Every teacher knows that one of the busiest weeks of the school year is the week of parent-teacher conferences. These meetings of the minds are vital in establishing open communication between the teacher and a student’s home. In many cases, the fall conferences may be the first time a teacher meets parents and guardians, providing a dedicated time slot for them to get to know each other beyond a quick wave at the classroom door.

Parent-teacher communication, also referred to as home-to-school communication, is instrumental in helping each student be the most engaged, successful, supported, and accountable they can be! Many teachers use a variety of methods to connect with homes—from daily behavior charts, informal notes, and weekly newsletters, to classroom websites, progress reports, and detailed report cards. Today’s technology, with LMS platforms and student information systems, also helps bridge the communication gap by providing seamless messaging options as well as insights into real-time student data (attendance, test scores, etc.). Yet nothing really beats the benefits of face-to-face time to discuss how best to champion a child.

Parent-teacher conferences are usually held once in the fall and once in the spring. These meetings help teachers build positive relationships with parents and guardians. That sense of familiarity and trust is key because kids spend over 1,000 hours a year in school (180 days x 6 hours per day). Teachers are often thought of as one of the most influential factors in a child’s life, especially when it comes to academic achievement.

The students’ beliefs about themselves as learners are shaped by the teacher’s communication of expectations for students, so that when the teacher conveys a belief that the student can succeed at school, the student believes it too and acts accordingly.

(Johnston & Shand, 2021)

Maximize your tech tools: Nearpod

When you begin to look ahead and plan for your parent-teacher conferences, consider which materials and tools might help illustrate your points best. Nearpod provides real-time insights into student understanding through interactive lessons, interactive videos, gamification, and activities. Thus, Nearpod can aid your conversation through the individual Student Reports, which provide insight into patterns and trends around participation and progress in any of Nearpod’s nine formative assessment activities. With an authentic student portfolio or a handful of student work samples, you can begin to provide concrete examples of a student’s strengths and/or weaknesses and provide personalized recommendations for actionable next steps. Here are some other tips to make the most of your time with family members.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

6 Best practices for parent-teacher conference communication

1. Start with small talk

Time is precious, but dedicate about 20% of your time together to getting to know each other better. Prepare some ready-made questions to facilitate this:

• How long have you lived in the area?
• How many kids do you have?
• Where did you grow up and go to school?

Similarly, share a bit about yourself to help establish open communication. You may have started off the school year with a brief student questionnaire or a school climate survey; follow up on an answer to show how invested you are in getting to know the child and their family. Family attitudes and beliefs often influence a child, so use your inquiry skills to learn more about your student’s background and home environment during this conference for effective parent-teacher communication.

Nearpod has a perfect lesson that many teachers use with students at the beginning of the year to help develop a strong student-teacher relationship and foundation.

• Grades K-2 All About Me: In this life skills Draw It template, students can use a graphic organizer to share information about themselves.
• Grades 4-12 Find Something: All About You: In this Collaborate Board activity, students share pictures, videos, or gifs to answer their chosen topic. Then, students “like” and comment on other posts.

When exploring how to communicate with parents as a teacher, consider those questions and prompts for yourself, as a way to share a bit about yourself with families. Many teachers use Nearpod to create a few slides to share at Back-to-School Night that help underscore their personal and professional passions.

2. Let the family ask questions first

You aren’t the only one who feels the pressure of parent-teacher communication at conferences! Many parents “stress” over conferences, not knowing what a teacher might share about their child. Ease their anxiety by asking what their questions are first; this will help foster a positive setting for open communication. Their parent-teacher conference questions may raise a concern or identify an issue that is top of mind  It is good to let them share their thoughts and experiences, allowing you to redirect the conversation as needed. Whether their worries are big or small, their answers will give you insight into how they are approaching the conversation. Conversely, it may prompt you to share your observations from the school year so far. Too often, conferences run out of time, and the last thing you want is to miss giving parents and caregivers a chance to share their thoughts.

3. Have a cheat sheet

Winston Churchill once said, “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.” Gather and compile notes and student artifacts that will help you convey how a child is doing not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. With every “negative,” try to bolster it with a positive. While we teachers don’t want to sugarcoat what a child needs to work on, we do want to make sure to invite parents in to be of help, versus inadvertently putting them on the defensive. Finding this balance is essential for effective parent-teacher communication.

With Nearpod, you can give the families some concrete next steps on how best to support their child at home. Maybe a child could benefit from revisiting a lesson on decoding or spending some time practicing how to collaborate and cooperate.

Nearpod makes it easy to share a Student-Paced Lesson with a simple code. Consider trying out one of these activities: 

• Grades 3-5 Decoding Words: Consonant Blends: In this English Language Arts (ELA) Drag & Drop activity, students will sort pictures by their consonant digraph.
• Grades K-2 Let’s Work Together: In this social emotional learning (SEL) lesson, students practice relationship skills by examining teamwork responsibilities. Students will receive explicit instruction on SEL skills and authentic group practice opportunities.

*This activity is only available to educators with access to Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program, which has over 400 lessons, videos, and activities to integrate SEL practices into daily learning.

4. Focus on goals

Remember, goals can be short-term and long-term. By asking the parents and caregivers about their goals and by sharing yours, you’ll gather insight into the family’s priorities for their child. You can make sure you are all on the same page while discussing ways to support reaching these milestones—often, a parent is at a loss about where to turn when it comes to resources and experts, so you can share how to take a whole community approach to encouraging children to be their personal best.

During parent-teacher conferences, you want to model a growth mindset and proactively talk about realistic as well as stretch goals. One effective way to do this is by using student reports to gather and present data on how students are progressing toward these goals. Share these reports to illustrate strengths and areas for growth, encouraging parents to provide their insights from home. This collaborative approach ensures comprehensive understanding and alignment in supporting the student’s development, making data-driven decisions, and setting actionable goals that cater to both academic and personal growth.

In the Nearpod library of 22,000+ standards-aligned lessons, videos, and activities, you can find lessons that support lifelong skills such as setting goals, building persistence, and developing healthy habits. Showcase the types of content and active learning strategies that you use in the classroom by sharing some instructional resources that students and families can explore together at home.

5. Highlight the student’s voice

It’s all well and good to talk as adults about how we want our kids to flourish, but make sure to involve your students as stakeholders in their own success. Encourage students to start taking accountability for their own learning and achievements. By doing so, they become more engaged and invested in their educational journey. Before your conference, find a way for your students to express their hopes and goals for the upcoming school year. Ask kids to write themselves a letter or draw a motivational poster. They could bring in artifacts to represent their goals, which you can photograph for an end-of-year time capsule. However, you capture their thoughts and share them during or at the end of the conference to spark meaningful conversations at home as well.

Consider the ways students can create their own Nearpod presentations as authentic portfolios showcasing the work they are proud of. Nearpod’s suite of flexible features allows students to capture their ideas in various ways: drawings and images with Draw It, brainstorming with Collaborate Boards, and text or audio with Open-Ended Questions. With Nearpod’s new live teacher-to-student feedback feature, teachers can provide in-the-moment support to boost student engagement and achievement.

Nearpod also has ready-to-teach lessons and activities such as grades K-5 *I Can Grow and 6-12 *Grow and Glow. Invite your students to join the parent-teacher communication experience and engage in the conversation about how they can continue to challenge themselves and reflect on their successes throughout the year.

*This activity is only available to educators with access to Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program.

6. Open your classroom door in other ways

While parent-teacher conferences are instrumental, they are just two moments in time during the school year when it comes to home-to-school communication. As a school, consider the ways that you can invite family members to be part of the overall school community, which can further support parent communication for teachers. In doing so, you will have a stronger school climate, and parents will feel more involved in their child’s day-to-day schooling.

You may want to establish a classroom volunteer program, where family members can act as classroom aides. You may want to host other events such as Back-to-School Night or an open house so that families can learn more about the grade’s curriculum or applaud student work. Invite families to come to all-school assemblies or participate in holiday celebrations or fun field days. Even a quick visit to campus can help parents feel that they are a part of the school’s fabric.

You and your school administrators can leverage Nearpod by creating presentations and surveys to showcase school events (you can even convert existing presentations into a Nearpod interactive format). You can share these presentations with students’ homes as weekly newsletters via the Student-Paced Mode; parents can refer back to past newsletters for important details. Even for adults, the multimedia format promises more engagement, whether when sharing a video or sharing a data-rich graph. You can ask for feedback or gather information via a Poll, Collaborate Board, Open-Ended Questions, or even a Draw It response. Nearpod makes it easier and more efficient to reach families on an ongoing basis.

Start using these ideas for your upcoming parent-teacher conferences

Although parent-teacher conferences are two key moments during the school year, it’s important to think about ways to stay in constant communication week over week with families. With today’s 24/7 access, the channels of communication can get overwhelming for all parties. So, try to get a sense of your families’ preferred mode of communication and familiarize them with how you share on a regular basis. Remember that not everyone is tethered to a digital device or has strong wi-fi access all the time. A simple handwritten sticky note with a headline of personalized praise can go a long way when it comes to bolstering parent–teacher relationships and students’ self-confidence!

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 6 Best practices for parent-teacher conference communication appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

In the Structured Literacy model, both content and instruction are systematic and intentional, and there is a clear focus on phonemic awareness as the foundation for written language comprehension. While Structured Literacy is an approach to reading originally designed for students with dyslexia, the growing body of research in the Science of Reading suggests that it is highly effective for the general student body.

Structured Literacy vs. Balanced Literacy

Balanced Literacy promises to foster a love of reading through read-alouds, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, and word study. While word study includes phonics instruction, it is often approached without explicit or systematic instruction. In contrast, Structured Literacy is explicit, systematic, and sequential. It focuses on phonological awareness, phonics, decoding, and spelling, providing a clear, step-by-step method to build foundational reading skills.

As a young teacher of English Learners in Brooklyn in 2007, I faced a daunting task: My 10th grade students, reading at a 2nd–4th grade level, were expected to tackle 8th grade texts. I was incredibly frustrated but was advised to use shared reading, leveled texts, and compensatory strategies, essentially implementing Balanced Literacy.

