On March 31st, 2020, we gathered with more than 100 world language educators to discuss and explore the ways in which we can reach our early childhood and elementary students during this time of distance learning. For many, this has been both worrisome and stressful. It only seems natural that we would question how to teach these ages virtually. How do you do it? What material do you use? Do you assign virtual activities and worksheets? Shouldn’t the kids be playing and doing things? Those are questions that many had and that we addressed during our time together!
A major takeaway for the participants was understanding what we consider developmentally and age-appropriate instruction as it relates to remote learning. We explain below what we believe defines appropriate and inappropriate instruction.
As teachers of early childhood and elementary students, we now must reimagine how we meaningfully work with our students without too much screen time. If we were in the classroom, we would not allow our students to spend their time with us glued to devices. Distance learning is not an excuse to allow it. Consider what you would do in the classroom… Perhaps read books, sing songs, dance, crafts, etc. Now, think about how you can carry out those activities from afar—recording yourself with video or maybe just audio, providing detailed instructions for the adults at home, or even tasking your students with exploring their home classrooms (in the target language of course!). A checklist with images and a link to audio (a scavenger hunt) would work wonders, expose the students to the language, and keep them away from the computer!
Before ending this post, it is crucial the highlight the importance of some kind of synchronous offering. Even if not everyone is able to attend, it is important to have something available. And with permission from the administration and the parents, you can even record the classes and disseminate them after so that no students miss out! Many teachers ask why and even express that this causes them discomfort… At this time, we must consider the social-emotional needs of our students. They need to see and hear us. They need to be seen and to be heard. They need some of the comforts that they once had in their classrooms. We must show that we, too, might feel uncomfortable with the camera on because it is our vulnerability that will give them the strength and courage needed to join the class and connect with us. At that point, our students will be even more receptive to learning with us just as they did in the classroom.
And there you have it: a snippet of last week’s webinar!
Thank you for taking the time to read this post and an extra thank-you to those who enriched our discussions last Tuesday! If you would like access to this webinar, please email us at info@langlearningnetwork.com!
Sean is LLN's founder and CEO and an accomplished world language teacher. Sean has extensive experience developing and implementing online and onsite nursery-12 language programs.
Funding, or the lack thereof, is a problem that schools across the nation face. It is often the reason for cutting valuable programs, losing talented teaching, and diluting what it is that schools are able to offer to their communities. Fortunately, there ...
As educators, we strive to be flexible in order to meet the changing needs and interests of our students. However, no one anticipated that we would face COVID-19 and be truly challenged like never before. In some areas, it happened (literally) overnight: t...