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Keys to Literacy has curated a growing collection of resources for teaching literacy skills to students using a variety of online teaching formats. We hope you find them helpful!  Click on any of the topics to access a detailed Padlet. 

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Keys to Literacy has curated a growing collection of resources for teaching literacy skills to students using a variety of online teaching formats. We hope you find them helpful!  Click on any of the topics to access a detailed Padlet. 

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FALL 2020 SERIES: Visit the Padlet that has the recorded webinars and related materials for this series. 

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FALL 2020 SERIES: Visit the Padlet that has the recorded webinars and related materials for this series. 

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Virtual Teaching with KTL Strategies: Fall 2020

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Keys to Literacy's Free Webinar Series
October through December, 2020

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Visit the collection of resources for teaching vocabulary for 3-12 students. 

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Visit the collection of resources for teaching vocabulary for 3-12 students. 

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Visit the collection of resources for teaching beginning writing to students in K-2.

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Visit the collection of resources for teaching beginning writing to students in K-2.

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Visit the collection of resources for teaching all components of reading to early elementary students. 

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Visit the collection of resources for teaching all components of reading to early elementary students. 

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Visit the collection of resources for teaching comprehension for K-12 students.

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Visit the collection of resources for teaching comprehension for K-12 students.

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Visit the collection of resource for teaching writing to students in grades 4-12

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Visit the collection of resource for teaching writing to students in grades 4-12

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4 Engaging Structures That Work in Hybrid A/B Learning Classrooms

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4 Engaging Structures That Work in Hybrid A/B Learning Classrooms

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This blog post offered by AJ Juliani summarizes several models for delivering instruction in a classroom that has a mix of onsite students and online students.

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By A.J. Juliani

This summer as many schools went from going back to school in-person, to virtual, to some mix in-between a lot of teachers were faced with a new reality: Teaching kids in your classroom at school and at home...at the same time.

This Hybrid A/B Model of schooling (also goes by many other names) has a camera on in the classroom for students to watch at home, while students rotate days A/B of being in-person or at-home.

Technology plays a big role in making this happen, and it needs to all work in the classroom and at home for each student in order to pull it off.

Let's just say that all the technology does work, in that case, the question I've been working with teachers on over the summer in PD and training has been: How do I structure the learning experience so kids at home and in-class are both learning?

Below I share four different models that I have seen work and that teachers are using around the country (and world) in Hybrid A/B learning.

This is a long post so feel free to jump around as needed. I share videos, templates, and resources on these structures in my Online Learning Master Course, but this 3000-word article should give you enough information to get started!

1. The STEPS Model (I do, We do, You do with a twist)

This is (by far) the most traditional model of teaching that can work in an A/B Hybrid environment. I usually start my training with this model to show how you can make the jump to teaching hybrid without changing too much as a teacher. Remember, we are all at different stages of the continuum, and in many content-heavy subjects, this model works well to get the students into a consistent flow of what the class will look like (whether they are in-school or watching at-home).

Here's how it works, adapted from The Reading Teacher's Top Ten Tools:
S: Set-Up (Practice Review)
You can do this with small groups or large groups, but for the sake of our interpretation, let's just say you have half the class in front of you in the classroom and the other half at home. You start by setting up the class for the lesson and doing some review of the previous day's lesson.

An important part of retrieval practice is having the students pull out their responses from yesterday's lesson instead of providing a review for them. This is also a good time to have students doing some practice or review problems or questions while you take attendance and complete the other beginning of class procedures.

When done well, students will expect to come into class either in-person or virtually with an idea of what the first 5-10 minutes will look like every day. This also helps teachers see whether or not students are grasping the knowledge/skills/topics that were covered in the previous lesson.
T: Teach - Explicit Model and Guide of New Concepts or Skills
The next stage is direct or explicit instruction of a new concept, skill, or continuation from the previous lesson. This is the "I do" part of the lesson where the teacher explains and shares examples of what to look for, how to do something, and why it matters in the overall context of the subject.

There is little interaction in the "T" part of the lesson with students in class and at home focused on understanding what the teacher is explaining and listening/watching. However, using a tool like Peardeck or Nearpod can allow students to respond to prompts and questions easily throughout the lesson.

Note: This does not have to be the teacher talking the entire time. Bring in videos, manipulatives, pictures, models, and anything else to help guide the student's attention and interaction with the content. It also does not need to be a long, drawn-out, part of the lesson.
E: Engage - Practice with Feedback
Here is where teacher-led practice comes into the lesson. The "We do" part of the lesson engages students in practicing the skill being taught in the lesson. A few ways you can do this in hybrid situations:

1. Have students in class partner-up with a student at home. Students in class on their device and students at home on their device. This is a perfect use of a breakout room (in Zoom) and as a teacher, you don't have to worry about monitoring the breakout rooms as they are happening in front of you.

2. Students could be doing the practice individually or with groups using online collaborative tools such as Google Docs, Slides, Jamboard, Padlet, etc.

