“The Chat” is one of the key tools available to teachers in online… and one of the best tools for building dynamic, active and inclusive learning environments. You might even call it a ‘silver lining’: a small thing that works better online even if the, overall context of online learning is not nearly as good as…
There are three primary ways students can be asked to write in an online classroom. They can use the chat function in whatever meeting platform you use, they can write pencil to paper wherever they are sitting–what we call Everybody Writes–or they can write in a ‘linked sheet‘–a google doc, say–that they toggle over to; this…
The Cognitive Psychologist Daniel Willingham had a useful Op-Ed in the LA Times last week in which he discussed the ways that online learning is cognitively strange (my phrase; blame me if you don’t like it)–that is, it asks us to interact socially in ways we aren’t used to and haven’t evolved for and that are…
Means of Participation is our phrase for a set of consistent procedures that describe clearly to students HOW they should participate in class at any given moment. When the Means of Participation is ambiguous–i.e. left unclear by the teacher–the results are mostly one of the following: Crickets: No one will violate the unspoken code of silence…
I wanted to share this great little video of Stephanie Le’s classroom at Libertas College Prep in Los Angeles. She does a good job of maintaining a dynamic pace to her lesson while keeping students engaged and on their toes through a variety of forms of participation. The video starts out with her reading aloud with…