In this time of remote learning, we’re all doing different things based upon our state Department of Education and local district requirements. Some have more freedom, while others are on a stricter path.
In my district, we chose to move a majority of our high school classes to a system called Apex that has content delivered virtually. The courses are already set up and teachers needed to select three modules for students to finish out the year. Some of our courses were not offered through Apex so these courses are being completed through our learning management system, Canvas.
Whichever place you’re in at the moment, there are good activity strategies that can be used within both a face-to-face or remote learning environment. So if you’re not able to implement these strategies right now, you should be able to once we return back to our buildings.
HYPERDOCS
HyperDocs are one of my all time favorite lesson strategies to use! They are a transformative, interactive Google Doc that replaces the more traditional worksheet method of delivering instruction. They are the perfect tool for the blended learning classroom, building upon student’s prior knowledge while digging deeper into a topic and also allowing for collaboration. Students can complete tasks and create their own products and share with their teacher all in one place.
HyperDocs work for one lesson or a complete unit and can be used in any content area. Most HyperDocs are created in a Google Doc, but I’ve seen many also created in Google Slides, Google Sites, and Google MyMaps. Here are a couple of examples: this one for the Byzantine Empire uses Google Slides, this one is for a whole unit on the novel The Lemonade Wars
If you’ve never used one before it’s best to find one that you can adjust to your needs. You can search Google, the HyperDoc website or Teachers Give Teachers. To create one of your own, try one of the templates found on the HyperDoc website or go through one of their new free courses on how creating and delivering HyperDocs.
HYPERFORMS
Another new format of HyperDocs is to use Google Forms. You can still setup similar areas as you would on a Google Doc, just through sections on the form and embed videos or links. Students can share their work products by copying and pasting share links into the form. You can view responses through a Google Sheet and be able to sort responses and see when students submit responses through the timestamp. Here’s an example to check out.
CHOICE BOARDS
Sometimes you’ll see HyperDocs, Choice Boards, and Multimedia text sets lumped together, but they really are different things. HyperDocs are a complete packaged lesson, while choice boards allow for students to complete a variety of tasks at different learning levels that are at their own pace and in any order they want. However, as with HyperDocs, modifications for differentiation can be created for students who need more or less structure.
Choice boards can look like a Monopoly board with a starting point like “Go”, a tic-tac-toe board, a bingo board, or the menu from a restaurant, with appetizer, entree and dessert activities with differences in size and complexity. Most choice boards are created using a Google Doc and include a table with different activities in each box.
Here’s an example that reminds me of the Monopoly board on Organism characteristics. To see the other types of choice boards, Shake Up Learning has a great blog post with several examples.
MULTIMEDIA TEXT SETS
These are sets of different forms of media surrounding a common topic, theme or issue that serve to include, “multiple perspectives to support deeper understandings of the content and essential concepts” (Berg’s 21st Century Tools). Think of it as an introduction to a HyperDoc; not quite a full packaged lesson. They help kids explore and engage with a topic of study, mostly consuming information.
Some of my favorite text sets help explain things to students, like this one that gives a brief explanation of a variety of technology tools and then links to a video tutorial showing students how to use the tool. Here’s another example on avalanches.
DIGITAL BREAKOUTS
This uses the same concept of solving a series of clues to unlock locks as a physical breakout does, however, you don’t need physical locks as these can be set up on a Google Form. Using response validation, you can set up a question as a ?? question type and allow for specific text or number solutions, which won’t allow students to submit the form until they input the correct solutions.
Set up a story and clues on a Google Site or a site like Smore, which students can explore in order to “breakout” and embed the Google Form on, similar to this one.
FLIPPED CLASSROOM
I first heard of this strategy being used by two Colorado Science teachers who wanted to give more class time to helping students gain skills. They realized that by teaming up to create instructional videos of their lectures, students could watch these outside of class. Then in class, they could help students with the concepts they typically struggled with at home on their own as homework; thus flipping the traditional classroom approach.
After learning about this, I wished this had been around when I was in school as it would have been great for me during math class. Trying to do my homework was awful as everything I had learned in class didn’t translate to the math problems staring at me later that night. I picked up a lot of bad habits trying to solve them and then trying to break them the next day in class as the teacher briefly reviewed and we moved on. If I could have watched the lecture and had something to go back to as needed and then had class time with the teacher’s help, I think it would have helped me understand it a lot better.
Setting up a flipped classroom can be done in a couple of ways. You can create your own instructional videos to link to on YouTube, create a YouTube playlist with videos on specific concepts or link to another source like a Khan Academy video and embed in Google Slides or a Google Form. Here’s an example on Google Forms. If you’re not sure how to create a YouTube playlist, see my latest Tech Tuesday video where I show you how!
BLOGGING
Short for web log, blogging allows students to write and show just about anything. It can be used as a journal or an online portfolio as students can add text, pictures, videos, links, and embed many third party tools, like Google Slides. Students can free write on their own or respond to a whole class prompt or warm-up. Or show off work they are proud of and use for formative assessment. Create a Google Form to have students submit the links to their blogs and share a Google Sheet with the responses with the whole class so students and yourself can visit and comment on each other’s blogs. This is also great to share with parents and families or use for college admissions.
Blogger is a great site to get started on and is owned by Google. Other blogging sites include wix.com, weebly.com, and edublogs.org.
Which of these strategies are you most looking forward to implementing? Or have you tried any of these strategies before? Please share in the comments below.
Ms Priester EDU 