3. Have students go through this process in-class and at-home with various students sharing on the in-class or virtual whiteboard.

P: Practice Activity - Extended Practice of New Skill
The "You do" portion of the lesson has students practicing the new skill or engaging in the content by themselves. Here is a perfect time to have the cameras off at-home and have students engage away from the device.

Or you can have them continue to use technology and share what they are doing/learning in your learning management system (Google Classroom, Seesaw, Canvas, Schoology etc).

My favorite part of this practice piece of the lesson is the ability for the teacher to work with an individual student or small group who may need some additional help or who could use a challenge.
S: Show You Know - Share Your Questions
At the end of the lesson, you can bring all the students back together on the live-stream (or have them do this individually depending on your circumstances) and end the classroom in a similar fashion to how you started it. Have students showing what they know and understand by answering questions, asking questions, and checking their own (and each other's work).

The goal here is for the teacher and students to have a formative understanding of their needs and where to go next (what to tweak etc) in the following lesson.

Notice that in the STEPS Model the students are NOT staring at a live-stream the entire time. In fact, the only time they are needed to be on the live-stream asynchronously is during the "I do" teaching/modeling mini-lesson part of the class. You have options for each of the other parts of the lesson on how to structure the learning experience.

2. The Station-Rotation Model

The Station-Rotation Model is one of the most commonly used blended/hybrid learning structures, used successfully by teachers all around the world pre-pandemic. You may have done this yourself with various forms of media and centers in your classroom.

Now, with half the students at home and half the students in your classroom, the station rotation model still works but has to be adjusted accordingly.

The basics are simple to understand: Each lesson has various learning stations that the students work through during the class period.

The easiest way to begin is to have two stations.

Station #1: Instruction with the teacher.

Station #2: Online activity or assignment.

The teacher begins the class by explaining each station, then gets half the class (either the in-person group or at-home group) to start Station #2. The teacher then takes the rest of the class to Station #1 for half the class period, before switching and taking the other half of the class through Station #1.

While that is the easiest way to begin, going into three stations may be the best option for station-rotation lessons long-term.

Catlin Tucker shared a perfect image to explain the three station-rotation model in our Hybrid A/B environments:

The class period is broken up into three distinct sections. For Hybrid A/B learning I would have all of the students at home be in one group (Group 1) while breaking up the students in-class into two separate groups (Group 2 and Group 3). However, if your situation is such that you have at home hybrid students and full-time virtual students that group may have to be split in two.

The Teacher-led Station is what you will be leading (three separate times) throughout the class period.

The Online Station is personalized practice, research, and exploration, or multimedia lessons that students can access on their own using digital tools and spaces.

The Offline Station can be used for some off-screen activities, getting students engaged in reading or other activities that they do not have to be 'Logged on' to complete.

The key to the station-rotation model is to set clear time expectations at the beginning of the class and to keep them throughout the period. It also takes some serious planning. Don't be alarmed if the first time (or 2, 3 etc) students and you take some getting used to this model!

3. The Flipped Model (with needs-based grouping)

As I walk through these steps to "flip" your instruction and set up a working model of differentiation in your Hybrid A/B class, keep in mind a few things.

First, realize that this can work in any subject area. In order for it to work successfully, a teacher must come up with clear objectives on what students need to know, and how they will demonstrate that knowledge. You'll also have to be able to teach the main concept through video, and students will need a way to access that video at home (or at the beginning of the class period).

Second, don't spend too much time thinking about the resources you use to make the video. Often teachers get stuck in the technical side of things instead of just making it and getting better with production over time. This happened to me for a long time before realizing that it didn't have to be fancy.

Third, make sure you use this strategy to find out what your students know and what they are missing, then get them to a place where they can demonstrate that understanding. When you pre-assess students, the goal is not to see "who did the homework" but instead how your instruction can meet students where they are at in their current level of understanding.
Getting Started Flipping Your Instruction
Here are 10 steps (some longer than others) to get this model working with your class:

1. Teachers identify a particular concept or skill to focus their instruction (often dictated by your curriculum).

2. Teachers create a short video screencast (using Screen-cast-o-matic.com) walking students through the concept, explaining the reasoning and steps, providing examples of the skill in action.

3. Teachers edit and upload the video to Youtube or Vimeo.

4. Students watch the video the night/day before class and take notes or answer some quick comprehension questions.

5. When students arrive at class the following day, the teacher hands out (or gives digitally) a short 5 question pre-assessment based on the video and instruction from the night before.

6. Students answer the questions to the best of their abilities and then score a partner's (or self-score their own assessment).
Students end up in three groups based on the pre-assessment score.

1. Score a 0-1 and you are in Tier A.

2. Score a 2-3 and you are in Tier B.

3. Score a 4-5 and you are in Tier C.

7. The goal for all students is to end up in Tier C by the end of class.

8. The first third of class:

1. Tier A sits down and re-watches the video from the night before with a teacher-created handout with new questions.

2. The teacher gets Tier B into groups (or partners) to work on refining some of the skills and concepts together. They can use the video as a guide and call on the teacher to help during their group work.

