This Year, Teachers and Students need to be prepared for a variety of possible instructional models

• In-Person
• Distance Learning
• Hybrid
• Homeschool

Creating a Solid Digital Learning Foundation can Bridge the Transition Between these Models!

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What Steps Will You Do At the Beginning of School to Increase Success and Create a Positive Learning Environment?

• Growth Mindset
• Focus on Teaching Students How to Use the Digital Tools
• Keep a positive attitude, at least in front of the students!!!

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Teachers and Students will be facing many challenges

• Anxiety
• Trauma
• Concerns about learning loss from the previous school year

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Unfinished learning is not new...

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Summer slide, skill gaps, incomplete learning, and misconceptions have all been part of teaching and learning.

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We’ve historically tried to address learning loss in three ways.

Remediation has not been shown to be effective.

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But students who received more frequent access to grade-level content made significantly larger gains than their peers who did not.

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Learning Acceleration Model

Learning Intentions

• I am learning about the differences between learning acceleration and remediation.
• I am learning to provide equitable grade-level content for my students this year.
• I am learning to scaffold support in order to stick to grade-level content and instructional rigor.
• I am learning how to prioritize content for my grade level this year.

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Addressing Unfinished Learning After COVID-19 School Closures

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#1. Stick to grade level content ...

#2. Focus on the depth of instruction …

#3. Prioritize content and learning …

#4. Ensure inclusion of each learner …

#5. Identify and address gaps in learning through instruction …

#6. Capitalize on commonalities ...

#1. Stick to grade level content ...

• Teachers should keep the focus on grade-level content and rigor, addressing learning gaps as needed within the context of grade-level work.
• Daily re-engagement of prior knowledge in the context of grade-level assignments will add up over time, resulting in more functional learning than if we resort to watered down instruction or try to reteach topics out of context.

#2. Focus on the depth of instruction …

Just in Time Learning vs. Just in Case Teaching

• “Just in case” teaching wastes time teaching content and skills from earlier grades just in case students need it for grade-level work.
• “Just in time” concentrates time expenditure on needs that actually come up during grade-level work.
• Taking the time to provide patient, in-depth instruction allows for issues related to unfinished learning to arise naturally when dealing with new content, allowing for just in time instruction and re-engagement of students in the context of grade-level work.

#3. Prioritize content and learning …

• It is important that teachers know where to invest their time and effort, what areas can be cut, and where they should teach only to awareness level to save time for priorities.
• What is most important deserves more time, and teachers need to be given the latitude to provide responsive feedback and allow time for constructive struggle—a very different proposition than merely offering a superficial ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’
• 2020-21 Priority Instructional Content in English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics

#4. Ensure inclusion of each learner …

• The greater the level of inclusion (particularly 80% or more of the day), the greater the rate of academic growth.
• Removing students from core instruction in an attempt to remediate or catch them up is not only counter-productive, it significantly contributes to the widening of the opportunity gap and often results in students being tracked or grouped into lower grade-level and core content classes.
• Teachers should ensure that all students, therefore, have the opportunity to engage in productive struggle with Tier 1 instruction, allowing them sufficient time to make sense of a task or problem before intervening. Some students, of course, will need more time and engagement strategies (through additional opportunities to practice, review, preview, mathematics language development, routines, and just-in time vocabulary development, for example) to show growth (Tier II). And there will be students that may need even more intensified instruction to address skill deficits (Tier III). But these additional layers of support should NOT come at the cost of core content instruction.

#5. Identify and address gaps in learning through instruction …

• Teachers should approach assessments as temperature checks, they should use assessment results to alert them to the fact that students have some unfinished learning in that area.
• Strong, attentive instruction, with embedded formative assessment, thus enables teachers to respond to student needs in real-time, and in the context of grade level standards, rather than defaulting to wholesale remediation.

#6. Capitalize on commonalities …

• The shelter in place from the spring will likely have a greater adverse impact on SWDs, ELLs, students who are homeless or in transitional living situations, or students from low income backgrounds who receive free or reduced-price meals through school and/or may not have easy access to computers to engage in distance learning.
• Other students may be dealing with issues of psychological stress, abuse, domestic violence, suicide, or parental job loss.
• Those issues must be recognized, and schools will need to attend to the emotional wellbeing of students as they re-engage them in academic content.

Accelerated Learning and Strong Instruction should not cause further trauma!

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Remediation vs. Acceleration

Attributes of Acceleration vs. Remediation

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Link to handout

Stick to Grade-Level Content and Instructional Rigor

Address learning gaps as needed within the context of grade-level work.

• Scaffold support
• Re-engage students

Approach to Address Unfinished/Interrupted Learning

Read Addressing Learning in the Context of Grade Level Work by Christina Allison https://achievethecore.org/aligned/addressing-unfinished-learning-context-grade-level-work/

Take a LOOK at the Priority Instructional Content for Mathematics from Achieve the Core for YOUR Grade Level

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• Highlight the PRIORITY Standards in the Continuum
• Cross Out Any Standards that Need to Be Eliminated
• Make Notes About Standards that Need Special Treatment

Put into Practice

• Identify a unit you will be teaching in the next month.
• Identify the standards in the unit.
• Which of those standards are priority standards.
• Make decisions based on the priority content where you need to adjust lesson sequencing and/or pacing.

Look fors:

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• Does the content extend work from earlier units and grade levels?
• Does the content extend into future content?
• What parts of the unit help students deepen conceptual understanding and subject area expertise, such as expertise with mathematical practices or reading comprehension?
• Is this content that students need to know right now in order to continue learning grade-level subject matter?

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Success Criteria

• I can describe the difference between learning acceleration and remediation.
• I can scaffold support in order to stick to grade-level content and instructional rigor.
• I can prioritize the most critical grade-level content for my grade(s) and subject(s).
• I can use these questions to plan grade-level lessons with priority standards in mind.

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