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Edutopia: 8 Strategies to Improve Participation

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Edutopia: 8 Strategies to Improve Participation

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In every classroom, there are students who always have their hand raised to participate, and those who are hesitant to engage. Whether they're introverted, tend to think awhile before they contribute, or are just having a bad day, it can be hard to bring kids into discussions who are reluctant to add their voices.

The challenges of getting students to participate have intensified during remote learning, we've heard from many teachers. Digital platforms can create added communication barriers by making it hard to know when to talk, for example, or how to read subtle but important elements of discourse like a person's body language and facial expressions. Additionally, online discussions are often hindered by variability in students' access to technology and by privacy concerns, and consequently many teachers have had to rely on students' submitting work over isolated channels like email, which can leave back-and-forth between peers (and between students and the teacher) by the wayside.

Getting kids to contribute in virtual classrooms takes some work, it turns out. "We keep calling this generation digital natives as if they are simply whizzes at everything computerized. They aren't," wrote Tim O'Brien on Facebook. "They need personal support, scaffolding, and reassurance that technology does not provide. It is simply a tool, not a teacher."

To find out how to improve student discussions and participation in online learning, we culled through hundreds of comments on social media and followed up with more than 20 educators to see how they tackled the challenge last spring. Teachers offered a range of smart strategies, both synchronous and asynchronous, to integrate the values and the voices of all kids-even the quietest or those with disrupted schedules-into their classes this fall.

Synchronous Strategies

For synchronous learning, some teachers said they translated traditional discussion strategies from the classroom to live video chats, while others found that digital tools helped boost classroom participation.

1. Spider web discussion: During remote learning this spring, students in Shai Klima's high school class led their own discussions over Google Meet. Before the live class, students answered questions independently, and then shared their responses at the start of the meeting as a jumping-off point for a broader class discussion.

While students conversed on video, Klima listened and drew lines on a sheet of paper tracking the flow of the conversation, resulting in a spider web. At the end of the discussion, Klima shared the drawing over video, and then asked students to reflect on the experience and what they learned about who talked, who listened, and who built on the ideas of others.

"It has been successful as a means to get kids to credit their peers with helping them come up with new ideas, which helps build rapport," said Klima, who let students struggling with bandwidth call in to the meetings.

2. Using chat to check for understanding: After giving lessons last spring, Paul France had his third-grade students use the Google Chat feature to ask and answer questions or type in emojis, like a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, to show whether they understood a concept. To create structure around the responses, he guided his students in creating norms around using the chat feature-they decided as a group to use only one emoji at a time, for example. France said the practice helped him check for student understanding and pushed students to engage more with the content.

Kindergarten teacher Ruth Calkins, meanwhile, used Zoom chat when holding live lessons with her kindergarten students. She said they enjoyed typing "T" or "F" for true and false questions while answering math problems in the chat box, and some even attempted to write sentences in response to her questions. Typing responses also provided a lot of keyboard practice for her young students.

3. Flip your classroom to stimulate deeper discussion: Forrest Hinton, a high school math teacher, says he found that a blend of asynchronous and synchronous instruction worked well to stimulate student discussion during remote learning.

First, he taught new content asynchronously through recorded videos and online activities. At the start of his live class, students briefly summarized the concepts they had learned together and then divided into breakout rooms to solve related problems in small groups. Flipping his classroom allowed Hinton to spend less class time in direct instruction-and listening to students at the start of class and in small groups helped him identify, and then address, where his students were struggling. "This has allowed me to clarify concepts in a more targeted way and better assist students," said Hinton.

4. Adapting think-pair-share to Zoom: Ryan Tahmaseb, director of library services, says he found that giving more project-based learning activities to his elementary and middle school students-and allowing them more autonomy over assignments-naturally encouraged richer discussions in virtual learning. "If we give students as much freedom as possible to experiment, research, and pursue interests within our content area, then they inevitably have a lot more to say," said Tahmaseb.

When it came to class discussions, Tahmaseb adapted think-pair-share to Zoom. Students were given a prompt, broken into groups, and then placed into breakout rooms to discuss and record their answers on a shared Google doc, which allowed students to share their thinking in writing or read aloud. Since Tahmaseb wasn't in each breakout room to listen to the conversations, the Google doc kept students accountable. Once they returned to the whole class, volunteers from each group shared their answers with everyone.

5. A new twist on show-and-tell: To get students comfortable with online participation, Brittany Collins, the teaching and learning coordinator at Write the World, a global online writing community for middle and high school students, converted the familiar show-and-tell activity into "think, write, share."

In one activity, Collins asked middle and high school students to find a photo, painting, or drawing that represented intergenerational connection and independently respond by writing to the following questions from the Making Thinking Visible Framework before discussing them over video as a class: What are we looking at? What makes you say that? What do you notice (see, feel, know)? What more can we uncover? What do you wonder? "It helps to break the ice in a virtual learning setting where unplanned participation can prove challenging for some students," said Collins.

Asynchronous Strategies

Although some teachers-and students-said that synchronous discussions were more engaging because they resembled a traditional classroom, many educators found that asynchronous discussions were more equitable because they opened up participation to students with low bandwidth, who had schedule limitations, or who were uncomfortable engaging with the full class.

6. Online forums create back-and-forth dialogue: Angelina Murphy, a high school English teacher, said she used Google Classroom's question feature to get her class to respond to readings and discussion prompts during remote learning this past spring. When each student commented, Murphy replied with clarifying questions to create a back-and-forth dialogue and also asked every student to respond to at least two of their peers' comments to create a broader base of discussion.

Fifth-grade teacher Raquel Linares said she used Nearpod Collaborate (Apple, Android), a virtual collaboration board, to get students to share images or write a response to show what they had learned about an article they read. To inspire connection and reflection among classmates, Linares also used Flipgrid (Apple, Android), so that students could hear their peers' voices even though they were remote.

7. Seeing and critiquing peer work through virtual gallery walks: Virtual "gallery walks" give students an opportunity to view their classmates' projects while learning from each other, according to Joe Marangell, a high school social studies teacher. After his students presented their own projects through five-minute screencasts, they were then required to give feedback to at least two other students on theirs.

Using Google Sheets, students provided feedback to their peers by answering the following prompts: What's something new I learned about this topic?; What's something that surprised me about this topic?; What's something I liked about this presentation? The online format gave every student the opportunity to see their peers' work and their assessment on theirs for deeper reflection, Marangell said.

8. Moving station brainstorming online: When carousel or station brainstorming activities are conducted in traditional classroom environments, small groups of students rotate around the room to different stations to answer prompts-and view and add to each groups' responses.

To translate this online, Marangell divided his students into groups online and created shared Google docs-or a series of Google slides-for the prompts/questions. Each group left their thoughts under the questions by the assigned date and then followed up by commenting on the other groups' responses the next day. "The strategy still allows them to maintain a sense of classroom community [in a virtual setting]," said Marangell.

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8 Strategies to Improve Participation in Your Virtual Classroom

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Educators share their best synchronous and asynchronous strategies to boost student participation during online learning.

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How to Boost Engagement in Virtual Classrooms with Zoom Chat & Breakout Rooms

James Cross, 4th Grade Teacher, Rocketship Nashville Northeast Elementary

Picture this- you show up to your first virtual class of the day, let all your students in from the waiting room, anxiously start your lesson, and are ready to blow student learning out of the virtual park. You spent hours researching and crafting every intricate detail of that lesson. You sweated all the small stuff and just knew it would be a 5 on the evaluation rubric. But as soon as you pose your first check for understanding, you are greeted with a sea of blank cameras and mute buttons on lock. You know that in-person your kids would eat this lesson up, but virtually something just isn't connecting. What do you do?

The best advice that I can give you is that great teaching will always be great teaching. The techniques and strategies that you hold dear in the classroom can be adapted to work in a virtual setting. We utilize two staple engagement strategies to help spark student investment in learning. You can never go wrong with everybody talks and everybody writes.

Everybody Talks:

As teachers, we exhaust a lot of energy in trying to monitor student talking. The truth is that kids love to talk. But they also have a way of communicating that helps their classmates better understand the topic at hand. Your students are always going to be their peer's best teacher. So, let's get them talking!

The 'Everybody Talks' approach gives our students an opportunity to share their thoughts with each other. In a traditional classroom, we might call this a turn and talk. The teacher presents some information and then the students have a moment to turn and talk to a neighbor about their learning. And this can 100% happen in a virtual space! After all, this is what breakout rooms were created for.

1. When it's time to release students to a turn and talk, put them in a breakout room with 1-2 other students. I know, this sounds scary. There will, inevitably, be way more breakout rooms than teachers, but I promise it'll be great.

2. Make sure students are clear on what they should be discussing. Have them join their space, and let them talk! This gives you, the teacher, ample time to pop in on a few spaces to check-in on their conversation.

3. If students aren't talking- get them started. Remind them of the prompt and wait for the discussion to start. If students are talking- let them talk! Become a listener and leave them with something to push their conversation.

4. When time is up, bring all the students back and cold call on a few groups to share. I'd suggest at least one group you listened in on that can drive the whole group discussion. Then, call on one group you didn't get to see to ensure they had a fruitful conversation. You'd be surprised at how many students are eager to build on or share their opinion now.

Remember, speaking out loud in front of the larger class is outside of some of our kids' level of comfort. Holding our students to high-expectations calls for no opt-out, but when we have the opportunity to make our task work for all kids, we always should.

Integrate opportunities for Everybody Talks when creating your daily lesson, but also keep it in your toolkit in case you see a dip in engagement.

Everybody Writes:

Teaching our kids to write is tough. Teaching isn't easy, but teaching writing can be a whole different ballpark of hard. Add in the struggles of virtual teaching and writing might be the first thing off your priority list. But I'm here with some good news - the chat feature was invented for teachers to get their students writing!

'Everybody Writes' is one of those strategies that should be used in every class. We strive to help our kids reach a point where they are participating in a rich conversation about every topic, every day. This is the dream! And in order to make this come to life, we have to set our students up for success.

1. Before we call on students to respond to a question or prompt, we need to give them an opportunity to write. All kids take a moment to collect their thoughts and write them down. This strategy ensures that all kids have an opportunity to equally prepare to participate in the discussion. All you have to do is pose the question and put the chat box to use.

2. Students write their thoughts in the chat as a space to share them with the class and their teacher. The teacher can then read the responses and select who they would like to share and start the discussion. You can also have them send a direct message to you, the teacher, instead if you want to wait on the whole class seeing their response. Students could also write their thoughts on paper at home, but the chat allows you to monitor their writing in the moment. The method is up to you, but the goal is to get our students writing and processing what they are learning.

4. Stick to your teacher wait time and give ALL kids an opportunity to prepare for the discussion. Our students all hold unique strengths and areas to grow. This means that some kids will inevitably write their thoughts faster.

'Everybody Talks' and 'Everybody Writes' are essential engagement strategies when in-person teaching. With a little planning, and commitment to making it work virtually, they can become the go to in your virtual class, as well!

Published on November 3, 2020

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How to Boost Engagement in Virtual Classrooms with Zoom Chat & Breakout Rooms

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Picture this- you show up to your first virtual class of the day, let all your students in from the waiting room, anxiously start your lesson, and are ready to blow student learning out of the virtual park. You spent hours researching and crafting every intricate detail of that lesson.

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The Reading and Writing Strategies Community | Facebook

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The Reading and Writing Strategies Community : Lessons from a few weeks of remote instruction...what makes an engaging strategy lesson

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Lessons from a few weeks of remote instruction...what makes an engaging strategy lesson? What's most important? **Follow up about conferring can be found here:...

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The following is the latest installment of the Toward Better Teaching advice column. You can pose a question for a future column here.
Dear Bonni: How can we make student-to-student interaction more personable and engaging in online learning? -Andrea Fuentes, Director of Online Learning, Doral College
Cultivating an engaging environment can be a challenge when teaching online. Having the interaction occur among students, instead of solely with the professor, can be even more difficult.

Make it Easy for Students to Interact

It can be a delicate balance to try to not overwhelm students by the quantity of educational technology we use in a class, while still keeping things interesting through the element of surprise. The easier a tool is to use, the more likely students will feel comfortable engaging with each other.

As an example of the kind of tool that is easy to use, I was recently introduced to a brainstorming tool called Tricider (thank you Michelle Pacansky-Brock, faculty mentor for digital innovation at California Community Colleges). Tricider has us identify what crowdsourced decision we want to make, or what type of brainstorming we'd like to spark, and we are up and running.

Students can add ideas, pros and cons, and vote on items. The instructor can decide if you want to let anyone who has the link be able to collaborate, protect your ideas with a password, or require people to set up accounts before they can engage.

This is just one example of a tool that makes it easy for student-to-student interaction without requiring much effort from instructors to set it up. A few others that are simple to use include:

Padlet: a virtual corkboard that students and instructors can use to post text, photos, and links

Dropbox Paper or Google Docs: these mainstream collaborative word-processing tools let instructors invite students to collaborate on assignments or group work.

Trello: a virtual stack of index cards where students can add their ideas. All of these tools can be embedded into the learning management system your school uses, so students never have to leave their familiar environment in order to participate.

Rethink Discussion Boards

We need to rethink discussion boards if they are ever going to be worthwhile. I am afraid that students' experiences in classes they have taken in the past may be ruining the format for everyone.