3. Tier C is given a higher-level application challenge.

9. The second third of class:

1. Teacher heads over to Tier A after the video is complete to answer any questions they might have on the concept and give the entire group some questions to answer. Then they answer questions individually. They move onto Tier B.

2. Tier B takes another short formative assessment (individually) to show their understanding after the group work on the concept. Those that score a 4-5 move onto Tier C.

3. Tier C continues to work on the challenge or completes it and begins to help new students coming into their group.

10. Last third of class:

1. Tier B students work in partners or groups and take the next formative assessment when they are ready. Teacher floats between Tier B and Tier C helping and challenging as seen fit.

2. Tier C students finish the challenge and work to create a challenge for the following class (or next year's class).

3. Tier B students are helped by classmates and teacher to move to Tier C before the end of the class.

Let's recap:
First, you start with some type of work at home or at the beginning of class. Then you assess quickly on base knowledge of that concept. The pre-assessment separates your class into three tiers of understanding. The goal is to move students through tiers and provide different levels of support. With all students landing at the final tier for a challenging activity by the end of class.

The trick to making this successful is to embed choices into the activities during class. Allow students to pick partners and groups. Give students multiple types of questions to answer and activities to complete. Give the second-tier options on how they are assessed before moving to the final tier. Provide the final tier with options and choice to challenge their understanding and move past the application to a higher level of thinking.

I would personally start with a concept or skill that some students typically master quicker than others. In this case, you'll have experienced the frustration of having students at all different levels of understanding, and know that there has to be a better way to go about instructing the entire class.

Start small with a short video, and quick activities at each of the levels. This way, when you move into bigger units of study, students will be familiar with the process and expectations. It's amazing to watch the negative "snowball" effect of students falling behind stop immediately. In this model, there is no "falling too far behind" because students are all expected to reach a certain level of mastery by the end of the class.

4. The Choice Board Model

This is a self-paced option for the Hybrid A/B learning environment. The Choice Board allows for various levels of learning to take place and gives students choices in how they access information as well as demonstrate their understanding.

Here is a quick example of what a Choice Board might look like via Kasey Bell:

Here are the steps you can go through to create a Choice Board in your content area:

1. Identify a unit/concept or skill and what you want students to know/do/make in order to demonstrate their understanding/proficiency.

2. Create or choose an assessment/performance task that allows students to demonstrate mastery.

3. List various instructional methods, resources, and strategies to prepare students for the assessment/performance task.

4. Choose four-six instructional methods to turn into choice-board activities. Each activity should be a similar length in time and cover common material. Here is where you can add different types of technology or hands-on experiences to the learning process.

5. Create a workflow for the students to follow. Have notes and formative checks as part of the choice-board design process. Allow for reflection during each activity when planning how long students will complete the activity.

6. Introduce the different choices to students and describe what the goals of the activity are (as well as the assessment this is leading up to).

7. Let students pick activities based on their interests/needs.

8. As the teacher, a few of the activities/options might need more guidance than others. Make sure you aren't just "managing" this activity, but instead truly acting as a guide and expert learner when the opportunity is available.

9. Once the choice-board activities are complete, put students into small groups to "jigsaw" their reflection. Bring students from different activities together to reflect on their learning experience and share (this can be written, audio, or video reflections - think Flipgrid).

10. Listen to reflections and check the formative pieces for each activity to see if students are prepared for the assessment. If not, feel free to go through one more activity together as a class or talk about any topics/concepts they did not understand during the activity.

11. Give the assessment/performance task.

12. BONUS OPTION: Make your assessment into a choice-board with multiple performance tasks that allow students to demonstrate an understanding of the content and skills.

As you can see, the process takes more time on the front end from the teacher, but you'll know that students are prepared for a performance task by going through this activity.

When I began using technology in the classroom, these activities also turned into online experiences that could be done at any time. My ultimate goal as a teacher was to see my students succeeding and demonstrating their understanding of concepts and skills at a high level. The simple act of "giving students choice" changed how my students viewed our assessments, and how they prepared for assessments.

I share all kinds of Choice Board examples in this blog post!

What's Next?

Planning, managing, and teaching in a Hybrid A/B environment can be difficult, but hopefully, these structures can give some options when thinking about how to get students engaged in the learning process. I would love if you shared in the comments some structures you are using in Hybrid learning!

Thanks for all you are doing for kids!

A.J. Juliani is the author, Empower and Launch (along with five other books). In addition to writing, he is the Head of Learning and Growth at NextLesson, and a Facilitator for the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (PLN). Reach out on Twitter @ajjuliani.

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Four Engaging Structures That Work in Hybrid A/B Learning Classrooms

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By A.J. Juliani This summer as many schools went from going back to school in-person, to virtual, to some mix in-between a lot of teachers were faced with a new reality: Teaching kids in your classroom at school and at home...at the same time. This Hybrid A/B Model of schooling (also goes by many other...

