DISTANCE LEARNING Teaching Strategies

Distance learning is no joke! I feel like I'm spending so much more time teaching online than I did in the classroom. Anyone else feel the same?

In this post, I wanted to share some of the distance learning strategies I currently use that might make your teacher-life a little easier.

1. Think of yourself more like a coach than a teacher. I'm sure we can all agree, online learning is much different than classroom learning. You are essentially having your student fly a plane while you are in the tower. It's up to you to help them land the plane.

2. Don't feel obligated to use Zoom or some other video conferencing app. with your students. In fact, it's much better to use video conferencing to help answer questions or clarify directions than it is to teach.

3. Consider screencast and record yourself giving direct instruction. You don't need to be live. I have also found many great videos on YouTube to replace my direct instruction. Students will also have the option to pause and rewind if necessary.

4. Have your students participate in online, class discussions. Here are a few ideas:

• In Google Classroom you can assign a "question" and select the option, "students can reply to each other"
• Create a Google "sheet". Be sure to change the share settings to "anyone can edit". Type a section for students to write their names and answer a question. This allows students to see responses from all the students in the class. 
• Use Zoom "Break-Out" rooms 
• Have students share the same Google Doc. 

5. If you use Google Classroom, instead of spending the time to open each student's assignment individually open all students' assignments at once. Simply open the assignment folder in your drive and you'll see all the assignments at once. Save a ton of time!

6. For your struggling students, you can differentiate instruction in several ways. 

• Insert sentence frames directly into only those students who need a little extra help. 
• Use Newsela.com to differentiate reading passages.
• To give a differentiated assignment to only a few students follow these directions: 
•  When creating an assignment in Google Classroom instead of selecting all students, select only those students you wish to give the assignment to. 

7. Use Google Calander to make appointments with individual students to help clarify instruction and answer specific questions.

8. Use GoFormative.com to insert questions into text. This will help assess student learning as they read instead of after they finish reading the entire passage. 

9. Use a lot of white space in online reading passages. Students learn 25%  slower than using a paper copy. Short paragraphs with a lot of white space will make it much easier for students to learn.

10. Be patient. Although most students are very familiar with technology, they may need a little extra time and patience to get used to learning from a distance!

The majority of my TpT resources are now digital. Go grab some freebies HERE to make distance learning even easier.

Happy Teaching!

Carousel Brainstorming Teaching Strategy

Carousel Brainstorming is a fun and engaging teaching strategy that will get your students moving

and talking. You can use this strategy in several ways; as an introduction, prediction, or reflection.

Students will be able to discuss in both small groups and as an entire class. 

Students begin by forming small groups and rotating with their group around the room, stopping at

each "station". They discuss the information required at the station and then post their ideas for the

next group to see. Below are the steps to implement this technique:

STEP 1: Identify a topic for which input is desired.

STEP 2: List one topic area or question per sheet of butcher paper. I often use groups of six and write a large number (1-6) on the paper as well.

STEP 3: Divide your students into groups and assign each group a number. 

STEP 4: Have those groups stand next to the poster that matched their assigned number.

STEP 5: Have students brainstorm ideas, writing them on sticky notes or the poster itself. I usually give my students 1-3 minutes. 

STEP 6: When the time is called have students rotate to the poster to their right. 

STEP 7: Students review the previous group's information while having a discussion. Then they add their ideas. This process continues until all groups have brainstormed at each poster. 

Ideas for the Social Studies Classroom:

In your U.S. History class, you could use it as a reflection at the end of a lesson to review Civil

Rights Leaders. Each station would be a specific person. Students would brainstorm their most

important contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. 

If you teach Civics/American government you could use it as an introduction to gain prior

knowledge about the Constitution. Topics could include:

Station 1. The Legislative Branch

Station 2. The Executive Branch

Station 3. The Judicial Branch

Station 4. The Bill of Rights

Station 5. The Amendments (11-27)

Station 6. The Creation of the Constitution

When teaching Psychology you could use this strategy to review for the final. Topics would include the units that were covered during the semester class. For example;

Station 1: What is Psychology?

Station 2: Consciousness

Station 3: Psychological Disorders

Station 4: Therapy

Station 5: Motivation and Emotion

Station 6: Personality 

In World History there are so many options. For example, when studying Imperialism each poster

could have a title with the different locations of imperialism and have students explain what they

learned about imperialism in each location. 

Get a ton of teaching strategies in a user-friendly chart. Click HERE to grab it FREE!

Happy teaching!

Chalk Dust Diva