With the new school year getting off the ground, a lot of kids and their families are adjusting to some sort of virtual learning. Whether virtual learning has meant more technology usage than your child is used to or a less structured, more independent learning environment for your child, this year might feel like a totally new way to be in school. From Kindergarten to high school, chances are kids will struggle with motivation at some point this fall. Here are some tips to help you help kids of all ages stay healthy, engaged and motivated as they navigate virtual learning.

Start with the body basics.

For kids of any age (but particularly those under 8), physical activity is non-negotiable. Especially as kids transition from summer to school, it might be challenging to fit in enough play time and exercise. Help kids make a plan for getting the wiggles out — before, during and after they plug in. Plan recess into their virtual day, and think about what kinds of physical rituals your kid can do to shake off the school day when they’re finished.

Also, try to make sure your student is body-ready to learn. That means, remind them to hit the bathroom before getting online! Also, did they eat breakfast? Do they usually snack at a certain point in the day? You can help them stay ahead of these basics with a ready-to-learn checklist that you create together.

Set the expectation that “school” is still school.

Sure, “school” might be happening in the most quiet corner of your home (if there is one at all), and with less than ideal acoustics. And, sure, it’s possible that your kid hasn’t worn shoes in months and insists that it doesn’t matter if they’re wearing their pajamas to class. But the more you can do to help your kiddos approach learning with the same interest and curiosity as they bring to in-person instruction, the more engaged your child is likely to be. For example, the social aspects of virtual learning will be a great motivator for a lot of kids. Talk to them about their teachers, what they worked on and learned each day, and find out who else is in their classes. Consider having a regular “lunch hour,” requiring your child to be dressed in real clothes by a certain time in the morning, and stick with other habits they’d observe in in-person school.

Talk to kids about how it’s going.

Lots of schools and teachers are new at virtual learning, and might not nail it right from the start, even with all their hard work. Our kids are probably going to make judgments pretty early on about how “good” their virtual instruction is, based on how well their teachers engage them—which can impact how well they engage with virtual schooling for the rest of the semester. Talk to them about it. Get their opinion, listen to them, and remind them that this is new for everyone, including teachers. Also, let them know that Zoom fatigue is real! They might notice that they feel tired or irritable after long spells of interacting virtually.

On the other hand, here might also be aspects of virtual learning that bring out new curiosities or learning strategies for your kid. They might really enjoy setting their own pace, being able to learn without distractions from classmates, or not having to deal with peers’ drama quite so much. It’s important to listen to them and understand what’s hard for them, but also help them appreciate what’s working well.

Help kids stay organized.

With no teacher in the room to make sure homework assignments are written down and calendars are updated, your kids might need your help to stay organized. If your kid is typically a shove-it-into-the-backpack kid (permission slips that never see the light of day?), ask them to show you what they did each day. Talk about homework or projects, and discuss a schedule for getting things done. If your kid’s school sent them home with packets or printed materials, you might need to get your hands on some multi-colored folders so that they don’t end up in a confusing pile. Even though they aren’t packing a backpack, make sure your kiddo has what they would typically have in their pencil case — the right pens and pencils and erasers and sticky notes so that they can find their groove.

Teach kids to take frequent breaks throughout the day.

If virtual learning means kids are on the computer for long stretches of time each day, taking frequent breaks is an essential mind-body habit. According to Dr. Laura Markham, young kids might need a break every 15 minutes and older kids should get up and move around every 30 minutes. Movement breaks give the mind a chance to reset and are a great way for kids to release frustrations and fatigue from their bodies and come back to learning more calm and energized.

Dr. Markham also recommends taking laughter breaks throughout the day. When we laugh, it actually changes our body chemistry by reducing the stress hormones in our bodies. This can help kids relax, and make sure they’re ready to learn. So encourage your kids to let their silly out (because it’ll probably make you laugh, too).

Remember that we’re all in this together.

