The difference between this strategy and Pause & Ponder is that you are focusing the students on a specific question or prompt to reflect on/write about. Teachers were also thrilled to connect with students again, even if it had to be done virtually. If the novel we are reading works with a previous or current skill, we discuss it authentically as it comes up in our reading. Teachers can also incorporate audio, images, or videos into their lessons. When students are having a hard time (behaviorally or academically), I lean into my relationship with them to find a solution. Sadly, I didn’t find the perfect answer. If the skill is a skill that your students are just not ready to be assessed on, I recommend continuing on with your practice. As always, use your professional judgment. Teaching first graders to read is a rewarding task that's very important to their education. For Day 2, you can continue to practice the reading skill (and model and support as needed) with another read-aloud or short passage. Through a screen share, a teacher and student (or reading group) can read it together and discuss. I really struggled to re-envision instruction in this new setting. Rather than reading about Rome, VR headsets let students be transported to Rome. I’ll continue to share adaptations for virtual teaching that will work best for each individual component of reading instruction. There you have it: my current thinking about how to teach kids to read virtually – during distance learning. The biggest challenge is getting books in kids’ hands, especially if they have a limited number of books at home. It guides my book choices, writing suggestions and the topics I use for math word problems. Source: Teaching To Inspire. One way I have been able to include all students is with hand gestures. We’re glad you’re here! I’m anticipating at least part of the  year will return to distance learning, and therefore I’m planning ahead, in the hopes that I can be more prepared than I was in March. Goode works for a middle school in Brampton, Ontario, teaching French to grade 7 and 8 students. A Vermilion Parish teacher has taken on the monumental task of teaching 4-year-olds virtually, and she says it's working for them. I only allow a small group of teachers into the membership at one time to ensure that I can meet their individual needs, but once a new membership opens up, those on the waitlist will be notified immediately! With VR, they aren’t limited to word descriptions or book illustrations; they can explore the topic and see how things are put together. Keeping these time tested dictates in mind, the virtual classroom has been created, using the internet or intranet as the link. Keep kids reading with Epic!, a digital library for kids 12 and under. Welcome to the Virtual Teaching Resource Hub of the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI). 3. On this post, I break down one way to convert reading instruction into a virtual … Through trial and error, I found that 3-6 pictures to sort or words to read/spell worked better than a larger number. Posted on September 11, 2012. As a result, many educators have shifted to … We’re glad you’re here! You may need to be more animated in your teaching, plan for more frequent breaks, or simply switch activities frequently (such as changing from one phonemic awareness activity to another.) Teachers. (Be … I know I will need to adjust my expectations a bit for teaching reading with distance learning, because of the structure and because my distance teaching lessons took more time than in person teaching. Teaching reading in 4th and 5th grade can be so rewarding but also challenging. But they haven’t had the pedagogical training: How do you teach your subject, like writing and reading, online? Using Hand Gestures to Virtually Teach Sight Words. Some of these will be easy to recreate than others. I totally agree with the first part of that statement. Benefits of Teaching Reading in a Virtual Environment . Also (if you are wondering), my school starts in Sept. and has not yet announced what the fall will look like. Required fields are marked *. And they are all available for free. After all, we’d be back in school by May, right? It’s my favorite part of the school day. On a typical day, Nadia Goode wakes up at 6 a.m. to get herself and her kids ready for school. Virtual teaching tips are one of many newly-useful responses to the spread of COVID-19. Teaching a remote guided reading lesson can be fun! I saw a shift among many parents (and a sigh of relief), as they realized that they didn’t have to “fix” things for their child every time. Without the face to face interaction of an ELL student, teacher, and their classmates, learning English in authentic ways can be much more challenging. If you are screen sharing, explore ways to enlarge your cursor so students can see it more easily. How to use the National Reading Panel’s Big 5 to inform virtual instruction, identify areas in which your students are proficient and where they may need more help, individualize teaching and monitor student progress. While every home and school situation is different, online groups can be a good way to build a community of support and to find your teaching people.Just think of it as your online teacher’s lounge. But they haven’t had the pedagogical training: How do you teach your subject, like writing and reading, online? During this time, you can also meet with your small groups again. This app is also a fun way for students to recommend books to one another (after you model what a book recommendation looks like.) That to me is the greater concern and the biggest need right now. We’re taking a deep dive into a … Note that they do encourage you to use their digital reader, which is now available through a subscription. Want an interactive "hands-on" digital activity to review key reading skills for grades 4-5? Read some helpful tips in this article about using digital platforms for your small groups. This resource looks amazing for virtually reading instruction! September 4, 2020 | 1 Comment | Filed Under: Digital Resources, Read Alouds, Reading, Reading Centers. Read alouds are key for instilling a love of reading. .. Here is a list of a few teacher favorites! Teachers read aloud in the classroom—and prompt their students to do so—for many reasons: to model fluency, to build comprehension and interpretive skills, and to support learning at different levels. Teaching reading virtually can make that even more challenging. Join thousands of other upper elementary teachers and receive advice, tips, and strategies as well as access to exclusive freebies and giveaways! Even though students are not physically working together in the classroom, there is no reason that student engagement should not exist. In this video, I am teaching five 3rd … The student texts the teacher when she is ready to begin, and then they use Skype to practice increasing her fluency. Instead of doing a whole group lesson on this day, you could meet with small groups that you have identified need a little bit more practice based on day two or day three. It also feels more like normal teaching. There were days of frustration and tears. I know that it might sound intimidating, but I hope these tips will help you to feel more confident. Reading Specialists are certified for grades K-12 in Pennsylvania. Article from