I have not written here in a long time, but I want to come back and blog here to share back some of the recent work we’ve put together in case someone else can use it or help me improve it, and of course, to write, reflect and improve. Feel free to skip straight to the bottom for links to all the materials. I would be surprised at anyone who has time to read right now. :)
We are full-time, in-person this fall, except for a small number of students who are live-streaming into class. (I feel like am totally failing at simultaneously serving kids at home and in the classroom, but that will have to be a different reflection). Students are in stable groups in masks all day long, and we try to police social distancing at school. Stable groups quarantine when necessary, but so far, I have not been sent home. However, we were full time online from mid-March until the end of the school year. I made lots of notes and created lots of materials and am finally getting around to sharing those here. We were mostly synchronous, but we created most of our materials to be self-paced if necessary. The synchronous learning allowed us to maintain at least some norms and to take a little time to see each other to nurture relationships and community. And of course, even though the materials could be used independently, being together gave us opportunities for better instruction too.
We used Google Meet for our class meeting and ran a Desmos activity in parallel. There was definitely not enough support and structure for small group work. Google meet doesn’t allow a smooth way to do this (yet…?), but if we go back online, this will be my number one place to improve. So… most of this work was done with full class pacing. Here was a typical 60-minute class:
10 minutes: Provocation and check-In with Students. Taking a few minutes to be human beings together at the start of class was really important in the online environment. I was SO lucky that I had the rest of the year to get to know my students so we already had this foundation. We tried to do at least a “1-5 check in,” and to hear at least a 1-5 from everyone. Generally, we have a provocation on the screen related to the day’s work, and students are asked to type a question or comment in the chat. This provocation is generally a preview of what we’re going to learn about, trying to activate a little curiosity. Sort of like a virtual “Stand and Talk.” I usually remind them of yesterday’s work and frame the day’s learning, including our learning goals, and give any necessary instructions.
5 minutes: Look back at the last activity. Ask students to focus especially on any comments that they haven’t yet addressed. Then move on to today’s work.
15 minutes: Let students work independently. I give written feedback within the Desmos activity during this time, both mathematical and personal. I’ll try to send a short note to every student. If they don’t need any specific guidance with the math, I may point out something they did well, or something interesting to think about.
5 minutes: Pause the activity, bring everyone back to the meet, and summarize and consolidate the material to help guide everyone in the right direction. I use the snapshots where possible to illustrate ideas with student work. We’ve been embedding some short direct instruction videos within the activities as well.
20 minutes: Students work again, and I follow them within the activity and give feedback where possible.
5 minutes: Pace students to the reflection slides, where they self-assess their work for the day, and their understanding of the learning goals. Some days, they come back to the meet to say goodbye, some days not… I find that an hour isn’t quite enough for a second synthesis. I’d like to end the class with something unifying – even a joke or something as a routine – but I wasn’t always able to make this happen.
After class, I’ll go back, make final comments for students, and sometimes make a short video to summarize learning, and address misconceptions. This is then embedded in the beginning of the next activity or posted in the Google Classroom.
The reality of this was rough. I worked too many hours, and we made lots of compromises. There were fewer discoveries and less investigative work for students and more instruction given to them. There was more emphasis on skills and less on agency and collaboration. I want to get better at this next year.
It honestly took 4-8 hours for me to put together a Desmos lesson, which includes a check-in, entrance ticket, some investigative work, scaffolded learning, confidence checks, practice and extension, sometimes videos for direct instruction, and then reflection. This covers a 60-minute class period, and some practice to prepare for the next class. Typically, I’ll copy sections of ready-made activities, and then add in bits and pieces to tie things together in ways that make sense with our curriculum and for our learners. And they’re still far from perfect, even with putting in this time.
Here are some materials:
Although we were mostly synchronous, these lessons were intended to be accessible as self-guided lessons for students who are not in class. We tried to include investigation, instruction, and skills practice in each lesson. Here is a sample of what we used, sourced, curated, and created by myself and my amazing colleagues. Please reach out if you need something specific that isn’t here. Happy to share if we’ve already done the work. I also teach Grade 6 and Grade 12, so I may have some more useful activities if you need ’em.
- G7 Geometry of Area, Surface Area, and Volume. (Angle Geometry is a separate unit in our sequence): https://teacher.desmos.com/collection/5d5f07249bc22029aa1b0921
- G7 Rate and Ratio: https://teacher.desmos.com/collection/5d5f07152052455ff5a6789d
- G11 IB Applications and Interpretation SL Geometry: https://teacher.desmos.com/collection/5d8f5bb87bedda7b534ea2f3
- G11 IB Applications and Interpretation SL Trig: https://teacher.desmos.com/collection/5ea4c252c2ed747cf4cb9d9d
Please do let me know if you use or modify any of this work, or if you have suggestions for how we can make it better. I’m especially interested in how to incorporate more social curriculum into the virtual classroom if we go back there. It takes a village.