Direct Instruction & Formative Assessment

STRATEGIES

1. Post Google Slides lectures on Google Classroom for 24/7 viewing.
2. Use Google Slides presentation tools to have a live Q & A session while you are lecturing. Students can “join” your slide show with a code to participate.
3. Record your Google Slides lectures using Screencastify and post the video to Google Classroom. Alternatively, share video content from Khan Academy, TED-Ed, or MIT+K12. Require students to view video lectures prior to class and reply to assessment questions related to the lecture on Classroom or Google Forms. Alternatively, create a video-based lesson using TED-Ed and assign to students for homework. During class, created differentiated activities for groups of students based on their understanding of course content and work with those groups to support their learning.
4. Post your Screencastify videos to YouTube. Using Edpuzzle, upload your YouTube video and periodically assess student understanding. Use Google Classroom to assign your video lecture to students.
5. Deliver direct instruction using AwwApp or Scratchwork (virtual whitebaords). Boards can be exported and shared with students via Google Classroom. Teachers can add collaborators to the boards with a link. Alternatively, task students with creating virtual whiteboards to collaboratively solve problems in small groups.
6. Task students with talking about science, using metacognition to explain how they arrived at an answer. Appropriate tools include Flipgrid, Seesaw, and Padlet.
7. Task students with solving equations or photographic authentic scientific artifacts using Google Keep (using the camera and pen tools) and insert Keep notes into a Google Doc.
8. Task students with using Lucidchart to create graphic organizers for active note-taking during class lectures.
9. Deliver your traditional lecture using Google Slides. After the lecture, assess student understanding using a digital formative assessment tool like Kahoot, Socrative, Plickers, or some other digital assessment you have pre-created.
10. Deliver a traditional lecture and allow student to take notes collaboratively or individually using a Graphic Organizer (table) you have pre-created using Google Docs. Assign the Google Doc via Google Classroom and make a copy for each student. If students are taking notes collaboratively, assign a group leader to invite peers to the document to edit.
11. Upload your Google Slides presentation to Nearpod or Pear Deck and insert assessment questions between your slides to check for understanding in real time.
12. Set up a "back channel" for students to communicate and ask questions as you deliver your lecture using Backchannel Chat. Refer to the transcript to respond to students' comments and questions after your lecture has concluded or in real time.