In desperation, I pleaded with our department head, “But how do we teach them how to reeeeaaaaad the book?” Unknowingly, I emphasized the need for phonemic awareness and Structured Literacy methods.

This experience underscored a critical gap in our teaching approach. While Balanced Literacy has its merits, it became clear that for our students to truly succeed, they needed explicit instruction in the sounds of language and their letter correspondences. Structured Literacy ensures that every student has the foundational skills necessary to become proficient readers.

Is structured literacy part of the Science of Reading?

The Structured Literacy approach fits perfectly with the growing body of evidence supporting the Science of Reading, as it provides a clear, methodical framework for teaching essential reading components. The Science of Reading is a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to reading instruction emphasizing the importance of explicit, systematic teaching of phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. Structured Literacy instruction strives for all students, especially those with learning differences, to become proficient readers. There is no debate for Structured Literacy vs. Science of Reading given the overwhelming evidence supporting the effectiveness of both in improving literacy outcomes for diverse learners.

Implement Structured Literacy in schools with Nearpod’s support

When implementing a theoretical approach to learning, teachers must receive the resources to make that approach a reality. Without the tools to support Structured Literacy instruction in the classroom, implementing the Science of Reading remains a fantasy. Nearpod can be one of the tools that teachers use when it’s time to put plans into action. With Nearpod’s instructional features and supporting content, teachers can confidently provide research-based instruction and move towards a more Structured Literacy approach.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

5 Ways to implement Structured Literacy instructional methods

1. Choose a scope and sequence backed by the research in the Science of Reading

A scope and sequence outlines the specific skills and knowledge that students need to learn, as well as the order in which they should be taught. Choose a scope and sequence that is systematic and sequential. This ensures instruction follows a logical progression, from basic to complex concepts. 

Look for scope and sequence-explicit instruction where skills are clearly modeled and explained. Ensure the learning is cumulative, building on previous knowledge with continuous reinforcement. The program should be diagnostic and adaptive, allowing for ongoing assessment and adjustments based on student progress. 

A scope and sequence should comprehensively cover all essential reading components, including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. By following a structured roadmap, educators can provide targeted instruction that builds on prior knowledge, ensuring there are no gaps in learning. 

If your district isn’t providing a scope and sequence, advocate! Then search for the Nearpod lessons and activities that correspond with the content. Any Nearpod resource can be customized to fit the specific needs of the classroom and allow for plenty of creativity. You can get started with our English Language Arts (ELA) Lesson Guide.

2. Provide explicit instruction in phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. Instruction can include rhyming games where children match words that sound alike. Sound scavenger hunts are a fantastic strategy for engagement—kids find objects that start with a specific sound. Clap and tap activities help them break down words into individual sounds. Read-alouds should be rich in alliteration and rhyme. Singing songs and playing with tongue twisters create a fun and joyful classroom dynamic. These activities foster a love for language along with phonemic skills to use for Structured Literacy examples. 

On Nearpod, you can create your own interactive lessons using your existing material and classroom ideas (like the ones listed above!). Also, Nearpod offers a variety of interactive lessons and activities for learning and practice. Teachers can use these pre-made activities to engage students and reinforce skills in identifying rhyming words, counting syllables, and practicing recitation of a variety of texts.

3. Focus on decoding and sound-symbol recognition

Decoding involves translating written words into their spoken equivalents by recognizing the relationship between letters and sounds. It might sound dry, but it can be so much fun in the classroom! Start with letter-sound matching games in puzzles or flashcards. Flashcards with pictures and words help reinforce recognition. Interactive storybooks where children can click on words to hear them read aloud makes learning dynamic. Phonics songs and chants turn decoding practice into a musical adventure, stimulating multiple areas of the brain. These activities not only enhance decoding skills but also make reading a positive experience.  

Nearpod activities such as Matching Pairs, Drag and Drop, and Draw It provide opportunities for students to match letters to sounds, blend sounds to form words, and segment words into individual sounds. Enable Immersive Reader to make all texts interactive. Nearpod resources help kids crack the code of letters and sounds, making it easier for them to read new words like pros! The activities, videos, and full lessons all support the decoding instruction and practice required in the Structured Literacy methodology.

4. Give students time to play with root words, prefixes, and suffixes

Incorporate word sorts, scavenger hunts, and color coding into your classroom to make learning about root words, prefixes, and suffixes hands-on and meaningful. Start with word sorts, where students categorize words based on their components. Then, organize a scavenger hunt, encouraging students to find words with prefixes and suffixes in their books or around the classroom. Use color coding to highlight prefixes, root words, and suffixes in different colors within a text. These activities not only make learning fun but also help students visually and contextually understand word structures.

A hands-on approach helps deepen students’ morphological awareness, meaning students build their understanding of the structure of words and how their parts contribute to their meanings. Nearpod has plenty of ready-to-go activities for independent practice. Teachers can create or use pre-made Nearpod activities that encourage students to build new words and understand how word parts change meanings.

5. Support language comprehension

Going beyond word recognition in the classroom is essential when understanding, as an educator what is Structured Literacy. Instruction in language comprehension helps students understand context, infer meaning, and engage deeply with texts.

Vocabulary and background knowledge are key components of comprehension. Enhance vocabulary with word maps, where students define words, use them in sentences, and draw representations. Category sorting helps students understand word relationships by grouping similar words. Analogies and comparisons connect new vocabulary to known concepts, deepening understanding. These activities foster a richer vocabulary and stronger comprehension skills. Build background knowledge with multimedia resources to provide context for new words.

Nearpod offers multimedia features to create a context for learning language and content. Virtual Reality (VR) field trips, 3D Models, and PhET simulations build schema. Students can engage in interactive word work with Matching Pairs, Drag and Drop, and Draw It activities.

Start implementing Structured Literacy in your classroom

Structured Literacy, grounded in the principles of the Science of Reading, provides a systematic and effective approach to teaching reading that benefits all students. By incorporating the principles of Structured Literacy, educators can ensure that their instruction is explicit, systematic, and evidence-based. With Nearpod’s interactive tools and resources, teachers can bring these principles to life in the classroom, making reading instruction engaging and effective. With Nearpod’s support, Structured Literacy will help every student become a confident and proficient reader.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Erika Tepler

Erika is an education consultant and a language acquisition expert. Having spent years abroad and around the US working with learners from all over the world, she is passionate about intercultural communication, multilingualism and instructional excellence.

The post 5 Ways to implement Structured Literacy instructional methods appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Yet, this summer, there is a cloud over welcoming educators — administrators first have to face the fact that the hiring cycle is in disarray since our nation has hit a pinnacle in the teacher shortage crisis. However, there are some definitive steps that administrators can take in strategizing a short-term and long-term plan when it comes to hiring, onboarding, and retaining new staff.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Join us for Camp Engage: Back to School on July 25-27th!

Save your spot now for Camp Engage, a FREE virtual PD event designed to help you make the most of the upcoming school year and find creative ways to engage your students.

This unique opportunity allows educators to earn professional education credits while exploring cutting-edge teaching techniques and tools. Explore over 30 virtual and on-demand sessions led by renowned experts to gain insights to elevate your teaching practices.

What is the current teacher shortage crisis?

For years now, experts have warned of an impending teacher shortage due to a host of issues. Now, these issues have culminated into a new-hire crisis that is much out of administrators’ control:

• Since 2010, total enrollment in teacher preparation programs has declined by ⅓, coupled with a large decline in program completion. This strain on incoming, well-qualified teacher candidates is putting a strain on the hiring process.
• Teachers’ salaries are low, especially within the current competitive job market, and actually are $2,179 less, on average, than ten years ago when current inflation is taken into account.
• Working conditions have become more challenging, especially over the past two years of teaching during the pandemic. Recent Adopt-a-Classroom survey respondents reported:

• 81% – The overall workload has increased.
• 80% – Spending more time addressing students’ mental health.
• 71% – Spending more of their own money on classroom materials.
• 69% – Getting students back on track from learning loss.
• 58% – Increase in classroom interruptions during instruction.
• 55% – Less planning time due to staff shortages and other factors.

• Public perception of teaching has shifted with PDK International found in 2018 that a majority of surveyed parents do not want their children to become teachers.
• Educators’ career pathways are often viewed as limited, with few perceived growth opportunities. Consider that the 2021 average cost for a Master’s degree in education was $55,200. A 2021 study of LinkedIn member profile updates showed a 66% increase in school-job departures over the previous year.

The Great Resignation

In addition to the constrained influx of new teachers is the increasing rate of teachers who are taking leaves, quitting, or resigning early. Many are predicting that we will soon be faced with “The Great Resignation” within the field of education. NPR recently reported that 55% of teachers surveyed by the NEA shared that they are looking to exit the profession “sooner than they had originally planned:”

• 90% of its members say that feeling burned out is a serious problem.
• 86% say they have seen more educators leaving the profession or retiring early since the start of the pandemic.
• 80% report that unfilled job openings have led to more work obligations for those left.

Shortage of substitute teachers

There is also a shortage of qualified substitute teachers adding to this burden of setting up school staff and their students for success. According to the Brookings Institute, teachers miss an average of 11 days of instruction during an 186-day school year. Some studies actually point to a standard deviation decrease in math and English Language Arts test scores due to such teacher absences. NPR shared how some states, like New Mexico, have resorted to leaning on parents or other civil servants like firefighters or the National Guard. 

While this overall teacher shortage issue is not “new” – back in 2015, The Washington Post shared a similar list of issues, including the undue pressure from high-stakes testing – it has definitely reached a critical pinnacle. All in all, it is resulting in an arduous hiring, onboarding, and retention cycle for school and district administrators, especially when you consider the hyperlocal constraints that school communities juggle.

How can school administrators support teachers and staff?

So with such odds stacked against the field of education, how can school administrators best support the newcomers they do recruit? A newcomer might be a green-thumbed educator or maybe be more experienced, but nevertheless, they are becoming part of a new school community, one with its own unique company culture.

Now with school districts across the country scrambling to fill vacancies left from teacher turnover, it’s essential that we understand the many challenges pulling teachers out of the classroom. I would argue that the main one is the loss of joy in teaching. How can we rediscover that joy?