Students tell me that when they encounter a discussion board, they expect to see a long discussion prompt from the instructor with some questions they are supposed to answer in 300 to 400 words. Then, like clockwork, they will be required to respond to three other students' posts within the same thread.

They learn to check the box-but they do not find themselves engaging in beneficial interactions with others in the class. Instead of reminding students of these past experiences, try rethinking discussion boards and having students be surprised by the richness of the dialog.

One way I have been experimenting with a different approach involves using the peer grading function in the Canvas LMS and setting up student-to-student interactions that way.

This past semester, each student submitted reading notes as an assignment in the LMS. I asked every participant to include in their responses:

five takeaways from the chapter

three specific ways they could apply the learning in their lives

one question they had for others who read the same chapter

Then, I designated two peer reviewers for each submitted reading assignment and asked that reviewers respond to the takeaways and ways the learning could be applied, and to provide an answer to the question that was posed by each of the two people they were connected with via the peer review feature.

The students said they far preferred this method of interaction over discussion boards. They liked that the system automatically linked them to different people they might not have otherwise shared ideas with. The ease with which these pairs were established was appreciated by all-including me as the professor.

The only thing that was cumbersome on my end was grading student participation since there wasn't a way to include scores within the peer review framework on Canvas. However, the slight increase in manual processes made it totally worth it as I observed their virtual conversations with each other.

Discuss via Video

Another way to get students talking with each other in different ways is to have them use video or audio to interact.

FlipGrid is an easy way to pose a question and have people respond via videos. It can be used within many of the most widely used LMSs, so students do not have to set up a separate account on FlipGrid or navigate to a different place.

Another tool to engage with video is a video platform from Arc Media, which can be integrated into the Canvas LMS. Instructors can upload a video or post a YouTube link within Canvas to your Arc library. Then, they can include that video in a Canvas course and have students interact with the video, by typing comments in real time as they are watching it.

My students watched some of Michael Sandel's videos from his Harvard University course: Justice. I posted the YouTube link into Arc and it allowed us to have a private conversation on Canvas about the questions he posed. What made it different was that as Sandel posed a question to his class, I had my students respond at the moment he asked the question using Arc.

VoiceThread is another tool that allows for the kind of real-time interaction that Arc Media affords, except that you can post more than just video for annotations from others. A student could comment that he was confused about a concept at the precise moment that the idea was being discussed. Other students could help out by explaining how they understood the topic and possibly by providing an example.

Those are just a few tools I have found helpful for facilitating student-to-student interaction using video. Each time I have, students have noted how much more they prefer this kind of interaction over traditional text-based discussion boards.

Introduce Social Annotation as a Means to Engage

Writer, teacher, and Harvard Ph.D. candidate, Clint Smith III, recently professed his love for purchasing used books on Twitter. I really enjoy buying used books because you get some small insight into how someone else experienced that book before you. Every highlighted sentence, underlined passage, circled word, & dogeared page is like being part of a book club with a stranger you'll never meet.

As I read Smith's words, I imagined the power of discussions taking place in the margins of books across generations. As a person who primarily engages in reading via digital devices, I get to participate in a version of this kind of history showing up in the margins when I am reading a digital book. I can set the Kindle app on my iPad to indicate what passages many others have highlighted in their books and know what portions of the text have resonated with other people.

Hypothes.is is a social annotating tool that takes these reading practices to a whole new level. When reading on the internet, you can select text and annotate it. These notes may be shared publicly or saved privately.

The Marginal Syllabus project is just one example of the power of this type of collaboration. The project's aim is to gather teachers together to discuss equity in educational contexts. As they describe on their website, "The Marginal Syllabus hosts and curates publicly accessible conversations among educators that occur in the margins of online texts via open web annotation."

Here's an example of Hypothes.is in action.

On the left is an article that the group participating in the 2018-2019 Marginal Syllabus have read. On the right are individuals' comments and notes. Hypothes.is stays running in my web browser all the time, and I can see an indication of how many annotations there are on any page that I might want to browse.

Hypothes.is is not as easy to use as the tools I mentioned earlier. However, the service offers a Quick Start Guide for Teachers and have plenty of ideas for how to make use of Hypothes.is on their educators page.

The role of a teacher is more than presenting concepts and having students present those same ideas back to us at some future time. By having students engage with each other in classes, the richness of the interactions increase and the learning deepens. Make student-to-student interaction more personable by making it easy for them to engage with each other, rethinking discussion boards, and using video for conversations.

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How Can Online Instructors Get Students to Talk to Each Other? - EdSurge News

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The following is the latest installment of the Toward Better Teaching advice column. You can pose a question for a future column here. Dear Bonni: How can we make student-to-student interaction more personable and engaging in online learning? -Andrea Fuentes, Director of Online Learning, Doral College Cultivating an engaging environment can be a challenge when teaching online.

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Kick the IDK Bucket: How to Rid Your Classroom of “I Don’t Know”

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Kick the IDK Bucket: How to Rid Your Classroom of “I Don’t Know”

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Sponsored by World101 and Listenwise

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

We have all experienced it: Your lesson is rockin' and you pause to check for understanding. Expecting to hear an elaborate student articulation of the deep learning occurring, you are jolted by three words: I don't know. Students sometimes use this as a free pass to avoid thinking, taking a risk, or even responding to a question that they should be able to answer with a bit of effort.

Wouldn't it be nice to eradicate "I don't know" from your classroom? I am not suggesting that it isn't acceptable for a student to literally not know. However, when a student recognizes they don't know something, it should be a transition to knowing, not a termination of thinking.

I often label a variety of responses as IDK Responses, even if a student doesn't actually utter the words. Shrugged shoulders, blank stares, or what I call "crooked eyebrows" are all indications to me that a student is not going to fare well on any check for understanding task that is given.

The Powerless "YET"

The growth mindset movement seems to have oversimplified the concept of perseverance. We see meme after meme that glorifies the power of YET. I'm just as supportive as the next person of students building a growth mindset when faced with a challenge. However, simply adding "yet" to IDK doesn't prompt next steps. Fine-you don't know yet. What are you going to do to fill that gap? Without a plan of action to overcome the IDK, y-e-t is just another three letter word with no action behind it.

Instead of letting students simply add "yet" to their "I don't knows," we'll help them grow much further as learners if we get rid of IDKs altogether and teach students how to approach those deer-in-headlights moments more constructively.

Ridding Your Classroom of the IDK

1. Start by Saying Goodbye

In order to put IDK to rest, we need to set a norm that prohibits its use in the classroom so that students stop seeing it as an option.

A ceremony to rid students of their IDKs offers a memorable way to formalize the abolishment. One idea is to invite students to write their IDKs on a piece of paper. Then, as a class, host a funeral for their "I don't knows."

If a ceremony is not your style, or if you think a "funeral" might hit too close to home for some students, try replacing the idea with burying, burning, or destroying IDKs. You can even tie it into recycling and repurpose the IDK into more productive phrases.

A class meeting about the limits IDK places on their opportunity to learn and grow can be a simple, clear way to communicate to your students that you're no longer going to accept it as an answer.

Any way to physically, visually, or verbally rid the classroom of the forbidden phrase is the first step in kicking the IDK bucket.

2. Explore the Reasons Behind the Response

When students are faced with a challenge that interferes with their ability to respond with ease, many don't know how to respond, so they default to the generic "I don't know." But there are many causes for a student to offer an IDK-and it isn't always because they actually lack understanding.

This makes it hard for us as teachers to know how to respond. A mismatched response to a student's IDK can make it worse for everyone. For example, if a teacher has a plan to wait out students, thinking we are providing learners with additional think time, we are going to be waiting a loooong time if the student didn't hear the question in the first place. Not knowing the antecedent creates challenges for both students and teachers, so start by helping students get clear on what's behind their "I don't know."

Brainstorm with students all the actual reasons they might use "IDK" as a response. You might hear responses like:

I didn't hear the question.

I didn't understand the question.

I couldn't think of the answer quickly enough.

I don't like talking in front of the class.

I am not sure if my answer is right.

I really don't know the answer.

3. Offer Alternatives

After helping students identify the reason behind their IDKs, have them come up with more precise language to describe the barrier they're facing, phrases or actions they can use in place of the generic "I don't know" that will help them with these speed bumps to learning and engaging. Posting these co-created alternatives to IDK in the room as a reminder for more productive responses can serve as a cue to students when tempted to use the banned phrase.

The last row of this chart is worth noting because of the opportunities it gives students for greater risk-taking, qualifying statements many of us use as adults to allow us to save face if our current thinking turns out to be wrong. Sharing these options with students might replace IDK with a verbal indication that the learner is about to go out on an academic limb.

On the path to mastery, we regularly encounter learning gaps. Allowing IDK to serve as a cognitive roadblock brings learning to a screeching halt. If we can recognize those moments as learning barriers that require us to find a more open road, we will keep student momentum progressing forward. Transforming "I don't know" into a detour from uncertainty to the attainment of new knowledge would give IDK a new meaning in our schools.

To learn more from Connie, browse the free resources and posters she offers on her website. There are downloadables for supporting IDK responses and other strategies. Also check out her book, Hacking Questions: 11 Answers that Create a Culture of Inquiry in Your Classroom.

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Kick the IDK Bucket: How to Rid Your Classroom of "I Don't Know"

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Sponsored by World101 and Listenwise This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. We have all experienced it: Your lesson is rockin' and you pause to check for understanding.

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14 Ideas on Remote Learning From Jennifer Serravallo and Friends (heinemann.com)

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You know that thing where you're talking to a group of people and you ask them a question and no one answers? And you wait a few more seconds, awkwardly, and nothing happens? It's one of those funny little problems faced by a lot of teachers, coaches, speakers, ministers, pretty much anyone who speaks in front of groups: The speaker says something, hoping for a response from students or an audience, and what they most often get back are a couple of weak smiles, a grunt or two, and not much more.

Basically, crickets.

It's mildly uncomfortable for everyone, both the speaker and the audience, but thankfully, the moment passes quickly and it's no big deal. Still, it's a fixable problem.

Why It Happens

Getting the silent treatment from a group you're speaking to happens most of the time for one basic reason: People don't want to look stupid. Within that broad umbrella of not wanting to look dumb, here are some more specific possible causes of your cricket problem:

They know you're not just talking to them.
If you ask a group of people, "How's everybody doing?" very few of them will answer, because it's not the same as if you were alone with them. One on one, you ask someone that question and they can give you some detail about how things are going, but in a group, the question is more or less rhetorical. A few extroverted people might mutter "good" or "great," but no one is going to seriously answer you. The one exception to this is if you're speaking to tens of thousands of people in some kind of stadium situation. In that case you're a big fricking deal and the crowd is already going wild because you walked out on stage, so go ahead with your question.

They think everyone else gets it.
If you say to a group, "Does that make sense?" most people are going to act like it does, even if it doesn't, because they assume everyone else in the room totally gets it and they don't want to look like the lone dummy. Instead of telling you it doesn't make sense, what they'll do is either (A) turn to someone else to ask a clarifying question, which can look to you like rude chit-chat, or (B) come up to you after your presentation and ask the questions then. If this happens with more than a few people, you now have a small crowd to deal with. On top of that, the rest of the group probably would have benefitted from hearing that question and your response, but instead, you're only having the conversation with one person.

You're asking for too much.
Some questions are too hard to answer on the spot. For example, if you ask, "What is your favorite song?" some people will rack their brains trying to think of a song they like more than any other, THE song that totally defines them as a person. But if you just ask them to think of a song they really like, that's much easier.

Someone in the room is intimidating (and it might be you).
When we're in the presence of someone who intimidates us, it gets a lot harder to speak up publicly, especially if there's a chance that what we say might be wrong or different from the norm in any way. This is about a thousand times more true if you're around 13 years old and your whole goal in life is to fit in. So if you have a group that is especially silent, consider who's in the room: Just one super popular kid or a person who is not particularly nice to her peers may be all it takes to keep the rest of the class from opening their mouths. Or the intimidating person might even be you: If you've ever ridiculed students' questions or their responses to questions you have asked, very few of them will be brave enough to keep sticking their necks out.

They don't know what the heck you're talking about.
It could be that your audience is just really confused. This is where it helps to be a good judge of facial expressions: If people in an audience are confused, many of them will show it right on their faces, but if you're not generally good at noticing that kind of thing, it could help to have a colleague come in and observe.

More Effective Ways to Increase Audience Participation

Here are some better ways to get your students-or your audience if you're speaking outside of a classroom-to participate more.

1. Explain what kind of response you want.

Sometimes audiences freeze up when you ask a question because they aren't sure what kind of response you want, if any. So the more specific you are with your expectations, the better they will be at giving you what you want. For example, you could say, "In a minute, I'm going to ask a question. What I want you to do first is think quietly about your answer. Then I'm going to ask for three volunteers to share their answer with the group." Specific instructions like that will put your audience more at ease, and they'll be more likely to give you good responses.

2. Ask for a show of hands.

As long as you're asking about something people won't be embarrassed to admit and that at least some people in your audience will probably say "yes" to, this is a way to start a conversation. So rather than say, "How was everyone's weekend?" you could say, "How many people watched a sporting event this weekend?" From there, you can go to one of the people who raised their hands, ask them what they watched, and you're off and running.