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Teacher Recommended Tools for Online Learning, Part 1

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Teacher Recommended Tools for Online Learning, Part 1

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This 2-part series offered from Education Week highlights tools for teaching any subject online.

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Education Week - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo

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The new question of the week is:
What are your up to three "go-to" online tools this year? Please explain in detail how you use each one, including linked examples.

Most of us have been teaching in environments where we have been online more than ever before, whether we're doing full-time distance learning (as I am-for now, at least) or if you're in a hybrid situation.

This two-part series will share a number of recommendations, including many from readers.

Today, Theresa Wills, Ph.D., Laurie Manville, andCristiane Galvão, Ed.D., "kick off" the series.

Before we get to their contributions, though, I'd like to briefly share my favorites (apart from all things Google and Zoom, of course):

Quizizz is a free online learning game site that is incredibly easy to use, has zillions of already-made games on just about every topic that are fun activities for reinforcement and formative assessment, and has recently added a simplified Nearpod-like feature (for those of you familiar with that popular tool) called student-paced "Lessons." My students love playing Quizizz games in teams divided into separate Zoom breakout rooms. Unlike other game sites, students can see the question and the possible answers on the same screen and don't have to split them into two.

Baamboozle is another free online game site. Its main advantage is that it's set up so that students can play online in teams, but they don't have to go into different breakout rooms. In other words, students can select a question to answer and talk among themselves in front of others to determine the correct answer (other students are waiting for their turn to choose another question). If that explanation is a bit confusing, it will be very clear once you go to the site itself.

Quill is a free and amazing site where students can learn grammar in a nonpainful way. I use it with my English-language-learner classes, but students of all English-proficiency levels would find it helpful. I love that after periodic "diagnostics," it recommends which exercises students should move onto for additional practice.

You can read more about how I use these tools, and others, in my recent post, First Quarter Report on What I'm Doing in Full-Time Distance Learning & How It's Going.

Now, it's time to move on to responses from today's guests....
Online math tools
Theresa Wills, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of mathematics education in the School of Education at George Mason University, where she works with in-service mathematics specialists and preservice elementary and secondary teachers. Theresa has taught synchronous online classes and webinars since 2010 and researches teaching practices that are adaptable to the online environment. She is a former classroom teacher and math coach who still volunteers weekly in K-12 classrooms. She is the author of the forthcoming book Teaching Math at a Distance, Grades K-12: A Practical Guide to Rich Remote Instruction.

My go-to tools this year are grounded in collaboration, interaction, and student voice. They provide equitable opportunities for students' access to the same kinds of mathematical reasoning, thinking, and discourse while learning remotely that they would if they were learning face to face. Here are three examples.

Google Slides - This quintessential, simple, and free tool gives teachers the security and flexibility to create interactive activities while releasing ownership to the students. By inviting students to the shared slide in edit mode, and practicing netiquette norms, students can type ideas into text boxes, paste images that express their opinions, manipulate game pieces, and insert screen shots of their work from third-party apps. The pedagogical magic is revealed when teachers and students can observe and modify each other's responses, in real time.

This slide shows the work of four students in a small breakout room as they used models to describe a growing pattern.

Math Learning Center - This virtual manipulative website is a staple in mathematics classrooms where students interact with familiar manipulatives such as base 10 blocks. Teachers can customize the site by creating problems, saving templates, and sharing private links with students. The best part is that the tools encourage flexible thinking as students explore multiple ways to model their understanding.

Using this template, two students show unique ways to use the tools to solve the problem.
Student work #1 Student work #2
FlipGrid - You might be familiar with this website's ability to capture short videos of students' responses, but what puts it in another league is the ability for back and forth video dialogue between students.
Peardeck Laurie Manville is an ELD/AVID Excel teacher and ed- tech virtual tech-team coach at Brookhurst Junior High, as well as a 7th grade ELA teacher with Cambridge Virtual Academy, both in the Anaheim Union High School district in California. She enjoys helping her students figure out what they are meant to do in life and guiding teachers in lesson-design creation. In her free time, you will usually find her backstage (or near a stage) assisting with line memorization, costumes, or concessions; analyzing a screenplay; or at home journaling or mastering PiYo. Laurie Manville blogs with Dr. Alva Lefevre atL&M Educational Consulting on their Facebook page and their new website Educators in the Know:
This gives access to more students and opens possibilities for collaboration. A kindergarten student can count toys over video, and their friends can ask follow-up questions such as, "How many are pink?" and then upload a video response. English- and world-language learners can practice new speaking skills while previewing and editing their video responses as they master pronunciation. This tool gives students the ability to engage in rich peer-to-peer collaboration.

One of my top "go-to" online tools would have to be Peardeck.

Peardeck -- is one of the mainstays of my synchronous classes. Engagement is in real time and responses from all students are immediately visible. The add-on tool is available in Google Slides, and Peardeck tools may be added to individual Slides. Another great feature is that the Peardeck platform saves class sessions. Teachers may revisit student responses and use them as formative assessments.

