School: Newton Bateman Elementary School
Text: Connecting with Students Online: Strategies for Remote Teaching and Learning by Jennifer Serravallo
Study Group Leader: Maritza Vazquez (Kindergarten)
Study Group Members Priscilla Rowe (1st Grade), Samantha Gage (1st Grade), Selene Rivas-Rodriguez (Kindergarten), Kendall Williamson (Kindergarten)
Goal: This school year, our goal was to effectively implement small group instruction remotely as a way to differentiate instruction and best support our students.
Rating and effectiveness of the professional text
As a group, we chose the text Connecting with Students Online: Strategies for Remote Teaching and Learning by Jennifer Serravallo. We recommend this text to educators that are either planning or currently teaching students remotely. This text provides educators with steps on how to set up routines and suggests on how to simplify lessons effectively in grades K-8.
Implementation in the classroom and reflection
During this school year, our study group learned to look at a lesson, determine the most useful skill, and teach that skill in both a virtual/in-person mini-lesson. As we read through the chapters, we were reminded that it is imperative to provide students as much feedback as possible throughout the school day. However, this feedback might look different in the remote setting. Serravallo makes several suggestions on how to do this. Two of the suggestions that resonated with us, due to the age of our students, was feedback given in real time or via recordings. As a group, we found it hard to provide students consistent feedback in real time. Therefore, we found ourselves using Seesaw to assess students and provide them consistent feedback. Seesaw is a platform where teachers can assign student work, provide students with feedback, communicate with families and much more. Seesaw is a platform where teachers can assign student work, provide students with feedback, communicate with families and much more.
Your target audience
Our target audience were teachers who use Seesaw. At Bateman, these teachers are primarily in grades Pre-K to 2nd grade. These teachers will be able to use Seesaw to assess students and differentiate instruction.
