Blended Learning In My Classroom

Does your class implement a blending learning model? First let's talk about what blended learning models are and how my classroom is running on one of the models.

In short, a blended learning environment is one in which students learn in part through online platforms. Notice I didn't say "classroom". Although many of you reading this right now may teach in a brick-and-mortar classroom, blended learning is considered any formal education program, whether that is in an actual classroom or an online course.

There are 4 different blended learning models:

What these two models look like in my classroom:

I provide “Math Menus” to all my students at the beginning of each week. The math menu consists of two sections: a must do and a may do. Each day, students are required to complete all the “must do” parts of that day before making choices in the “may do” section. What I love about this is that students have to complete the assignments I need to use for assessment and then they can apply the rest of their classroom time in highly engaging activities. This is my first year implementing a math menu like this. For years I have been trying to find a math center format that worked for my students and me. I have tried different types of math menus before, but not all of them were as productive as I had hoped. Students would choose a game to play instead of going through the various activities or centers I had laid out. I also tried for many years to implement timed rotations. This was great for keeping students on task, they could see the timer and it gave them direction on what they should be doing in order to stay on tasks. What I didn’t like about this is it narrowed my small group instruction significantly. First, I was restricted by time. My more advanced students usually were able to understand the objective of the lesson in the time allotted, however, the students that found math challenging more often than not would buzz before they understood the objective of my lesson. I found that having to set timed rotations was extremely challenging on days where our math periods were shorter. Also, some students became frustrated that they didn’t always have time to complete the activity they were working on. I found for some students this created an unnecessary anxiety in math class.

I was on the hunt for the best way to implement a math center/guided math style instruction in my classroom when through a professional development I discovered Julianna Matherson’s “math menu” system. She has a website, Math with Mrs. Matherson, and lists her resources with an accompanied blog.

I’ve been using Julianna Matherson’s math menu just about every week this school year and I am loving how it has created routine for my students, allowed me to work with any group of students for the amount of time I find suitable, and give my students a good amount of choice after they’ve completed assignments I want to assess.

Here is an example of one of the math menus I have created from Julianna Matherson’s template:

Notice that I made one of the “must do” assignments meeting with me. This only gives them two small assignments to complete before or after meeting with me before they can choose an activity to work on from the “may do” section. Every week I adapt the assignments to the new content. Students find the activities or assignments either on Google Classroom or in a box labeled with that activity.

In the “may do” section, there are either 1, 2, or 3 check boxes next to the activity. They are only allowed to do/play this activity/game that many times. This keeps students from playing only one game and not finding other challenges or reviewing other math concepts.

I was asked about how I plan each week's activities and if it is time consuming to assess work. Every week I designate one of my preps to copy any of my materials. On Monday morning I put them all in their corresponding boxes. The type of assignments that are not technology based stay the same, the content on them are different. Most templates come from Julianna Matherson’s TPT store. As far as assessments, I usually check the “must do” section assignments. I love reading what they write for some of those activities. I do not assess anything from the “may do” section. Most of my formative assessments are through the activities they do in small groups with me.

How to Implement Various Types of Technology Into Your Stations

Okay, so you’ve decided to implement a blended learning model into your classroom and you have so many different applications and new math technology to introduce to your students. How are you going to manage how your students will access them all? You will need a Learning Management System or a LMS. A LMS is a software type system that allows the facilitator to provide learning to their students by creating and posting lessons, links to videos, links to assignments. It creates an organized space for students to explore and find the tasks and assignments that they need to complete. Some popular school LMS that are used are Google Classroom, Moddle, Schoology, and Blackboard.

My district uses Google Classroom, which I love for its user-friendly interface and it’s cloud based which allows students to share and access assignments anywhere. You can even grade assignments on Google Classroom, which gives students immediate feedback. Parents can check their child’s grades and work as well. They can access Google Classroom from multiple devices, if your students use a school computer, their work automatically saves and they can continue to work on the same assignment later at home.

Please click here to explore how I use Google Classroom in my classroom.

Using Game-Based Technology for High Student Engagement

Sometimes it can be challenging to keep students engaged. Game based learning is one way to keep students highly engaged in their learning.

What is game-based learning?

Game-based learning is students learning and practicing skills through a game. The game itself drives instruction and provides an engaging way for students to apply their knowledge. Through playing games, students get immediate feedback of their understanding of the concept based on their performance in the game. Game based learning can be implemented using physical games using dice or cards or can be a computer based game. Both have their place in the classroom, but computer based games have some advantages.

How to implement games into your classroom:

Game-based learning has its place in the classroom. It usually is used as an engaging application to content learned. Whether you set aside time for students to play games or it’s done in a math station or center, it's an engaging way for students to apply, practice, and assess their knowledge of the content learned. In the video below, an elementary teacher is teaching addition and subtraction to his class. He uses a variety of computer based games to have students practice addition and subtraction problems. His students are highly motivated to learn through the games versus practicing the problems on a worksheet.

I think it's important to note that all students like playing games during math class. If you set up a Kahoot or Blooket game, the content most likely will not be fun for all students if it’s not challenging enough or it’s too challenging. One way I like to deal with differentiation during game based learning is giving students choice. For example, if I am putting up a Blooket for students to play, I tell my students what the topic of the game entails. If it is something that is challenging for some of my students, I will set up a different game on their Google Classroom. I tell my students they have a choice in what they’d like to play. A game is not going to be fun if the questions are too hard to answer.