Domonique Dickson from Education Week

As an administrator, continue to strive to reduce the barriers to entry when it comes to onboarding new staff. Consider how you can enhance the value proposition for teaching at your school or district. And do make sure to capitalize on efficiencies to optimize instructional time for all.

Work with broader team members to outline short-term and longer-term plans to triage the immediate needs and strategize toward future goals. And look for ways to start this new school year off on the right foot for all.

How to redesign a new teacher orientation

As a learning expert, you need to employ your own teaching lens when redesigning the teacher onboarding experience for your staff. Ask yourself:

• How can I make this orientation a shared, meaningful experience for new and veteran teachers?
• How can I provide strategies to empower individuals to find the individualized answers they need when they need them?
• How can I lessen the learning curve by providing curated resources in an efficient, organized manner?

Consider how you can employ Nearpod to help orient your new hires to your district and school community. These resources can be shared in a new orientation meeting but also can be referenced over and over again by the individual teachers as needed – they can become a source of truth as well as a one-stop shop for your staff. Explore below 10 tips for new educator orientations:

1. Digital resources and presentations

Use Nearpod to create digital resources and presentations. Explore the Nearpod Library for inspiration, and then create presentations to share ideas during staff meetings. These presentations then serve as a running record of highlighted and captured information and can be shared with absent staff members as well.

2. Create a climate survey

Take a team approach to welcome (and retain) newcomers. Do so by first creating a climate survey using Nearpod’s Quiz or Poll features to get a sense of areas needing improvement at the beginning of the year. Then anoint a team made up of staff and community members to tackle the issues in a variety of ways. Jenee Henry Wood suggested a three-step approach of Triage → Tinker → Transform (EdSurge) to address ways to problem-solve school staffing needs. Remember to follow up with an end-of-year post-survey as well to gauge progress.

3. Personalize onboarding presentations

Consider personalizing onboarding presentations that can be shared by you in person but then accessed virtually as needed throughout the year. You can include interactive assessment tools to serve as team-building activities for teachers. Here are some tips you can use for orientation activities and onboarding presentations:

• Use a video to add a message from you, the administrator, describing your school’s philosophy. Videos can help personalize your welcome. You may want to take viewers on a virtual tour of your campus. 
• Share a “Facebook” of images of your staff to help identify who is whom, their titles, and their key responsibilities through social media.
• Create a timeline to showcase some of your district’s or school’s achievements throughout recent years.
• Insert interactive slides that outline set procedures, such as taking attendance or responding to a fire drill.

• Add in audio files for bits like school spirit songs. 
• Use Nearpod’s Interactive Slides and Interactive Video to engage teachers a bit more in active learning and draw them into learning about these new processes and their new community. Add more interactive experiences to your presentation by including Draw It and Matching Pairs activities.

4. Pair teachers up

Pair teachers up with one another! Whether as a mentor or simply a buddy, identify those teachers in your school who would be willing to welcome another and answer those “smaller” questions: Where are supplies kept? Who monitors the lunchroom? Where do classes go during fire drills? By smaller, they are no means less important, but these details rarely show up in new hire packets or binders. Teachers hit the ground running, so find ways to provide teacher pairs time to meet and support each other so that newbies don’t feel isolated. Plus, they can help familiarize them with tools like Nearpod or point them to the handy Teacher Resources as needed.

5. Organize all school and district resources in one place

Designate a School or District Library on Nearpod to organize and share presentations and resources digitally. Include links to shared folders so that your teachers have an easy-to-reference “cheat sheet” of need-to-know information as they become more familiar with where and how everything is kept and stored. You may want to link to approved tools and platforms, too so that teachers can capitalize on the best practices your staff has already identified and adopted.

6. Leverage fun team-building activities

Consider how to leverage student activities like the Collaborate Board and Time to Climb as staff meeting icebreakers and amend them to help build collegiality and facilitate communication between staff members. Although educators traditionally use these fun tools with students, they are also perfect team-building activities for teachers.

7. Share resources for sub-planning

Highlight where educators can find meaningful sub-plans regardless of who is pitch-hitting for the day. Share via an email address lessons from the bank of Sub Plans as well as standard-aligned lessons that can work well in-person or virtually for student-paced, independent learning. With Student-Paced codes, students don’t need logins or passwords – which can be arduous for a sub to track down – plus all of their work automatically will be saved to the classroom account. 

8. Provide a grab-and-go professional development folder

Provide a grab-and-go professional development folder to house the vetted and curated experiences that you have created or sourced, like webinars, articles, and asynchronous courses. This is a very useful resource to use during your teacher orientation process! Add in a variety of assessment activities to provide your staff with quick knowledge checks for their own understanding. Share ways and resources to help educators cultivate their craft and grow professionally so that they feel empowered to set and pursue a desired professional path/pathway.

9. Use reports for student progress

Socialize school or district-level reports for teachers to better understand their students’ progress throughout the year. Such interim assessments and reflection will help inform short and longer-term planning.

10. Introduce staff using Flip

Introduce your staff to a private Flip board just for your staff where you can post updates in a more authentic and personalized manner week over week. Flip allows for video-based responses too, which can help ensure an ongoing, real-time feedback loop with your staff, whether 1:1, with everyone, or in small group. Build school spirit in a timely manner with this more personalized approach. You can easily embed the Flip into a Nearpod lesson to house all resources in one place, along with interactive activities.

11. BONUS TIP: Join our educator community

Share good teaching! Find ways to celebrate examples of strong teaching and learning and recognize those teachers who, like their students, strive to go “above and beyond.” Join Nearpod’s Facebook Community of educators to check out what your teachers are doing well as for inspiration.

Learn how to bring Nearpod to your school

We hope these ideas for planning a new teacher orientation sparked some inspiration! With the ever-shifting education landscape, you, as an administrator, need to be responsive in how you redesign onboarding and build collaborative teaching teams. From welcoming new hires to retaining educators year after year, you will want to begin outlining short-term and longer-term strategies for solving this teaching shortage. Try positioning this current crisis as a teachable moment for your whole staff, and lean on your staff — the experts — that you have hired as part of your school community to help take steps toward school or district-wide solutions.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 10 Ideas for redesigning a new teacher orientation appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Student engagement refers to when students actively participate, contribute, question, personalize, and take ownership of their learning. There are usually some telltale hints, such as hands waving in the air, students jumping in their seats, and eyes literally sparkling. Student engagement strategies make a teacher’s job easier and fulfill their goal of developing students into lifelong learners.

Classrooms have changed and will continue to change as times evolve. Methodologies and pedagogies should shift as new philosophies, research, and technology come into play. Gone are the days of a “sage on a stage” preaching to rows of children.

Nearpod’s instructional platform supports both teachers and students in individualizing the learning process so growth and progress are optimized over time. Explore strategies to increase student engagement in your classroom with Nearpod’s support.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

6 Strategies to elevate student engagement in the classroom

1. Leverage real-time insights

Formative assessment is the process through which teachers gather real-time feedback and evidence of learning to guide the next steps of their instruction. For instance, let’s say a teacher delivers a math lesson on finding the lowest common denominator. During a quick check for understanding, only half the class can accurately answer a question and correctly find the lowest common denominator. The teacher uses that evidence and most likely reteaches the concept before moving on. Such real-time insights are key to a teacher addressing not only the learning objectives and standards but also ensuring every student’s learning needs are being met, which will support classroom student engagement.

Nearpod was designed to give teachers these powerful real-time insights! Teachers have access to in-the-moment student responses. They can use this evidence of learning to share them with the whole class, address misconceptions in the moment, and modify instruction to support learning through these student engagement strategies. The intuitive Nearpod dashboard provides quantifiable data in a visual format, making it easier for a teacher to determine the next steps with a quick glance and a bit of instructional ingenuity. And it’s not just in-the-moment data: after completing a Nearpod session, teachers can review the post-session reports to inform their data-driven instruction further.

2. Active learning

Active learning quite simply means that the child is physically and mentally engaged in the learning at hand. Teachers use all sorts of traditional and innovative engagement strategies to promote such participation. From hands on heads to think-pair-share, teachers aim to invite each student to make personal or real-world connections to their learning. Teachers want each and every student to know they have a role and a responsibility as they enter the classroom.

When schools reopened for in-person learning after the COVID shutdowns, we saw endearing social media posts of teachers welcoming kids back into the classroom actively, where the kids chose the greeting—such a simple activity can help involve kids in their learning process.

Technology can also foster active learning. When using Nearpod for active engagement strategies, students are more actively involved in their own learning, with features and interactive activities that support many of the principles James Paul Gee highlighted in his 16 Principles of Good Video Game-Based Learning. Students are challenged cognitively and socially; many of Nearpod’s activities act as springboards for meaningful in-person conversations. Nearpod encourages students to have a sense of agency and be the drivers of their own learning.

3. Focus on student motivation

In a world of constant beeps, chirps, and buzzes, it can be hard for students to avoid distractions, stay focused, and be motivated to succeed and learn. Sure, we can use extrinsic motivators to give students a carrot or a brass ring to reach for. But ideally, our tactics lead them to find the internal motivation to accomplish a task at hand and take the next steps without much prodding.

Nearpod’s educational game, Time to Climb, provides friendly competition to incentivize engagement. As they make progress (moving or “climbing” up the mountain), their own intrinsic motivation grows, and their confidence and enjoyment build as they learn. Teachers can create their own version of this gamified multiple-choice quiz on any topic or use one of the hundreds of pre-made Time to Climbs available in Nearpod. These student-centered games motivate students and foster classroom engagement.

4. Student voice

Often, you may hear educators talk about “student voice and choice.” Student voice is when kids are empowered to share their stories, their opinions, and their perspectives. Not only does such dialog promote community, but it helps hone children’s developing sense of self, independence, and individuality. To do so, teachers seek to challenge students’ high-order thinking skills, like evaluating, problem-solving, and creating. Creativity is just one of the “4Cs” for 21st-century education: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity (Battelle for Kids). Regardless of age, all children need to hold on to their sense of wonder, feed their bubbling curiosity, and bolster their questioning attitude. In doing so, they refine their voices to continue contributing and engaging in the classroom.