If you are new to Peardeck, students log in through joinpd.com and with a code created for each deck. After all students have logged in, the teacher clicks "start lesson." The students respond using various tools like polls, drawing tools for matching, multiple-choice answers, and free response fill-in-the-blank. Students' names are anonymous, but teachers may check student names later in the saved Peardeck session on the Peardeck site. (In a synchronous lesson, the Peardeck is screen-shared.)

One of the ways I used Peardeck recently with my ELD 2 (high intermediate students) was in a real-time class with a Google Slide word bank about our class mascot, my cat Bubba. (Bubba visits my at-home work space very often and has become quite a virtual celebrity.) On this particular Peardeck response, ELD students created short paragraphs with a focus on compound sentences and FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)-coordinating conjunctions.

As students wrote for 3-4 minutes, a screen-shared musical electronic timer counted down. My student timekeeper unmuted herself and called time. Then, also while screen sharing, I revealed the "hidden" sentences that students wrote and analyzed each one with the class responding either in the chat box or on mic. I asked questions like: "Do you see a FANBOY?" or "Why is this sentence correct?" "What is the grammar rule?" "How can we connect these sentences?" "Why is this a good example of a compound sentence?" As we "talked," we gave feedback to the different writers, and students revised or corrected any errors on the Peardeck slide in real time for all to see.

"Keeping things simple" Dr. Cristiane Galvão holds a master's degree in applied linguistics from the University of Taubaté, Brazil, and a doctorate in higher education leadership from California Lutheran University, in Thousand Oaks, Calilf. She has taught ESL for 20 years and has offered professional-development courses to language teachers from all over the world:
(Included in the Peardeck link above (please make a copy) is my entire slide deck with the Peardeck Bubba word bank, which includes the slides I use to intro each synchronous class and a follow-up Peardeck slide of student-generated Bubba sentences. We corrected those the next day.)

Back in March, when the pandemic closed the schools, I had to learn about so many websites and online tools for "remote learning" that it felt overwhelming. A simple lesson plan became a one-thousand-piece puzzle. So, to make life a little easier, it became important to rethink how I would plan my lessons and make better use of my time.

Keeping things simple, I decided first to use whatever material I already had available, such as flashcards and books. Second, I limited the number of websites and online tools that I would use, creating a special bookmark in my computer with all the websites that I could access to teach ESL anytime and for different levels. Then, I created another bookmark section just with the "go-to" resources that I would definitely be using to teach my students. I knew that using familiar tools and resources would streamline my organization and facilitate my students' learning process.

After careful evaluation of the available resources and how they applied to my students' needs, I opted for three online tools: Kahoot, Wordwall, and Padlet. These platforms share features that allow me to use them in the classroom as well as for teacher training. They are adaptable for fun and interactive learning for both students and teachers. I do not need to use them for every class, but if I need to complement my lessons with the school's adopted material or to the material that I create, these websites are my support.

Padlet allows users to collaborate, create, and learn from each other. Padlet also allows the teacher to upload content and give feedback to the students, all on one platform. It can be used for vocabulary practice, reading, and listening. One of the features that the students like on Padlet is the image search option. It is a great tool to create a visual dictionary.

During live sessions on Zoom, students can work on Padlet during breakout-room sessions. I like giving students time to discuss a topic in breakout rooms, so Padlet is great because students can create a visual board highlighting the topic of their discussions. They can also write sentences and include images using new words they have learned. Teachers can post images and ask students to write sentences about the images, which is a great activity for beginner ESL students.

Kahoot can be used to wrap up a session of teacher development or an ESL lesson. When I use Kahoot during teacher-development courses, I am also demonstrating the platform in a practical way. Teachers become familiar with Kahoot and are ready to use it in their classes. I think it is important that teachers experience the tools that students will use to gain familiarity and anticipate anything that can be added to their lesson plans. ESL students like Kahoot because it is fun and competitive. Students also like its sounds, which give movement to the activity.

Wordwall, just like Kahoot, is loaded with content, which can be used anytime by the teacher and the students. I like using both platforms during live sessions with the students. They can also be used as reinforcement activities or homework. English-language learners (ELLs) can benefit from interactive activities within Wordwall. My ESL students always enjoy the Random Wheel game, but I believe that for teachers, the great feature of the platform is its flexibility. It allows teachers to use the same content in different ways. Teachers can click on the options, accessing different types of language games using common content. Teachers can also create their own activities and share with the students. As practical tools for remote language teaching, Kahoot, Wordwall, and Padlet are the three resources that provide the extra material that I can apply to my lessons.