I am lucky enough that my class has a 1:1 chromebook ratio. Before the pandemic we were on a 1:3 ratio. Then chromebooks were not always available on a whim, so planning the use of technology was much more difficult. If you are in the position where you don’t have access to devices or limited devices, implementing game based learning becomes a little more challenging, but can still be done with proper planning.

Using Technology to Support All Learners

It certainly can be a challenge to differentiate for all learners, but it poses an extra challenge when a student has a physical or learning impairment as well. We are required by law to accommodate these students, but it doesn’t make it any less of a challenge. Technology again is very helpful in the aid of our accommodations.

How to differentiate for your advanced learners.

One of the most challenging things for a teacher to do is plan for your students that need a challenge. Of course your goal is to teach the grade level curriculum and standards, so you do that. However you then have students that complete their assignments or activities so quickly because they didn’t really find them a challenge. Of course on the other side of the spectrum you have the students that find the grade level content too challenging and you need to provide assistance to them. How do you provide more challenging work to those students that need it?

Tech tools for advanced learners:

• Yummy Math is a new discovery of mine and I plan to use it as a choice of activities for my more advanced learners. I teach 5th grade and Yummy Math is geared more for middle school content, but it does have several activities that would be just challenging enough for my advanced learners. One I plan on using in my current unit is one on multiplication. Through real life application and story problems, students will solve multiplication problems with bigger numbers and higher order thinking problems.

• Blooket or Kahoot games can be geared to my advanced learners depending on the content that is chosen. I can have my advanced learners play in a small group as I have other students do different leveled activities.

• Kahn Acadamy is a great resource for all students because students can work on the level that is right for them. You can choose more advanced content for specific students and post that link for specific students on Google Classroom. This applies for students that need to review concepts from previous lessons or lower grade standards if they need it.

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning is the concept in teaching that every student not only learns differently, but can apply their learning in different ways. Every student in your classroom is unique in the way they learn. As educators, we want to make sure that we are offering more than one cookie cutter way of teaching and application. No matter what size class you have, this can be a daunting task when we plan our lessons. Luckily, technology makes it easier to differentiate lessons and assignments for our students.

There are three core concepts of UDL. They are representation, action and expression, and engagement.

• Representation-provide information in multiple ways, through different forms of media. Pictorial , written, examples, videos, discovery, support vocabulary, etc.

• Action and Expression-allow students multiple ways to express what they know, whether it’s through drawing, writing, models. It’s important to provide feedback and models on how to express their ideas. It is important to provide support and scaffolding for their different levels of proficiency.

• Engagement-provide choices that allow students to stay engaged. Provide activities that are the appropriate level of challenges so that students are willing to persevere in solving problems, allowing them to make mistakes that they can learn from.

Choices in student learning.

A blended learning classroom is the perfect environment to provide UDL for your students. Through LMS and the copious amounts of technology available to teachers to use for their diverse group of students.

Some Examples are:

• Google Slides

• Google Docs

• Google Forms

• You Tube

• Kahn Acadamy

• Blooket or Kahoot

• Yummy Math

Using Social Media in the Classroom

Some may argue that children are on social media too much and it can be a negative use of technology. That may be true in some facets, but it is hard to stop young adults from using these platforms, so why not use them in a positive way in the classroom.

Not only can we find videos that aides in our teaching, but we as educators can create videos and post. As some may shy away from the thought of creating a video immediately, let me be the first to tell you it is easier to accomplish than you may think. Using a variety of tools like Screencastify, Explain Everything, Show Me, a math teacher could create a video reviewing a lesson the way they taught it and relaying the message the way they want it communicated to their students. Remember, just because there is a video that shows how to multiply fractions, maybe it is pushing a “trick” method that you don’t want to model to your students. Sometimes it’s best to present it yourself the way you want it taught. Here is an example of a lesson I posted on YouTube that I used my iPad and Explain Everything to create. It was one of my first attempts, but it was during remote learning and I do believe my students gained a better understanding of the concept with the aid of this video.

Using Technology to Administer Assessments

In teaching math, new content is introduced rapidly. It is important to get an immediate idea if your students are ready as a whole to move forward. If you have a subset group of students that haven’t mastered the concept, you know this moving forward and can tailor your lessons accordingly. For example, if a teacher wanted to assign students a short formative assessment to check for understanding, the educator may not have the time to correct the assessment in a timely manner so that they can actually use the data to drive further instruction. The teacher may set aside a portion of the math period to pull a specific math group to review.

This is where using technology to administer assessments can be extremely valuable. The immediate feedback on these formative assessments is imperative to continue meeting students' needs. Technology also gives students the opportunity to apply skills in new ways using presentations, concept maps, or engaging game based assessments.

Teachers can choose already made assessments or create their own using a bank of questions or create their own questions from scratch. There are a variety of types of questions, from multiple choice, short answer, matching, essay, diagram labeling, drag and drops, and sorting. It is as easy as selecting the standards you would like to assess and either choosing or creating questions you’d like your students to answer. You have options for multiple answer inputs and can change the points allotted if you want to give partial credit or scale your assessment. The teacher can choose whether they’d like the students to see their test score or not. On the formative short “check Ins”, I do not release the grade. I don’t want to cause unnecessary performance anxiety when it’s not a summative grade that will be on their report cards.

Advantages:

• Immediate feedback

• Less time grading and more time planning instruction

• Online testing skill practice

• Options to release/not release grades to students

• Option for immediate student feedback

• Question banks or create your own.