Depending on their age, kids likely have some understanding of the Coronavirus pandemic and the public health risks that it has brought. Our kids want to do the right thing and feel good about themselves when they are helping others. So remind your kids that they are doing their part to stop the spread of the virus by learning from home instead of in big groups at school. Kids all over the country and the world are facing disruptions to their typical school experience. When you see stories or photos showing a new innovation in learning that’s helping kids learn in new and exciting ways, share them with your kids! It helps us all to remember that we’re all in this together and that virtual learning is one way that kids can help take care of others right now.

Many of the nation's largest school districts plan to begin the fall semester online-only. As schools consider reopening, children face a future in which online courses will probably be part of the curriculum. To make the best of this situation, here are some tips to help your child adapt to learning from home.

Studies show that in online learning, parents often take on the role of a teacher. Making school a priority will help keep kids from treating online learning as a vacation.

Research suggests that some types of parental participation have a greater impact on children’s academic achievement than others. One analysis showed that schoolchildren benefit from discussions about learning and school-related issues with their parents and from joint readings.

Reduce distractions

A report in 2016 found that students spent about one-fifth of class time on laptops, smartphones and tablets, knowing that doing so could harm their grades. They check these devices for "non-class purposes” 11.43 times a day on average. The majority said they do so to stay connected and to fight boredom. In virtual learning, this behavior might be even more common. Social media and web surfing may hurt students' performance, as multiple studies show.

It might be a good idea to limit the use of the devices until the schoolwork is done. Some students may need an adult to check on them.

The surrounding environment can be a big distraction, too. Having favorite toys around can make it harder for the kid to focus. Consider setting up a quiet, clutter-free workspace that is comfortable for your child.

Brain breaks for online learning

Higher levels of screen time are associated with a variety of health harms, such as obesity and depression. Small amounts of daily screen use are not harmful and may have some benefits.

It may be hard for some kids to sit through an entire class. Some children might need more frequent breaks than others. Include "brain breaks" in between learning. A young child may need a quick break after staying on a task for five to 25 minutes, said Linda Carling, an associate research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education Center for Technology in Education.

Allowing time for exercise before your child is expected to focus on learning might be a good idea. Repeated physical activity during school can improve children's attention. Exercise is one of the best ways to reduce stress and prevent anxiety. You may consider having the computer on a raised surface as some children better focus on tasks when standing.

Time management tips

Having a consistent schedule for schoolwork will allow parents to plan the workday and let students more easily transition in and out of school time. Research shows that students who have higher GPAs are usually better at time management. Try to build as much structure and consistency as possible, setting times for meals, schoolwork and other activities.

Before embarking on creating a schedule, there are a couple of things to consider.

Try to get children on the same schedule they had when they were going into school. That means the same wake-up time. Have kids start schoolwork at the same hour they used to start classes.

Observe your child to see what works best. Many children are more engaged and focused during the morning.

For younger children, you may want to break down segments of the class to tackle one at a time rather than having them finish a whole lesson in one sitting. Older students can usually stay focused for longer periods of time. If you have a high schooler, consider breaks between different subjects.

Every kid is unique and it's important to find out what works best for your child. Set some time a few days into the semester to observe your child and figure out the optimal length of learning sessions, the times that they are most engaged, and what helps them maintain focus.

Allow for flexibility in the schedule. Give children a break if they are frustrated, anxious or very distracted. It’s OK to slow the pace, giving your child more time to think and process a challenging topic.

Try to maintain a planner to keep track of all school activities and homework.

For some children, a basic visual checklist of tasks will help keep them focused. It allows them to see the full scope of what they have to accomplish and what steps to take. The child would check off each task with you as it's completed and receive a reward at the completion of the list.

Provide positive feedback

Many children miss receiving reinforcement and reassurance from teachers and counselors. Building a reward system can help maintain motivation. After kids complete a task or finish a class, consider praising them.

Putting a check mark, star or sticker on a work assignment can go a long way to encourage a kid. Other options that may work well with younger kids are giving a sweet treat, allowing playtime with a favorite toy or an extra 15 minutes to play before bedtime. For high schoolers, watching a movie or getting extra tablet time might be a good reward.