Thanks to Theresa, Laurie, and Cristiane for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it's selected or if you'd prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. This Year's Most Popular Q&A Posts Race & Racism in Schools School Closures & the Coronavirus Crisis Classroom-Management Advice Best Ways to Begin the School Year Best Ways to End the School Year Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning Implementing the Common Core Facing Gender Challenges in Education Teaching Social Studies. Cooperative & Collaborative Learning Using Tech in the Classroom Student Voices Parent Engagment In Schools Teaching English-Language Learners Reading Instruction Writing Instruction Education Policy Issues Assessment Differentiating Instruction Math Instruction Science Instruction Advice for New Teachers Author Interviews Entering the Teaching Profession The Inclusive Classroom Learning & the Brain Administrator Leadership Teacher Leadership Relationships in Schools Professional Development Instructional Strategies Best of Classroom Q&A Professional Collaboration Classroom Organization Mistakes in Education Project-Based Learning
Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.

I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column

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10 Favorite Online Teaching Tools Used by Educators This Year

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The new question of the week is: What are your up to three "go-to" online tools this year? Please explain in detail how you use each one, including linked examples. Most of us have been teaching in environments where we have been online more than ever before, whether we're doing full-time distance learning (as I am-for now, at least) or if you're in a hybrid situation.

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Teacher Recommended Tools for Online Learning, Part 2

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Teacher Recommended Tools for Online Learning, Part 2

# data[].attributes.body
This 2-part series offered from Education Week highlights tools for teaching any subject online.

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Education Week - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo

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The new question of the week is:
What are your up to three "go-to" online tools this year? Please explain in detail how you use each one, including linked examples.
In Part One, Theresa Wills, Ph.D., Laurie Manville, and Cristiane Galvão, Ed.D., "kick-off" the series.

Today, Dr. Irina McGrath, Michelle Shory, Alice Mercer, Adriana Villavicencio, and many readers share their suggestions.
Padlet & Google Slides Dr. Irina McGrath is an ESL expert and English-language learner herself. She serves the Jefferson County public schools in Kentucky as an education recovery specialist. She is a co-director of the Louisville Writing Project (LWP) and a University of Louisville & Indiana University Southeast adjunct who teaches ESL/ENL instruction as well as assessment, literature, and cultural- and linguistic-diversity courses. Michelle Shory, Ed.S., is a district ESL instructional coach in the Jefferson County public schools. She is passionate about literacy and helped establish Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Louisville, Ky. Michelle grew up in Oshkosh, Wis. She loves reading, running, weight training, and instructional design.
Since the late 2000s, technology in the classroom setting has steadily increased in popularity and in turn has led to drastic improvements in the tools available to teachers. Prior to this year, technology was optional and utilized on occasion when applicable and when the teacher felt comfortable with new programs; however, with the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, the use of technology in classrooms has changed from casual and varied to necessary and constant. The inclusion of technology into the classroom shifted from gradual increments to a harsh upward spike. Teachers of all levels of technological background are now forced to rely on technology and various apps and platforms to engage students in learning and make content comprehensible.

The silver lining in this change in educational scenery is the growth of companies dedicated to online education and also several companies that have offered educators premium products at no cost during these difficult times. With all of the choices available to the modern teacher, we have noted several of our favorites that have made our "go-to" list, which include a number of apps such as Padlet and Google Slides.

Padlet is excellent for quick responses: Students can interact with each other and their teacher in a variety of layouts. Content can be streamed as a top-to-bottom feed, displayed on a bulletin board, presented in a chat-like format, or stacked in columns. The website contains several fun features such as maps that allow students to create a map of the countries they are from and tell a story about their journeys or describe their home country holidays and traditions. Another feature is the timeline activity that lets students plot the settings of a picture book or a novel and then write a summary. Padlet allows students to type their responses, upload files, include photos, and search for and insert images, videos, and GIFs from the internet. It even has an option for students to voice record their comments, which is extremely helpful for English-learners who are not yet comfortable with using written language.

Google Slides is another great tool that allows English-learners to communicate with others and demonstrate knowledge through words and images. One feature we love and believe is very helpful for ELs is the "Voice Type Speaker Notes," which is located under the Tools tab. Since Google Slides is part of the Google suite, it can incorporate any of the 121 languages in its database and allow EL students to voice-type speaker notes in their native language. The caveat is that it only works for slides speaker notes; if students want to use voice typing on the actual slides, they will need to download the Slides Translator add-on. Luckily, add-ons are easy to install just by clicking the "Add-ons" tab, selecting "Get add-ons," then typing in "Slides Translator" and clicking "Install." In addition to voice-typing, the Slides Translator add-on allows any text in Google slides to be translated into different languages. This can be helpful to ELs who are viewing their teacher's Google Slides' presentation and they stumble upon unfamiliar words. Teachers can use this add-on to incorporate content using different languages into their presentations.

In addition to language tools, Google Slides allows ELs to incorporate art into their work and express their thoughts and feelings through colors and images. One of our favorite activities is the Google Slides collaborative deck. During this activity, English-learners are assigned a slide that they get to share their takeaways on the topic discussed in class and be creative with how they display their thoughts. Students can use images and written words to create their personal take on the discussion and demonstrate it to their class.