Using Nearpod strategies for student engagement encourages all kids to employ high-order thinking skills, especially through interactive activities like Draw It and Collaborate Board. With Draw It, students use a drawing assessment tool to explore new concepts through visually rich approach and hands-on student engagement activities. And as a picture says a thousand words, they also can express themselves creatively in yet another manner. The Collaborate Board invites all students to the virtual table to exchange ideas. Students write their thoughts and ideas into a virtual bulletin board using text or rich media for everyone to see. This activity promotes the best of peer-to-peer learning as well.

5. Student choice

Now, onto the second part of that phrase: student choice. As part of their burgeoning independence, students are more actively engaged in their learning environment when they have a choice in what they are learning, how they are learning, and when they are learning. Such successful child-led learning opportunities help students develop in a safe environment. Student engagement will be at an all-time high as they explore, interact, inquire, and progress toward mastery. Maria Montessori wrote about the importance of this sense of agency and ownership in the 1800s.

The greatest sign of success for a teacher … is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist

Maria Montessori

Nearpod’s thousands of pre-lessons allow teachers to tap into students’ various interests, as they can share various resources with different kids. A student can take a deeper dive into a topic by embarking on a Virtual Reality (VR) Field Trip or engaging in an Interactive Video. With their eyes on the real-time data, teachers can support students to work independently in the moment and progress at their own pace. This academic and emotional engagement will encourage them to be proud of their independent growth resulting in student success.

6. Differentiation

As part of a teacher’s quest to personalize and individualize instruction for students, they often showcase their artistry by modifying a lesson to meet the various needs within their classroom. Teachers can differentiate instruction through lessons by modifying the steps, amassing a variety of supporting resources, and appealing to various learning styles. Such differentiation will help increase student engagement by hooking their interest and appealing to their strengths in various ways.

With Nearpod, teachers can distribute a variety of resources to various children throughout a lesson. They can encourage students to personalize their Student Notes to help reframe a concept or further illustrate it. Teachers can also take an existing lesson, duplicate it, and modify it in several different ways, thus ending up with a variety of student engagement activities or lessons that take different paths to achieving similar learning objectives. Use Student-Paced mode to have students do independent or small group work.

Boost student engagement with Nearpod

Capturing students’ attention is paramount across all types of engagement strategies. Educators forever grapple with how to increase student engagement—it can be a daily pursuit if not a challenge. Those beloved teachers are often revered because they took the time to invest in students individually. They showed respect to their students by figuring out how to address their learning needs best and make them engaged in their own learning. A teacher’s craft truly is part science and part artistry!

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 6 Strategies to elevate student engagement in the classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Active learning is the process of having students regularly assess their own understanding and skill. This means students are attaining knowledge by participating and contributing. Learning involves the active construction of meaning by the learner. Learners construct meaning from their foundational prior knowledge and the new information they acquire. (Dewey)

Many teaching methods promote active learning in the classroom. These include: 

• collaborative learning
• cooperative learning
• problem-based learning
• discovery-based learning
• inquiry-based learning
• case-based learning
• project-based learning
• exploratory learning 
• experiential learning

You might see everyday classroom examples of this in teachers’ action verbs in their learning objectives or in a kinesthetic activity that has students in a science class figure out what molecules look like in a liquid or gas. Active learning strategies are tied to constructivist and constructionist learning theories in all these cases. The ultimate goal is for students to play a participatory role in—and take ownership of—their own learning.

What does active learning look like?

Active learning in the classroom transforms students’ educational experiences and improves academic outcomes.

In the classroom, active learning techniques require a student’s direct engagement, whether physically or mentally, but ideally both. Consider an analogous scenario: television. Watching TV is often a passive activity, with viewers literally sitting and consuming content silently. Yet some educational television shows like Dora the Explorer are designed to get kids to be active viewers. They move and jump, answer questions, talk, and sing with the characters on the screen. This is what makes these shows effective: viewers are doing more than just watching–they’re active.

How can we encourage students to be enthusiastic and actively engaged learners in our classrooms? This is the ever-present challenge for educators! With tech tools like Nearpod, teachers can add interactivity to their instruction, spark collaboration, and engage students mentally and physically.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

5 Impactful active learning strategies for the classroom

1. Use various activity types throughout a lesson

Students learn by doing and engaging their minds and bodies in active learning in the classroom. Varying the activity types used throughout a lesson can prompt students to take on the onus of thinking, working, and doing. It promotes intrinsic motivation so students take agency over their learning journeys.

As teachers, we aim for students to take participatory roles, which commonly involve movement, whether that’s picking up a pencil, raising a hand, or constructing a model. With Nearpod, teachers can offer a mix of question-and-answer formats from Matching Pairs, Drag and Drop, Time to Climb, and Draw It, just to name a few.

One of John Dewey’s goals in education was to create involved democratic citizens. Various assessments and interactive activities often promote peer-to-peer learning, which bolsters communication and collaboration skills. Plus, students grow by teaching others—opportunities for students to explain their thinking become a powerful check for understanding. Getting kids out of their seats to engage in paired or small group discussions, putting their heads together for problem-solving, or moving about with role-playing are examples of active learning in the classroom.

2. Activate students’ prior knowledge

A common practice in instructional design is to start each lesson with an activity meant to activate prior knowledge. Such activities include bellwork, sponge activities, and anticipatory sets. Regardless of the activity name, the goal is to better understand what the child already knows about the topic at hand and to have the student connect what they are about to learn to what they’ve learned previously. Prior knowledge can be information developed and retained through earlier classroom course material or based on personal experience outside of the classroom. Prior knowledge can differ vastly, so it is important for teachers to have a pulse on their students’ range of understanding before diving into a new lesson.

One way to spark prior knowledge is to appeal to varied learning styles with the use of multimedia. When it comes to a new topic, how can you remind students to think of what they have seen, heard, or touched before? Nearpod makes it possible for teachers to not only weave multimedia throughout their lessons but to do so in a way that invites interactivity. Try using a media-rich Poll or a Collaborate Board at the start of a lesson. When exploring how to engage students in active learning, consider using such tools and techniques into a student’s prior knowledge, making connections between what they’ve learned and know already to what they are learning now.

3. Metacognitive reflections

Personal connections to learning don’t have to occur only at the start of lessons. At the end of any lesson, we want students to reflect on what they’ve learned. Learners construct meaning from their foundational prior knowledge and then scaffold the new information they acquire, connecting the old to the new. Many teachers use exit tickets as a quick metacognitive reflection opportunity. A simple yet effective construct for such metacognitive reflections is K-W-L: What did they already KNOW, what did they WANT to know more about, and what did they LEARN?

Add a K-W-L Chart to a Draw It activity or include a Poll for implementing active learning in the classroom around a new topic. Metacognitive reflections encourage students to identify and challenge their assumptions and perspectives and create a more dynamic (and often collaborative) learning experience. Students become agents in their learning process, summarizing their main takeaways, identifying their struggles, and questioning what they want to learn more about next.

4. Make traditionally passive learning moments active

As educators, we’re always challenging students to move from lower-order thinking skills to those denoted as higher-order thinking skills in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. Frameworks like the Padagogy Wheel suggest active verbs to strengthen learning objectives and align varied activities to reach such outcomes. With the influx of technologies and shift in philosophies, teachers’ roles have moved from the “sage on the stage” lecturing (passive learning) to more of a “guide on the side” that encourages students to engage in learning.

Nearpod’s ready-made lessons align with Mayer’s theory that effective active learning methods engage learners in at least one of three cognitive processes: selecting material to attend to, organizing material mentally into meaningful representations, and integrating those representations with prior knowledge. For instance, Nearpod lessons provide a “critical frame” to guide students as they read text or watch media. The media is followed up immediately with a prompt for them to reflect on and respond to. With ready-made Interactive Videos, interactive questions at key moments allow viewers to pause, think critically, and share their ideas.

“Ownership in the classroom matters. It’s not only how the brain learns best—by trying out new skills and wrestling with new knowledge and experiences ourselves, rather than just receiving information—but it’s also how students build the confidence to take on new challenges. When students are asked to try in school, when they are asked to push their thinking even when they’re stuck, to explain why they’ve arrived at an answer, to help a classmate, they also have the chance to stretch their sense of their own capabilities and see themselves grow.”

The New Teachers Project, The Opportunity Myth

 5. Spark connections through discussion

Classroom discussions also help students realize that their learning doesn’t occur in isolation. Such aha moments often happen through meaningful social interactions with teachers and peers alike. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory emphasizes the role of society and culture in learning outcomes and how it occurs first through interaction with others.

Nearpod activities spark peer-to-peer conversations, think-pair-share opportunties, and small-group deliberation to leverage the social dynamics of learning. Collaborate Boards and Polls can promote class discussions, highlight anonymous answers/responses from peers for analysis, and encourage collaboration that can continue “offline.” With Nearpod, meaningful discussion underscores diverse perspectives, encourages opinion-taking, and encourages active listening and probing questioning. Today’s 21st-century skills center on the 4Cs: communication, collaboration, creation, and critical thinking (P21 (now part of Battelle for Kids)).

Create effective instructional experiences with Nearpod

No teacher wants passive, disengaged students in their classrooms. We aspire to tease out the curious learner and to show them how personally satisfying a learning experience can be. We’re the tapestry weavers making those cross-curricular connections and showing how what’s attained during instruction has real-world significance and application. In doing so, the key benefit of active learning in the classroom is that students become agents of their own learning pursuits.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 5 Impactful active learning strategies for the classroom appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Effective instructional strategies go beyond those daily teacher-centric tips and tricks. They are those tried-and-true methodologies that help you, as an educator, reach your teaching and learning goals throughout the school year. When it comes to instructional design, teachers infuse their lesson plans with effective instructional strategies. Many such learning strategies are steeped in research from educational psychologists, philosophers, and researchers such as Piaget, Freire, Dewey, and Papert (just to name a few!).

What are the characteristics of effective and efficient instructional tools?

