Virtual Class Building & Team Building

 In pre-pandemic times, we know the importance of cooperative learning structures and cooperative grouping.  We know that that these routines keep students engaged and optimize their learning.  We know it is essential to teach kids how to work together to achieve a common goal, and to learn from one another, while building relationships.  The question is, how has this been working with online learning?  For many of us who are simply struggling to survive this pandemic and new world of online learning, it may be something that has been forgotten, or just plain difficult to achieve.

I believe that now more than ever, it's so important to ensure that we are implementing team building and class building exercises even into our online learning.  Children are being isolated from their peers and have minimal social interaction.  Not only do we know that collaborative learning structures help students learn more efficiently, it's also essential right now to focus on helping students to have that peer interaction with one another. And as Kagan has taught us so well, cooperative/collaborative learning only takes place once effective team building/building relationships has occurred.  The students need to know each other and feel comfortable with each other in order for them to effectively open up and work together.  

So that leads us to this important question, HOW can we implement team building exercises through virtual/online learning??  I know that team bulidng and class building has really been a struggle through virtual instruction.   I am going to give a few ideas here in this blog, that will hopefully help you out, if you're looking for some new ideas!

Class Building

First you want to start by building relationships with the class as a whole.  You want to get to know each of them as much as you want them to know each other.  This can be done through something as simple as a morning circle.  I teach 5th grade and we start every morning on zoom with our morining circle question.  Usually, you will want to start with questions that will be fun and engaging to the kids.  I often use the "would you rather" question prompts.  The kids LOVE these.  Here is one great resource I found that has a very conclusive list of "would you rather" questions for kids:

Click here to access a list of conversatons starters for kids!

I conduct these questions in a variety of ways:

1)  Type the question in the chat, they can send their response to me privately or to everyone.  I can further this discussion by asking for students to raise their hand and elaborate or share their responses.  I can also use the spinner to call on students at random after they've been given time to respond.  Additionally I can call on a student to share and then ask them to call on the next student to share, etc.  Once they get a little more comfortable with each other, I'll often throw them into quick random breakout rooms in pairs or groups to discuss the question as well.

2)I often use Nearpod which is an interactive white board site.  Here I will send students the link, which will take them to the Nearpod board with the question displayed.  They then type their answer on their virtual sticky note and everyone can read everyone elses responses. I read them aloud as they post them, and elevate or highlight any of participular interest, thus sparking further discussion.

These questions help to bring about a positive attitude when starting the day.  The students really look forward to them and will start to engage in the dialogue voluntarily after a while.  At this point in the year we have all learned so much about each other, things we like or don't like.  I often see students referring to something another student likes in the chat.  It's really cute. Morning circle questions are fun, simple, and a great way to build your class community and sense of belonging.  Below is a video of my students engaging in one using Nearpod.

Team Building

Once you have spent a bit of time building relationships with your class a whole, you can move into team building.  You first want to establish norms for the breakout rooms so that students know what is expected.  Then you always want to start with fun, non-academic tasks.  The purpose of this again is to help students build relationships and get to know each other so that when it comes time to now complete academic tasks as a group, they will feel comfortable talking and sharing with one another. 

One GREAT way to do this through virtual instruction is through the use of "virtual escape rooms." You don't need to make them yourself, there are TONS out there already created.  I have purchased a few off of Teachers Pay Teachers.  The purpose of these activites is that students have to talk and work together in order to complete the tasks in the escape room to move onto the next room.  The goal is to be the group who finishes first.  The kids absolutely love these- they love anything that's a race right? They really have a lot of fun doing them.  Below You can watch a video of my students working to complete an escape room project.

Kagan recommends doing 1 non-academic team building activity once a week just to help students continue to build those relationships.  That's not always possible, not even in the classroom.  If I can do a non-academic team building activity once every couple weeks I feel pretty good about that.  My kids work collaboratively to complete academic tasks on a daily basis through breakout rooms.  I have really seen them grow in the way they talk to each other, feel comfortable with each other, etc.  I definitely attribute this to the time we spend class building and team building- building relationships with one another.  

I hope this helps you get started, or further supports you in building relationships with students!

Virtually Learning,

Megan Brown

megan.brown@omsd.net

Breakout Room Success

Providing students with the opportunity to participate in shared small groups can foster a deeper connection and communication level. Still, depending on your class, the students' age, and the subject matter, it can be a frightening experience to release control and trust the process. After all, a teacher cannot be everywhere, and if we are, are we really able to focus and offer support?  

Allowing students to meet to work in small groups helps build community and fosters deeper learning.

Breakout rooms allow students to connect with me and one another in a way that is only possible in a smaller setting. I wanted to give you some tips I have used to make Breakout rooms successful in my classroom.

