padlet gives them opportunities to use audio, drawing, writing, and video. Non-digital tools can also work: Students can use things they find around the house, like toilet paper rolls, to fulfill other assignments, and then submit their work with a photo.
- Instructions Should be Easy to Find, Explicit, and Multimodal
- Provide instructions in a consistent location and at a consistent time. Set up lessons so that students know where to find instructions every time.
- Make instructions explicit. Read and re-read to make sure these are as clear as possible. Make dogfooding your lessons a regular practice to root out problem areas.
- Offer multimodal instructions. If possible, provide both written and video instructions for assignments, so students can choose the format that works best for them. You might also offer a synchronous weekly or daily meeting; what’s great about doing these online is that even if you teach several sections of the same class per day, students are no longer restricted to class times and can attend whatever meeting works best for them.
- Emphasize Feedback
- Put the emphasis on formative feedback as students work through assignments and tasks, rather than simply grading them at the end.
- Use Private Comments in Google Classroom so students can see your feedback and engage in a conversation about their work.
- Feedback should be frequent and specific.
- Provide pathways for students and parents to give YOU feedback on assignments as well.
- Summative Assessment Should Focus on Creation
- In online learning, there are so many ways students can cheat. A great solution to this problem is to have students create things like videos, podcasts, art, writing pieces, comics, etc.
- For assessment, ue a detailed rubric that highlights learning goals that the end product will demonstrate
- Help students discover tools to work with. Feel free to share the Creation Tools Cheat Sheet to offer students choices.