Meaningful learning experiences motivate students to dive deeper, explore further, and make personal connections. When it comes to personalized or individualized learning, technologies such as Nearpod support teachers in tailoring and targeting learning activities for each and every student. Such experiences put the students in the driver’s seat and give them a sense of agency to become lifelong learners.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

7 Essential strategies for designing effective instruction

1. Student engagement

Student engagement is one of those ubiquitous phrases that educators use to speak about their goals for teaching and learning. What is student engagement? It’s that rapt attention that teachers strive for—students leaning forward in their seats, participating with thoughtful questions and meaningful dialogue, eyes bright with those epitomized lightbulb moments, jumping over one another with their curiosity piqued.

Children are naturally curious; just think of a toddler’s persistent question, “Why?” Educators try to nurture this sense of curiosity into a pursuit of lifelong learning by designing effective exploratory or experiential instruction. Often teachers strive to provide hands-on activities to literally let kids get their hands dirty in the process of learning. Such kinesthetic and tactile tasks improve muscle memory, increase energy, and nurture cognitive and emotional development.

Another way to support student engagement is ensuring lessons have clear and authentic real-world connections. By showcasing how skills apply to everyday life or with career goals in mind, students are more likely to embrace instances of practice. Constructivist Bruner lauded the process of student-centered discovery, and Papert celebrated constructionism to provide children with meaningful challenges they’d be excited to tackle.

Nearpod offers a treasure chest of interactive activities specifically designed to champion to engage students. From engaging educational games like Time to Climb to Interactive Videos and immersive Draw It activities, Nearpod transforms learning into an exciting journey, challenging and motivating students along the way. Nearpod effectively brings abstract concepts to life, fostering students’ active participation and turning the traditional classroom into a dynamic, student-centered discovery hub.

2. Active learning

Active learning involves all facilities. It underscores that learners aren’t just consuming but creating, making connections, and building upon prior knowledge. It asks that students do the heavy lifting and thinking in a lesson. Piaget claimed students aren’t just “empty vessels” waiting to be filled. Freire warned against the banking method of education in which students are treated as passive receptors, thus limiting their creative and critical thinking.

Active learning transforms students’ educational experiences and improves academic outcomes. For students of all ages, active learning practices lean quite a bit on activities that pull in kinesthetic movements to encourage students to hone multiple learning styles as they digest and retain new information. Such participatory roles promote active learning across the curriculum.

Nearpod creates active learning environments where every student participates, increasing engagement and challenging students through interactive features that puts them at the center of learning. Interactive features, such as Polls, Open-Ended Questions, and Collaborate Boards, can be one of the most effective instructional practices to spark students’ prior knowledge at the beginning of a lesson or for metacognitive reflections to assess what students learned by the end.

3. Collaborative learning

Collaborative learning brings students together in a joint venture to search for understanding or meaning. This framework of effective instruction is a great way to promote a community of learners as well. Students take a more active and participatory role when they’re engaging in peer-to-peer learning. And today’s technologies allow students to “discuss” while leaning in on their preferred learning styles.

VAK (Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic) is a common way educators begin to address where a child’s strengths lie when it comes to processing and retaining new knowledge. With collaborative learning, students develop and lean on one another’s strengths, benefit from their varied perspectives, and challenge each other for problem solving and deconstructing a problem differently.

Collaborative learning and building connections are of paramount importance in creating active learning experiences. Nearpod provides multiple opportunities for teachers and students to collaborate and build connections. Collaborate Board enables students to work together in a shared digital space and share their thoughts via text, images, audio, video, and ever-so-popular GIFs. Teachers can hear from every student by having them use multiple formats to develop their ideas further. This fosters teamwork and cooperation and builds communication skills among students and teachers, creating a collaborative learning environment.

Our digital world (inside and outside of the classroom) challenges how we need to learn and refine our social and interpersonal skills when communicating and collaborating with one another. Nearpod’s interactive lessons and activities prepare students to use technology effectively, safely, and appropriately, all while building positive and empowering school climates. Nearpod’s social and emotional learning (SEL) activities and lessons highlight these core life skills.

4. School culture

A positive classroom and school culture are crucial to creating a welcoming and supportive environment inclusive for all students and their families. It’s helpful to set and share expectations at the beginning of the school year to emphasize what your goals are for your students. Level setting with such shared routines and procedures can help create a cohesive climate.

Invite all stakeholders to have an active role in your classroom. Encourage all stakeholders to model leadership with positive behavior and a can-do attitude or growth mindset. By focusing on forming authentic and caring relationships, you can motivate students on their learning journeys. And don’t forget to celebrate the daily small and big wins! With such dedication, schools can actualize a student-centered vision for all and implement effective instructional strategies.

Nearpod plays a significant role in connecting and building school and classroom culture through its various features and functionalities. Nearpod allows educators to see every student and create active learning experiences where every student participates through:

• Interactive lessons, videos, activities, and formative assessments 
• Dynamic media and gamification activities like Time to Climb
• Collaborate Boards that build connections through class discussions

5. Formative assessment

Formative assessment can help guide an educator on how best to keep each student on a personalized learning path. Such techniques—whether it is a simple thumbs up/thumbs down, a poll, an exit ticket, or a quiz—provide teachers with a plethora of data, allowing them to take a data-driven approach to designing meaningful learning experiences. Teachers can use this intel to monitor students and modify the next steps in instruction.

Does a lesson need to be revisited? Does the content need to be modeled in a different manner? How can you take students from comprehension to mastery? Data can range from active participation to a test score. Educators can look for patterns to best understand how individuals and small groups are progressing against learning objectives and goals. Formative assessment is a continuous process and bolsters designing elements of effective instruction.

With nine types of formative assessment tools within Nearpod, teachers can design interactive lessons that promote engagement and progress.

6. Real-time insights

Today’s technologies allow us to economize gathering student data across the curriculum so we can analyze and glean insights in real-time. Data can be visualized in many ways, making it easier for teachers to digest and act upon the insights effectively.

Teachers can monitor student progress more readily and provide immediate feedback when the child has a question or meets an obstacle. The value of immediate feedback is immense—students feel more self-aware, motivated, and confident. Such constructive feedback can thwart bad habits or misinformation from being further cemented. This feedback cycle encourages students to reflect more on their learning journey and rely on internal and external feedback.

Nearpod empowers teachers to effectively measure student understanding in real-time, enabling them to make instructional decisions at the moment. Having access to real-time insights, teachers can make more informed instructional decisions and visualize learning in various ways to drive instruction.

Nearpod keeps students and the learning process at the forefront of every class through:

• Formative assessments that provide real-time insights to guide instruction
• Post-session reports informing your next lesson
• Tool and content to scaffold instruction and meet students where they are

7. Differentiation

Meeting a child where they often mean a teacher has to be ready to differentiate instruction for lessons, whether that be to modify a particular activity to support a student better or add a layer of complexity to challenge another further. By understanding your students’ diverse learning needs, you can individualize your lesson plans to ensure immediate feedback, varied instances of practice, and increased engagement.

Similarly, schools often face a challenge of amassing and providing a rich diversity of resources for an equally diverse set of students. Educators seek to deliver high-interest resources so kids can go beyond the old adage of amassing knowledge that is a mile wide and an inch deep. Instead, they grow their depth of knowledge and expand their interests. Such resources encourage teachers to design effective instructional strategies and differentiate learning experiences so students have options and various ways to meet learning objectives through different paths and channels.

Nearpod’s quality content library plays a crucial role in supporting differentiation in the classroom. With over 22,000+ standards-based interactive lessons, activities, and videos, Nearpod gives educators the flexibility to meet students where they are in their learning journey. Teachers can easily tailor their instruction by selecting materials catering to different learning styles, abilities, and interests. Whether it’s providing additional challenges for advanced learners or offering extra support for struggling students, this content library lets teachers create personalized and engaging learning experiences that cater to the unique needs of each student.

Design effective instruction with Nearpod

Having these seven essential strategies as habits of mind when engaging in effective instructional planning will result in more dynamic classroom interactions. When it comes to personalized or individualized learning, technologies such as Nearpod support teachers in tailoring and targeting learning activities for each and every student. Nearpod’s all-in-one platform aids and supports teachers and students alike. From interactive lessons and videos to real-time student data, such experiences put the students in the driver’s seat and give them a sense of agency to become lifelong learners.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 7 Essential strategies for designing effective instruction appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Positive school culture is inclusive, student-focused, and open to learning. Both students and teachers like to go beyond themselves, enabling high student engagement.

Imagine walking into a school where you’re greeted by the smiling faces of students and teachers. Teachers are excited to begin their day, and students look forward to learning and developing themselves. Every lecture is engaging and brings a little more joy to everyone participating. Such is a positive school culture.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

How to identify your school culture

By observing how students, teachers, and staff members interact, administrators can gain insights into the prevailing culture. Administrators and teachers can analyze the values and attitudes of the school community through surveys or interviews to provide further understanding. Examining physical spaces and symbols within the school and reviewing policies and activities also contribute to identifying the school’s culture. These methods collectively enable administrators to make informed decisions for fostering a positive and inclusive learning environment. You can implement a school climate survey to gauge the current temperature of the school community.

While a positive school culture builds growth, a toxic school culture can be draining and devoid of motivation. A toxic school culture lacks honest dialogue, accountability, and collaboration and views students as the problem rather than the purpose.

5 essential steps to building a positive school culture

With an investment of time and intentional effort, any culture can be nurtured into a positive school culture. Here are 5 meaningful steps!

1. Build Relationships

I once had an exuberant and positive Area Superintendent whose best advice towards improvement was: “Relationships, relationships, relationships.” With a whole lot more experience now, it’s clear that relationships are indeed the foundation of a school culture that breeds caring. When staff and students feel gratified and valued, they are likely to work harder and enjoy their work.

2. Model positive behavior

Positivity is contagious! Every action creates a ripple effect replicating the nature of the action for all the people observing it– colleagues, leaders, or students. With that level of influence, it is a responsibility to model positive and motivating behavior and thoughts. Disengage with negative mindsets and seek to find the good in people and situations. You’ll notice an almost immediate improvement in your environment!

3. Set goals that elevate school expectations

Collectively, if everyone believes they can achieve more, they will do just that. Setting meaningful goals that elevate expectations for everyone–staff, students, and parents–is a great way to do that. It aligns everyone’s mindsets, increases accountability, and has them working as a team towards the same goals. For instance, working together to create a data-driven school culture, where real-time data informs decisions, can significantly boost performance and foster continuous improvement.