Be flexible

You may need to adjust your schedule as you go. If some class activities or subjects are more difficult, consider setting aside another time to work on that assignment. Try working with your children on more challenging tasks during the times of the day when they are most alert and engaged. Encourage your child to continue working on the things that come more easily when you are not readily available. It’s helpful to share with the teacher what works best for you and your child.

Help kids stay in touch with their friends

School is much more than a place to learn. It serves as a place for kids to socialize and hone their networking skills. Social ties that students have among each other have a positive effect on academic achievement.

"Children miss school, they miss their teachers, they miss their friends, and they're living with an uncertainty of the future," Carling said.

Many children will have new teachers and new friends. For some, it may be the first year of school. Allowing children to interact online with their friends might mitigate the effects of being socially distanced. Though a lot depends on teachers who will need to create opportunities to engage students with one another, there are ways parents can help.

Implementing social interactions into the routine will help a kid stay connected. One example is organizing a daily video chat with a friend or a group of peers. School discussion boards, real-time classroom conversations and email communication are other ways your child can interact with peers. If a child is struggling with a task and you aren’t there to help, encourage your child to try these methods to get support.

Reach out to your child’s teacher

Try to begin this academic year by opening a dialogue with your kids' teachers. Carling recommends setting up a day and time each week to connect. Difficulties with schoolwork and technology challenges are some of the reasons to contact the teacher.

"Teachers can help with more than we really think. And they are usually willing to help. So if any of the issues come up, if a child's not able to attend a class, if the child is unable to complete the work, if it's really hard to get a routine set up, all those kinds of things are areas that a teacher can help with." Carling said.

A lack of communication with the parent can be challenging for a teacher, particularly in the online learning environment. Being proactive is essential if your child is struggling in school. If a kid has difficulties with a task on deadline and you can work with the child only during the weekends, the first thing to do is get in touch with the teacher.

Kids with special needs

The worst consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are experienced by the most vulnerable students, such as children who require an individualized education program (IEP), Carling points out. The first thing parents need to do is to meet with an IEP team and discuss what strategies and tools the school can put into place to support students in virtual learning. Work with your child’s teachers to identify and remove any learning barriers.

Many children may need more support with focus during classes. Carling recommends starting with smaller amounts of time for an activity. Reward the child for accomplishments, then gradually increase the duration of learning sessions.

Keep in mind that most phones and laptops have built-in technology that can aid kids with special needs. For example, read aloud or text-to-speech can help struggling readers, and speech-to-text can help struggling writers.

Every kid is unique and it's important to find out what works for best for your child. Set some time a few days into the semester to observe them and figure out the optimal length of learning sessions, the times that they are most engaged, and what helps them maintain focus.

One of the biggest challenges families are currently facing with the shift to distance learning is how to keep their child focused, motivated, and engaged. Parents already know that children, especially young children, need to constantly be stimulated to hold their attention. So, how can parents, who are juggling full-time work, head of household duties, and guiding at-home learning, ensure their child is truly engaged during their learning hours?

Brittany Griffin, Altitude Learning’s Head of Partnerships and mom to a kindergartener, knows this challenge well. “I feel this very weird tension,” she explains, “My five-year-old’s teacher sends a bulleted list of activities every day and I’m so grateful, but all of them have to be facilitated by me. It’s super tough to implement many of her ideas and manage my own workload.” And Brittany isn’t alone. This is a sentiment we hear many parents echoing across our network—one that has triggered many feelings of guilt and worry. How can I make sure my child is engaged in learning when I can’t consistently supervise them?

In an effort to support parents who might be struggling during this time, we are sharing some practical tips for working parents to ensure their children are staying engaged while they are distance learning.

‍1. Connect with authentic, relevant learning experiences.

