Making sure all students receive a strong education during challenging times

Every student deserves an education that prepares them to reach their full and unique potential. How can we deliver on this vision while meeting the demands of COVID-19?

Navigating the pandemic creates new challenges for educators as they implement effective remote, hybrid, and in-person teaching and learning for all students. The Parabola Project has assembled a growing list of starting-point resources below, including toolkits (full of strategies, ideas, and tips), practice guides, and examples from the field to help teachers modify in-person instruction, engage learners remotely, set up a simultaneous learning environment, meet individual needs, and partner with families at home.

Adjusting In-Person Instruction While Mitigating Health Risks

How can teachers effectively implement classroom practices like masking and physical distancing?

• Learning Together in Physically Distanced Classrooms– This toolkit offers strategies for teachers to incorporate one-on-one, small-group, and collaborative learning while staying physically distant.
  
• Building a “Mask Culture”– This toolkit helps educators develop mask-wearing as a cultural norm in their classrooms by sharing strategies, lesson plans, and examples.
  
• Welcoming Students Back with Joy– This example from Cudahy, WI shares ways leaders can welcome students back to the building with joy and celebration, while also implementing new safety policies.

Engaging Students Effectively During Remote and Hybrid Instruction

How can teachers design and implement instruction that supports learners working from outside the classroom?

• Design Factors that Drive High Quality K-12 Remote Learning– Educators need to understand and plan for the ways introducing both technology and distance can affect students’ remote learning experience. Dive into this guide to learn about the core design areas to focus on.
• Helping Students Build a Strong Foundation for Self-Direction in Remote Learning- Learning from home puts significantly more control in the hands of learners as they make decisions about how to engage in instruction. This guide offers foundational factors for teachers to support students to be successful.
• Bring Clarity and Consistency with Virtual Notebooks and Color-Coding– Read more about how teachers have prioritized clarity and consistency to provide stability for their students in a hybrid model who attend classes both in person and remotely.

Working with In-Person and Remote Students during Simultaneous Learning

How can teachers design and implement instruction that supports learners working from outside the classroom?

• Bridging the Gap Between Remote and In-Person Learning– Grappling with creating effective learning experiences for students in your in-person classroom and students learning remotely at the same time? This guide shares specific strategies that help ensure student engagement, ownership, and connection.
  
• Communicate the Plan– When working with students in-person, remote, and within a hybrid and/or simultaneous learning environment, it is important that they know what to do, when to do it, and how so they can engage meaningfully wherever they are physically.
  
• Multi-Modal Planning- Learn how to plan using a variety of modalities (synchronous, asynchronous, analog, and digital) throughout the day and even during a single lesson to ensure engagement and access for all students.

Understanding and Targeting Students’ Individual Needs

How can teachers use data and practical strategies to support learner progress?

• Starting Points for Identifying and Supporting Individual Student Needs– This toolkit includes suggestions on how to assess key strengths and gaps in both academic and non-academic areas and offers practical ideas for providing targeted support with a focus on two key domains: social-emotional learning and academics.
  
• Integrating Specific Blended Learning Practices to Meet Individual Needs During Remote Instruction- Effective remote instruction does not depend on a specific tech tool or modality – but rather on how well educators implement any tool to support instruction. Learn more about leveraging blended tools to meet students’ needs.
• Using Virtual Oral Assessments to Gauge Mastery- Learn how a middle school math department began administering one-to-one virtual oral assessments to allow students to authentically demonstrate what they know and to accurately gauge a student’s mastery level.

Partnering with Families to Support Student Learning

How can teachers tap into students’ at-home resources, including guardians and families, to advance goals?

• Communicating About Reopening Measures with Families– School leaders must proactively establish and consistently follow through on communications with families and guardians about plans for school reopening. This toolkit offers strategies for communication, sample messages, and ideas for outreach.
  
• Learning Heroes: Family Engagement Resources- Given hybrid and virtual learning, strong home/school partnerships have never been more important. Students will need teachers and parents to be allies. This resource site from Learning Heroes offers discussion guides, outreach ideas, tips, and more.
• Helping Students Build a Strong Foundation for Self-Directed Learning Through Family Engagement-Parents and members of the household can become critical supports for learning. They may not, however, actually know the best way to offer help or reach out when support is needed. This guide offers strategies to engage families and guardians as learning partners.