4. Share your school’s vision

Bring everyone together to create a vision. Involve everyone in the decision-making process of the vision to carry the vision through. Therefore, it’s important to invest in both the shared vision and an individual’s personal vision. This way, you ensure you make your staff and students feel like they are treated in the same manner as everyone else.

5. Appreciate people

Because recognition is powerful, it can dramatically impact both teacher and student behavior. Small tokens of appreciation go a long way. Hand-written notes, certificates, a bulletin board, a phone call at home, or a school or class newsletter are all avenues that can recognize students and/or staff and make them feel appreciated.

Positive school culture in action through curriculum

A positive school culture impacts the entire learning experience for everyone involved, especially new teachers and students. But one doesn’t build this culture overnight. With the right intentions and actions every day, however, you get a whole lot closer to it than you were before. So next time you find yourself thinking about how you can increase your happiness at your school, you’ll know what to do.

Nearpod’s Supplemental Curriculum

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program for students includes a social-emotional learning curriculum that provides instruction, reflection, and practice opportunities around CASEL-aligned social and emotional learning competencies: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Katie Micallef

Katie is a Personalized Learning Leader in Volusia County Schools. She helps teachers incorporate educational technology into their curriculum. She believes that students deserve an instructional practice that resonates with their daily lives, and that includes the utilization of technology. She is on a mission to promote the endless benefits that edtech can have on 21st century instructional practices.

The post 5 Essential steps to building a positive school culture appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Oh, how quickly I realized the ever-dynamic aspect of classroom teaching and learning. A couple of decades later, I’m still not convinced that any stellar teacher prep program can do the field of education justice. The sheer amount of variables that a classroom of unique individuals brings with them makes for an awe-inspiring journey, year over year. Explore essential tips and invaluable advice for new teachers embarking on their exciting journey in education!

Nearpod can support you in creating interactive lessons, accessing standards-aligned lessons, keeping students engaged, and tracking real-time insights into student learning. Teachers can sign up for Nearpod below for free. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

However, I think true educators embrace this challenge. They revel in the variety. That’s when their artistry truly shines within the classroom’s four walls. But I do wish I had had a “cheat sheet” of tips for first year teachers — just a list of gentle reminders and teacher-inspired hacks to help the days go a bit more smoothly and to help me maintain my own sanity. As a first year teacher, I found myself the neediest student in my classroom! Boy, was I eager to learn.

I had come armed with lofty goals of asking for help, watching others teach, and aspiring to over plan… but I never had the time as a new teacher. From when the door first opened on that initial day of school until the end of the school year, I was in go-mode. What I wish I had known were all those more practical advice for new teachers that I did amass over time with experience.

Join us for Camp Engage: Back to School on July 25-27th!

Save your spot now for Camp Engage, a FREE virtual PD event designed to help you make the most of the upcoming school year and find creative ways to engage your students.

This unique opportunity allows educators to earn professional education credits while exploring cutting-edge teaching techniques and tools. Explore over 30 virtual and on-demand sessions led by renowned experts to gain insights to elevate your teaching practices.

Advice for new teachers: 22 Tips for teaching first year

I’ve listed twenty such tips of my own to get this valuable cheat sheet started for first year teachers:

1. Set clear expectations with students

Set clear expectations first thing and reinforce them often during the first month of school. Emphasize processes and routines, and follow through on expectations and consequences consistently. Remember, it’s easier to pull back and be less strict than it is to become more strict when it comes to classroom management.

What’s your signal to get your students’ attention? I use the doorbell. Practice the routines and procedures all year long, not just at the beginning of the year. Teach your students ways to find a solution to their problems… I teach the students that there are kid problems and kid solutions and grownup problems and grownup solutions.

Elizabeth Torres Maldonado, PioNear

2. Write and create your planbook digitally

So many unexpected hiccups can derail your best-laid plans, so design with flexibility top of your mind and an eraser in hand. Writing plans on mini sticky notes is also helpful.

Consider making your planbook digital as well, so it’s always easy to organize, edit, sort, and search for the resources you need.

3. Make #besties

Establish strong relationships early on with the front office assistants and the custodians, as you will need them in your court countless times week in and week out (if not daily). They have eyes and ears on all aspects of the school community, and they will be your go-to ally in many instances, promise.

Give yourself the gift of not having to know everything. Don’t be afraid ask ask ask questions of veteran teachers you trust. PLUS, the office manager and the custodian can save you, make friends with them!

James Staton, PioNear

4. Google (image) it

Search online for “teacher hacks” when it comes to classroom organization and advice for new teachers and then click on the Images tab. You’ll be surprised at the ingenious ways teachers use shoe bags for craft supplies and dish racks to organize technology.

5. Keep your space clean

A dustbuster, a Mr. Clean Eraser, and a fragrant plug-in will keep your classroom in tip-top shape on a day-to-day basis. However, please keep allergens in mind when it comes to fragrances! Remember to check school policies before introducing any scented products.

6. Ask questions!

Best PD might be right down the hallway. Don’t be afraid to ask your fellow teachers for feedback or help when you need it or when you feel overwhelmed. They won’t think less of you! And, all the teachers I’ve worked with have always bent over backward to help if I asked for it.

Brittanie Payne, PioNear

There are no stupid questions, only answers. No matter who asks, the teacher or the student.

Martina Matejas, PioNear

7. Get organized digitally and traditionally

Organize one master copy of your printed materials — lessons, worksheets, and resources — in plastic sleeves. Put those sleeves in sequential order, pair them with lesson plans and notes, and group them thematically in labeled binders that can be on a shelf within reach.

Better yet, get digitally organized, and get rid of the paper clutter by compiling you files into folders. That way you can always easily edit your resources and search where to find them. You can also organize your digital Nearpod lessons by creating lesson folders and organizing them by name and color codes.

8. Paper, please!

Consider ways to cut back on paper use and save that tree by using digital alternatives on Nearpod such as Draw It, Drag and Drop, and more to support classroom activities and collaboration.

You can also seek out local companies to donate, put in requests with DonorsChoose.org, or ask your classroom families to contribute, but you will go through a lot of paper in any given school year, and the worst is having plans but then running out of paper for copies.

9. Color counts

Regardless of your students’ ages, go all out in decorating and covering classroom walls with colorful learning resources and rotating student work. You all spend hours in your room, so treat it like a second home that you all want to take care of.

10. Don’t pick at it

A staple remover will save your fingers and fingernails! This handy dandy little plastic contraption will be your new best friend. Invest in more than one sense those little guys can easily be misplaced or lost.

11. Remember to hang tough

Invest in several rolls of blue or green painter’s tape instead of masking tape to adhere student work to the walls. Regularly change out so kids can see their hard work appreciated. However, when true staying power is needed, especially on those concrete classroom walls, turn to ever-impressive duct tape.

12. Don’t go red

Vary the colors of the pens you use when reviewing work so that kids don’t associate being wrong with color. Create a robust feedback loop by considering other ways to provide feedback besides with a pen, like video feedback or a face-to-face conference. Cultivate the mindset of “failing forward,” and remember that a sticker (for all ages) goes a long way when it comes to recognition!

13. Try out different ways to channel students’ attention

Research ways to help channel children’s attention — put a strip of velcro under desks for some tactile stimulation, add a red card to the corner of desks for focus, use exercise balls instead of chairs, and practice group breathing exercises to help kids embrace mindfulness.

14. Play music

Discover what kinds of music your students like as background noise, which can help drown out other distracting classroom noises while everyone works. Look for playlists on Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime Music, or other streaming sources, or simply make your own and play from any digital device. Music can help calm anxiety, soothe feelings, and lift moods. Consider using Flocabulary videos as well between transitioning to different activities and units.

15. Build meaningful relationships with students

Sounds simple enough, but do find the time to get to know your students on a personal level. Have them fill out a questionnaire, conduct mini-conferences, and reach out to their families continuously throughout the year to establish an authentic relationship. You can use Nearpod’s Polls or Collaborate Board to conduct questionnaires and collect feedback for active learning experiences. Weave in social and emotional learning (SEL) moments with your students in your daily instruction to reinforce relationship building. 

Relationships matter! Get to know the ins and outs of your students and their families! Making those connections from the start will make for a successful school year and carry you through the thick and thin! It’s as simple as knowing your student’s favorite sports team or what they enjoy doing on the weekend. Those little things go a long way!

Caitlin Arakawa, PioNear

16. Stick to a routine

Your students will thrive with it, your families will appreciate it, your administration will expect it, and don’t worry — there’s enough good daily drama within classrooms that your day will never be boring!

17. Plan for the unexpected

Have a sub folder ready to go with the practical notes about your students and their schedules, plus a host of turnkey activities that a substitute teacher can use in your absence; especially for those unplanned ones.

We’ve compiled a list of tips to make sub teacher plans a smoother experience for classroom teachers, substitute teachers, and students.

18. Leave it behind

Don’t bring (too much) work home with you. Teachers’ prep and grading work is never done, so do try to set strict limits so that you have a balanced work-home life.

19. Design your own PD

In this day and age, seek out recommended ways to hone your craft. Consider reading the Wong’s tried-and-true handbook, The First Days of School: How to Be An Effective Teacher. Discover the many free options such as listening to educator podcasts, subscribing to blogs, registering for webinars, or taking an online course.

Friendly reminder to register for Camp Engage, Nearpod’s free virtual professional development for educators! Camp Engage happens several times a year – around February, July, and November.

20. Provide alternative ways to communicate

Giving out your phone number may be a controversial tip, but I relied on my phone both as a way for students to reach me so that they were never left with unanswered questions and so that I could simply connect with their caregivers to share a good story.

You can also use a parent communication app like Remind or ClassDojo. You can also create a Google Phone number that you can discontinue at any time.

I would suggest seeing if there’s one that is commonly used in your building that the parents are used to, in addition to seeing which platform offers the best options that you’d like it to do.

Jennifer Wentworth, PioNear

21. Give yourself bathroom breaks

Another good tip would be “never give up an opportunity to go to the bathroom!” I can’t tell you how helpful that has been.