1. It's all about organization!
Just like in the actual classroom, our kids need to be placed in differentiated groups according to their levels in the subject being taught. So, according to ability, I organize my kids into breakout room groups for each subject. Each group contains a high. high medium, low medium, and low student. Each student is numbered as either a 1A, 2B, 3A, OR 4B. My students know when they log into Zoom they need to put their number and letter in front of their names; that way, it's quick and efficient when I place them into breakout rooms. When using a Round Robin structure, my kiddos can easily use their numbers to know the order that they share. When speaking with a partner, students understand that A goes first and B follows. I also like to make my 1/A's my team leaders. That way, they can help lead the team if they get stuck or if a teammate needs assistance. I always make the team leader repeat the task aloud before letting the breakout rooms begin. Besides team leaders, it's a good idea to assign other roles to the team members. For example, if the team is working out a math equation, maybe one member is the recorder, one is the timekeeper, and one is the presenter. These jobs can be swapped or set in stone to cut down on confusion and keep routines.

    

2. Short and to the point

Make sure to keep your breakout time very short! This will ensure students focus and stay on track. By keeping breakouts to under five minutes can help students accomplish the task promptly. It's a good idea to have your team leader keep everyone on track. Once the time is up, have them come back as a whole class to discuss their conclusions, findings, and questions.  

3. Sentence Stems/Whiteboards

To help your younger students understand how to talk to one another, send them into their breakout rooms with a sentence stem/starter or their whiteboard with the problem already solved. Since they only have a short time to share, you want to set them up for success. It's not fun to enter into a breakout room and have complete silence. Most of the time, students just don't know where to begin and need guidance. Sentence stems or whiteboards can help them understand expectations and give them the language to get started.

4. Volunteers

It might not be feasible for all teachers, but I have found it very beneficial to have volunteers help out during breakout rooms. It's helpful to receive the support and that outside presence. I've enlisted all sorts of volunteers- approved parents, student teachers, staff members, and our principal to volunteer in our classroom. These people can actually be part of the conversation, or they can be there to just facilitate and help students focus. It takes a village!

Breakout rooms take time. When we first started, we practiced as a whole group. When we practiced everyone muted and turned their cameras off beside the chosen team members. Then we all watched them answer a simple question as a team.  The process, like everything in our classrooms, takes time and practice. When we provide a meaningful process, we can create an atmosphere that values student voice and choice.

If you'd like to see this in action please contact Tamara Moyers at tamara.moyers@omsd.net to set up a Spotlight visit.

Positively Teaching,  

Randi Muehlen

Teaching Wonders Virtually

 Many of us who teach the McGraw Hill Wonders curriculum have probably all been in the same boat throughout this online learning journey.  How do I keep the students accountable for their own learning? How do I know they are actually thinking about the questions I ask? How do I get them to disuss and share with a partner?  These are all the things we do in the classroom to keep the kids engaged and accountable for their learning.  The struggle became very difficult when we went to online learning.  When you pose a question and ask the kids to type their answer into the chat, it often becomes the same 10 kids right? Even if you're using equity sticks or a random selector tool for names, it's difficult when they have not been able to discuss the ideas with their peers first.  Putting kids on the spot like that isn't the best teaching method, but at the same time we want to make sure we are reaching all kids. So what is the solution?

There are just a few things I have done with Wonders to try to bring back in that collaboration piece and student accountability.  It's nothing magical that I do, but it has helped to get the kids talking and working more efficiently.  They know I am going to call on them randomly after I have given them time to discuss in beakout rooms with peers, so most of them are engaged and working as they know my expectations.

Wonders Platform

The Your Turn Book pages, CRC pages, and digital stories are all available on the Wonders digital
platform.  You can assign the YourTurn Book Page digitally.  Then what I do, is I will share my screen and show them how to type on them and save/submit.  For instance, on Day 1 of Wonders instruction for the week, after I teach the vocab lesson, I will assign the vocab practice page.  I will then put the kids in breakout rooms with a partner to work together in creating their vocab sentences, while I'm popping in and out to assist and prod them along.  When we come back whole group then I use the Kagan random selector tool to have the kids share out what they wrote for each vocab sentence.  This is a much better way to go becaause I'm supporting my lower kiddos, EL kiddos, sped kids etc as they have now had the time to work together and talk together, with a partner to create their sentences.

Another option is to retype, or cut and paste, the Your Turn Book questions into a google doc and then assign it on google classroom.  I do this often with the reading comprehensions passage questions.  This way you can keep track of the assignment in google classroom.  In the video here, you can see the kids working to discuss and answer the comp passage questions in the Your Turn Book.  Here I assigned the page digitally.

Its also nice to assign the story you're reading so that struggling readers can play the story when they need to reread it to answer questions.

Anthology Discussion questions

Throughout the Teacher's Manual where you have the discussion questions throughout the story, this is where it becomes a struggle.  In the classroom, you'd stop, pose the question, have students discuss in table groups then randomly call on students to anwer (also incorporating various kagan strategies for discussion during this time).  So in the virtual setting, I type the question into the chat and read it aloud several times.  I tell them they all must respond their thoughts into the chat-they can send to everyone or to me privately.  This way they're not put on the spot answering outloud without having time to talk to a partner, but it also keeps them accountable for participating.  Once we are finished reading the story.  I then type up those questions from the TM into a google doc and put the students in breakout rooms with a partner to again discuss and answer the questions. Then once back together whole group I would use the random selector to have them share out, because they've now had the opportunity to think and discuss and type with a partner. Then they can turn in the assignment for credit.  Doing this really helps me see which students are with me and paying attention.  