3. Ask one person a direct question.

We established earlier that everyone in your audience knows you're not speaking only to them, so when you throw out a question to the room, individual people aren't likely to move the spotlight to themselves. But if you go to one person directly and ask them a question, they have to respond. So instead of saying, "What did you think of that movie we watched yesterday?", go to the kid in the third row and say, "Hey Paulie, what did you think about that movie?" Now Paulie could probably just shrug this question off or say, "It was alright," so if you want to get a better response, try something like, "Tell me something about that movie that made an impression on you."

4. Have everyone write down a response first.

When you ask a group a question, usually only one or two people will respond. This robs everyone else of the opportunity to answer. If this happens over and over again in the same group, many participants won't even think about their own response, because they'll know one of the more talkative people is going to answer anyway. One way to solve this problem is to have everyone write down a repsonse to the question first, then call on a few people to share what they wrote. This way, even if the room only hears a few responses, everyone actually reflected on and answered the question. And when you give everyone time to process in this way, you're likely to get more and different volunteers than if you just ask the room cold; that's because some students need more processing time before they feel confident enough to share their thoughts. In their book, Total Participation Techniques (see the end of this post), Persida and William Himmele tackle this problem with dozens of strategies that get every student in the room participating.

5. Do a think-pair-share.

Instead of having everyone write an answer, you could instead just have them turn to a partner and respond to them. This can be useful for meaty, content-heavy questions, where participants are processing something they've learned, or just your basic conversational ones. Try it: The next time you're about to say "How's everyone doing?" to a large group, instead, tell them to turn to a partner and answer the same question. If someone in the room is having a crap day, this may be the first opportunity they've had to actually share that with someone and maybe feel a little bit better as a result.

6. Do a better check for understanding.

If you regularly ask "Is that clear?" or "Does everyone understand?" you probably already know that this doesn't always tell you who needs more help. Instead, give participants tools to let you know when they are confused: You could ask everyone to give you a thumbs-up or thumbs-down signal to indicate whether they're getting what you're saying or hold up colored response cards that can serve as answers to a multiple-choice question. Finally, as we mentioned in a previous post called Let's Give Our Teaching Language a Makeover, simply switching from "Are there any questions?" to "What questions do you have?" tends to get many more people to actually ask questions.

Bottom line: If you feel like you're doing all the talking up there, and you want to get more from the people listening to you, you might just need to make a few small changes to your delivery to turn a one-way lecture to a much better conversation.

Recommended Reading

Persida and William Himmele have established themselves as experts in getting all students to participate in class. Their book, Total Participation Techniques, offers 51 alternatives to traditional "stand and deliver" teaching, many of which will be useful to any speaker in any setting.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

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The reasons your students (or audience members) aren't participating the way you want them to, and some new things you can try to get a better response.

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Would have to modify for hybrid model

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You've probably heard of-and maybe used-learning stations in your classroom. With stations, teachers set up activities around their rooms, then have students rotate from station to station, performing each task. They are a wonderful way to provide variety and engagement in your classroom.

There's only one real downside to stations-they take a LOT of time to set up. And because we're all short on time, we may not use stations as often as we could.

So today I'm proposing a watered-down version of stations that keeps the movement, interactivity and variety while minimizing the prep work. I'm calling these "Chat Stations," discussion prompts that students visit just like stations, but instead of performing a complex task, they just have a quick discussion. Chat Stations are incredibly flexible: They can be used for test reviews, ethical debates, exploring new material, even analyzing literature.

On top of their flexibility as a cooperative learning tool, Chat Stations can also dramatically improve whole-class discussions. Because students have fully explored each issue in the less-threatening Chat Station setting, they will be better prepared to participate in a larger class discussion next. And as we explored in a previous post, we need to do more to engage our less talkative students. Chat Stations offer another way to get them more involved.

Here's a video demonstrating how Chat Stations work:

The more traditional kinds of stations-where students perform more complex or hands-on work-are still the gold standard for student engagement, but Chat Stations can be a great strategy for those times when you haven't been able to prepare a "real" station. They still get students up and moving and breathe new life into your content. And there's really no limit to how challenging your questions can be.

I'm pretty sure I haven't invented anything new here, so if you're doing something like this and have a tip or suggestion to add, please comment below. If you try this for the first time, please share your experiences with us. ♦

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Join my mailing list and never miss another post. You'll get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration - in quick, bite-sized packages - all geared toward making your teaching more effective and joyful. To thank you, I'll send you a free copy of my new e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half. I look forward to getting to know you better!

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Students Sitting Around Too Much? Try Chat Stations.

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Your new favorite teaching strategy: This pared-down version of learning stations keeps the movement, interactivity and variety while minimizing the prep work.

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Sponsored by Teaching Channel and UL Xplorlabs

Let's go back for a moment to a simpler time, back to 2019 when you may have "struggled to differentiate." When you tried to meet the needs of all students who came to you with different levels of readiness, who had different physical, emotional, and cognitive profiles, and who learned best under different scenarios.

2020 laughs at 2019.

Teaching is much more complicated now, and you are most likely in a situation where your students are scattered in some way. It may be one or a combination of these:

Half of your class is at home while the other half is in-person, then this switches the next day.

Some of your students are all-virtual, all the time.

Even the kids you do have face-to-face (F2F) have to be socially distanced and therefore can't collaborate and interact the way they once could.

Before, a teacher only had to worry about meeting students where they were academically, socially, and emotionally. Now you literally have to figure out a way to meet them where they are.

Depending on who's running your school, you may be expected to do any number of instructional gymnastics to keep all of these students engaged and on track. While I'm not going to get into the "shoulds" here (I address some best practices in this post, and I ranted about one specific remote teaching problem in this Facebook live broadcast), what I'd like to do in this post is curate some of the ways teachers have solved the problem of teaching students who are literally all over the place.

I pulled these ideas from responses to two separate tweets: In the first one, I asked what was working when teaching some students in person and others at home. The second tweet came a few weeks later, where I was asking specifically for strategies to build community among all the scattered groups. I got hundreds of responses, some of which I was still trying to digest an hour ago, so this list is just a sampling of some of the ideas I saw repeated several times and a few that I thought were really noteworthy. If you want to see all of the ideas, follow those links and enjoy! I'll warn you though, it's a lot. With so many people working on the same problem at the same time, there are a lot of ideas in many different iterations. My goal here is to pare it down to just a few that I think you can use.

(One more thing: For efficiency, I'm going to refer to all videoconferencing software as Zoom. So when I say "Zoom," just know that this means Google Meet, Microsoft Teams video, Skype, or whatever you're using. It's just faster this way.)

1. Create Student Cohorts

This was the most frequently mentioned piece of advice from teachers doing this work, so I'm putting it first and separating it from everything else.

The idea is to put students into groups that span different populations-some virtual, some F2F, some from different days in an A/B schedule-so they can help each other through your course. Doing this allows students to ask each other questions and support each other at times when you're not available. It's also a way to create connections between your in-class students and those who are learning from home.

In some classes, these cohorts are simply contact groups, so that when students get stuck, they can get clarification or help from each other.

In other cases, cohorts actually work on projects or assignments together.

In classrooms where F2F and at-home students are participating at the same time, teachers are putting students into pairs made up of one F2F and one at-home learner. This arrangement gives each at-home student a designated partner to connect them to what's happening in class.

For best results, give students a getting-to-know-you activity to do with their cohort or partner so they can form a connection and feel more comfortable with one another.

2. Limit the Synchronous

Many teachers are finding that synchronous instruction-where all students in class and at home are plugged in and participating in real time-needs to be very limited and used intentionally, as opposed to just recording an entire class session and expecting everyone to sit through that. (Again, I explored the ridiculousness of this idea here.).

Here are some ways this principle is playing out:

Brief and debrief. Some teachers are only using synchronous instruction to do a quick overview at the beginning of the class session and a quick debrief at the end, leaving the middle for independent work, group work, or small-group instruction with the teacher.

Make synchronous time special. Several teachers reported using synchronous time for things like read-alouds, reader's theater, and Shakespeare reading, where parts are given to both the at-home and in-person students.

Use virtual bell-ringers. Sort of. Some teachers are starting their synchronous time with a short pre-recorded video that gives everyone a task and reviews the day's agenda. Like a bell-ringer, doing this frees up the teacher to handle administrative tasks, lets kids trickle into the Zoom, and gives everyone something to do until it's time to start as a group.

Put EVERYONE on Zoom. If bandwidth allows and the activity fits, then put all students on Zoom for the synchronous part of your lesson, even F2F students. This will put everyone on the same playing field and make interaction easier.

Try interactive apps. Teachers are reporting great synchronous experiences using Pear Deck and Nearpod, which allow you to create and share interactive presentations with students on their own devices. Tools like Poll Everywhere and Mentimeter let you conduct fast whole-class polls with a few clicks. And YoTeach! offers backchannel chats that are similar to what used to be found on the now-defunct TodaysMeet.

Put direct instruction on video. Not surprisingly, quite a few teachers are reporting that they feel their direct instruction just doesn't work as well via Zoom as it does in a well-planned, pre-recorded video.

Have a backup plan. Use choice boards (general ones prepared ahead of time that can be used over and over) for at-home kids to use when tech goes out. This post about choice boards from Jenny Pieratt offers some things to think about when putting these together.

Differentiate synchronous learning. Here's something to consider: Does every student need the same amount of synchronous learning? Most solutions I'm hearing related to the synchronous/asynchronous question seem to be shooting for one model for everyone. But just like in the old days, it's not likely that every student needs or wants that much face-to-face time with the teacher, even the ones who are face to face. So maybe we can work toward customizing the amount of synchronous instruction for every student, allowing some to work independently or through digital channels more often, while others who need more interaction can get it?

3. Chunk the Time

It can be tremendously helpful to break up the class period into designated chunks, where some students are learning directly from the teacher, others are working in groups, and others are working independently. If you can make the structure visible and predictable for students, even better. The two resources listed below can help you imagine what those structures might look like for you. (Notice that none of the options listed have the teacher lecturing for the entire period. That's important.)

In this post from earlier this month, Catlin Tucker shared three blended learning models that can work in what she calls "concurrent classrooms."

Beth Alexander, director of Teaching and Learning at the Linden School in Toronto, shared a collection of hybrid lesson structures she's been trying, along with visuals like the ones below. Alexander has given me permission to share all of her models in a PDF, which you can download here.

Courtesy of Beth Alexander. All models available in this PDF.

Courtesy of Beth Alexander. All models available in this PDF.

One more tip for this "chunking": When you switch from synchronous to asynchronous, but there will be a time when you go back to synchronous, set up an on-screen timer to let at-home kids know when time is up for an activity.

4. Build Community Intentionally

Having students in multiple locations makes it much harder to build a classroom community, but those relationships are so important for making students feel a sense of belonging and connection. Here are some things teachers are doing to meet this challenge:

Reserve time to get to know each other. As a teacher, you can get to know students-both F2F and virtual-by scheduling short one-on-one meetings with them. To help students get to know each other, do icebreakers throughout the year and assign students to interview each other as a class project. And set aside time whenever possible for non-academic conversations; over time, these will continue to grow those relationships.

Make using names part of your classroom norms. Several teachers mentioned the positive results they got from greeting online students by name at the start of each class period, and others described setting discussion norms that required students to use each other's names regularly. Be sure you're pronouncing student names correctly, too; this will make a big difference.

Create communal spaces online. Slack and Microsoft Teams are two great options for giving students spaces online for general communication. Padlet is another option for structured or unstructured conversations. And Parlay is a robust platform for much more formal discussions.

Use lunch and recess for socialization. Some schools are setting up Zoom sessions for "lunch buddies," where students at home just hang out and talk with students in school. Although you may not get a large response to this kind of an opportunity, think of the social impact it could make on just a few kids to have that small community to visit with every day.

Use video. Flipgrid offers a simple space where students could record short videos that could be shared with the class. One teacher mentioned using these videos to have students record short responses to the prompts that would normally be given for writing in journals.

Play games. Quite a few digital games, like Kahoot!, Quizizz, and GimKit, can be played with both at-home and F2F students at the same time, all while reviewing course content. A few people mentioned Minecraft as an ideal platform for play and interaction. Even a game like Crumple & Shoot can be played where the F2F students shoot the paper wads, but at-home students can still be on the teams.

5. Experiment with Cameras and Screens

Lots of teachers mentioned setups that involved more than one camera and screen so that the same broadcasts can capture different things simultaneously. The number of ideas and combinations along these lines got pretty overwhelming, so I'll just share three big ones:

Two Zooms. When broadcasting, many teachers are setting up one camera to focus on them and another to focus on the board, another shared screen, or a document camera. This puts the "teacher" on Zoom twice but gives students more of a feel for what's happening in the classroom.

Mics and Headsets. Some teachers are putting Bluetooth earbuds in and/or wearing mics on headsets so they can communicate directly with at-home learners without disrupting the in-person class. I think this might drive some people (like me?) crazy, so take this with a grain of salt.

Swivl Cams. A few teachers mentioned using Swivl cameras to track either the teacher or to follow group interactions for students at home to watch.