Jennifer Wentworth, PioNear

22. Don’t reinvent the wheel

Share your great ideas so your colleagues will be willing to too, but remember what a treasure trove Pinterest is — so much inspiration can be found for creative activities in a single photo. You can also explore Nearpod tips and ideas from teachers all over the world by joining our Educator Facebook Group and following us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.

And breathe!

Accept that you will make mistakes, veteran teachers do too. Learn from them and move on.

Anne Ruifrok Walker, PioNear

Start using Nearpod in your classroom

Take care of yourself and have patience as you learn and grow as a professional. I learned as much, if not more, in Year 2 than in Year 1, so stay open to being that lifelong learner that we’re all trying to inspire in our students. Now, we’re looking to you all to help this school year’s cadre of first year teachers maintain their optimism, face challenges head-on, and rise to the ranks of “veteran teacher” (not sure I’ve made it yet!).

Nearpod can support you in creating interactive lessons, accessing standards-aligned lessons, keeping students engaged, and tracking real-time insights into student learning. Teachers can sign up for Nearpod below for free. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 22 Tips I wish I’d known as a first year teacher appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account below to access these standards-aligned activities and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

How do you write a lesson plan?

Lesson plans outline what to do before the lesson, during the lesson, and after the lesson. The basic components of a lesson plan should include learning objectives, standards, materials, class time, sequence, and assessments. There are many different templates or models for effective lesson planning, with elements that may differ depending on philosophical approach or school-wide adopted techniques. Yet before diving into mapping out a lesson, you may want a refresher on sound instructional design strategies.

What is instructional design?

Instructional design goes far beyond the mere production of a lesson plan or its accompanying teaching aids. Instructional design includes the goals for student learning and the methodology for achieving such goals, all while keeping in mind how individuals best engage in their learning journey. While teaching as a discipline is founded in science, its magic is in the artistry that educators add. As author and educator Mark Van Doren said, “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”

Yet as with any artistic venture, there is no hard and fast template for creating really engaging experiences. When it comes to the classroom, we have some tried and true models based on theory, research, and practice, but the best teachers add their own flavor to such classroom recipes to transform learning experiences for each and every student. Instructional design is no small task, but this is the beauty and challenge for educators daily.

5 Lesson planning tips for teachers using instructional design

1. Start with Backward Design

When it comes to instructional design, many teachers are tempted to jump into a fun activity they saw in action or read about; there’s loads of inspiration posted daily from our “edu-celebs” in the blogging and social media worlds. However, according to researchers Wiggins and McTighe, starting with a backward design is best. Backward Design is a fundamental concept in instructional design.

In their book, Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTight outline that backward design consists of three sequential stages. First, you must set your overall learning goals and identify the desired results of your instruction; your eyes are on the end goals. Then, you work backward to determine what evidence you will want to see to know that these goals have been met. Only lastly should you plan and craft the learning activity or experience. In traditional lesson planning, it can be hard to rein in the creativity and enthusiasm around a good idea.

Likewise, often thinking about an assessment comes at the end of the lesson, a final step. However, by keeping the end in sight first, kids will be more engaged, and their knowledge becomes more transferable. Your systematic approach to and sequence of scaffolded lesson plans will yield better student outcomes. If you’re incorporating frameworks like the 5E Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate), the backward design approach can also be helpful.

Once you have results in mind, Nearpod can be utilized within your lesson design by leveraging the Nearpod reports as part of acceptable evidence and then drilling down into some of the interactive features and activities, such as Draw It or Drag and Drop, to support the lesson’s overall learning goals and objectives. Also, consider how to write a lesson plan using these tips on Nearpod. The corresponding lessons can be curated, organized, and housed within a lesson library.

2. Incorporate effective assessments

Speaking of goal setting and “acceptable evidence,” it is helpful to have a refresher on the types of assessments to continually weave into your lessons for daily instruction. While there are many ways to break down assessments, four common types are Diagnostic, Formative, Interim, and Summative.

Diagnostic Assessments

Consider how you can use diagnostic assessments to better understand where your students are starting — a snapshot or baseline if you will.

• What prior knowledge do they have (from school or home)?
• What is the breakdown of understanding amongst your whole class?
• How does the data inform my planning?

Formative Assessments

Weave formative assessments throughout your lesson plan model — these in-the-moment checks for understanding that can inform how you need to revise your plans for the following lesson.

• Which concepts did students grasp?
• Where are there gaps in their understanding?
• Which students need extra reinforcement before moving forward?
• What adjustments do I need to make?

Interim or Benchmark Assessments

Designed for larger groups of students, like school or district-wide, interim or benchmark assessments provide insight into the group’s progress toward said goals at set intervals in a given time period.

• What patterns are emerging?
• Where are there significant gaps?
• How can you shift resources to meet needs?

Summative Assessments

As its name suggests, summative assessments are more conclusive in terms of reviewing performance at the end or after learning has occurred, but remember, assessments are really a reflection of how well the subject matter was taught — not the student’s capabilities. If a summative assessment falls short of expectations, then educators should reflect on their methods.

• How did it go overall?
• Were goals met?
• How does this data guide the next steps?

Other types of evaluation that are often referenced fall into the categories of norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments. However, these are another nut to crack in another article due to the politicized nature of such standardized testing.

Use Nearpod for embedded formative assessments

Nearpod has 9 formative assessments you can add to make your lesson interactive while providing you with real-time insights into student learning. With Nearpod, you can use tools such as the Quiz feature to check for student understanding. Also, you can understand the whole group’s understanding using a Poll. Additional interactive assessment tools you could use are Matching Pairs and Drag & Drop, or add a bit of competition with Time to Climb. Consider weaving in open-ended techniques during assessments with activities like Draw It or Open-Ended Questions. Find many pre-existing assessment ideas in Nearpod’s activity banks. Reports allow access to real-time student data that can be analyzed.

3. Include lesson objectives for students

Depending on how educational institutions are structured, standards are designed to help set expectations about what students should know and by when. However, standards can vary based on philosophies as well as literal location. However, standards can be a guiding force when setting goals and designing assessments. Then you, as the teacher, can craft the more practical student learning objectives at the lesson level.

SWBAT Model

So with standards in mind, goals articulated, and assessments top of mind, now it is time to articulate the lesson-based evidence you are looking for. We call these practical statements student learning objectives or intended learning outcomes. This is a crucial element for learning how to write a lesson plan. One common student-centered way to frame them is the SWBAT model: Students will be able to …

Following this phrase, you can then bullet a handful of concrete objectives for your students when planning a lesson. But the catch is that the learning objectives need to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Results-oriented, and Time-bound. With such detail, learning objectives can help guide both the teacher’s instruction and the student’s learning.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

One way to hone and tweak learning objectives to strengthen them is to incorporate Bloom’s Taxonomy, which provides a framework for encouraging higher-order thinking. Bloom’s Taxonomy emphasizes a hierarchy of skills and levels of mastery that can be tied to action verbs. Take a moment to reflect on the difference between these two learning objectives:

• EXAMPLE 1: Students will be able to understand figurative language.
• EXAMPLE 2: Students will be able to identify two examples of figurative language within Langston Hughes’ poem, What happens to a dream deferred? by the end of class.

Notice how the specificity of example 2 comes in with the strong action verb, the quantifiable measurement, and the timeframe? Revised learning objectives mean no gray areas! Take a couple of your own learning objectives or pull some from shared lesson plans. Dissect them a bit to evaluate their efficacy. Are they framed as SMART learning objectives? Can you revise them to be stronger, SMARTer learning objectives?

Explore the lesson library

To see how others tackle student learning objectives (and then align with rich activities), filter through Nearpod’s lesson library of thousands of lessons using the standards-based and grade level search function. Every Nearpod lesson is created with a focus on quality content. Don’t forget that you can save any existing lesson and modify it to meet your students; needs. Change the wording, add new content, media, or resources, plus enhance with more Nearpod interactive activities.

4. Design lessons that capture students’ attention and focus

These learning objectives often appear at the top of lesson plans. There are many designs or models of lesson plans, and preference comes down to the educational philosophies that you (or your district) believe in.

Madeline Hunter Model of Mastery Learning

One common, time-tested format that you can ground yourself in and then modify as needed is The Madeline Hunter Model of Mastery Learning, sometimes referred to as the direct instruction model. Dr. Hunter believed that all lesson plans should encompass seven elements:

• 1. Objectives/standards
• 2. Anticipatory Set
• 3. Input/Modeling
• 4. Checks for Understanding
• 5. Guided Practice
• 6. Independent Practice* 
• 7. Closure*

*Can sometimes be interchanged

Anticipatory Set

Many have shifted these elements or called them by another name. For instance, you may use an anticipatory set or call it a warm-up activity, a sponge, or a connection to prior knowledge — but all of these concepts are designed to hook and focus the students’ attention and give them autonomy to consider what they already know about a given subject and what else they may want to learn about it. Similarly, some reframe the idea of modeling or direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice into the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) Model of I DO, WE DO, YOU DO to incite learner independence.

Explore and evaluate how other educators design their teaching plans. Consider adopting the model to lesson plan templates that works best for you (and your district) to engage students the most! Also, consider how to write a lesson plan with reflection notes at the bottom to observe what worked well and not so well over the years. This reflective practice will make lesson planning for teachers an iterative process based on your students’ needs, not your planbook.

In addition to viewing Nearpod’s library as an ideas bank, where you can modify and customize existing lessons for your classroom, you can create your own content slides on Nearpod. As a start, each slide could address one of the seven elements of an individual lesson plan. Remember that you can organize these lessons into folders to share with an administrator for lesson review or with colleagues when team teaching.

5. Edtech adoption

Last but not least, thoughtful edtech adoption really does make your job easier if your goal is maximizing your time to engage students to own their own learning journey. However, using technology for teaching and learning is much different than using technology in our everyday lives.

SAMR

Dr. Ruben Puentedura has shared his popular SAMR model, a framework we can use to evaluate the purpose of using educational technologies. Too often, devices and tools are mere substitutions for age-old practices. And while substitution can be a first step, we should consider edtech as an integral part of our instructional design. He suggests challenging ourselves to move from mere enhancement through Substitution and Augmentation to transformation through Modification and Redefinition.

