Distance Learning at Region 10

CPE: 1 hr

Cost: $30

Teachers hardly have as much extra time to be creative as they would like in lesson planning. Designing and planning instruction that facilitates understanding and retention for English learners can be challenging. Understanding the difference between student knowledge and student understanding is critical for instructors of English learners.

This course will explore how to plan instruction using the backward design approach to meet the unique needs of English learners.

Choice Boards – We should promote choice in the classroom (see "Tips" below). This feature has grade-banded choice board activities! Here's a link to each choice board: STEM Choice Board, K-2 Choice Board, 3-5 Choice Board, 6-8 Choice Board

Daily Sentence Fix Its - this is a daily trivia topic about something that happened on that date. Then there are two sentences about that trivia topic that have errors in it. The student has the opportunity to fix the issues in the sentences. There is a help button for reminders about grammar and punctuation. There is also an answer slide that shows how the sentence should be written. Search "Fix it" in the Discovery Education to find the slideshows.

When designing content online, it's important the content is accessible to every learner. One way to make sure your content is accessible, is to use descriptive links and alternative text for pictures. This allows learners using a screen reader to better navigate your content.

Descriptive links tell the learner what is a link, and where it will go. Instead of saying "Click Here" or even just "Here" in your links, describe what the link is. Additionally, if the link opens a new webpage, let the learner know by putting that in the text.

Bad Example: For more information click here.

Good Example: Visit Region 10's website for more information. (Opens to new window)

Alternative text tells the learner what is in an image, and what it is for. Sometimes, learners cannot view the pictures we use. By using alternative text, screen readers can describe the image and it's context to the learner. You can find this setting labeled as "alt tag" or "alternative text" in the picture settings in most authoring tools. See an example below.

"A group of students in a classroom, raise their hands. A teacher stands at the front, looking at the students. They all think they have the right answer."

This month's tip is to add choice to your remote learning experiences. (via Kathryn Laster and Laura Kile of Region 10).

Allowing your students a choice in activity, allows them to demonstrate learning in a manner that works best for them. Here's an example of choice:

The lesson is over your new set of classroom norms and expectations. Students have listened to your presentation, now to demonstrate their learning they can do one of three things: Draw a picture representing the classroom expectations; Write a one page paper explaining why the expectations are important; Record a one minute presentation on the best ways to follow classroom expectations.

You can use a variety of digital tools to help facilitate choice. For more information, check out Kathryn and Laura's excellent site on choice in remote learning.

Feel free to reach any of us below by using the following email format:

firstname.lastname@region10.org