October 13th, 2020

Welcome to The Distance Learning Playbook K-12 blog post series.  We will share with you some tips and tricks around teaching for engagement and impact in any setting.  
The ideas shared in their blog series will come from the Fisher, Frey and Hattie book.
“To be clear the pandemic teaching of 2020 was really not distance learning it was crisis teaching”. Now, we have time to be more purposeful and intentional with distance learning. We will share Hattie effect sizes to determine the impact that specific actions o r influences will have on student learning.

Consider how these themes have looked in face to face settings in the past and how they could look in a virtual /distance setting.

1. Teacher clarity and feedback is used to fuel student’s ability to become their own teachers.
2. Methods for measuring the impact of teaching are used to understand each student’s progress and achievement, with adjustments to teaching made accordingly. 
3. Investment in collaboration with adults and relationships with students is continuous.

While the effect of distance learning itself is small (0.14) we will need to look beyond that to methods of teaching to see greater impact. Leveraging interactive video (0.54) will have a greater impact on student learning.

• Optimize social interactions (we do not want to be talked at, but learn with)
• Check for understanding (listen to the feedback from the students about their learning even more when you do not have the usual sues of the classroom>)
• Make sure there is a balance between the precious knowledge and the deep thinking(too often online formeres the former over the latter.)
  
  

*Understand what it means to be a learner online. When the usual peer interactions are often not as present, the teacher’s observational skills are different, and there is too often an overemphasis on content and repetition.*

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