Key Remote Instructional Practices

Adapted from "7 Tips for Being a Great Virtual Teacher" published by: Teach For America

1. Prioritize Social Emotional Learning & Relationship Building

Researchers have found that “relatedness” is a key element needed to create conditions that support student intrinsic motivation. In other words, the activities that students do must bring them into relationships with those whom they respect and like (Ferlazzo, 2015, March 25). The first step towards respecting and liking someone, of course, is getting to know them.

• Facilitate daily circles / meetings / or SEL curriculum, and SEL practices across content areas to cultivate and deepen relationships, with a prioritization on relationships that haven’t been established, to ensure effective social, emotional, and academic learning for all students.

• Ensure all students feel a sense of belonging through personalized learning opportunities that include student choice, the development of student-created weekly goals, and tasks that connect to students’ interests and identities.

• Provide consistent opportunities for students and staff to reflect on SEL practices, and how they have/haven't contributed to their personal growth.

• Provide consistent opportunities within core-content instruction for students and staff to examine the impact of the pandemic and systemic racism, on their lives and communities.

• Use surveys and formally collected data as an opportunity to share power, deepen relationships, and continuously improve support for students, families, and staff.

• Partner with students, families and partners to learn about their ongoing needs and strengths, and continuously offer opportunities for communication and access to resources that address shared challenges.

2. When planning, use the principles of strong teaching

• Lessons should be grounded in prioritized learning standards, with backwards-design planning from them.

• Lessons should include multiple paths students might take to reach learning goals, including collaborative & independent learning tasks.

• Content should be broken into chunks, any may include short videos (5-mins or less). Longer videos should be split into shorter videos, or paused for questioning and discussion. EdPuzzle is a great tool teachers can use to embed multiple choice or open-ended questions into videos.

• Expectations must be clear --both about online learning itself and about academic expectations. Students must have rubrics, guided practice and exemplars to refer to.

• Lessons should include opportunities for timely feedback through online knowledge checks, comments on assignments, or chat features that keep students on track, motivated, and feeling supported.

• Students must have ways to ask teachers questions as they work on assignments, or when they get stuck, explicitly stating how and when they can (and cannot) contact a teacher for help.

• Lessons should promote metacognition to support learning. Students should respond to reflection questions as a part of each assignment such as:

  • In what ways, if any, did this assignment change your understanding of the topic?

  • What did you find most challenging about this assignment?

  • What do you still want to know about this topic?

  • What did you enjoy most about this assignment?

  • What would have made this lesson or activity better?

  • What did you discover about yourself as a person? As a learner?

3. Remember the difference between a virtual assignment and a virtual lesson.

• • All lessons should include, (and start with) not just assignments, but instruction that activates background knowledge, states the learning objective, and models what students are expected to learn and do by the end of the lesson. This can be done through platforms like Zoom, Seesaw and Google Hangouts, or, if needed, can be a pre-recorded video with voice-over using a platform like Screencastify (free, simple, recommended).

  • Recording live lessons is recommended for students who were absent during live instruction. Recordings also allow teachers to go back and self asses or peer-assess lessons to make future adjustments.

  • Unlike assignments in the classroom where students can raise their hand to ask clarifying questions or directions with immediate responses, virtual assignments need to be overly-scaffolded with written and oral step-by-step directions. For example, visual slide-decks that include pointing arrows and images and/or audio narration.

  • With virtual instruction, lesson creation/planning should take up the majority of your time; grading should take the least amount of time (using a platform like Google Forms, or PollEverywhere). Giving feedback will fall somewhere in the middle based on whether you have pre-entered feedback into Google Forms, used live polling tools, or if you've created a clear rubric in advance (rubrics are a necessary practice).

4. Use multiple forms of communication both to and from students & families

• Teachers should provide a predictable schedule for when students and families can expect communication regarding learning, events and specific academic updates, so they don’t miss vital information.

• Announcements should be posted, emailed and communicated through multiple means, ensuring multiple points of access, utilizing website & google doc translation resources as needed.

• Students & families shoudl have multiple ways to communicate with teachers, including phone and email information, and opportunities to schedule 1-1 time.

• Students and parents/guardians should be contacted immediately after students are absent.

• Students must have access to independent learning opportunities that don’t require the continued support of teachers or families.

5. Use strategies that increase student participation and attendance:

• • Virtual classrooms need to be hybrid learning spaces that are welcoming, dependable and cheerful. They should have the same care and nurture as a face-to-face environment through intentional celebration of individual students, sharing of student work, and a visually appealing platform.