6. Optimize Discussions

If your synchronous time includes class discussions that include both F2F and at-home learners, these suggestions can help you make the most of that time.

Establish norms. Many students will hold back in discussions if they don't know what the rules are, for fear of messing up in front of everyone. So be sure to establish clear norms for discussion: What should students do if they have something to say? Are there time limits on commenting? What kinds of things are appropriate to type into the chat? Should students write to each other in the chat? Should everyone stay muted or keep microphones on? The clearer these guidelines are, the better participation is likely to be.

Enable the chat. Some students will never feel comfortable unmuting in a large group, but will participate much more actively in a written chat, so whenever you can offer that as an option for participation, do it.

Assign a chat moderator. Have a student or another adult-anyone but you, if you are the one conducting the discussion-moderate the written chat in Zoom so you don't have to multitask. You can occasionally break from the "live" discussion to take questions from the chat, or establish norms where other students can respond to those questions in writing if they have the answer.

Share questions ahead of time. To improve participation from home, some teachers are sending questions to students ahead of time, having students turn in their responses, then calling on individuals to share their responses in the group discussion. This extra preparation ensures a productive discussion and removes some of the doubt students may feel about volunteering responses or having to think of them on the spot.

Repeat questions. When students ask questions, repeat or rephrase them yourself so everyone can hear. This practice helps anyone who didn't happen to hear it the first time, which is more likely in a hybrid situation.

Deal with the crickets. If lack of participation is a problem, you need to figure out the root cause, because it could be any number of things. Start by reading this post about improving student participation. You might also try to add more structure to your discussion by using a strategy like Philosophical Chairs, the TQE method, or the Discussion Game.

None of these ideas are really tested, researched, or optimized in any way, so don't feel like this is some massive to-do list that you have to check off. If you can implement one or two strategies that make things better for you and your students, that's a success.

Probably the worst thing you can do is to try and replicate exactly what you were doing before 2020, time-wise and content-wise. That's trying to force a square peg into a round hole; by doing that, you're just signing up for a ton of frustration.

Years ago I wrote a piece urging teachers to think of your teaching as always being "in Beta." Consider teaching in a post-COVID world to be the most massive project-in-Beta ever. It's going to be messy, but that's how humans learn and grow and adapt. Continue to experiment, fall apart on the days when it's your turn (because everyone seems to need a turn every now and then), ask students and parents for feedback, observe other teachers when you can, and most importantly, keep giving yourself and your students grace.

We're getting through this.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

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Some students are in the room with you. Some are home. Everyone is spread far apart. How do you teach this way? How do you build community? Here are some ideas.

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Zaretta Hammond
Stephanie Harvey
Teacher 2 Teacher
Kwame Alexander

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"Buzzing with Ms. B"

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Technology Coaching with Italy Wallace, Ep. 106 Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast

Many instructional coaches have felt like tech coaches since the onset of COVID. Coaches spent a lot of time during the pandemic supporting teachers, troubleshooting, and figuring out how to best use technology with students. But true technology coaching is so much more!

On episode 106 of The Coaching Podcast, I talk with instructional technology coach Italy Wallace about what it really takes to be a tech coach. We discuss what technology coaches do, the services they offer, and how their work enhances instruction.

Being a tech coach is such a great position right now because there's so much incredible technology that can be integrated into learning. As a technology coach, you can help teachers harness that potential.

Check out the entire episode to learn all about technology coaching!

Topics and Questions Discussed in Episode 106 - Technology Coaching with Italy Wallace

The role of technology coaches and the services they offer

What a “typical day” looks like for a tech coach

Connecting with teachers through morning rounds

Differences between coaching and administration

The three E's

How to focus on instruction and not get stuck in the tech help role

Similarities and differences between technology coaches and tech specialists

Using surveys, logs, and rubrics to track the impact of coaching and support teacher reflection

The biggest challenges facing instructional technology coaches

How technology can help bridge gaps and enhance learning

Finding your "why"

How to get started as a technology coach today

In this episode, Italy and I talk about using surveys and forms to get input from teachers. I think doing this is so valuable that I created a resource for you. It's called, Teacher Feedback Surveys for Instructional Coaching - Printable and Google Forms. There are 19 surveys, including technology, science, math, literacy, teacher interest, post-coaching cycle, and more. You can grab this resource and many others in my TPT store.

Ready to listen? You can listen below with the media player, or search for Buzzing with MS. B: The Coaching Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

This post contains links to products from one or more of our advertisers. This means I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post when you click on links to those products.

Learn more

email: coaching@gmail.com

Helpful resources

Thank you for listening to Buzzing with Ms. B: the Coaching Podcast. Want more coaching ideas?

Check me out at buzzingwithmsb.com and on Instagram @buzzingwithmsb.

If you love the show, share it with a coach who would love it too, or leave me a review on iTunes! It’s free and it helps others find this show, too. Happy coaching!

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What Makes a Math Coach Special with Staci Erickson, Ep. 105 Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast

Do you want to learn more about the many coaching opportunities available in education?

This month on The Coaching Podcast we're starting a new series about different coaching positions and I can't wait. I'm calling it "A Place for Everyone". We'll explore various coaching roles and learn directly from coaches working in the field.

I wanted to begin the series with a math coach because I get a lot of questions about their role and whether general strategies will transition to this very specific type of coaching. To help us learn more, I invited Staci Erickson of Math Coach Minute to the show to talk about coaching math. Staci is a math instructional coach in Texas and she does fantastic work with her teachers.

In this episode, we talk about what makes a math coach special and unique from other types of instructional coaches. Staci shares the journey she took to become a coach, details on her current role, and what you need to know to become a math coach. She tells us about some of her biggest challenges, how she helps her teachers break down state standards, and ways to create a safe space for teachers to discuss their work.

If you're a math coach or considering becoming one, this episode is for you. Tune in to learn more about what makes math coaches special and how they help their teachers grow in their practice.

Topics and Questions Discussed in Episode 105 - What Makes a Math Coach Special with Staci Erickson

The lasting impact of supporting colleagues

What math coaches do

What a typical day looks like at school

Being the lone math coach in a district

Planning units with vertical and horizontal alignment

Analyzing and breaking apart TEKS and other state standards

How to differentiate yourself as a math coach

Training, schooling, and experience need to become a math coach

Tracking the effectiveness and impact of your coaching

Creating a safe space place for teachers to talk about their work

Examining data and having honest, productive conversations

What to say to teachers when you don't have the answers

Biggest challenges as a math coach

Common misconceptions about teaching math

What you need to know about getting started as a math coach

How to get to know your teachers, build relationships, and not take feedback personally

Transitioning to math coaching from another coaching position

Ready to listen? You can listen below with the media player, or search for Buzzing with MS. B: The Coaching Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

This post contains links to products from one or more of our advertisers. This means I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post when you click on links to those products.

Learn more

Helpful resources

Thank you for listening to Buzzing with Ms. B: the Coaching Podcast. Want more coaching ideas?

Check me out at buzzingwithmsb.com and on Instagram @buzzingwithmsb.

If you love the show, share it with a coach who would love it too, or leave me a review on iTunes! It’s free and it helps others find this show, too. Happy coaching!

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Making Teacher Reflection a Common Practice: A Coaching Call with Monika Puzio, Ep. 104 Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast

What are some things coaches can do to make teacher reflection a common practice?

When done regularly, teacher reflection can help educators improve their practice, better understand their students, and make more informed decisions about instruction.

However, reflection isn't built into most professional learning or planning cycles. As a result, it can be difficult for coaches to find the time and space to encourage reflection among their teachers.

On this episode, I have a coaching call with ELA coach Monika Puzio. During the show, we chat about how coaches can support teacher reflection, so that it becomes something they include regularly in their teaching cycle.

This episode of The Coaching Podcast includes discussions about video coaching, using student work for reflection, tiering teacher support, and questions for reflection. You’ll learn strategies that you can start implementing right away to help your teachers become more reflective about their practice.

Topics and Questions Discussed in Episode 104 - Making Teacher Reflection a Common Practice: A Coaching Call with Monika Puzio

Reflection as part of the coaching cycle

Encouraging reflective dialogue

How to tier reflection for teachers

Helping new teachers reflect on their practice

What to do when you need to take a step back and change your coaching plans

Using student work as a starting point for reflection

How to transition reflection from student work to teacher practice

Questions to ask for reflection

Building reflection into a planning cycle

Reflecting on the intentions of lessons

Ways to use video coaching for reflection

Ready to listen? You can listen below with the media player, or search for Buzzing with MS. B: The Coaching Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

This post contains links to products from one or more of our advertisers. This means I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post when you click on links to those products.

Learn more

Helpful resources

Thank you for listening to Buzzing with Ms. B: the Coaching Podcast. Want more coaching ideas?

Check me out at buzzingwithmsb.com and on Instagram @buzzingwithmsb.

If you love the show, share it with a coach who would love it too, or leave me a review on iTunes! It’s free and it helps others find this show, too. Happy coaching!

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Supporting Teacher Reflection with Lorraine Padilla, Ep. 103 Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast

The end of the year is HECTIC!

Teachers need to finish teaching required content, finalize year-end paperwork, complete assessments, and get their classrooms ready for summer break. Whew! That's a lot!

The last thing on their minds is reflecting on their practice.

So, what can coaches and administrators do to encourage teachers to reflect on their practice?

On this episode of The Coaching Podcast, I’m talking to Lorraine Padilla from Apple Blossom Teachers about supporting teacher reflection. Lorraine is a teacher, mentor, and provides professional development in-person and online. During the call, we talk about ideas to help teachers reflect on their work, how to turn insights gained during reflection into action, and how to prevent a reflective conversation from turning into a gripe fest.

I really enjoyed this conversation because Lorraine was so excited about her work. She was honest about the things she had to work through and that every day isn’t going to be perfect. In education, like in life, there are hard days. That's the nature of the job. Having support and making time for reflection will make it better.

Ultimately, reflection is a valuable tool for helping teachers grow both professionally and personally. That's why it's so important for coaches and administrators to encourage educators to take time for reflection at the end of the year and throughout the year too.

Think about how you can make reflection a regular part of your dialogue with teachers. One idea to try is to choose a question that Lorraine shared and make a deliberate effort to add it into your dialogue with teachers. Start with one and when it becomes part of your toolkit you can choose a new question to add.

Speaking of toolkits, I have a resource in my Teachers Pay Teachers store called, Coaching New Teachers - The Instructional Coaching Toolkit. It includes tools for debriefing and providing opportunities for reflection as part of the coaching cycle. You can get it by clicking the link below.

Topics and Questions Discussed in Episode 103 - Supporting Teacher Reflection with Lorraine Padilla

Why reflection is valuable for improving teaching practices

Common misunderstandings about reflecting

Why coaches and reflection aren't only for struggling teachers

Reflective questions and prompts

How to make reflections a habit

The connection between relationships, being vulnerable, and reflection

Opportunities to support teachers that are often overlooked

The power in celebrating what's going well and questions to ask to carry that win into other areas

The difference between reflecting in groups and one-on-one

How to set a purpose in pre-conference meetings and why you need one

Building time to reflect in planning sessions

Why teams need to develop a common language

Differentiating what teachers need help with and what students need help with

Leveraging strengths in one area into another

Tips to keep reflective conversations from becoming gripe fests and how to find solutions to problems

Being intentional about summer vacation to prevent burnout

Ways to help teachers turn their reflections into action

How small steps can lead to big success

Ready to listen? You can listen below with the media player, or search for Buzzing with MS. B: The Coaching Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

This post contains links to products from one or more of our advertisers. This means I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post when you click on links to those products.

Learn more

Helpful resources

Thank you for listening to Buzzing with Ms. B: the Coaching Podcast. Want more coaching ideas?

Check me out at buzzingwithmsb.com and on Instagram @buzzingwithmsb.

If you love the show, share it with a coach who would love it too, or leave me a review on iTunes! It’s free and it helps others find this show, too. Happy coaching!

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Reflecting on Leadership with Dr. Jill Brown, Ep. 102 Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast

Coaches, want to know how to make lasting change at your school?

Be reflective!

It's not enough to be knowledgeable about teaching and learning. Reflecting on your work is key to being an effective instructional coach.

On this episode of The Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jill Brown and I talk about what it means to be a reflective leader and the importance of self-awareness. We discuss how to reflect on your coaching work, questions to ask yourself, and ways to improve your practice. She explains the four steps to take when facing hard truths and how to use data to reflect on your work.

As this school year comes to a close, try to schedule some time for reflection. Consider what went well and areas for improvement. Be honest with yourself and open to feedback from others. Listen to this episode for some great tips on being a more reflective leader!

Topics and Questions Discussed in Episode 102 - Reflecting on Leadership with Dr. Jill Brown

What it means to be a reflective leader

The importance of self-awareness for coaches

How to be a more reflective coach

Ways to get to know your staff and make connections (even when you're coaching a lot of teachers)

Ideas to help leaders be more self-aware, observant, and flexible

How to improve communication and different ways to enter conversations with teachers

Why leaders need input from multiple sources to be reflective and effective

The role of data in self-reflection and how to use anecdotal data

Reflective questions for coaches

Big mistakes leaders make when reflecting on their work

Planning for future growth

Becoming aware of your biases and assumptions

The four steps to take when facing hard truths

Why leaders need to make mistakes and what we learn from them

How to notice patterns and gain clarity

Processes to support self-reflection

How to use what we learned through self-reflection to impact student learning and make lasting change

Things coaches can do to support special education teachers

Ready to listen? You can listen below with the media player, or search for Buzzing with MS. B: The Coaching Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

This post contains links to products from one or more of our advertisers. This means I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post when you click on links to those products.

