Online Lessons

Start by identifying what students will learn during this lesson or unit of study. This will be important in setting a clear purpose, eliciting students’ prior knowledge, aiding in formulating questions, and helping students to monitor their understanding throughout the lesson or unit.

Students need time to connect and share their experiences. This is a very stressful time for all of us, including your students. Begin with SEL check-ins before engaging students in academic content.

Providing clear directions is not all that glamorous but it is essential. Clear directions ensure that all your students understand exactly what they need to do and how your students will approach their learning tasks. Clear directions allow students to get right to work saving valuable learning time.

When you scaffold the work that students have to do into manageable chunks there is less of a chance of overwhelming them and more of a chance that they will know exactly the steps that they need to take to be successful. That reduces stress and leads to better results.

Some of our students have great strategies to break down their learning into manageable chunks, know how to scaffold the work on their own, can keep track of when everything is due, and know how to submit their work. Others, need our help to organize their learning. Get Ready, Do, Done Templates and Google Tasks are two strategies to help students organize.

• Connecting and Communicating with Students is very important. Our communications must be clear and consistent to avoid confusion that leads to frustration. Our Online Communication should incorporate a good mix of live and all together (synchronous) learning and recorded or written opportunities so that students can access and work at their own pace (asynchronous).

  • • Provide clear directions with Outgoing Communication - There will be times when we need to reach out to student to provide clear directions, help them make connections, and push their thinking. Some teachers are providing written their directions to students. Others are introducing work during a video conference or creating how-to screencasting videos to introduce an activity. And many are combing written and video directions to provide multiple opportunities and modes for students to understand their tasks.

    • Create space for student thinking and discussion with Incoming Communication. Creating a space for students to ask questions, give feedback, and obtain further information or clarification is very important. Small group discussions can be a great way to facilitate these discussions. Use Protocols to structure your discussions [Protocol Resources] Protocols provide structured processes to support focused and productive conversations, build collective understanding, and drive school improvement. Thoughtful use of these protocols is an integral part of building resilient professional learning communities.

Engaging and Motivating learning activities include: class discussions, collaborative work, problem solving and projects. Start by establishing a holistic approach to a unit design to ensure a wide variety of learning activities are available to keep students engaged.

Visual Presentations allow students to share their learning with others. They solidify their learning and other students can learn from them. Teachers can check for understanding in order to guide instruction. And if we use them correctly, and often, yes, there is a chance instruction will slow when we discover we need to re-teach or review material the students wholly "did not get" -- and that's okay. Because sometimes we have to slow down in order to go quickly.

Before the Corona Virus, schools utilized summative assessments, grades, and formative assessments. Now, during our time of Remote Learning, year-end tests and student grades have been removed. We are left with formative assessments to provide meaningful feedback and encourage improved work making them even more important.

What motivates my students to participate and learn?

• • Meeting your students learning needs, styles, and preferences provides intrinsic motivation for them. Some students learn by reading, others by doing, and still others by watching videos (and some by all three). Factor in kinesthetic, visual and other learning styles and serve up content that appeals to all learners. When designed right, online lessons and units can provide multiple ways and formats to interact with materials and show what they have learned. Technology can help you provide students with choice and voice when they tackle the assignment.

  • Engagement allows students freedom to explore for their own answers.

  • Authentic Audiences for sharing their work is motivating for your students. Technology can help you reach an authentic audience to share your students’ work.

  • Social Motivation like writing or video-ing for your fans works well. Students can use technology to share their learning with their fans.

  • Emotional Currency can be built within your students by providing them the validation that they yearn for. Leverage technology to provide meaningful praise and feedback.

Authentic audiences help teachers and students connect their work in the classroom to the real world. They provide a sense of buy-in for students and bring attention to their work. As educators we have an understanding of what life is like for teachers and students every day.