Context is important to keeping children active in their learning. Projects that connect to the world around them are more interesting, easier for them to engage with, and allow more room for independent exploration. “If the project connects to real life, my child is far more willing to dive in,” Brittany shares. “Recently, she was tasked with creating a food truck for her community of dolls for an Altitude Learning @Home project. She invested so much thought and energy into the details—from the menu to the actual construction of the food truck from a cardboard box—she was fully invested and engaged.”

Distance learning initiatives like Altitude Learning @Home allow children to take a deep dive into a new topic that is relevant to their community every week through a project-based independent assignment. By providing children a contextual learning opportunity, led by an educator and facilitated by Altitude Learning’s digital platform, they can explore a subject that matters to them with all the tools and support to work independently.

‍2. Focus on creating versus completing.

Learning is about more than filling out worksheets and completing a list of tasks. Children are more invested in their learning when they are given space to create a final product based on their own exploration. Altitude Learning Partner Success Lead Nicole Gutierrez tackles the challenge of keeping her 2.5-year-old engaged by giving him projects that allow him to be creative. “Open-ended activities where materials and additional resources have been provided have been the most engaging for us,” Nicole says. “For example, he created a collage with items he found in nature. We can spend time doing something that incorporates a process, is multi-step, and that he can access at such a young age.”

“As a Montessori learner, my five-year-old isn't at all familiar with workbooks. The idea of creating something is far more engaging to her than completing something,” Brittany agrees. “Establishing a process and a series of steps to tackle that result in a finished product has led to far more engagement than asking her to complete traditional learning activities.”

Altitude Learning @Home projects encourage children to forge their own path on the road to creating a final project. Each weekly project culminates in a Learning Celebration that allows children to share the unique results of their open-ended assignment. With no letter grades or right or wrong answers, children are able to create learning artifacts to share with educators and peers at the end of the week that truly reflect authentic learning.

3. Maintain as much community and connection as possible.

With social distancing measures forcing children to be apart from their peers, now more than ever, it's important to lean into opportunities for our younger learners to connect. “Children need to see familiar faces and be able to connect with their classmates, teachers, and even adults in their family circle,” Nicole says. She regularly schedules time for her son to video chat with his aunt and grandma so he can have story time or show off any projects he has completed. “Two of the Altitude Learning partners I work with make sure to keep morning meetings on the calendar to have an optional time for kids and their families to join a lightweight video call that brings them all together,” Nicole adds.

Altitude Learning @Home allows children to connect with an educator to kick off their weekly project, then “meet” with their virtual classmates at the end of the week during the Learning Celebration to share their results and see other children’s work. It creates an important sense of community during a time when children are isolated from others their age and allows space for them to share their success and celebrate the successes of others.

4. Keep a predictable (enough) schedule and structure.

Enforcing a learning schedule and structure can be difficult when parents are also balancing full-time work, mealtimes, and household chores. However, a predictable schedule and structure—even if you can’t always adhere to it—is a great way to manage expectations and foster agency to work independently in children. Not to mention help keep parents sane. “For my sake and my son's, we keep times that we try to flow through during the day that are as similar as possible to what he was used to at school,” Nicole says.

While it might be impossible to facilitate all the activities your child did in school, creating expectations around tech time, outside exploration time, independent play or study time, and building a structure for the week’s learning expectations can create consistency and increase engagement during those times.

Altitude Learning @Home and the Altitude Learning platform allows parents to offer a consistent weekly regimen and structure for their child. The platform offers suggested learning experiences that parents can offer their children with all of the necessary setup, instruction, and resources built in. “By keeping a loose schedule and the activity and required materials simple, it has helped me as a parent feel less stressed and unprepared,” Nicole says.

5. Make sure your child is engaged in level-appropriate learning experiences.

Challenging your child with projects that require them to ask questions and work to find solutions is one of the best ways to ensure they are engaged in authentic learning. But it can be difficult to strike the right balance of challenging projects that aren’t too difficult and accessible projects that aren’t too simple. “My daughter shuts down when I ask her to do something above or below her skill level,” Brittany says. “She can really run with a project when I give her an activity that's in her ability ‘sweet spot’—specifically if there is repetition involved.”