Nearpod

I also use the collaborate board in Nearpod to facilitate discussion of the "Making Connections" questions that you see generally at the mid and end of the stories in Wonders.  The Making Connections questions at the end of the paired text ties in all 3 stories from the week and brings focus to the essential question.  Doing this one on Nearpod can help prepare them for doing a RACES writing on the essential question.  It can serve as a prewrite/brainstorm type of discussion.

I hope this gives you a few ideas of how you can incorporate the Wonders workbooks and discussion questions into your virtual lessons, while ensuring that all students are participating and accountable.

Virtually Learning,

Megan Brown

megan.brown@omsd.net

Zoom Breakout Rooms for Collaboration

I personally feel like the ONE worst aspect of online learning is that the kids are missing the social interaction and collaborative learning structures they so desperately need.  As we know, students learn the best when they are working collaboratively in highly structured groups.  This has been especially hard for me as a teacher, because I live and breath Kagan cooperative learning structures in my classroom on a daily basis and have truly seen the growth in my students both academically and socially over the years that I have implemented Kagan into my classroom.

So today I'm going to talk about Breakout Rooms on Zoom! It doesn't fully replace in person collaboration of course, but it's a really good option to support our kiddos talk time, during this period of online learning. Let's get started!

How to Train Your Students on Breakout Rooms

Well just like with live in-classroom instruction, you can't just throw kids into groups and expect them to work together successfully.  You want start with some fun, non-academic teaam building activites that they can do in their groups to get to know each other.  This is important for helping them build relationships with one another so that they will feel comfortable talking and sharing with each other.  I would suggest starting small and having them work with pairs for a while before moving into largers groups. Also modeling how to discuss with a partner and providing them with response frames/stems will help them verbalize their thoughts into words.

Next, you want to set clear expections so they know what is expected of them.  I display this slide every day before our first breakout room of the day (they need lots of reminders.. lol)

Most importantly, once you send them to their Breakout Rooms, you want to pop in and out of as many rooms as possible and help reinforce those breakout room expectations.  Once they know you'll always be popping in to check on them, they are much more likely to do what they are supposed to do! This is also a great way for you to observe your students and evaluate their strenths and weaknesses.

Tips and Tricks!

So now how do you go about setting up these Breakout Rooms?? 

So once youre logged into your Zoom meeting with your class, you want to click the  breakout room button on the bottom of your Zoom toolbar (be sure you have enabled this option in your Zoom settings).  Now, you can select to create the groups automatically or manually. If you want them in pairs and you have 28 students, you will select to create 14 groups.  If you want them in groups of 4 you would select to make 7 groups. 

As it sounds, "automatically" means it will randomly group the students together, whereas "manually" allows you to group them as you'd like. I would suggest selecting manually and creating your groups intentinally and specificially.  However, there is often a time and place for the automatic option as well.  Once my kids are all logged onto Zoom in the morning, while they are working on iReady, discussing the morning circle topic, or another independent task, I quickly create those breakout rooms manually and then they are set for the day! As kids join or leave the meeting, you can choose to swap or move kids to other rooms, rearranging as you see fit!

Under the "Options" dropdown, when you select the time for the Breakout Room, I would aim to keep it around 5-8 minutes or so, just having them discuss one or just a couple of questions.  As mentioned before, always making sure you are popping in and out of the Breakout Rooms to support, and reinforce your rules.  You can also adjust the amount of time you want them to have once the timer is up.  I usually set mine for 15 seconds so that we don't have to wait for kiddos to be dumped back into the main room.  I do however "broadcast" a message warning them how much time they have left. 

You can end the breakout rooms at any time as well, you just click the red button that says "close all rooms." You do not have to wait until the timer is up.  Likewise when the timer is up for the Breakout Rooms, a notification will pop up asking you if you want to end them or keep them open.  So they don't have to automatically end just becasue the time is up.  You have control over that. Aditionally, if there are kids who you dont want to put in a breakout room, you just simply don't assign them to a room and they will then remain in the main room with you.

I hold the kids accountable by letting them know I'll use the random selector to have them share out after they've had the time to discuss the question in their breakout rooms.  Also, usually whatever they are working on with their partner/group in the breakout room is something they are also typing and submitting to me in some form or another.  This ensures that I can monitor they are all working and participating.

If the students have a question while in their Breakout Room, they have the option to click "ask for help."  This picture to the left shows you what it looks from from the students view of the Breakout Room.  

You will then get a notification that looks like this image below here.        

So these are the basics to help you get started setting up Zoom Breakout Rooms with your students.  I truly feel that students need this interaction with one another for so many different reasons.  They really need the social interaction with each other.  Our English Learners as well as ALL learners need to get their "talk time" in throughout the day.  Research has also proven that kids learn better when they are working collaboratively with their peers.  The Breakout Rooms option in Zoom really does provide us with that missing piece of social interaction and collaboration that these kids are so vitally missing with online instruction! I hope this helps!

Virtually Learning,

Megan Brown

megan.brown@omsd.net