• Substitution: Does the task require technology? How might it be enhanced with technology?
• Augmentation: How might technology be an essential component of this task? How is the task improved?
• Modification: How might the technology transform the learning experience? How is the task significantly changed?
• Redefinition: How can technology allow for the creation of new tasks or opportunities? How are the learning goals redefined to something that wasn’t possible before?

TPACK

Another model that is helpful schoolwide and across teaching teams is TPACK. TPACK encourages us as educators to think of where the intersections of our expertise lie and how we might focus on fortifying the less strong areas through thoughtful professional development and collaboration. TPACK focuses on three complex, intersecting kinds of knowledge: Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge. This visual model shows the resulting seven areas, with the epicenter being a melding of all — TPACK. Many educators feel confident about their pedagogical and content experience and experiences but less so around the technology. With such introspection, schools can set meaningful professional growth opportunities for the coming school year to enhance all instructional design efforts. Technology no longer becomes just an add-on, a reward, or a thorn in our sides; it has become an essential element of today’s teaching and learning.

Teachers and students alike can leverage the creation side of Nearpod, serving a myriad of needs through multimedia integrations, interactive activities, and formative assessment tools. Nearpod supports educators in designing effective instruction that elevates student learning.

Now it’s time to create your lesson plan

Instructional design and lesson planning is a craft that deserves to be revisited and revised year over year as new methodologies and trends emerge. When learning how to write a lesson plan, take a moment to reflect on your own philosophies and how those align with your school’s. Consider how each lesson can address and meet the diversity of needs found in your classroom environment. Ask yourself how your pedagogy is based on sound research, yet is uniquely yours. And continue to be that lifelong learner we all as educators hope to cultivate in our students.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for a free Nearpod account below to access these standards-aligned activities and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post 5 Essential lesson planning tips using instructional design appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

What is the great debate around the Science of Reading?

Let’s start with the basics: what is literacy? Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, and listen. Over the decades, schools have shifted to adopt new theories and philosophies. Phonics, whole language, or balanced literacy are all monikers for how educators can teach students how to read. The Science of Reading (or SOR) is not a program. It’s the culmination of decades of research supporting a return to a highly structured set of approaches rooted in decoding skills and language comprehension. It is grounded in efficacy-based research, deconstructing how and why particular models of instruction work.

Balanced Literacy Vs. Science of Reading

For years, balanced literacy sought to find a middle ground between the pendulum extremes of phonics-first and whole-language advocates. Teachers shared their toolbox of strategies with students, from decoding to “three-cueing” to leveled readers. Yet such programs have been hard to evaluate in terms of efficacy. SOR education practices shies away from the popular guided-reading approach touted by Lucy Calkins and Jan Richardson in favor of an explicit focus on decoding and language comprehension.

Research shows that reading, unlike talking, is not a natural process for children. It takes more intentional instruction to achieve desired results and goals. Proponents of the Balanced Literacy vs Science of Reading point to the recent decline in reading scores as evidence that the prevalent methods of reading instruction over the past decade have failed. The Science of Reading emphasizes the importance of mastering foundational skills through a structured literacy approach to ensure effective strategies for learning to read.

Why is the Science of Reading important right now?

It’s hard to argue that we’re not in a reading crisis. Reading skills have declined in districts and states nationwide to historic lows. The learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic widened reading and math achievement gaps. It spotlighted the increasing discrepancy for Black, Hispanic, and other students impacted by educational inequalities. EdWeek reported that student results from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showcased that a third of 4th and 8th graders can’t read at the “basic” achievement level, which is the lowest. 70% of teachers of those 4th-grade students reported using remedial measures a couple of times a week. According to the results, even top readers have made little progress over the past three years. This lack of growth and widening gaps have turned educators and parents’ attention to what can be done differently regarding the SOR.

This map shows students from grade 4 scoring below basic in reading, by state:

What is the Science of Reading?

Many states have now adopted a much more rigorous approach to reading. The SOR approach zeros in on developing five core skill sets for emergent and beginner readers: fluency, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, phonics, and comprehension. It harkens back to 1986’s The Simple View of Reading research by Philip Gough and William Tunmer, which underscores the importance of two components: decoding and language comprehension. Think of it as an equation—reading comprehension is a product of decoding and language comprehension: RC = D x LC.

The algorithm’s simplicity belies the intricate and sophisticated sensemaking of letter sounds, words, and sentences. Dr. Hollis Scarborough’s 2021 Scarborough’s Rope Reading further details how the two intertwine, scaffolding skills and building toward automaticity.

With the SOR, instruction involves dedicated time and a systematic and intentional method of seeking out teachable moments for literacy across the curriculum. This evidence-based approach encourages educators to lean on what matters and what works. Turning research into practice, however, is not without time, effort, and money.

Here are the 10 components of the SOR:

• Print concepts
• Phonological awareness
• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics
• Spelling
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Oral language skills
• Reading comprehension skills
•  Background knowledge

To better understand Science of Reading strategies, look at this downloadable to refresh your understanding of key concepts and terms. Remember, there is no specific curriculum or program, so you’ll want to work with your school community to determine how to fold in these demonstrated methods.

How are states implementing the SOR?

States are falling victim to the age-old problem of education stumbling over change management. Many are pushing this newer school of thought with little explanation. Such harried rollouts breed confusion, suspicion, and defensiveness. Teachers are told to change their “best” practices and beliefs without time to make connections to the new methodologies. Timelines, incentives, and compensation are not being offered equitably. This push-and-pull pits educators against one another, and against change in general.

Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, and Mississippi have passed laws requiring a SOR approach. Others are going in with intensive training and Science of Reading professional development, overwhelming an already taxed and deflated teacher population. North Carolina is spending $54 million on a two-year training (LETRS) for all K-5 teachers. A common refrain is, “When you know better, you do better.” Many other states, such as Utah and Virginia, are leveraging ESSER funds to adopt such practices via instruction and training. However, the integration and implementation nationwide are uneven at best.

What are the benefits of the Science of Reading?

Time will tell; the benefits are to be seen. On the positive side, such a common and structured approach based on research should be easier to track and see results. According to a study by Amplify, many students in 43 states are seeing an uptick in the number of students on track to read at grade level by the end of the year.

The Science of Reading curriculum takes a scaffolded approach, promotes reading across the curriculum, and supports English language learners. While school leaders need to think systematically around benchmark assessments, resource allocation, and professional development, they also need to remember that teaching is both a science and an art.

Edtech implementation

Nearpod

According to an ESSA Level II study, 5th and 8th-grade students who used Nearpod had higher ELA achievement compared to similar students in their grade level who did not use it. This makes it an ideal tool when implementing SOR strategies. To explore some related Nearpod Science of Reading activities and lessons, visit the Nearpod library and search by standard. You can zero in on the English Language Arts (ELA) strands of Conventions of Standard English, Vocabulary Acquisition and Use, Knowledge of Language, Phonics, Word Recognition, Fluency, Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, or Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity to start. Consider duplicating a lesson and making modifications to meet the reading needs of your students. 

You can also create your own lesson or activity to target any of the 10 components of SOR instruction. Interactive activities such as Drag and Drop, Matching Pairs, Draw It, Immersive Reader, and audio responses can be used to teach your students fluency, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, phonics, and comprehension.

Here are some examples of lessons teachers can use:

Early Elementary Lessons (K-2)

• CVC Words (K-1): In this lesson on CVC words, students will learn to idenifty the beginning, middle and ending sounds of CVC words.
• Nonfiction Text Features (1-2): In this lesson on nonfiction text features, students will learn about features that help readers make sense of what they are reading.
• Retelling Key Details (1-2): In this lesson on retelling key details, students learn to identify and retell key details in a fiction story.

Grades 3-5

• Parts of Speech (3): In this lesson on parts of speech, students will identify nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives.
• Complex Sentences (3-4): In this lesson on complex sentences, the students will review simple and compound sentences and learn about complex sentences.
• Eight Parts of Speech (5-6): In this lesson on the eight parts of speech, students will define, identify, and use nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and articles.

Grade 8-12

• Summarizing Texts (6-8): In this lesson on summarizing texts, students how to write a summary by identifying the main idea and key details.
• Annotation and Close Reading Strategies (11-12): In this English lesson, students learn annotation and close reading strategies. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to explain tips and tricks for effective close reading, and will practice annotating excerpts.
• The Paragraph: Concrete Details & Textual Evidence (9-10): In this lesson, students will explore the components of a good paragraph. They will learn to identify appropriate concrete details and practice using them with common transitions to strengthen an argument in a logical way.

Flocabulary

Flocabulary accelerates student learning by building academic vocabulary and comprehension through rigorous and authentically engaging instructional experiences. These K-12 standard-aligned video-based lessons and activities leverage the power of hip-hop, storytelling, and emotional connections to cultivate literacy across the curriculum.

Academic vocabulary is a leading indicator of student comprehension. Flocabulary strategically uses hip-hop as the foundational medium to teach vocabulary and provide the necessary in-context word exposure. While it starts in the video, Flocabulary infuses aspects of hip-hop throughout the lesson sequence. For example, students unlock components of a hip-hop beat while completing the Vocab Game and are tasked with writing a rhyme of their own in Lyric Lab.

The Art & Science of Reading

While we continue to research and seek improved methods for teaching SOR reading strategies — and all subjects—we also need to remember that educators are tasked with molding lifelong learners. In part, when it comes to literacy instruction, they need to promote a love of reading, extol the beauty of wordplay, and develop an appreciation for storytelling in children. We know that one size does not fit all in education. So we need to rely on quantitative and qualitative data and make time for continuous feedback and reflection inside and outside the classrooms to create skilled readers and masterful literacy educators.

Nearpod believes teaching is the most important job in the world. That’s why we’ve created a platform to help teachers engage every student. Nearpod offers 22,000+ rigorous lessons, videos, and activities used by 75% of school districts in the United States alone. If you’re ready to unlock the full instructional power of Nearpod at your school or district, we’re ready to talk!

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post How to decode the Science of Reading appeared first on Nearpod Blog.