As teachers try to find engaging ways to stimulate their classes online, we suggest they try out Padlet and Google Slides. Both provide a variety of options for English-learners to choose from, which in turn allows for the students to feel invigorated while learning and successful at accomplishing a task.

Here is a Google Slides Example
Nearpod Alice Mercer teaches 4th grade at an elementary school in Sacramento, Calif. She started her career in Oakland, Calif., and moved to Sacramento in 2001. She is the parent of a now-adult son with ASD and is a caregiver to her husband who is medically fragile. Alice is active in her union and on social media:
My go-to education technology outside of Zoom and Google Classroom (which are district set platforms) is Nearpod. Here is why I use it, how I use it, and what was difficult to get over at first (and how I overcame that).

Nearpod is an add-on to Google Slides, but it has its own ecosystem that will let you create slides and activities entirely within Nearpod itself. It lets you create slideshows with interactive activities that you can either present in real time to students (virtually or in person), or that they can go through at their own pace.

I use it mostly for that awkward period between when I've introduced a concept or a lesson I am teaching and when students work on it independently, although you could use it for independent practice, review, or assessment if you wanted (which I have also done). You can insert a quiz, a poll, a fill in the blank, or a matching-pairs activity. You can have students draw or draw on diagrams, or do open-ended questions. You can give students the option of leaving a voice comment instead of typing in answers on open-ended questions (giving some differentiation). There's even a quiz competition, Time to Climb, that works like Kahoot! but has a better interface for synchronous distance learning.

The biggest problem is that in distance learning, you cannot just "drop" a link in Zoom chat when your kids are on Chromebooks; because of Chromebook security issues, the link cannot be "clicked" on nor can it be copied. I use the Nearpod code option and have a permanent link to Nearpod from Clever, which is our district's portal for students. This requires fewer clicks than putting it in Google Classroom, since Clever is the default homepage. I've then taught students to have their white boards and write down the code which I have in my background, type into chat, and repeat. It's short enough to manage that way.

It has a pretty intuitive interface for both students and teachers. Because I can monitor what students are doing in real time, this is invaluable to see where students are in my teaching. For this reason, it's my go-to application in distance learning.

Tools that "engage reluctant students" Dr. Adriana Villavicencio is an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine. Her research is focused on K-12 educational policy and school practice that deepens or disrupts inequities for minoritized communities of students and families. She began her career in education as a middle and high school English teacher:
When I learned last spring that our classes would be moving to Zoom, my reactions were a mix of self-doubt, trepidation, and a desire to run away until the end of the pandemic. But after gathering up my wits and my syllabus, I convinced myself that it would not only be doable but also an opportunity to develop new skills and engage with students in ways that were perhaps more creative, engaging, and inclusive. An important part of this renewed sense of hope and purpose came from familiarizing myself with and utilizing online platforms that helped me recreate and reimagine student participation.

I am a university professor, but my recommendations for a few "go-to" online tools come from my experience teaching over the summer in a K-12 teacher-credentialing program. One of the course's major assignments required teacher-candidates to create and deliver an online lesson to the class. I was inspired not only by the thoughtfulness of the content but by the ways they used online spaces to engage reluctant students and generate discussions that might not have existed otherwise.

One of the tools that I used during our first class together and which many students chose to utilize in subsequent sessions is Google's Jamboard. It's a collaborative, digital white board and is easy to miss even for those of us who use Google platforms daily. I imagine the platform is so named because it is a space where collaborators can metaphorically "jam".... sharing ideas in an intimate space, improvising on the spot, and riffing off one another's so the experience is enhanced by the collective. Because this course was focused on identifying and grappling with the history and purpose of schooling, I placed one of three images that spoke to this theme on each board. Students were given 90 seconds to examine the figures and three minutes to respond by adding a comment or a question in an anonymous "sticky note." On a blank board, students also added images that represented their own perspective on the purpose of schooling. (Additionally, students can select the "pen" and circle or add an exclamation to another student's note-an activity we used in other classes). By the first 10 minutes of our course, every student had engaged with existing material, shared their own reflections, and "heard" the perspectives of their peers.

By Week 3, when the students started delivering their own lessons, a few online platforms stood out for their contribution to student engagement and classroom discussion. Kahoot, a game-based learning platform, can be woven effortlessly into a lesson as a way of reviewing yesterday's lesson, last night's reading, or checking in on understanding. For one class, the students created a four-question Kahoot quiz with factual questions about civil rights and school integration. The platform is designed to resemble a game show of sorts with four colorful answer choices, a timer (which the creator can set), and background music. Kahoot provides a low-stakes way to engage in the activity, while the "results" page (bar graphs that show correct responses) provides the teacher with a sense of the class' knowledge.

Answer Garden is another platform that elicits real-time audience participation. Unlike Kahoot (which requires opening another site and entering a classroom code), Answer Garden requires that students scan a QR code with their phones, which automatically takes them to a single prompt. Answer Garden also has the benefit of generating a word cloud to capture students' responses.

