Distance or remote learning is uncharted territory for most of us. We are planning and thinking about teaching in new ways.
To help you in this new journey, I have compiled tips and strategies to help make this process more effective for you, your students, and their caregivers.
Planning
- Weekly Planner - This FREE resource provides a week at a glance. It can be used as a planner for teachers or uploaded to your digital classroom as an organizer for students. The text boxes are editable, so it can be customized to your needs.
Morning Meeting or Starting The Day
- Flipgrid - Foster short video-based discussions on classroom topics. Great for Morning Meetings, as well as reading fluency, book talks, Socratic discussions, and check-ins.
- Zoom - Engage students: chat, screen annotation, polling, non-verbal feedback, and breakout rooms. Use the features of Zoom to guide different types of interactive activities.
- Google Meet - Meet is a replacement for Google Hangouts video chat. Using this video chat service to connect with classrooms across the globe. Connect with teachers, meet with parents, or have students meet together and with professional experts.
- Kahoot - Run checks for understanding or exit tickets. If you don't have time to make quizzes, search millions of public Kahoots to play or remix. Go beyond memorization of facts and allow Kahoot! to introduce scenario questions/prompts with multiple decisions; stimulate conversation from the results.
- Screencastify - Create instructional videos to introduce or reinforce concepts. Alternatively, create videos to explain assignments and solutions or to provide feedback. Have students create videos to explain understandings, demonstrate fluency, or ask questions.
Reading
- Epic! - Epic! is a digital library of children’s books. The site presents book choices to students. Students can browse by their interests or categories, and see eye-catching book covers. Epic! makes listening to and reading books incredibly appealing. There are book videos and quizzes, as well!
- NewsELA - A library of high-interest, cross-curricular, adjustable nonfiction texts. Newsela's range of reading levels invites targeted intervention and differentiation. Assign articles to individual students or small groups, using the quizzes to track progress and make further recommendations. Select articles for targeted instruction on specific reading outcomes while modeling good annotation and close-reading strategies for your students.
- ReadWorks - Differentiate reading instruction with texts. Features, such as the ability to curate lists and view assignments over time, make it easy to monitor student progress.
- Dreamscape - Combines games with reading passages and interactive questions to create engaging activities!
- Google Forms - Create surveys, ask questions, administer quizzes, or use as a method for submitting work. Teachers have the opportunity to track an abundance of information and store it in one centralized location.
Math
- Khan Academy - The instructional videos help students learn new content, and the interactive quizzes help teachers track student progress, Khan Academy offers help in many subjects like math, science, economics, art, and computer science, as well as resources for test prep and teacher learning.
- Prodigy - Have students practice their math skills as they navigate a fantasy world. Built to captivate students and motivate learning, Prodigy has students practice math skills through assigned and customized assignments.
- Math Presentations - I have created many presentations to help guide students learning in several mathematical topics:
I hope that these tips help you navigate this new territory of home learning. If you have any additional tips or suggestions, please post in the comments. We are all in this together!
