Strategies to Move to Deeper Discussions

This article from ASCD, by Jeff Zwiers, provides strategies for moving beyond “popcorn” discussions to more substantial and deep dialogues. The purpose of the article is to support teachers and students with classroom discussions by improving use of discussion skills, tools and mindsets. The article provides information for supporting core discussion skills in students; ideas to develop our teacher skills for providing deeper classroom discussions and provides discussion enhancing tools.

Activities that Increase Student Engagement

The content of this article is based on a webinar presented by Reading Horizons that was followed up with an article by David Clark. The article shares 14 different activities that support the increase of student engagement. The activities are centered around a reading focus, however, many of them can be used in other content areas.

Online Writing Conferences

Online writing conferences are meetings setup with students about their writing via a videotelephony program such as zoom. The meeting is designed for the teacher and student to interact regarding the student’s writing piece.

Submitted by: Monica Baldonado Ruiz, Chandler High School, Chandler Unified School District

Virtual Gallery Walk Stations

Interactive digital whiteboards, such as Microsoft Whiteboard and Google Jamboard, are apps that allow you to mimic some of the best collaborative learning strategies in a virtual environment. The digital whiteboard can be used for strategies such as Gallery Walk Stations.

Submitted by: Tiffany Huisman, Metro Tech High School, Phoenix Union High School District

Virtual Think Pair Share

Interactive digital whiteboards, such as Microsoft Whiteboard and Google Jamboard, are apps that allow you to mimic some of the best collaborative learning strategies in a virtual environment. The digital whiteboard can be used for strategies such as Think-Pair-Share.

Submitted by: Tiffany Huisman, Metro Tech High School, Phoenix Union High School District

Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal Teaching (Palinscar & Brown 1984) is a guided reading comprehension strategy that encourages students to develop the skills that effective readers and learners do automatically (summarize, question, clarify, predict and respond to what they are reading).

Strategies to Improve Participation

This article from Edutopia provides several strategies to increase student participation in your virtual classroom. The article provides a list of synchronous (during your virtual meeting) and asynchronous (at the student’s convenience) strategies with descriptions.

Humanizing your Online Learning

Building effective classroom strategies through distance learning has been one of teachers’ biggest concerns in 2020.In response, researchers at St. Mary’s College of California created this step-by-step guide on “Humanizing Online Teaching” for teachers new to presenting content virtually. We found this to be a great introduction to help you visualize what your online teaching style could look like.

Design Thinking

A creative process that helps students to get inspired, generate ideas and utilize a process to understand content more deeply or be part of solving a problem.