In contrast, Peardeck is more open-ended. In our session on slavery and reconstruction, the student-teachers posed five questions based on the course materials. Responses in Peardeck are recorded in real time but can also be exported into an Excel spreadsheet, which may be useful for asynchronous classrooms as well.

Comments From Readers Jim Smith:
These online tools are effective because they are interactive and user-friendly (even for those of us who may be intimidated by technology). They can also be used as a springboard for small-group discussions in Zoom breakout rooms. Most importantly, they elicit participation from those who might be less comfortable with sharing in a large group or who may feel marginalized for voicing certain perspectives. Regardless of the tool, however, effective remote instruction still requires planning that strategically incorporates online platforms into existing curricula and strong facilitation from the instructor-which is as essential online as it is in person.
Susie Naughton:
My role is multidimensional. I am an adjunct professor with Centralia College in Washington. I am using Zoom and EdThena to support and extend my online teaching.

I am also a special education resource teacher for North Thurston Public Schools. In this role, I use Flipgrid, Zoom, Boom Cards, Epic, Freckle, Lexia Reading, ReadLive, and many more.
Debbie Gerace Kunes:
Making short videos on Adobe Spark has been great-especially creating an introduction of myself for my students (I teach ESL at a local community college).
Avriel Ogawa:
Quizizz
Katie Brooks:
Google slides; I can watch the students work in grid view.
Sharon Duffy Eilts:
Jamboard and Canva
Kim Counihan:
Google Classroom, Graphic Converter, I Love PDF

I've created digital workbooks out of Google slides and use Slip-in-slides to add new pages as we go along. I Also love Edpuzzle.

Rachelle Berquist Poth:

Buncee, Nearpod, Formative

i-Ready Online- For students and for data collection
Class Dojo- Parent communication
Google suite, (Slides, docs, sheets, forms etc.)
-- Gabriel Cardenas, Ed.D. (@Jansonprincipal) October 30, 2020

Nearpod, Scholastic SCOPE, and all things Google
-- Bridget Kaufman (@MsKaufmanClass) October 29, 2020

Google Translate, Screencast-O-Matic, and Jamboard
-- ELSD_Jody (@ELSD_Jody) October 29, 2020

Zoom, loom, jam board, classroom screens are some of them!
-- Lorenna Anderson (@LorennaAnderson) October 29, 2020

1. Jamboard 2. https://t.co/QhkSYH2rfg 3. Google slides collaboration
-- Kelli Green (@EducatingMe) October 28, 2020

1. Nearpod; 2. EdPuzzle; 3. Book Creator
-- Angelann Stephens (@IBTenthGradeLit) October 28, 2020

Seesaw, Screencastify, Remind for parent communication
-- L Miller (@travelmama2) October 28, 2020

Pear Deck, Google slides, and Screencastify
-- Chris Clementi (@kidsnetsoft) October 28, 2020

Kami, SeeSaw, Google Slides.
-- Angelica Mitchell (@ang_milt) October 27, 2020

Google classroom, Zoom, and Flipgrid for my ELs
-- Amanda Zurfluh (@AmandaZurfluh) October 27, 2020

Does the National Hurricane Center website count?

Class Dojo & Schoology - As a parent, this keeps me informed!

Canva - image creation for our district's social media

Apple Podcasts - PD is always happening for me
-- Eva Harvell (@techie_teach) October 27, 2020

Nearpod, Teachermade, IKnowIt
-- Kari Loft (@KariELoft) October 27, 2020

Thanks to Irina, Michelle, Alice, Adriana, and to readers, for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it's selected or if you'd prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. This Year's Most Popular Q&A Posts Race & Racism in Schools School Closures & the Coronavirus Crisis Classroom-Management Advice Best Ways to Begin the School Year Best Ways to End the School Year Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning Implementing the Common Core Facing Gender Challenges in Education Teaching Social Studies. Cooperative & Collaborative Learning Using Tech in the Classroom Student Voices Parent Engagment In Schools Teaching English-Language Learners Reading Instruction Writing Instruction Education Policy Issues Assessment Differentiating Instruction Math Instruction Science Instruction Advice for New Teachers Author Interviews Entering the Teaching Profession The Inclusive Classroom Learning & the Brain Administrator Leadership Teacher Leadership Relationships in Schools Professional Development Instructional Strategies Best of Classroom Q&A Professional Collaboration Classroom Organization Mistakes in Education Project-Based Learning
Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.

I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column

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Teacher-Recommended Tools for Online Learning

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The new question of the week is: What are your up to three "go-to" online tools this year? Please explain in detail how you use each one, including linked examples. In Part One, Theresa Wills, Ph.D., Laurie Manville, and Cristiane Galvão, Ed.D., "kick-off" the series.

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Teaching reading

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turtlediaries.com

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SPRING, 2021 SERIES: Visit the Padlet that has the recorded webinars and related materials for this series. 

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SPRING, 2021 SERIES: Visit the Padlet that has the recorded webinars and related materials for this series. 

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Virtual Teaching with KTL Strategies: Spring 2021