Learn more

Helpful resources

Thank you for listening to Buzzing with Ms. B: the Coaching Podcast. Want more coaching ideas?

Check me out at buzzingwithmsb.com and on Instagram @buzzingwithmsb.

If you love the show, share it with a coach who would love it too, or leave me a review on iTunes! It’s free and it helps others find this show, too. Happy coaching!

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Breaking a Negative Coaching Pattern, Ep. 101 Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast

If you're a coach, you know that relationships are key. But what do you do if you fall into a negative coaching pattern with a teacher?

In this episode of The Coaching Podcast, I talk about breaking a negative coaching pattern. You'll learn how to recognize negative coaching patterns, get ideas for breaking them, and discover the questions you can ask teachers to help make your coaching conversations more effective.

I share my coaching mistakes and the things that helped me move beyond negative coaching patterns. Listen to learn my biggest tip for breaking a negative coaching pattern and how it changes relationships with teachers.

Topics and Questions Discussed in Episode 101 - Breaking a Negative Coaching Pattern

My definition of a coaching pattern and how to recognize a negative one

Why coaches need to reflect on how they contribute to any negative coaching patterns

How changing our responses changes the pattern and creates different outcomes

Why being curious and asking questions is the best way to change a negative coaching relationship

The problem with making assumptions and being defensive

Examples of negative patterns I had with teachers and how I changed them

What to do when teachers complain or say, "That won't work with my students"

The question I ask teachers that changed everything

Tips for shifting the dialogue from "you should do this", to "let's understand and fix the problem together"

Why modeling is crucial for teachers and students

This episode is part of my podcast series on reflecting and looking back. All month, we'll be reflecting on our coaching work this year. Be sure to check out all of May's episodes as they come out.

Ready to listen? You can listen below with the media player, or search for Buzzing with MS. B: The Coaching Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!

This post contains links to products from one or more of our advertisers. This means I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post when you click on links to those products.

Learn more

Helpful resources

Thank you for listening to Buzzing with Ms. B: the Coaching Podcast. Want more coaching ideas?

Check me out at buzzingwithmsb.com and on Instagram @buzzingwithmsb.

If you love the show, share it with a coach who would love it too, or leave me a review on iTunes! It’s free and it helps others find this show, too. Happy coaching!

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Instructional coaching support for teachers and coaches.

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Jennifer Serravallo on Engagement in the Online Classroom
Jennifer Serravallo's Connecting with Students Online has become a go-to resource for online teaching. In her research for the book and as she's talked with teachers about the book, engagement has repeatedly arisen as an instructional challenge. Jen's thinking on engagement is clear and practical, and, as you'll see below Connecting with Students Online, is ready to take into the (online or hybrid) classroom tomorrow.

To learn more about Connecting With Students Online visit Heinemann.com.

Methods Matter

As Jen wrote a decade ago, "Without engagement, we've got nothing." As she also points out, when it comes to engagement, methods matter. A difference maker is "how you present content, keep learning active, keep learning social, and provide regular opportunities to interact with students to help them engage."

What It Looks Like-Microlesson

What does highly engaging instruction look like in remote or hybrid classrooms? How do you keep it simple but effective? Here's one example. Jen made this engaging microlesson in under ten minutes using the Clips app. As you'll see, Jen not only uses arresting visuals, she also keeps the video to three minutes or less as suggested by research.

In Connecting with Students Online (page 121), Jen provides five important tips for recording effective microlessons-and for keeping them simple and streamlined. She also presents the following table that helps you know when to use live (synchronous) lessons or recorded (asynchronous) lessons, how to structure them, and what specific information to include in them.

Click on Image to access the printable PDF.

What It Looks Like-Small Groups

Connecting with Students Online includes a dozen video clips of Jen working remotely with students. In the following example, she pulls a small group for a writing strategy lesson. Notice how Jen increases engagement in two ways. First, she uses small groups which boost engagement by providing closer contact for students with their teacher and by tailoring instruction to their needs. Second, once she asks them to work independently to try out a strategy, she uses her teleconferencing software's breakout-room capability to talk individually to students in the group, further increasing engagement by providing crucial one-to-one time.

Getting Engaged

"We know that engagement isn't about making children do what we tell them to or being held accountable," writes Jennifer Serravallo in Connecting with Students Online, "it's about helping students to be motivated and inspired. Engagement isn't just about time on task; it's about tapping into an emotional commitment to students' goals for learning." To learn more about Jen's ideas for increasing engagement during remote and hybrid instruction, pick up the book. You'll find 55 strategies to support your teaching and a dozen videos to help you optimize your online teaching. Or take it from members of Jen's Reading and Writing Strategies Community on Facebook (it's free, join now!) who have recently written:

To learn more about Connecting With Students Online visit Heinemann.com.

Host a staff book study group with this free study guide.

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Jennifer Serravallo on Engagement in the Online Classroom

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Jennifer Serravallo on Engagement in the Online Classroom Jennifer Serravallo's Connecting with Students Online has become a go-to resource for online teaching. In her research for the book and as she's talked with teachers about the book, engagement has repeatedly arisen as an instructional challenge.

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This was a follow up session to a PD Martha did on 2/3.

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I found this interesting as it is something we struggle with every day.

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While the professors wanted to respect student privacy, the lack of ambient feedback when the Zoom camera was off put a real damper on learning. "Instructors benefit from receiving nonverbal cues from their students such as smiles, frowns, head nods, looks of confusion, and looks of boredom, so that they can evaluate their teaching in real time and adjust accordingly to improve student learning," Castelli and Sarvary write-emphasizing the value that comes from being able to read students' faces.

Students, too, benefit from being able to see each other onscreen. In the study, a majority indicated that "using videoconferencing helped build trust and rapport with other students and helped them to develop a sense of identification with others in their group." The social context of living classrooms-the often-invisible human connection that reinforces learning-was missing for students, who insisted "that being able to hear and see each other in real time helped construct a 'more complete picture' of their peers."

If both sides of the educational equation were losing out, then a middle ground needed to be found, the professors thought-one that respects the rights of students but supports the social dynamics of learning, at least in some situations.

To refine their strategies around camera use, Castelli and Sarvary surveyed hundreds of students to identify their main privacy concerns. The students, it turns out, weren't staying off-camera for the anticipated reasons. Forty-one percent of students said they turned their cameras off because they were "concerned about [their] appearance": They had messy hair, were wearing pajamas, or hadn't yet showered, the study reported. Relatedly, 17 percent of students felt that everyone was watching them, creating a sensation of unbearable self-consciousness.

Equity-related issues also cropped up. Underrepresented minorities were twice as likely to be concerned about their homes being visible and were 12 percentage points more likely to cite a weak internet connection-perhaps a reflection of how the pandemic can exacerbate the digital divide.

QUICKLY ESTABLISH A NORM

Being proactive about cameras early on can be an easy first step to establishing the norm-more so than during the school year, if a camera-off culture has set in.

That's because virtual classrooms-and the expectations that follow-may be new to most students. In the study, one in 10 students didn't turn their camera on simply because they felt that was the norm. "If you don't explicitly ask for the cameras and explain why, that can lead to a social norm where the camera is always off," Castelli and Sarvary warn. It can quickly become "a spiral of everyone keeping it off, even though many students want it on."

To counter this, Castelli and Sarvary recommend including the camera policy in the class syllabus and explicitly encouraging camera use on the first day of class. A camera-on norm can also help address the main reason why students turned their cameras off: concerns about their personal appearance. If students anticipate being seen on camera, they'll be more likely to brush their hair and dress appropriately.

TEACHER-TESTED STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE CAMERA USE

Addressing norms doesn't mean that students will turn the camera on daily-you'll still need to make accommodations for students, and you'll need to encourage camera use contextually.

For Liz Byron Loya, a visual arts teacher in Boston, encouraging students to turn their cameras on has its roots in building a positive community, not in expecting compliance from students.

"Focus on trust, both teacher to student and student to student," writes Byron Loya. "Students who know they are safe and cared for by their community will be more comfortable having their cameras on."

Icebreakers and games-Pictionary and charades come to mind-can help ease students into turning their cameras on, especially if they feel that the focus is less on them and more on the activity.

Byron Loya also offers specific tips for encouraging students to turn their cameras on:

Survey students to identify barriers preventing them from participating.

Remind students that they can use a virtual background if they don't want to show what's happening behind them.

Encourage students who have social capital to use their cameras.

Enable the waiting room and greet students one by one as they enter your virtual class.

Use Zoom's "Ask to Start Video" feature to invite students to turn their cameras on.

For students who are reluctant about giving a live presentation, provide an option to submit a prerecorded video.

For students who request to keep their cameras off, high school teacher Katie Seltzer holds camera-optional Socratic seminars. "Students in the outer circle, who typically would be evaluating the participation of their peers in the inner circle, used the chat feature to echo powerful comments they heard and ask questions of the inner-circle group," writes Seltzer. There's no stigma associated with having their cameras turned off, since the activity allows them to fully participate in a way that mirrors the activity in traditional in-person classrooms.

Alex Shevrin Venet, a community college teacher and former school leader at an alternative high school in Vermont, believes that the key to encouraging students to turn their cameras on starts with the teacher. Model mistakes and try to be authentic, she suggests, and let students know that it's OK to be themselves on video.

"Don't worry about sounding rehearsed or making your space look Instagram-perfect," writes Venet. "Embrace the fun and silly moments when pets and family members make guest appearances. Create an environment where students recognize that turning cameras on means laughter, making silly faces at friends, and being seen for who they are."

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While the professors wanted to respect student privacy, the lack of ambient feedback when the Zoom camera was off put a real damper on learning.

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By Betsy Potash

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When it comes to in-person discussion, my go-to has always been Harkness. Teaching kids how to have a conversation, mostly without me, and then reflect on their own abilities and dynamics and improve after each day, has been one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching for me.

Did I mention I met my husband at the Exeter Humanities Institute, learning about Harkness?

Yes, it's an amazing method, and I've talked about it a lot here before ( like in this podcast episode, and this one). But, when it comes to a virtual discussion, a free-flowing conversation built upon eye contact, body cues, and slowly deepening relationships probably isn't the best.

Maybe your students are keeping their video feeds off. Maybe they aren't un-muting, even when you actually want them to. Virtual discussions are HARD.

But here's where Harkness does have something crucial to share. When it comes to getting kids to talk to each other in a Harkness circle, without much help from their teacher, discussion warm-ups are critical. Taking a few minute to get everyone thinking about the topics, perhaps writing or reading/watching/listening to a complementary piece and reflecting on it, is huge.

At the Exeter Humanities Institute, they'd often have us write one discussion question, throw it into a hat, and then pull someone else's out to ask during our conversation when it felt like the group was ready for a new topic. That way we automatically had something to say when a topic seemed to be dying out. Not only that, but it wasn't even our own question so we had no personal stake in how it went over. Very low pressure!

So am I suggesting we create a Google Slide with a hat on it where kids can drop and trade virtual discussion questions? No, not exactly. (Though that actually doesn't sound kind of cool). But if you want to have a live discussion online with your students, as opposed to using a message board, a backchat app, a Flipgrid response, or a Jamboard, getting them warmed up before you dive in will make a huge difference, just as it does with Harkness.

Here are five ideas for digital warm-ups you can start using immediately. You can listen in on the podcast player below, or on your player of choice, or just read on.

This episode is brought to you in affiliate partnership with Stitchfix. If you're feeling frustrated by your inability to safely shop for a comfortable, fun, cold-weather teaching wardrobe right now, Stitchfix can send it to your door. To give Stitchfix a try with $25 off your first purchase, you can join through my affiliate link right here. Personally, I'm loving it! My current favorite fall sweater (below) and cozy fall coat both came to my door in that signature Stitchfix package.

#1 Silent Discussion

This has always been one of my favorite discussion warm-ups. Normally I'd have students write a question at the top of their notebook, then pass it left, respond, pass, then read and respond, pass, then read and respond, etc. Then I'd open the discussion by asking someone to read their question. Since several kids would already have written responses and read others' responses, things usually picked up quickly.

This activity modifies easily to digital. You can create a collaborative question slide deck ( feel free to use these slide templates that I made for you). Then invite each student to add a question to the top of one slide and begin adding responses on others' slides. You can ask them to respond and read on maybe five slides, and then begin your class discussion based on the questions and answers they've already been exploring. If you make this a regular practice, the tech will soon seem simple to the kids. This could easily be a weekly practice. While I might change up discussion warm-ups pretty constantly in person, keeping clear expectations and patterns can be helpful online!

#2 Hexagonal Thinking

Hexagonal thinking is another engaging way to get kids thinking about key concepts and connections related to your reading. Warm up for discussion by giving them a list of terms and asking them to figure out how to connect them in a hexagonal web. Ask them to jot down explanations for three of their connections (or send three connection explanations to you, if you want to check for completion). Then after ten or fifteen minutes, start the conversation by asking someone to share what they connected and why. Invite kids to raise their hands (on video or in the chat) to share different or similar connections they made with those terms, and continue from there.

