Hi Everyone,
Recently, I had the privilege of attending the webinar I Have Online ABE/ASE Resources, Now What? facilitated by Illinois professional developers (and Reading and Writing CoP members!) Amber Fornaciari and Anita Kerr. As educators continue to adjust to serving our students at a distance, this webinar was very timely.
Leading off the webinar, Amber shared a resource housed at the Illinois Excellence in Adult Education PD Portal entitled Distance Learning Content Resources for Adult Education that can be found HERE. They purposely highlighted only 10 resources to avoid providing too much information.
Amber (who focused on math) and Anita (who focused on language arts) then shared a four-part strategy for moving face-to-face learning online. Let’s consider Anita’s language arts focus using this strategy:
1. Look at What You Already Have What online open educational resources could your students’ use? Anita focused on the free CommonLit resource which “is a nonprofit education technology organization dedicated to ensuring that all students . . . graduate with the reading, writing, communication, and problem-solving skills they need to be successful in college and beyond.”
2. What Other Resources Do You Need to Fill Gaps? Just as in the face-to-face classroom, we may need supplemental materials to help our students learn. CommonLit fills in learning gaps by providing text sets at different reading levels to help with differentiated instruction. It also has a toolbar where students can hear texts read, consult a dictionary, and watch videos to build background knowledge.
3. Synchronous or Asynchronous Learning? As we move instruction online, we face the choice of doing synchronous (students learning at the same time such as during a Zoom meeting or Facebook Live) or asynchronous (self-paced learning that can be accessed at any time). While CommonLit is built to do asynchronous learning, it can be supplemented by doing Zoom meetings so students could talk about discussion questions.
4. How Will You Give Feedback? CommonLit automatically grades multiple choice questions which provides some feedback. We always need to give our students prompt feedback on their work which can be done through texts, emails, and phone calls. During this pandemic, reaching out to our learners by any means can help penetrate the bubble of isolation many are feeling.
The webinar's last few minutes featured Illinois adult educator Mary Clare Sullivan sharing about how she moved her classes online. She first took a poll using Google Voice to determine what devices her students had and found that the majority used smartphones for their Internet connectivity. Keeping that in mind, Mary Clare made sure that her students downloaded the Blackboard learning management system, Quizlet, and Newsela apps onto their phones. To help in this process, she sent them step by step instructions along with screen shots to guide them. She also recommended students keep the websites dictionary.com and thesaurus.com open as reference material.
As an example lesson, Mary Clare mentioned she would have students complete a lesson in Newsela, add unfamiliar words to their vocabulary logs, and take a quiz. To check their work, she asked students to take pictures of their vocabulary logs and quiz answers. She provides ongoing feedback with text messages. Mary Clare plans to do Zoom meetings to take the pulse of her students and make adjustments going forward.
The webinar's final thought was that online instruction will be different, but that does not mean it can't be great!
The full hour-long webinar is available HERE and the slide deck HERE. Amber Fornaciari discusses how she does math instruction at a distance from the video’s opening to 27:15. Anita Kerr discusses her online instruction using CommonLit from 27:40 to 47:20. The video concludes with Mary Clare Sullivan sharing her experiences moving to online instruction beginning at 47:48.
What was helped you the most as you have moved your instruction from face to face to distance learning? Thanks for your thoughts!
Enjoy the adventure,
Steve Schmidt
LINCS Reading and Writing CoP Moderator
schmidtsj@appstate.edu
Comments
Hi Steve! One thing we've been hearing from Illinois educators is concern that not all of their students have been actively working at distance learning. They are saddened that their participation rate at a distance is not 100% - which we know is not expected, but as teachers we still desire! We have reiterated to instructors that getting 100% participation will likely not be possible at this time. The focus can be on setting reasonable goals for instruction, continually reaching out and making contact with students, and being generous to ourselves during this time!
Thank you, Steve, for starting the thread and Anita, for the follow-up comment....So many great resources for teachers and students to use. So many wonderful channels to take, but the question is how students can reach those channels....Anita's comment about reaching out and making contact with students is significant, "The focus can be on setting reasonable goals for instruction, continually reaching out and making contact with students, and being generous to ourselves during this time!"
Making contact with students is continuous until teachers reach them and they reach their teachers. Both can never give up....The means to reach ESL and ABE students are abundant, but how students connect and which resources to connect to is a question. As other teachers have mentioned, some students do not have the means to reach their teachers and classmates. They have their mobiles phones, but they are not enough. In addition, they need to take care of their family who may be facing some health issues. They would want to be part of the class. At the same time, their family needs them as well.....We, teachers, have online resources. What about the students?
Hoping for the best for all....Margaret
Hello friends, Anita and Margaret make good points about the realities we are facing. Reaching out and staying connected with learners in my view, can be even more important than instruction right now. I shared my thoughts about this in a recent post.
By sharing this, I don't mean to suggest that our online instruction is not valuable for those who are able to participate. It is incredibly valuable both for supporting learning and maintaining relationships with and among learners. Of course, we will continue to strive to do the best we can with our remote teaching-- while being gentle with ourselves.
It is a given that access and limited digital skills are huge barriers for many, but we can usually still work at maintaining our relationships. I'd love to hear how members are doing so.
Stay safe, everyone.
Take care, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition and Teaching & Learning CoPs