Education
In this episode, John shares 20 strategies for increasing synchronous virtual classroom engagement. They are: 1. Seating charts – A great tool for keeping notes about your students, to help build connections. 2. Communicate early – Let students’ parents or guardians know early about issues, but do so in a non-confrontational way. 3. Crystal Clear Directions – Set cue, give time, task, materials, and drop cue. 4. Silence can be Golden – Give students quiet work time. 5. Chat Waterfalls – Give an opportunity for all students to write, and submit their answers simultaneously. 6. Breakout the Steps – Give all of the steps in breakout groups on breakout slides. 7. Assign Specific Roles – When working in breakout groups, assign each student a specific role. 8. Group Active Students Together – Reward active students with active partners in breakout work. 9. Gallery Walks – Allow breakout groups to show off their work through gallery walks. 10. Stations – Have students move to various stations to learn. 11. Escape rooms – Create escape rooms for students to work through, like this one from Peters Township Public Library in McMurray, PA: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflNxNM0jzbZJjUqOcXkwhGTfii4CM_CA3kCxImbY8c3AABEA/viewform 12. Choice Boards – Give students choice in how they engage. 13. Cold Calling – Call on various students to get a sampling of class understanding, not just volunteers. 14. Participation Squares – Divide screen space between participants, to have multiple participants working on screen at once. 15. Teach Routines – Just like in a brick and mortar school, teaching routines will save time in the long run. 16. Welcome Students by Name – This will start the session off right! 17. I Don’t Know Yet – Adding this choice to polling questions allows you to distinguish between students who don’t know the answer, and those who are not engaged. 18. Practice Success – Allow students to change their answer to the correct answer after reteaching. 19. Voice – Your body language becomes less important and your voice more important in an online setting. Use it well. 20. Find You Passion – Get excited about your subject area, and share that passion with your students.