With Altitude Learning @Home, children are paired with their appropriate learning bracket to ensure they are receiving a project that is designed by an experienced educator to fit their learning level. The platform allows parents to customize projects to fit their child’s needs, interests, and skill set. “Some parents want more, some want less,” Nicole explains. “What I love about the Altitude Learning platform is that parents can decide how much they want to use or not. In most cases, partners who use the platform are providing suggestions for parents in the form of Cards so they have everything they need to let a child work on the project there.”

When all else fails, there are valuable learning experiences in everyday activities—baking, cleaning, art projects, and playing make believe. How are you keeping your children engaged during distance learning?

The sudden, unplanned move to distance learning during spring 2020 drove a wedge into the middle of the school year—disrupting academic schedules, putting an end to extracurriculars, and undercutting the assessment and academic feedback cycles in most schools. Student motivation, predictably, foundered.

As one of our students put it, online school “is just like in-person school but with all the fun bits removed.” Without the ambient social interactions that are such a rich part of a regular day at school, and without in-person guidance from teachers, coaches, and counselors, many of the key motivational drivers were suddenly gone. In most K–12 schools, there were no fully formed distance-learning alternatives waiting in the wings. Indeed, glaring holes and inequities were exposed in the first days and weeks of distance learning: families with sporadic or no connection to Wi-Fi; students who lacked a calm place to study; siblings who needed to chip in to take care of brothers and sisters, or needed to contribute money by getting a job. Over and above it all were increased levels of trauma.

In short order, the move to online learning also laid bare some of the instructional flaws in our traditional structures of accountability, evaluation, and standardized testing. We hope for intrinsically motivated students, but we tend to design for the opposite, often with the best of intentions in mind. But motivating students with carrots and sticks—through endless, demoralizing cycles of high-stakes testing and assessment—is not getting us the deep learning and love of learning we desire.

Fortunately there is a science of motivation, and we need to design it into the very fiber of our virtual courses. There is a pressing need to do so now in order to help keep students engaged through the challenges of distance learning, and to avoid exacerbating the previously existing gaps in learning opportunities born of systemic inequities.

A TWO-STAGE APPROACH TO MOTIVATION

You may have heard of the major theories of motivation that researchers discuss, like self-determination theory and expectancy-value-cost theory. We will discuss these in a second article coming soon. For now, we think that learning mindsets—students’ beliefs about themselves, their potential, and the learning context—are a better starting point that we can understand and implement relatively quickly in classrooms. Once we get proficient at learning mindsets, then we can go take the next step toward an understanding of the deeper structure of motivation, and how it can be applied to create fundamental structural reform in schools.

Researchers talk about three learning mindsets: sense of belonging, purpose and relevance, and growth mindset. If we want to design for intrinsic motivation, this is where we need to start. Some of these learning mindsets may be familiar to you, but they are often misunderstood and misapplied in schools.

CREATING A SENSE OF BELONGING

Make students feel heard: Include activities, topics, and examples that students identify with so they feel it’s OK to bring their authentic self to class each day. Work hard at eliminating identity threat. Every child deserves to feel seen, listened to, and respected, and that their unique story is a part of the larger story of the class.

For example, you can create a ritual for starting your online class in which every child speaks and every child hears their name spoken by somebody else; incorporate fishbowl discussions online and encourage students to “speak from the I perspective”; co-create class rules and norms with your students and post them on the first page of each unit on your learning management system (LMS), and revisit and renew the norms periodically; have each child share their preferred pronouns with you instead of making assumptions.

Reduce barriers to connecting online: Let students know that there is an easy way to communicate with you outside of class—you can manage expectations by telling them how quickly you’ll respond—and that they are welcome to do so. While setting clear expectations for the whole class, it’s also important to be creative and proactive in identifying and finding solutions to challenges—emotional or academic—that individual students are facing. For example, you can set up one-on-one phone or video calls with each child on a rotating basis, or offer them the ability to text or call you directly.