  • Students should have many opportunities for social interaction, not just between them and staff, but through tools that allow students to work, share, interact, and learn together. Learning at home should not be a lonely activity. Students must feel connected to one another through engagement with each other online, to the extent possible.

  • Students' interests and identities should be incorporated into lesson texts, tasks and discussions.

  • "Live" lessons and extra-help or small-group sessions should be delivered as consistently as possible (same time daily, weekly).

  • For engaging classroom discussions with efficient accountability, students should have the opportunity to respond to key questions using tools like Zoom Polls, Google Forms, or PollEv to capture learning data in realtime.

6. Carve out reflection time for yourself on the process

Teachers are learning how to use online learning platforms just as students are. It's important to continuously assess & adjust through scheduled reflection time:

• Ask questions like:

  • Do I see trends in student / my own participation? What are the reasons that might be behind that?

  • What am I learning about myself / my students from reflections on assignments?

  • What am I learning or discovering about myself / my students?

  • What perspectives and identities were included / omitted from this learning? What specific voices and identities were present in, or missing from classroom discussions and assignments?

  • What could I do to make this learning more accessible? More inclusive? More rigorous? More meaningful?

  • How am I / my students doing physically, mentally, and emotionally?

  • In what ways, if any, did this assignment change your understanding of the topic?

  • What did you (students) find most challenging about this assignment?

  • What do you (students) still want to know about this topic?

  • What did you (students) enjoy most about this assignment?

  • What would have made this lesson or activity better?

See: Special Education and ESL tabs for more!

Standards-Related Resources:

• SY2021 Priority Content Standards

• Quick Resource: Writing ELD language objectives

• Math Coherence Map (to identify prerequisite skills in current or previous grades for any given standard).

• Planning Template for a Cognitively-Demanding Task-Based Mathematics Lesson

• Consider:

  • What does previous data show about what students already know about this topic / standard?

  • What explicit teaching may be needed to address learning loss / interrupted schooling?

Lexile Level Resources:

• Lexile levels by grade level

• Find the Lexile Level of a Text

Resources for accessing texts online:

• Internet Library Archive

• GoEpic!

• Bookshare

• LearningAlly

• Quill.org

• TumbleBooks

• CommonLit Text Set Library

• Multilingual Library of read aloud texts for ELLs

Technology:

• Prepare for how students will respond to questions. (Unmute, raise “Zoom Hand”, raise real hand, use chat feature, input into live google doc, PollEv, EdPuzzle, etc.

• Prepare your browser tabs for the lesson in advance so you have everything you need open and ready. Support students in opening the correct tabs.

• Changing Zoom name: Tutorial Here

• How to change Zoom picture / background: Tutorial Here

Exit Tickets & Feedback:

• What standards-aligned, grade-appropriate question or task will students be able to do as a result of the learning within this lesson?

• Consider the following questions: What would have made this lesson or activity better? What did you enjoy about this lesson? What feedback about this lesson do you have for me/your teacher?

Closing / Self-Reflection Questions:

• What did you learn about yourself or your peers from this lesson?

• What perspectives or identities were included or missing from this lesson (or our discussion)?

• In what ways, if any, did this assignment change your understanding of the topic?

• What did you find most challenging about this assignment? / What did you enjoy most?

• What do you still want to know about this topic?

Vocabulary Instruction:

• Explicitly identify text features: meaning, purpose, language, key phrases, figurative language, mood, tone, theme, complex sentences, grammar, text order (ex. chronological) and structure.

Vocabulary Resources:

• Prepping Unit Vocabulary

• Vocabulary Activities

• Guide to supporting ELLs with grade-level ELA Tasks

Designing an Effective “Hook”

• Ask: How do students connect their own lives, cultures, past experiences, and/or the world around them to this lesson?

• Consider using live polling and shared results to provide immediate feedback and initiate debate & discourse.

• Activating background knowledge from prior learning or personal experience allows students to “chunk” new information in their brain and store new content into their long-term memory.

Hook Tools & Resources:

• Brainstorming, word clouds (Mentimeter, PollEv), debate, suspenseful or exciting videos (Youtube, EdPuzzle, Vimeo, Flocabulary), music, Padlet, Live Google Forms, Google Classroom Question feature, Jamboard.

Developing Questions:

• Write questions and multiple choice answer options that all students will submit responses to during the lesson. These should move students towards mastery of the Exit Ticket / Target Task.

• Provide multiple choice questions with more than one option, and display live responses using polling software to generate discussion and check for understanding throughout the lesson.

• Include academic language in questions and answer options and require students to use complete sentences in oral responses and explanations.

