Engaging students in the online world can look very different than engagement in the traditional brick and mortar classroom. When I first started teaching online, I found myself falling back to that basic direct instruction lesson because I wasn’t as familiar with what needed to be done to engage students digitally in the lesson. I also found that the number of distractions our students face while trying to learn remotely is far greater than those they deal with inside of the school building. So, I have had to revamp my bag of teaching tools, so to speak. Here are some quick tips to get students engaged as you deliver your lessons digitally and remotely.
Using the Chat Feature to Foster Discussion.
This is a tool I rely heavily on while delivering lessons. If you are using Zoom or other remote teaching software, there is likely a feature that allows students to chat responses to you and to each other. I use this feature to create student engagement in two ways.
‘Hold and Hit’ Response. It is easy to pose a question and simply ask students to respond in chat, but I found that my high flyers or quick thinkers often did the work for the other students - and this, therefore, did not promote student engagement. We have all learned about the importance of wait time, but how do we do this using chat? I ask students that thought provoking question and tell them ‘hold’ while all students think; they are not to hit submit until I say ‘hit.’ Then, all students have time to think, process, and type their responses. As the chat fills with responses, we can continue the conversation/learning as we reflect on what was said.
Think, PAIR, Share. I, personally, am a big fan of using think, pair, share as a tool in my direct instruction lessons. Any opportunity I can take to get my students talking about their learning with each other, I will take it! This can also happen through a chat feature. I can pose that same question or idea to my group, but first ask students to chat with each other before sharing out in chat. Students can private chat each other as they discuss. A couple of tips for pairing students:
You can have each student raise his/her hand. In Zoom, you can see your participant list in the order that they raised their hands. You can then tell students to pair with the person next to them on the list. You can call this out to students as well to help avoid confusion. This works best if you don’t always have the same students in your sessions. My students have the option to watch the recordings of sessions, so I will often have some variations on students within the live sessions.
You can pair students ahead of time and show a slide with the pairings.
Using the Whiteboard Tools to Foster Engagement.
I also use this option a lot in my online lessons. I can pose a question or thought out to students and allow them space on the whiteboard (the slide) to respond using the text tools provided. I have several methods for using this option:
The Blank Screen. It really is as simply as putting that question or thought at the top of the screen and allow space beneath for students to type.
The Grid Screen. I have started using this idea more recently. I do the same thing as above, but create a quick table on the PPT or Google Slide to give each student their own space to leave a response. Often, I put students names in each box for accountability. This takes a bit of time to set up, but you can save that slide to use again and again. This does rely on the fact that you will have the same set of students in each session. That may not be possible right now, so blank boxes where students can add their own name works well, too. This grid system keeps the screen a bit more organized as students can type over one another on occasion. You can also get a quick check of your students understandings before moving on.
The Rubric Check-in. To get a quick check for understanding, I use my PowerPoint or Google Slide to share a rubric like the image to the right. Then students can put their initials in the box that applies if you are looking for specifics on each student. If your students are not comfortable sharing openly on the slide itself, they could private chat you their response as well. If you are looking for more of a general class understanding, students could circle the box that applies.
The Emoji Check-in. A fun way to get a quick check in on your students is the emoji check-in. I just place a variety of emoji emotions along the bottom of the slide. I always include the happy emoji, the frustrated emoji, and the confused emoji. You can also include thumbs up/down emojis. Then, as you finish explaining a concept/skill, you can ask students to circle the emoji that best describes their understanding.
Assess the Examples. I love having students explore mentor texts before beginning a new writing unit. To get students engaged with this process, I ask them to assess the examples. We take a look at several examples together and students work together to assess each with the rubric that will also assess their future writing. They can use the annotate tools or whiteboard tools to mark the rubric and provide text feedback. Simply create a Powerpoint slide with the rubric or switch the sharing options to the Word/Google Doc version of the rubric. Students can still mark the rubric with their thoughts. This can lead to a meaningful discussion with students about writing!
Use Breakout Rooms for Small Group Discussions
Pose a discussion question to students and then use the breakout rooms to allow students to chat with one another on the topic. Zoom has a great tool where you can send out a short message to all groups before returning them to the main room. I often use this feature to post a second question after a bit of time has passed OR to remind students to pick a representative to share the ideas back to the whole group.
Use Quizziz or Kahoot to Play Games with Content.
Many of us are likely already familiar with these tools, and the great news is that they work even better in a digital setting. Check out these great tools to gamify your online instruction. Quizziz Link. Kahoot Link.
Use the Polling Tools to Check for Understanding.
The polling feature will look different depending on the application you are using. I know many schools are using Zoom, but most classroom sharing sites will contain this feature in some aspect. In Zoom, you can create the poll prior to class starting. You can ask the question right within the poll and ask students to respond. You can also place the question on your PPT slide and give students an A, B, C, or D option in the polls. You still need to set this up before class, but you can leave the responses generic so you can ask multiple polls during class if you wish. You can also pull a report after the class to check for student understanding (and to see who participated). I use this feature more in Blackboard Collaborate (a different type of video conferencing software) than I do in Zoom. Blackboard Collaborate or BBC is another video conferencing system. Zoom, for this specific purpose, is not as user friendly for the teacher because you cannot see which student has selected which response until after class. If your district is using Blackboard Collaborate, you will have much more functionality with this. You can ask True/False questions and multiple choice questions. You can see which student placed which response in real time as well. For Zoom users, I will often use this as an exit ticket to close the class, or as a mini-quiz feature instead of a classroom participation and engagement tool.
Use a Google Form Exit Ticket.
Because my students have the option of attending the live session or watching the recording of the session, I always use a Google Form exit ticket to assess understanding and check-in with students. I ask specific content questions or any critical discussion questions to allow students to summarize their thoughts on this Google Form. Then, as I check responses, I can get an overview of my students understandings in this topic, as well as check for students who did not complete the required work.
Engaging students in an online lesson is still possible! I have included a few additional tech tool options in my previous post on creating a e-learning/remote learning lessons. Check out this post for more ideas!
I have almost 50 digital units for sale in my TpT store to help you get started with online teaching if you are interested. You can take these digital lessons and add in some of these engagement tools to create meaningful learning for your students. Check this out if you are looking for some prepared digital units! A few of these are linked below as well. Be sure to check out my freebie library for some free digital units as well!