Remind yourself that social time is as important as academic time: If you are teaching online, deliberately use some of your precious time for social connection. For example, begin your class time with a social ritual: try a short “mental stretch” break; offer some monitored hangout time before class starts; or create small groups that meet socially asynchronously. This isn’t wasted class time—it’s an investment to help keep them motivated and present for the long haul.

CONNECTING WORK TO PURPOSE AND RELEVANCE

Work hard to articulate purpose: Teachers often underestimate the importance of purpose and relevance in building motivation, and overestimate how good a job they are doing making the purpose clear. Deliberately and regularly state the purpose of assignments and activities—this is especially important when you are distanced from your students.

Use online surveys to solicit—and leverage—student interests: Ask students about their interests and passions, and design activities that target things that your students genuinely find personally relevant. It’s not always necessary to make the activities academic: During distance learning, you should cut down some of your traditional content in order to forge deep connections—the goal is to boost students’ long term buy-in for the year.

Build connections to real life: Research suggests that students’ motivation toward education is improved when they take the time to link their learning to their existing interests—or to the world around them.

Try having students complete this activity, which asks students to connect recent academic insights to their interests, by interviewing each other, perhaps over Zoom.

Give students choice: Adding well-chosen, constrained elements of choice in topic or medium are great options to help boost motivation during distance learning—students feel empowered while also learning how to improve their ability to choose. But be mindful that too much choice creates decision fatigue. Example activities: Choose from one of these four essay prompts; select a renowned leader that meets a set of criteria to study for your project; produce your work in the form of a podcast, children’s book, 2- to 3-minute video, art installation, or paper.

HARD WORK, FAILURE, AND GROWTH MINDSET

Explain how learning works: Begin by talking to your students. Tell them that studying is hard, but it gets easier over time when you begin to use effective study strategies. Teach them about neuroplasticity—that effortful practice over time helps rewire their brains.

Give them effective study strategies: Students should favor study strategies like articulating key concepts in their own words, active retrieval, and spaced practice over rereading and highlighting—and you should build in time to let them practice and refine those strategies. During distance learning it is especially important to be deliberate about this because students are on their own more often and need strategies for self-regulation.

Help them get unstuck: Be concrete with students about the fact that they will periodically get stuck, so they’ll need tactics to get over the hump. Have you created a class climate where kids feel comfortable asking peers for help—or considered setting up small study groups to facilitate better communication? Have you given your students easy ways to contact you during business hours, and even urged them to do so when they’re stuck? Have you created a useful, easily accessed list of class resources in your LMS?

Use tech to create a low-stakes environment: Create low-stakes quizzes in your LMS, or use tech tools like Pear Deck, Quizlet Live, and Poll Everywhere to support frequent but gradeless retrieval practice and formative assessments. Reposition these “quizzes” as part of continuous learning, and help students see them as useful tools to get a sense of where they are, how well their study strategies are working, and what they need to do next. Finally, don’t confuse low-stakes with easy; students work harder and learn more deeply when they are challenged. Build time for getting things wrong and learning from those mistakes into every class.

Alter your grading systems and structures: Despite the conventional wisdom in education, grades don’t motivate students to do their best work, nor do they lead to better learning or performance.

What better time than now to adjust your grading structure to reward growth, development, and improvement? Even if summative assessments are beyond your control, consider adjusting your mid-unit grading by awarding points and grades based on student work related to continuous improvement. This not only helps the struggling learners, but also pushes the top achievers to show that they are putting in the effort needed to demonstrate clear improvement in their skill levels.

Be constantly ready to adjust your teaching: Because it’s hard to “read the room” and determine what your students know in a virtual classroom, use your formative assessments to continually adjust your own teaching. This is a great way to model the growth mindset behaviors that you’d like your students to adopt.

Create a digital record of competence: Motivation can be boosted when students notice their growing competence. Create short activities to promote this rather than leaving it to chance—for example, bring back a piece of older work and do a then-and-now comparison, or create a simple online portfolio that can be regularly updated and revisited. Be sure that students link their competence to hard work and the right strategies, not to innate ability.