teachingfirsties.com. Deliver Assessments Virtually. For a limited time, Epic … There you have it: my current thinking about how to teach kids to read virtually – during distance learning. Recognize that it is my current thinking, which implies that it is likely to shift and change as I experiment and learn more. I hope you’ll share your own thoughts and ideas in the … This will not only help students see the transfer of these skills, but will also allow them to practice the skills in meaningful ways. Oct 4, 2020 - Guided reading is still possible with virtual learning! She is a Waldorf certified educator from Kenya and has more than 20 years of experience. Parent questionnaires and questions of the day can continue. Understanding why you’re reading to your students is an important first step in making your fair use analysis. Students found too many words frustrating, after watching a video that was not truly interactive. These are teaching-hardened techniques that work in my classroom. I also teach guided reading groups after my whole group lessons for the day, but for the sake of length, this post will only focus on whole group reading instruction. Encourage students to chime in for repeated reads. This can be done live or you can have a reteaching lesson prepared ahead of time with materials that you know are better suited for their needs (lower level text, scaffolds included, or an audio recording of you modeling and going through the activity with them). This could look like them just retelling the main points of the lesson, or you could even be more specific and give them students questions like, “How do characters, setting, and plot work together for a story?”. So, I experimented with some different ideas for the last six weeks of school, before hanging up my distance teaching hat for a while. Some options for reading stations could be digital task cards, interactive drag-and-drop activities, or just your regular passage practice where you assign them a short passage with questions to respond to. Independent reading in distance learning is pretty self-explanatory. Rather than repeat myself in each section below, I’ll share some of those in this section first. I only allow a small group of teachers into the membership at one time to ensure that I can meet their individual needs, but once a new membership opens up, those on the waitlist will be notified immediately! Create a schedule and send a link to the live … In addition to reading research and the five pillars of reading, motivation and engagement are two additional and essential factors necessary to help students increase reading success. With online whiteboards, bulletin boards, or documents, we can create mind maps or KWL charts. At this point, the students have received instruction on the skill and they practiced it with a read-aloud or a short passage, so most students should be ready to take it a little bit further with a longer passage (or by bringing several elements of the same skill together). The concept of how to teach children to read remotely was not even on my radar a couple of weeks ago. This “classroom” is similar to a traditional classroom of schools and colleges. Learn more. And I felt a huge amount of guilt, because my kids weren’t learning like they would in the classroom. Choose stories your students would enjoy or introduce a new series that kids might enjoy reading. Again, you can meet with them live or you can “meet with them” by sending them another reteaching assignment that scaffolds and breaks down the skill for them and gives them a bit more instruction before they take the assessment. Build Community In A Virtual Setting . You can experiment and make changes as needed, just as you would … To prevent “bring and brag” episodes, you might use a theme, such as a favorite snack or book. The next section (Day 2) will share specific strategies for engaging students in texts they are reading or listening to. Use that as your starting point. On a typical day, Nadia Goode wakes up at 6 a.m. to get herself and her kids ready for school. How do we do this? I started out by posting pre-recorded phonics lessons, writing mini-lessons and book introductions. They also felt that their child’s work needed to be perfect before it was shared on Seesaw and that they needed to help their child immediately when the child was stuck on a word. They were able to use these at home during distance learning. But, with the right strategies and resources, it can be done and done well. I structured it similarly to a guided reading lesson, but focused much of our time on reading the actual text. Check out my brand new video on How to Teach Guided Reading VIRTUALLY to learn some tips, strategies, and tactics to ensure that you have the tools you need to teach an effective and rigorous guided reading lesson virtually #distancelearning #virtualteaching #guidedreadinginstruction #virtuallearning #remotelearning. This alternative assignment can be assigned to students separately to complete. For day 5, you are ready to assess your students in a more formal way on the skill (if you feel they are ready). 2. Whether you are virtually teaching, or teaching ESL in distance learning, it is important to differentiate for ELLs just as you would in the classroom setting. Stop while you’re reading and have students type their thoughts, questions, or responses in the digital platform of your choice. Have the students video their responses and allow other students to listen and reply. Per my privacy policy, you can unsubscribe at any time. It is important to select an activity that allows the students to show you what they know about the skill, but in a way that makes them still feel confident and is low-risk for failure. Not only is this helpful when teaching virtually, it’s also helpful for in-person instruction since students can activate another learning modality. One of the great advantages of teaching reading in a virtual environment is the time saved since less transition time is required. Each skill includes (or will include by the end of 2020) BOTH printable and digital versions for digital reading instruction, face-to-face instruction, or hybrid reading instruction. The sudden school closures lead to a range of emotions for our students, their families, and our teachers. View Bundle. Welcome to the Virtual Teaching Resource Hub of the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI). Aug 20. Join my email list by entering your email to have these sent straight to your inbox! Click here! Despite the circumstances, we’re happy to have you join us. I teach reading from a skill-based approach using a variety of mentor texts, read-alouds, and engaging passages written specifically to target the skill. I’m still not convinced I will be as effective teaching remotely as I would be in front of the classroom. Stop while you’re reading, ask a question, and have students write down their responses in their reading journal or sheet of paper. Here’s why it’s so effective . But, many of us are now faced with the impossible. Deliver Assessments Virtually. How do you teach kids to read when you are miles and miles away from them? But, if you have a solid and CONSISTENT plan in place, teaching a fun and effective remote guided reading lesson is completely doable. Here are three to focus on. 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