I still don’t have the final word from my school on whether or not we’re going back in person, so it’s been hard for me to get motivated on school prep. But since I know for sure we are offering a distance learning program to families who don’t want to send their child on campus, I decided to focus on this portion of my prep for now.
The first thing I am doing is getting my Google Classroom set up (more on that later), and thinking about how I want to schedule the day. We had a lot of practice with it last spring, and after several iterations, we came up with a system that worked really well for families and teachers.
One thing we realized, is that every family is different when it comes to the time and resources they have available to devote to distance learning. Some families were struggling to complete the work we were assigning, and other families were asking for more! So we created some flexibility in our schedule by indicating which assignments were required, and by including optional assignments for families that wanted more.
Here is how we eventually ended up structuring our schedule. This format really worked for us, and if we go to full distance learning mode this fall, we will almost exactly replicate it. We got great feedback from families about how pleased they were with the virtual learning that they received.
Having a schedule, even if I changed it sometimes, was so helpful for me. It helped me make sure I was covering everything I wanted to cover, and gave me some sort of structure to hold onto in my lesson planning.
Live Instruction (Zoom or Google Meet)
We limited the amount of live instruction for several reasons. First of all, it was very hard to coordinate schedules of all our families. Most of our students were sharing devices with their siblings and working parents, so they couldn’t hop on for live instruction very frequently. We also found that first graders can’t handle a lot of screen time. However, the following worked very well in a live setting:
- Circle Time: We started every morning with Circle Time together. It was such a lovely way to start the day and to feel like a family. We sang songs, switched the date, and read a Morning Message together. Then we would play a game like Swingman or MadLibs. We also incorporated some student sharing during Circle Time.
- Small Group Instruction: The only other live instruction we did was in small groups. We met with every student in groups of 3 or 4 for once a week for reading instruction and once a week for writing instruction. This was where the bulk of our differentiated instruction happened. I am thinking of having these more than once a week this fall. And I will definitely be adding some live small group math work as well.
In the spring, we were using exclusively Zoom for our live instruction. However, since we’ll be migrating to Google Classroom in the fall, it is likely we’ll be using Google Meet for our live class times instead.
Recorded Lessons (Dropbox or YouTube Links)
We found that recorded lessons were the best way to deliver our instruction. These were usually 5-10 minutes long. We would record ourselves and then create a Dropbox link to send to families. This way, families could choose what time worked best for their students to watch their lessons. Each recorded lesson had an assignment that went with it.
- Reading & Writing Workshop: We use the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for reading and writing workshop, so our recorded lessons were 5-10 minute minilessons teaching a specific reading or writing strategy. The assignment was always independent reading for 20 minutes and working on current writing pieces.
- Math: Our curriculum is Eureka Math. I simplified the lessons to be no more than 10 minutes long to teach the strategy. I often emailed families a PDF with cut-out manipulatives for them to use during the lesson.
- Phonics/Grammar: Phonics lessons were short, usually around 5 minutes. They would consist of learning a new sound spelling team or practice with a particular spelling or grammar rule. For the practice lessons, I often emailed a PDF with cutout letter tiles to use during the lesson.
- Science: We only did science once a week in the spring during distance learning, because we use Foss which is very hands-on. It was just impossibe to get all the materials to the kids, so we would end up filming the teacher demonstrating some of the hands-on work as a lesson each week.
- Read Alouds: Filming a teacher reading aloud a book was a great little lesson to include for students. Sometimes we would even stop and give prompts to students for them to respond to, as if we were in the class together.
Optional Assignments
We tried to include some assignments that were optional, sometimes as a fun activity or some extra reinforcement work. We always marked these with “(optional)” so that families knew these were only if they had the time and desire for more schoolwork.
- Enrichment Lessons: We were fortunate enough to have our enrichment teachers (Drama, Art, Gardening, and PE) filming short classes for the students to do every week. We could offer these to the students once a week.
- Art Projects: Our school emphasizes arts integration, so we offered a project for students to do every day (except the day they had art) that was related to what something we were studying.
- Reinforcement Work: It was easy to attach extra phonics worksheets, math fluency worksheets, and review activities for families who wanted a little extra.
We will undoubtedly have to make some changes as we go along with distance learning this fall. But this schedule will help us create a structured backbone for our program, and luckily last year’s schedule only needs a few tweaks.
But, if we end up doing a hybrid model, this schedule will have to change a lot! So stay tuned to see what happens next…!
How are you scheduling virtual learning this fall?
xoxo
Laura
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