If you'd like to get my full editable digital hexagonal thinking toolkit with lots of examples and full instructions, I'm happy to send it your way! Just sign up for my Friday emails below, confirm your address, and then enjoy your toolkit.

#3 Social Media Snapshot

For this digital warm-up, tap into your students' love of social media and ask them to frame what's been happening in the reading through a social lens. Maybe they sketch out an Instagram reel, complete with musical choice, for whatever they think was the most important moment in the reading. Maybe they write five snarky tweets for a sarcastic main character, inventing hashtags along the way. Maybe they create a #booksnap ( learn all about them here!) for the chapter. Whatever it is, a dive into literary-themed social media will help them remember what they read and get ready to talk.

#4 Discussion Question Challenge

I invented this warm-up many years ago, in a moment of desperation. I wanted to get my students thinking outside the box, realizing there were a million ways to approach conversation around a reading. So I challenged them to a discussion question contest. I made white chocolate blueberry brownies and awarded them to the kids who came up with the most discussion questions for the reading. It was fifteen years ago now, but I want to say the winner of that first contest came up with about forty questions. A warm-up like this, where you challenge kids to come up with as many questions as they can in five or ten minutes, is an easy way to get them ready for a discussion! When it's time to get going, just invite someone to share their question.

#5 Collaborative Slideshow

You know how I feel about Google Slides - they're good for everything! A collaborative Google slideshow would make for an easy discussion warm-up. Give everyone in class a slide in the collaborative set, then ask them to put on whatever you think would help stoke your discussion. Maybe that looks like everyone putting their favorite quote, a related meme, and a discussion question on one slide, then perusing others. You could launch the discussion by inviting anyone to read someone else's quote or question.

I bet you're already brainstorming ideas for digital discussion warm-ups right now! Think of discussion a little like sports practice - it's just going to go a lot better, with a lot fewer injuries, after a good warm-up.

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107: Virtual Discussion Problems? Try this.

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When it comes to in-person discussion, my go-to has always been Harkness. Teaching kids how to have a conversation, mostly without me, and then reflect on their own abilities and dynamics and improve after each day, has been one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching for me.

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Four weeks ago on a Friday afternoon, I left my 7th grade ELA classroom not knowing that I was saying goodbye. That weekend, I found out that my school would be closed until May. Like many other teachers, I went through a brief period of mourning. I was mourning the loss of my physical classroom and I was missing my students terribly, but there was something else I couldn't quite put my finger on--something that staring at a computer screen and posting assignments on Google Classroom could not replace.

What was missing was the magic. I was missing the magic of face-to-face interactions with my kids, the magic of inside jokes, the magic of close proximity when a student struggled to pay attention to a lesson, the magic of eye contact and showing a student with a simple look that we would get through this together.

It's important that, as teachers, we allow ourselves to feel that mourning for our classrooms and our time with students, but once we work through those feelings, maybe we'll be ready to redefine the magic we felt in the classroom. I refuse to give up hope that we can still bring magic to our classrooms, even from a distance.

Together, I worked with 12 other Secondary English educators to gather the best ideas for keeping the magic alive in our online classrooms. We hope that these ideas will refresh your online teaching and help to bring joy to you and your students. Along with each idea, we provide ways to differentiate for students with limited access to resources.

Differentiation idea: Send home a paper copy or email a copy for families to print. Students can complete many of the projects with little or no Internet (crafting a piece of art with pieces from nature, writing a story book version of a novel, and more!). If sending work back to you is not an option, students or parents can take a picture of the work and email it back. All ideas are editable, so you can recreate some of the digital choices with similar paper activities.

If your district supports the use of Google Meet and you're thinking about giving it a try, Shana suggests downloading a few Chrome extensions first. If you aren't familiar with Chrome extensions, they're basically little programs that enhance the functionality of Google Chrome. You can learn more and read about Shana's favorite Chrome extensions for teachers and students , , and .

Again, make sure to check with your district before using Google Meet or initiating any kind of two-way communication with students. They may have restrictions or additional guidelines to follow.

Differentiation idea: For students who struggle to make it to a Google Meet at a specific time, record your meeting to share through Google Classroom or email later. That way, students who are sharing devices with siblings or parents won't be left out. For students who struggle to access Google products from home, send a quick email or try to touch base by phone. Calling too many students would obviously be overwhelming, but most likely, the numbers of students who cannot access through email or a recording would be low. Dial *67 before any student phone numbers to keep your own phone number private.

1. Create fun, creative prompts: Emily's students post one FlipGrid each week in response to their reading. Last week, students had to create a three minute news story detailing the juiciest character gossip from their books. The videos were so much fun, and kids loved the idea of sharing character gossip. Students heard about Katniss Everdeen's love triangle, the gossip surrounding the murder of Simon in One of Us is Lying, and the gossip about Matthew's newest love interest in The Boy in the Black Suit. In another prompt, students had to create a FlipGrid from their character's point of view. For optional fun, students could dress up like the character. Students then were tasked with sharing how the character would handle social distancing. The responses were so relevant and creative. Best of all, students demonstrated deep understandings of their characters.

2. Create models: For each prompt Emily posts, she creates a model video response. Emily is known to dress up, get as creative as possible, and provide students with an example of the finished product she expects. Dressing up and being a little silly has helped to create a fun online learning experience.

3. Give feedback: FlipGrid makes it easy to leave quick video feedback. After watching videos, Emily usually records a quick 10-30 second response. She recommends sharing specific feedback about student's analysis. She also recommends responding to the parts of the video that make you smile! Giving feedback through video helps teachers to reconnect with students in that face to face way we all are missing.

FlipGrid reading responses are fun, accessible, and allow students to tap into their creativity. FlipGrid also provides a method of reconnecting from a distance. FlipGrid videos will help you to recreate the magic of talking about books face to face in your online classroom.

Differentiation idea: Provide an alternative to video responses for students who do not have access. Simply having students write their responses instead of creating a video is easy. Students can email responses or post them in Google Classroom. Emily's students have the option to post a video or a written response in the comment section. For students who are anxious to show their face on video, model how to have fun with emoji stickers. Emily models how to use the whiteboard option to write out a response or even draw an animated response. Encourage students to play around and have fun!

There are two free video chatting resources that work well for virtual literature circles: Zoom and Google Meets. Before deciding on which route to take, you should check with your school district about their policies and expectations.

1. Zoom has a unique function for setting up breakout rooms. This lets the teacher split your larger class meeting into smaller separate rooms. Therefore, you can start in a full class meet by explaining directions and expectations, and then break up students into their assigned groups. What's great about this is that you can bounce between meetings easily. You can read the directions for setting up the breakout rooms in Zoom .

2. Google Meet is another free resource for video chats. With this option, you'll have to setup individual Google Meets and label them for each group so the students know which one to attend. It might also be helpful to schedule the group presentations at different times so you can attend all meetings. You can find directions for setting up a Google Meet .

Differentiation idea: For students who cannot participate at a specific time, Zoom and Google both have options to record meetings. For students who struggle with access, encourage them to submit questions or quotes for literature circle discussions. Then, share classmate responses through email.

Whether you are doing synchronous or asynchronous online instruction, connecting with your students can be challenging. Maybe you feel like you are merely speaking at a screen during live or screenrecorded lessons, or you're wondering if students are even reading everything you've posted for them. If you're struggling with this disconnect and missing your students, try incorporating some form of online discussion. Here are a few suggestions:

If you are using Google Classroom, you can use its "Ask a question" feature as an online discussion forum. When you ask a question, students can not only reply, but they can also see their classmates' responses and comment on them. If you want to take this feature a step further, consider letting students generate their own questions for a mini virtual

If you are hosting live lessons through a video conferencing platform, you can easily facilitate discussions. If you feel like your discussions are flopping, try one of these fun strategies:

Flood The Chat: Ask students a question, and set a timer. Ask them to enter their answer only after the timer has sounded. This will create a "flood" of responses in the chat at once.

Virtual Turn & Talk: Depending on your platform and what it supports, you can create fun conditions for students to message peers with an answer to a question. For example, you can have students message the student above/below them on the participants lists or to the left/right on the grid view of screens. If those aren't options, ask students to respond to someone whose name starts with the same letter or simply let them pick a friend. You'll be surprised at how many students respond to each other.

Respond with Emojis/Characters: Post a multiple choice question on the screen, and designate each answer with an emoji or character (*!~+). Ask students to reply with the emoji/character in the chat.

If you are ready to try a new tech tool, consider online "backchannel" discussion platforms like (similar to the former Today's Meet)or , a platform where you can browse public "debates" or create your own.

For more tech tools and ideas to connect with your students online, head to Abby's blog

Differentiation Idea: Record online discussions for students who can't make it. For students with little to no Internet access, ask for prompts that can be shared in class chats or to start virtual turn and talk discussions, then share classmates' answers via email.

In an attempt to create normalcy, Amanda has tried to streamline instruction in limited platforms and focus on the ones that her class had already been using before school ended. The first platform that's helped create normalcy is utilizing - a digital reading platform that does it all (check it out in Amanda's insta stories highlights for elearning!). The other platform she's used is a Google extension called Kami. Kami allows users to upload documents or images and convert them to PDFs that can be annotated in dozens of ways . Finally, Amanda's team has decided to give writing assessments that look almost identical to ones that students have already done, just with a few updates. One of these assignments is to have students write an alternate ending to the book they're reading in class using Google Slides ! Each slide has clickable links for the reader to choose her own adventure and they're so much fun to read and write!

Differentiation: Mail paper versions of class work and agendas, or if your school has meal delivery, see if work can be sent home with meals. If the work needs to be slightly different and sent in bulk (one month at a time), that's okay. Keep it simple so work is both accessible to students and reasonable for you to create. Reading and response, like writing an alternate book ending, is easy to do with very few materials. Offer audio book apps like Audible and Sora to make reading more accessible.

Students enjoy hearing their teachers read, and Lauralee from Language Arts Classroom has incorporated read alouds into her lessons. As a wonderful bonus, reading aloud has helped her to connect with her students online. Primarily, Lauralee reads to students in two ways.

One, Lauralee created a YouTube channel for her students where she reads the first chapter of books in the public domain. The data showed her that students watch the videos. In the future, she can ask students to watch these videos if they are absent, if they are searching for a book, or if they need inspiration. Since the books are in the public domain, students can immediately access the books.

Even though Lauralee is not in the classroom, keeping FCF has increased her connection with students online.

You can also tie this kind of activity into content. Perhaps you can host a spirit week for your ELA classroom. Think about Dress Like Your Favorite Character Day or What Are You Doing? Day and have students free write about something that they are doing during this time.

We know that our kids (and maybe...admittedly, ourselves haha) are getting more and more into TikTok. If they're going to be on it anyway, imagine how much fun and creativity they could demonstrate by blending content into short TikToks. Staci has so many ideas about how this could work with Romeo and Juliet (which is what Staci is currently reading with her students). To make the Digital Spirit Week idea more flexible, you could have a weekly content instead of daily content to allow time for creation.

Differentiation: Tanesha's ideas ARE differentiation techniques. To spread these resources even further, offer students paper copies of the Digital Community resource and allow students to weigh in on how to include students who have limited access in the classroom community.

Another great digital platform is Padlet, and it is completely free as long as you don't plan to have more than three active Padlets at a time. Think of it as a chart you would typically have students add sticky notes to, but with the capability of including graphics, videos, hyperlinks, drawings, and even voice recordings!

Response to text: Think, collaborative "double entry journal." Using a Padlet Wall, students can share a meaningful quote from a selected text and respond with connections, inferences, predictions, etc. The fun part is seeing how students choose to share their commentary!

Anchor charts: On a Padlet shelf, content can be organized in columns. This one is a game changer. There are many different ways it can be used, depending on your area of study. Let's say you're practicing character analysis, make different columns such as personality, appearance, thoughts, and interactions with others. Then have students add their ideas with evidence and explanations within each column. Another fun way Staci has used this layout is to create an A-Z Guide to Being at Home where her students posted different ways they are staying busy during this time at home.

Final Projects or the Planning Stages of Writing: Use Padlet Timelines for literal comprehension, like tracking events in a story, or ask students to get more creative by making a timeline of a character's life based on textual evidence and inferences. How about writing? Organize ideas for a narrative in chronological order or use it like an outline to plan a more structured essay.

Differentiation Idea: Use the print screen feature on your computer keyboard to screen shot a Padlet conversation to share with students through email if their Internet access is limited. Give students with limited access the opportunity to create questions that students on Padlet can answer. Then, highlight responses through a whole-class email. Email students with limited access posing specific questions, then copy and paste answers into Padlet so classmates can add to the discussion. Give students the opportunity to answer similar questions on paper.

As an English teacher experienced with grades 6-12 and a current instructional coach, Melissa recommends focusing on what is most important right now. Less is more. She suggests one of the most important ways we can be connecting with students online is by encouraging them to continue their reading lives.

As a certified reading specialist, Melissa has no shortage of ideas for using books to build relationships with students and create positive classroom cultures for older students. You can read more of her ideas , Reading and Writing Haven .

Using Google Forms for daily or attendance check-ins has many benefits.

