Connecting Students to Each Other During Remote Learning
All of WhyMaker's Workshops for Remote Learning help teachers think about ways to connect students to each other during this time.
Keeping kids connected to each other during remote learning is very important. We know that social interaction improves students' learning by enhancing their ability to think critically and problem-solve (Hurst, 2013). Social learning teaches children how to interact with others while developing their interpersonal skills. Social interactions help children learn about the world around them and all of the other people there.
In remote learning our students are now significantly less social than they were in the classroom. According to EdSurge Research 42 percent of teens say they feel more lonely than usual, with girls more likely than boys to say so.
In your typical classroom you spend all year building a community. You set up expectations and norms with your students. You greet them at the door, allow them to share stories with the class, you celebrate holidays, birthdays and special events. They play games to learn about each other and practice social interaction. You celebrate good quality work and improvements in learning. STEM projects, technology education and Maker Education play an important role in social development of our students.
Research conducted by Euisuk Sung at NYC College of Technology at City Tech coordinated research analysis on the movement of students and teachers during a design thinking project. These charts show the interaction between teachers and students as the project progressed.
Our students miss their peers, they need their peers to help push their thinking and learning. Below are some strategies and tools to help you build a collaborative remote community.
Building Classroom Community
Recreating a community online is not impossible, it just takes some focused effort. An online community bulletin board is a great strategy for continuing your practices of the past. Check out the Dream Team’s community bulletin board on Padlet. Making each week or each session exciting for students helps keep their interest and engagement. Lots of teachers are creating themes for their classes and sessions.
Group Work
Assigning projects or design challenges for students to work together in groups is an excellent way to have students work together. Also it mimics the real world of work right now. Adults are all at their own homes doing their work with their colleagues who are at their homes. Let’s build meaningful projects for students to engage in the same type of experiences as people are having in the real world. Building group work similar to how you would in your traditional classroom is simple to do with shared docs and slides on Google and in the Microsoft suite. Having students present their project in a live session, will force them to work on the project together online. Students can be challenged with an open ended project where they have to work through a process to present a solution. Check out design portfolios to help students keep track of their thinking and their work. WhyMaker was working with Goshen School District throughout this school year on Project Based Learning. When asked to switch to remote learning teachers were able to transform their PBL activities remotely with incredible success.
Small Group Sessions
You move students in and out of small groups sessions often in your classroom, you do this for all different reasons. You know that teaching students in smaller numbers helps you assess and provide the direct instruction that students need. In online sessions small groups are proving to be extremely effective to give undivided attention and instruction to students. Using Zoom’s breakout rooms or multiple Google Met or Teams Meetings can create small groups within the context of larger groups. A first grade teacher has been hosting girls only and boys only groups. She has noticed an increase in participation in all students since she began these groups. The students feel more comfortable sharing with each other and learning together.
Team Challenges
My friends and family love playing trivia over Zoom. I know you could do this with your students as well. You can set up teams to play games together and challenge each other. A middle school social studies teacher has students teams of students debate a specific point with each other live in a virtual meeting, while the rest of the class observes. Students could take virtual field trips in groups and report back what they learned.
Encourage Discussion
Giving students opportunities to chat with each other about their learning is important and similar to what we do in the classroom. Using discussion forums like Google Groups, Gchat, Teams, Slack or text group chats will help students feel connected to each other. It is imperative to explicitly state expectations and communication rules with students.
When students are aware of the appropriate way to converse and have something specific to converse about they are more likely to have success.
A high school math teacher has small groups of students work together to solve complex math problems together on Google Groups.
Peer Learning
Creating opportunities for partnerships within the distance learning classroom is important. Students can review each other's work. Check out this Peer Review Checklist for 3D Printing Projects. They can create assessments for each other. They can take a quiz together. They can assess each other's work. WhyMaker has a great resource for helping students Give and Receive Feedback. They can work together to solve a challenge or problem. They can share their work with a peer. Students feel a sense of obligation to their peers when working in this manner.
Technology Tools
There are so many tools out there to help build these connections between students. You can find lists of them everywhere. Remember the amount of tools can become overwhelming and there is no perfect tool. As a teacher it is your responsibility to choose ONE tool that solves ONE problem you are having now. Incorporate the tool slowly. We recommend one new tool a week. Some of our favorite tools for staying connected are:
Marco Polo App - Video Walkie Talkie
Padlet - Online Bulletin Board
Google Voice - Phone Number and Texting Platform
Mural.co - Brainstorming and online portfolios
Jamboard - Collaborative whiteboard
PearDeck - Responsive presentations
With some creativity and dedication you can build a classroom community online. Check out our workshops. We would love to help you and your teachers have a great online learning experience. Reach out to us at WhyMaker and let us know how we can help you.
References:
Hurst, B., Wallace, R., & Nixon, S. B. (2013). The Impact of Social Interaction on Student Learning. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 52 (4). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol52/iss4/5
Wang, Tony (2020). Who's doing remote learning? Depends on who you ask - and how wealthy they are. EdSurge Survey https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-04-09-who-s-doing-remote-learning-depends-on-who-you-ask-and-how-wealthy-they-are
Sung, E., & Kelley, T. (2019). Identifying Design Process Patterns: A sequential analysis study of design thinking. Internationa Journal of Design and Technology Education. (29, 2) http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/faculty/ESung0