• Provide questions that facilitate analysis of text features: meaning, purpose, language, sequence, mood, tone, theme, key phrases, figurative language, complex sentences, grammar, text order (ex. chronological) and structure.

• Provide multi-step questions that require higher-level thinking.

• Standards-aligned question stems (ELA)

• Higher-Level Questions (Examples)

Direction Instruction

• Explicitly connect the learning task to stated objectives and provide directions and an exemplar or rubric for submitted assignments.

• How do the texts, tasks and questions incorporate the beauty, joy, resiliency, and variety of Black, Brown, and Indigenous experiences?

• Use live polling and share results to initiate student conversations where students are encouraged to talk about each other’s thinking.

Online Strategies/Tools:

• Screencastify video, live teacher or student demonstration, Flocabulary, EdPuzzle, Jamboard, Mentimeter, PollEv, Google Docs / Slides, Padlet, Zoom whiteboard and annotation feature.

Learning Tasks That Support Critical SEL Skills:

• Self-awareness: Students share an emotional or personal connection to the content or learning.

• Self-management: Students are motivated and guided by feedback and/or learning data.

• Responsible decision-making: Students identify, discuss and solve problems independently and collaboratively, and have the necessary tools, scaffolds and resources to seek help.

• Relationship skills: Students have an opportunity to develop positive learning relationships with peers through peer-led discussions, team projects and leadership roles.

• Relationship skills: Students learn about and build positive relationships with others who are different from them.

Accommodations / Scaffolds & Supports for ELLs & SWDs:

• Proactively plan scaffolding in each lesson according to the learning objective, standard(s), and your students’ needs.

• Regularly revisit the scaffolds you’ve planned to gauge whether they are meeting students’ needs and adapt your plans as needed.

• If using a curriculum that includes scaffolds, evaluate their appropriateness for your content and students, and adapt as needed.

• Co-plan with other staff members who work with your students to ensure students consistently receive appropriate scaffolds that support them in accessing grade-level content.

Differentiation Resources:

• Guide to supporting ELLs with grade-level ELA Tasks

• Guidelines for Improving Math Materials for English Learners

• Before/During/After Reading Strategies

• Differentiating for ELLs

• Differentiating for students with IEPs

• Online Tools for differentiation

Small Group / Collaborative Work:

• What leadership roles will students have with lesson facilitation and/or technology? (ex. taking attendance, question facilitation, chat monitoring, note-taking, etc.)

• Provide whole-group and small-group breakout sessions where students can talk and ask questions about each other’s thinking to clarify or improve their understanding.

• Require students to use evidence from text and/or to explain math reasoning to demonstrate understanding and to support their answers.

• If whole group, use live polling and shared results to initiate student conversations where students are encouraged to talk about each other’s thinking.

• If small group, use a google form or doc to record group notes and responses. Assign a facilitator and note-taker, among other roles.

Online Strategies/Tools: (for peer collaboration):

• Shared Google Docs or Assigned Group Slide Decks, Padlet, Flipgrid, EdPuzzle, Jamboard, Google Forms for small groups to submit responses

Project-Based Learning:

• Provide clear directions and a rubric that allow students to individually access and work on their project without continuous adult support or guidance.

• How does the project allow students to connect the content to current events, local people and places, important issues or real-world debates?

• Provide students with voice and choice in how they complete this task (type of project or topic).

• Ensure the tasks/options incorporate the beauty, joy, resiliency, and variety of Black, Brown, and Indigenous experiences.

• Explicitly state how students will work on and share their final product - provide student leadership opportunities and roles to facilitate discussions, teach-back content, share student-made screencastify tutorials for peers, and more.

• Publicly share and review student work through virtual displays or links on the classroom website.

ELA- and Math-Specific PBL Resources:

• Literacy Design Collaborative and PBL (Buck Institute)
  This webinar for BIE shows how you can build CCSS "hardwired" learning modules into PBL Projects.

• Assessing the Common Core Math Standards: Real Life Mathematics (Edutopia, 2011)
  In a blog for Edutopia, Andrew Miller talks about the potential to assess Common Core Standards for mathematics with PBL projects.

• Project-Based Learning in the Geometry Classroom
  This blog from Getting Smart explains how PBL can occur specifically in the Common Core math classroom.

• Standards for Mathematical Practice / Project Based Learning

This blog from a PBL trainer aligns the mathematical practices from the Common Core to specific essential elements of project-based learning. Joanne Keim helps you see how PBL can meet specific objectives of Common Core math instruction and standards.