1. I can export the data to Google Sheets to easily sort the information.

2. I can edit the form each day to include new pictures or questions related to that day's content.

3. I can share the shortened link via Remind so that students have easy access to the Form.

4. Finally, it saves all of the data so that I have a record of my student check-ins.

Differentiation: For students who cannot attend online classes, see if your school has an easy way to deliver paper copies. For students with limited access (just email, for example), create a regular schedule with any students who need that accommodation. For example, ask students to share work or responses every Tuesday and Thursday.

I hope these ideas inspire you to find the magic in your online clasroom. We fell in love with teaching because our goal was to reach the human beings who enter our classrooms everyday. Yes, it's definitely different teaching on a computer, but those same humans are behind the screen, and we can still find ways to connect and spark a love for learning.

If you find this post helpful, please share it with your friends!

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12 Creative Ways to Connect with Students Online

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Four weeks ago on a Friday afternoon, I left my 7th grade ELA classroom not knowing that I was saying goodbye. That weekend, I found out that my school would be closed until May. Like many other teachers, I went through a brief period of mourning.

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Productive struggle is important for students to retain what they learn.

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Productive struggle is important for students to retain what they learn.

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Some different Tech Ideas to help support Student Voice

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Some different Tech Ideas to help support Student Voice

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Teachers and administrators from pre-K through 12th grade named these tools their top picks for this year and beyond.

If there was ever a year for teachers to beg, borrow, and steal good ideas, this is it. All good teachers know this is how we get better, and this is a curated list of tech tools that I have begged and borrowed from others-and I didn't have to steal any of these as there has never been a year when teachers were more generous.

Based on my own teaching of college students as well as the responses of 1,461 virtual learning academy participants-pre-K to 12 teachers and administrators-to survey questions on impactful tools that I conducted from May to December 2020, and over 70 webinars and virtual learning sessions I've conducted in that time, these are the top teacher-tested tech tools I have identified. My learning has happened with my own students and through my own mistakes, and I received great ideas from educators across the U.S. and around the world.

I will continue to use these tools and recommend their use regardless of student level or how we deliver education moving forward.

Top Tech Tools for Educators

10. Parlay: For those of us who like to discuss rich texts with students, Parlay lets us connect with students remotely, facilitate discussion, and track how the dialogue builds. As students respond, Parlay shows who is contributing and where the conversation is moving as the software visually tracks student responses in a discussion web. Teachers can use built-in tools to assess the frequency of students' answers in real time even when students are not in the same room. Teachers can then spend their time on deeper level assessment of the depth of student responses, which can also be recorded.

9. Flip: One of the most popular tech tools in schools, Flip won praise from teachers across the country because of the flexibility it gives students to submit digital projects and how it effectively supports peer and teacher feedback.

8. Edpuzzle: I've used Edpuzzle for a while, but it became much more vital as more of my content shifted online. Teachers use Edpuzzle to make video clips interactive by requiring student responses, which are easy to collect and assess.

7. Pear Deck: Pear Deck does to Google Slides what Edpuzzle does to videos. Slides become interactive, and teachers are able to collect feedback immediately.

6. Prezi: I've used the virtual presentation software Prezi for years, and I appreciate a recent update that allows me to be on the same screen with the graphics, creating a more engaging presentation. Prezi offers teachers another tool to capture short lectures, explanations, or other content in a more visually appealing and personal way than as a disembodied voice or thumbnail in the bottom corner of a screen.

5. Screencastify: Every student can be Sal Khan working out problems with explanations. This tool was first recommended to me by a teacher in Kenya, who explained how Screencastify transformed her math assessments by allowing students to show what they're thinking from wherever they happen to be working. Screencastify is also valuable for reducing cheating as teachers can observe students working and explaining problems instead of just recording answers.

This has been a lifesaver for virtual collaboration. Mural allows teachers, students, and other contributors to write on virtual sticky notes and then organize and reorganize them in real time. The best in-person meetings are always the ones where the collective expertise of the room can be captured visually, and if we can't be in the same room with students-or colleagues-Mural is the next best thing. Even better, there's no need to go back and summarize or clean up evidence from the meeting. The Mural is the artifact. Many teachers are now using Jamboard in a similar way.

Created by a high school student who thought he could improve upon Kahoot!, Gimkit allows teachers to create question sets that students can answer over and over again while competing against each other, which is great for surface learning and review. Because Gimkit allows for repetition of answers and has a variety of ways for students to earn points, students remain engaged as they work at their own pace.

2. Mentimeter and Slido: These are both excellent for collecting feedback from groups, so I've ranked them together. I use these almost weekly for professional learning and in my classes. Slido allows participants to ask questions and then upvote others. There are many similar tools, but Slido is easy and free. Mentimeter allows students and teachers to collect real-time data on questions they have, in the form of word clouds, rankings, and various scales. These are great discussion starters that allow everyone to contribute to the collective wisdom of the group.

1. Learning management system: A good LMS is key to reducing stress for teachers, students, and parents. A list like this one would be counterproductive if it left your educational delivery fragmented among disparate tools, and a good LMS helps you organize everything into a one-stop shop.

I personally love Canvas and Schoology, but I know many teachers have worked miracles with Google Classroom, which is "free." I use those quotes for a reason: Google Classroom is only truly free if it is not requiring significantly more human capital in the form of time and energy than a fee-for-service platform like Canvas or Schoology. The most significant asset for managing learning in the chaos of this school year has been staying organized, and Canvas has been a lifesaver for me.

I have taught virtually, led professional learning across many time zones, delivered content asynchronously, and taught students in masks with others Zooming in due to quarantine, Covid, or personal preference. For me, nothing will ever replace in-person teaching and learning, but like many other teachers and administrators, I now know how to effectively facilitate learning in a previously unimaginable set of circumstances. This school year's desperation has driven us to explore a wide range of tools, and we can be better because of the firehose learning we have done this year. We just need a few tools to create some space for us to breathe.

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Teachers and administrators from pre-K through 12th grade named these tools their top picks for this year and beyond.

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Students Respond to Adult's Fixation on 'Learning Loss'

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Students Respond to Adult's Fixation on 'Learning Loss'

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*Not exactly what we're researching but I found this retweeted article through Cornelius Minor's Twitter page.

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The new question of the week is:
There's a lot of talk about students suffering "learning loss" because of the pandemic-what does that mean, and how concerned should we be?
The phrase "learning loss" is everywhere in articles and discussions about COVID's impact on education.

Many of us teachers, however, have concerns about how that phrase is being interpreted by policymakers now and what the responses to that interpretation could look like in the fall.

In this series, two educators share much more sophisticated and precise commentaries than I did.

Not a 'quantity over quality' approach
Neema Avashia is an 8th grade civics teacher in the Boston public schools, where she has taught for the last 18 years. She was a 2013 Educator of the Year in the city of Boston:
If our educational response to the pandemic is more of the same tired approaches that we were already trying before the pandemic-pages of standards, longer school days, more and more and more assessment-it will fail, just as it was failing prior to the pandemic. We have an opportunity to think and plan differently in this moment-to build a system that is responsive to the needs of the students it purports to serve. Doing so requires that we begin by listening to those young people and amplifying what they say they need, as opposed to what we as adults think they need.

The phrase "learning loss" is everywhere. Uttered by governors at press conferences as a rationale for reopening schools. Emailed out by consultants who offer "ground-breaking solutions" to addressing it. Batted back and forth in heated debates on Twitter between those who are wringing their hands over it and those who say, "Kids are surviving a pandemic, not losing learning." And every time I hear another adult use the phrase, I wonder: Is learning loss the most pressing concern on my students' minds? Or are there other losses that hit harder?

Here's the truth that too many adults who don't directly work with young people refuse to acknowledge: When our youths are frightened, disconnected, grieving, or anxious, they aren't learning. Their brains aren't taking in our lessons, or holding on to the Common Core standards. Their amygdalas are in charge, and adults just sound like Charlie Brown's teacher. If we are going to address the academic loss that may have occurred during the pandemic, then we also need to fully understand the other kinds of loss our young people have experienced and have plans in place to support them through those losses.

As a veteran teacher in the Boston public schools, one important lesson I've learned from my students is that everything I plan with them goes much better than anything I plan without them. In the context of pandemic schooling, this has proven particularly true. No adult alive right now fully understands what it means to be a student in school at this moment. What's worse is that the people in charge of making policy decisions are so far removed from the experience of pandemic schooling that their decisions don't even seem to reflect the lived realities of young people.

Since the spring, I've created opportunities at least twice a month for restorative-justice circles during class where students have space to share how they are feeling, how school is going, and what they want adults to know in that moment. Each time we have one of these circles, I leave with 10 new ideas for how I can be a better educator to my students and how our school can adjust its practices to better support their well-being and their learning.

I decided recently to have my students respond directly to this notion of learning loss. To see if it weighs on them in the same ways that it does for adults and to see how the solutions adults are proposing (extended school days and years, use of standardized testing to assess loss, academic intervention courses, etc.) land with young people. I created a circle with three questions:

During the pandemic, what are things that you feel like you've lost?

During the pandemic, what are the ways that you have seen yourself grow or learn new things?

Many adults in education right now are very focused on the idea of "learning loss." They think that kids are falling behind academically during the pandemic. What do you want those adults to know about you and your experience during the pandemic?

I invited multiple circle-keepers to attend our Zoom class and broke students into small groups where they could have time and space to reflect deeply on these questions. I promised my students that I would share their ideas with the wider world, so that their thoughts could inform the policy conversation. The quotes below are directly pulled from the Google form that students completed to prepare for our circle.
Students reflect on their pandemic losses: I lost my ability to be happy. Staying in the house is not for me. Basketball really helped my depression, and I can' t play it now. I've lost a lot of interest in my friends. I stick to myself. I lost family, I lost myself and what hurts me more is that I lost everyone who said they were going to be there for me. I lost time I could have been enjoying my childhood. I have less motivation for school. I've lost myself.
Students reflect on their pandemic gains and growth:
I used to feel like I didn't want to do school anymore, and because of the pandemic I had to think to myself that's not the path I want to go down. So I started changing and completing more work and focusing on myself instead of other people. I'm starting to have more confidence in myself. I am better at managing my time and my school work. I I feel more well-rested. I am better at speaking out a little more. I learned more about my people and I learned more about what people did to Black people then and now. I also learned to respect people's identity and try to find out my own. I also learned to love myself and to see who are my actual friends. I haven't learned anything from school to be so honest because online school stresses me out so much. Out of school I learned that you have to forgive everyone and love who's near especially in times like this. Students respond to adult ideas about "learning loss": I think they are wrong because we have improved our grades and we try to do as much work as possible, also we learn more things from home because we are more focused. This pandemic is already very stressful for students and giving us more work won't help. Also, it's very risky, since kids can bring back the virus and family members might not have the healthcare they need. MY GRADES ARE BETTER now. Stop tryna change things because you are uncomfortable. Thank you. I want them to know that some kids may be struggling, but some are having less of a problem with remote learning than others because every person has different experiences with things. They have many opinions but they're not the ones who wake up and get on Zoom everyday. Implications
One of my students said it best when she said, "Adults' intentions might be good, but their solutions are really lacking." From listening to my students, three themes emerged that I have not yet heard discussed in depth in the policy conversations around post-pandemic schooling:

1. Post-pandemic schooling needs to focus on relationships. Students described losing connections to their friends, their teachers, and most painfully, to themselves. In our return to in-person schooling, rebuilding connection needs to be the priority. This will require smaller classes, better teacher-student ratios, and increased presence in schools of adults who both want to, and know how to, support students with re-establishing connections.

2. Post-pandemic schooling needs to prioritize mental health and wellness. There is no question that the pandemic has impacted student mental health. The question is whether simply putting students back into the classroom is going to address their struggles. And the answer to that question is a resounding no. Students with mental-health struggles often didn't have adequate support in our schools prepandemic. Over 430,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, and American schoolchildren will carry that grief with them when they come to school each day. We need to see a significant infusion of resources into mental-health services for young people, both in schools and out of them: into staffing and programming such that every student who needs support has access to it. This is something that has never existed in equitable ways across school districts in America, so the funding and planning should have begun months ago.

3. Postpandemic schooling needs to take a less-is-more approach. The adult anxiety around "learning loss" is completely tied to the "quantity over quality" approach to curriculum and standards that plagues our education system. One of the best moves we made as a school community this year was to change our schedule so that students only take three long classes at a time and alternate between "deeper learning" modules. This has supported students in managing their work, in focusing on core concepts, and in creating multiple opportunities for fresh starts for students who are overwhelmed or struggling. Students don't want to go back to a six-period day, and neither do I. We need to re-evaluate our approach to standards, deeply consider what is essential vs. what is extraneous, and encourage schools to build schedules, structures, and curriculum units that support deeper learning, rather than superficial coverage.

Let's not return to our previous ways of educating students. We have an opportunity to think and plan differently in this moment. To build a system that is responsive to the needs of the students it purports to serve. A first step in doing so is to listen to our students.

Thanks to Neema for her contribution!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones won't be available until February). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first nine years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

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Students Respond to Adults' Fixation on 'Learning Loss' (Opinion)

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The new question of the week is: There's a lot of talk about students suffering "learning loss" because of the pandemic-what does that mean, and how concerned should we be? The phrase "learning loss" is everywhere in articles and discussions about COVID's impact on education.

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Great tips on promoting talk amongst students.  Simple ways to incorporate discussion, with minimal teacher planning.  The article recommends upper elementary but I think it could done in younger grades as well.

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Simple Tips for Starting Book Talks in the Upper Elementary Classroom

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Innovate Discussion with Hexagonal Thinking

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Innovate Discussion with Hexagonal Thinking

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This made me think of ways to engage students as well as teachers!

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It's no secret how much I love designing professional learning experiences for teachers. Notice I did not say 'create' or 'make' or 'plan' professional learning experiences. I said DESIGN professional learning experiences. As in an art form. A careful dance of content and pedagogy, outcomes and process. So when I stumbled on the idea of Hexagonal Thinking from Betsy Potash, I was hooked. Not only was it based on solid content and artful pedagogy, it was carefully designed in both process and product. And better yet, it's the perfect model for teachers to then bring to their students.

So, what is hexagonal thinking? It's a fun way to launch discussion around a core set of topics, concepts or themes. It invites rich discussion, deep thinking, collaboration and perspective-taking. Perfect, right?! Right.

Imagine this: It's time for your in-personal professional learning session. Teachers arrive at their table to find a colorful stack of hexagons labeled with topics, concepts and themes connected to the topic of your session. As the session begins, you invite teachers to examine the hexagons and connect them together based on the relationships they see among the different terms. There is no single right answer, just a beautiful showcase of thinking among members of a particular group.

Now, imagine the same scenario as a virtual professional learning session instead. Rather than finding tables of colorful hexagons, they find a beautifully designed slide full of them to move around digitally in whole groups or small breakout rooms instead.

Now, you might be wondering what terms, concepts and ideas the hexagons are labeled with. And that depends on the content you're exploring with teachers. Let's say you're exploring guided reading with primary grade teachers. Your terms might include some of the following:

Book choice

Book introduction

Strategy teaching

Running records

Small groups

Reading strategies

Word work

Re-reading

Comprehension

Writing

Or, maybe you're exploring digital literacy with upper elementary teachers instead. Some of your labels might include:

Teachers examine the terms and spend a bit of time reflecting independently. Then, working in teams, they arrange the hexagons in such a way that represents their thinking and the connections they are making. So, there is no one right way to complete this activity, it's simply a creative starting point for discussion.

But that's not all.

You could take the thinking one step further and ask teachers to write about their connections and rationale for the ultimate shape they created. If you're working digitally, teachers can insert arrows pointing to specific locations of their design and edit them to include their rationale, literally layering their thinking on the design. Then, groups can compare their shapes as a launching point for whole group discussion. And in the process, you gain clear insight into teachers' understandings, insights that will support your future coaching.

So, what do you need to get started? If coaching in person, you'll want to download Betsy Potash's hexagonal thinking templates or create your own using the HookED SOLO Hexagon Generator instead. If working digitally, Betsy has a beautiful template for that, too. It's the one I use and I love it.

Next, identify the topic you want to explore and brainstorm a list of terms that come to mind. Label your printed hexagons with those terms or list them on the digital slide instead.

When your teachers are ready, they examine the hexagons in small groups and arrange them based on their shared understandings of the terms, either in person or digitally. The only difference is that teachers are moving the actual hexagons in person, but moving the labels for them online.

Lastly, if you choose, you can ask teachers to spend a moment writing about their thinking and what they learned in the process of sharing their thinking with others. Be sure to take a picture of the final creations and use those images as starting points for whole group debriefing.

There you go! A fun and engaging activity that not only launches deep discussion with teachers, it provides a great model for teachers to do their same with their own students, too!

If you'd like to dive into hexagonal thinking as a learner, join me on January 28th at 7pm EST to give it a try! I'm opening my monthly coaching sessions to anyone interested in giving this a try and thinking through our understandings of coaching together! Sign up here and I'll see you then!

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Innovate Discussion with Hexagonal Thinking

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It's no secret how much I love designing professional learning experiences for teachers. Notice I did not say 'create' or 'make' or 'plan' professional learning experiences. I said DESIGN professional learning experiences. As in an art form. A careful dance of content and pedagogy, outcomes and process.

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This is an article linked into Stephanie Afinito's that she references her thinking.

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Hexagonal thinking is a rich new way to inspire discussion. Now, if you're like me, high school geometry was about as appealing as high school cafeteria beef stroganoff, and you're not too sure about this whole math-English crossover thing.

Don't give up! Hexagonal thinking is a really unique way to get kids thinking about connections they might never otherwise make.

When you give kids a series of ideas on hexagons, and ask them to connect the cards into a web with clear reasons for each connection, you get them thinking critically, debating, giving evidence, and basically, lighting up a whole bunch of parts of their brains. Each card could connect to six others, or just to one or two. Every person in every group will have a different concept of how things could connect. There will be no right answer.

Awesome.

So, you might ask, how will I manufacture dozens of hexagons? How will I grade such an ambiguous process? What exactly will I tell my students to inspire them to do a good job? What kind of discussion is this a good fit for? How big do the hexagons have to be? Will I need some kind of special paper or hole punch?

Well, my friend, I've got a lot of answers for you. I've been obsessed with brainstorming ways to make hexagonal thinking work for you lately, and I've compiled everything I've come up with into this post, which I'm boldly naming my ultimate guide to hexagonal thinking in ELA. I hope it's helpful.

Let's kick things off with a quick introductory video. Forgive me for my shaky selfie work on the intro - let's just say when your four-year-old has the stomach flu, you've just got to do what you can. I'm sure you understand.

Hexagonal Thinking: Basic Play-by-Play

To do a hexagonal thinking activity, you need to have a series of hexagon-shaped cards featuring ideas. Let's say you were doing a discussion of 1984. Your cards might have characters from the novel, a few bits and pieces about George Orwell's life, some connections to the art and history of the era, and some connections to things going on today. You could create these cards, or you could give blank hexagons to your students in groups and let them create them.

I suggest you give blank pages of cards to each group ( here are the ones I designed) and have them create and cut out their own hexagons within the categories you've given. So each group will create five or so hexagons in each category and cut them out. You might want to ask them to add a quotation and/or drawing or other form of illumination to go with the word(s) they put on each card.

Once the students have their hexagons, they need to begin discussing how to connect them.

Here's an example of directions you can give to your students at this point:

"Once you have your set of hexagons, it's time for your group to begin making connections between them. Your conversations now will be about showing how and why you think the different ideas and options connect. Everyone will see things differently, and that's OK. Just keep talking until you find the connections that stick. Use the text to give evidence to each other for why you think your connections are strong ones.

Each hexagon can connect to up to six others. Arrange and rearrange until you feel you have the strongest hexagon web in place that you can. Then begin explaining your connections with connection arrows, writing in why you have created intersections between key hexagons.

Everyone in the group will contribute differently. You need to have people listening and moving pieces to create the web, people cutting out and filling in connection arrows, people debating, people asking questions. That's OK.

By the end of your discussion, you should have an interconnected web of concepts along with at least eight clearly explained connections. Please put your final product in a place that's easy for others to see so we can do a gallery walk at the end."

Now it's time for your students to work. As they create their webs, walk around and observe and help. Remind them to lean on text.

When the work is done, snap a photo of each group's web. Let everyone circulate. Perhaps ask each group to share several of their most intriguing connections. You could use this as a springboard to a writing project or a class discussion the next day.

*This activity hits nearly every element in the 6-12 Common Core College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening. ( Check out p. 48 here if you need this documentation).

More Ideas for Generating Hexagons

Of course, you may want to try some other options for creating hexagons. Several educators have recommended the Solo Hexagon Online Generator to me, which allows you to input your key ideas quickly and populate sets of hexagons for quick printing.

Another option is to laminate hexagons, turning them into mini dry erase boards. While it's a bit of work up front to cut them out, you can then use them throughout the year with dry erase markers, just wiping them clean at the end.

You can find five pages of blank rainbow hexagons available as a free download here in my TPT shop. Simply print, laminate, and cut out. Have students help you wipe the hexagons clean after a discussion (don't wait!). A little cleaner will make it easy if you wait too long.

It doesn't matter a whole lot how big your hexagons or, or what color they are, or if you cut them out or your students cut them out. In the end, it's the ability to shift them around and connect ideas in different ways that will matter. So whether you make your own sets, you have students make them, or you do some of both, you can't go wrong. If you want a special hexagonal paper puncher, use your 50% off Michael's coupon on it! If you want to create an electronic version and save paper, awesome! If you want to print with beautiful colors on cardstock, I hear you! Just don't spend hours of your weekend cutting and creating unless you really want to, because you can get lots of help with the process from your students.
Grading Hexagonal Thinking

There are a few ways you could grade hexagonal thinking. You could have everyone write a short reflection at the end about their contributions, and grade that. You could use it as a springboard into a writing assignment, asking students to explain and argue for key connections from the discussion, then grade that. You could have students present about a key connection on Flipgrid. Easy.

But I want to suggest a slightly more complex option too. Recently I interviewed Sarah Fine, a researcher who studied deeper learning across America. One of her findings was that we rarely ask students to truly collaborate in our core subjects, so we don't really create a culture of interdependence among them. They don't get to use their individual gifts to contribute to a final product created by the team, although that is often what real-world projects look like. Instead, we favor what she calls "lockstep learning."

So maybe for hexagonal thinking, you grade the final group web. And you talk to the kids about how their different strengths could allow them to contribute to the final product.

Maybe some kids are super brainstormers, coming up with lots of great terms and ideas for what to put on the hexagons. Maybe one or two students in the group are great at lettering and drawing. They could create beautiful visual representations of the terms and ideas. Maybe some students shine at leading discussion. Maybe some are natural at making spatial and visual connections, and can help move the hexagons around as they listen to the group. Maybe some are excellent listeners, and can be filling in and placing connection arrows based on what they here from others. Maybe some are good mediators, who can help find common ground and calm down heated debates when discussion gets intense.

If you go this route, I really think it's worth discussing in advance what project teams are like in the workplace, and how people contribute in different ways. Then, at the end, you might let kids write a short paragraph about how they contributed based on their own strengths and skills, and whether they were happy with the way the group dynamics turned out.

Hexagonal Thinking Discussion Ideas

There are so many ways to use hexagonal thinking! I imagine you could use this for almost any form of discussion, across many disciplines, but here are a few ideas for your English classes.

At the end of a novel, use hexagonal thinking to find connections between key characters, themes, symbols, connected ideas from history and art, and current events.

Before reading a novel (or series of poems or short stories), use hexagonal thinking to explore connections between ideas that will be coming up and things going on today to help students begin to prepare for what they will read and sharpen their interest.

After watching a Ted Talk, take the key concepts and stories/examples from the talk and put them on cards along with related examples and themes from works you have read.

Collaborate with a partner in another department to connect ideas from what your students are learning in English to what they are learning in art, history, or science.

Before writing a paper, ask students to put key ideas, examples, and argument possibilities onto their own cards, then create a connected web as a prewriting exercise. For visual kids who like to tinker and build, this may be really helpful, a kind of offshoot of the writing makerspace concept.

The possibilities are pretty endless, as I think you'll see once you get going with hexagonal thinking. Below, you'll see part of a hexagonal web connecting a student-friendly version of the ELA standards to skills they will need in various careers, perfect to put up on the wall to help students remember the context for what they are learning and why they are learning it.

One way to add depth to the hexagonal thinking activity is to layer a bit more into the hexagons themselves. Simple text works, but as I mentioned, you can also ask students to add a quotation or a drawing, or use interesting lettering to bring out the meaning and make the word more memorable on the card.

You can take it a step further by having students create hexagonal one-pagers. With this activity, the creation of the hexagons takes a bit longer. You divide students into work groups, and give each group a category of types of things you want covered. For example, characters, themes, style elements, connections to current events. Then you ask them to come up with a list of elements for their group, and each choose one to make into a hexagon-shaped one-pager.

You can either give them a list of elements that you'd like in the one-pager (quotations, analysis in their own words, imagery, etc.) or let them come up with their own list of what would make a good one-pager. How specific you get probably depends on how familiar your students are with one-pagers as a concept.

These hexagonal one-pagers cover the novel, All the Way Down, by Jason Reynolds. The left hexagon portrays a style element, the middle one is a character, and the right is about a theme. The connection arrows come last, as in any hexagonal one-pager activity. (By the way, connection arrows could also be post-its, or if you tape the hexagons to a chalkboard or whiteboard, they could be written right onto the surface).

These mini-hexagons cover the novel, The Outsiders. The left covers a key symbol, the top right is a character, and the bottom right is a connection to modern life.

I've created templates in two sizes and instructions for the hexagonal one-pager activity over on TPT. Or you can create your own using the shapes tool in Powerpoint.

One of my favorite things about hexagonal one-pagers is how striking the final display looks. Consider having your classes put their final products up on your wall for your final gallery walk, and leaving them up for a while.

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Hexagonal Thinking in ELA: The Ultimate Guide

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Hexagonal thinking is a powerful way to help students make connections between characters, themes, ideas, other literary works, and current events. But how to get started? This post will walk you through everything you need to design an easy, successful hexagonal thinking activity for your ELA classes.