Take Note is not the traditional note-taking or outlining of a lecture you may initially connect with. Instead, it promotes students to actively engage in the learning with the opportunity to reflect, take notes, and engage with discussion after the learning. This thinking routine helps students develop their memory and focus during learning by NOT worrying about capturing all of the details in traditional lecture notes. It supports students in learning to use their brains more efficiently by inviting them to distill out the key points of the learning they are presented with. 

This strategy will be best used synchronously when first being introduced and for a fair amount of time following the introduction. However, as students become more familiar with the routine, the learning could be done asynchronously. For example, students might watch a video prior to meeting for class, take note following the viewing, and come with notes to be shared in a class discussion. This independence is the goal and requires student understanding of the importance of the routine.

If using this strategy from a distance, a great tool for students to digitally record their notes could be Jamboard. We’ve created a template that could be used for students to share their notes and discuss the ideas of others.

To create and use this template:

• We added the four questions to each frame for easy reference. 
• Each frame has 5 numbered squares that will be used by a different student in that group. If needed you can add more squares for your groups.  
• Frames were given different identifying colors to distinguish different groups
• When students move to discuss the notes of their classmates, they will be assigned a different color frame (group) to discuss. 
• Each student will read aloud and respond to the square that matches the square number on which they recorded their notes.​

Below you will find a table with suggestions of how to tweak the Take Note Thinking Routine to be more effective in alternative learning environments.

Click here to learn more about COVID Cohorts.

We would love to hear how you have used Take Note with your students! Share your story in the comments!

​~Mindy and Gina

Recent times have forced the landscape of our classrooms to evolve. The question I often ask myself is, "Will we ever go back?" I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is that it is imperative that we adjust highly effective instructional strategies to engage students in hybrid environments to prepare for whatever the future holds for education.

When I started to think about instructional strategies that could be most easily modified for this type of environment, Socratic Seminar was the first one that came to mind. Socratic Seminar provides a structure for students to discuss a question posed by a classmate or teacher (usually dependent on a text). Often during Socratic Seminar there are two groups: an inner circle and an outer circle. Both inner and outer circles have roles during the Socratic Seminar (also know as a fishbowl). 

In a hybrid environment, the inner circle could be the face-to-face students while the outer circle could be the remote students. Traditionally, the job of the outer circle is to be the observers and summarizers of the discussion of the inner circle. However, engagement in this role might be challenging for remote students. In addition to being an observer and summarizer, a suggestion would be that the outer circle continues to pose deeper questions throughout the discussion and shares their own thoughts through a backchannel chat, using a tool such as YoTeach or the Q and A feature of Google Slides.

Don’t be afraid to switch these roles! If your remote learners are lacking engagement, allow them to be the inner circle and project the video-call for the face-to-face students to observe in class. Face-to-face students can also pose questions for deeper conversations through the tools listed above.

A few things to take into consideration would be: 

• Have the face-to-face inner circle seated in a horseshoe, as opposed to a circle, so that students viewing from home are able to see and hear the face-to-face students.
• Questions being posed in class should be re-voiced loudly and clearly, while also being recorded in the chat feature of a video call, on Google Slides, or a table in a Google Doc (see examples). Both circles should have equal access to the classroom discussion. 
• Also, to keep remote students engaged, assigning a face-to-face student (or even the teacher) with the task of interacting with the outer circle and sharing to the inner circle will help all students feel heard. 
• Projecting the outer circle backchannel discussion to a classroom screen will support the interaction of the two circles, as well.
• ​Take the experience to the next level with an OWL or a SWIVL. These devices can help facilitate a better viewing experience.

What instructional strategies have you modified to suit hybrid environments? We'd love to hear about it in the comments!

~Mindy

Additional Resources:
Socratic Seminars: Let's Build a Culture of Student-Led Discussion
Fishbowl Instructional Strategy
5 Steps to a Successful Socratic Seminar

This December we bring you Premium Pear Deck! Make sure to follow along with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays to learn more about your Premium Pear Deck Account as a GWAEA Educator! Let's get started!

​Google Slides just got better.
​
Pear Deck Premium was recently purchased for all of our Iowa educators as an excellent add-on for Google Slides for teaching in both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. It allows the teacher to create and add interactive elements to a Google Slides presentation to engage students, gauge social emotional well-being, and gain data and feedback about student learning. Additionally, Pear Deck allows students to respond during an instructor-paced or student-paced mode, providing a variety of learning opportunities for any learning environment.

To get started with Pear Deck there are a few things you need to do. First of all, log into Pear Deck by using your school domain Google account to authenticate. Once you are logged in, your profile picture should be wearing a crown (see below) to signify you have a Premium account.

Next, start a Google Slides Presentation and click on ‘Add-ons’. Then, select ‘Get Add-ons’ and search for, select, and install Pear Deck. Now Pear Deck will be accessible in each Google Slides presentation you initiate.

Lastly, you may want to install the Pear Deck Power Up Chrome Extension. It helps run videos and gifs more smoothly in Pear Deck. After installing it, you will see it in your Google Slides toolbar. 

Now you are ready to explore Pear Deck! By clicking on the Pear Deck icon in your Google Slides toolbar, you will instantly open up a side panel to help you begin building. At the top of the panel, you will find a template library full of lesson builders, learning development, and content area slides ready to be selected and added to your Slides.

Feeling creative? You can build your own interactive slides from scratch by choosing a question type to add to the Slide and building from there. Additionally, you can add audio files to your Slides for a multimedia approach to your questions (more to come about that in a later post).

A few things to consider during the building phase of your lesson:

1. Add a social emotional check in from the template library at the start of each lesson.
2. Decide on whether the Pear Deck will be shared as an instructor-paced lesson (synchronous) or student-paced lesson (asynchronous). This might help form the types of Pear Deck templates/questions you choose. (Watch for a future blog post about why and when you might use these different paces.) 
3. Add content you would like students to engage with onto Slides between the added Pear Deck Slides, especially for student-paced lessons. Pear Deck Slides should be used as a processing, reflecting, connecting or formative assessment tool. 
4. Once your build is complete, it will be time to share the lesson with your students. In the side panel, you will find the green ‘Start Lesson’ button. Once you click this, it will give you two different options to deliver the lesson to your students. Choose instructor-paced or student-paced.

If you have chosen instructor-paced mode, students can go to joinpd.com and enter the code that is generated at this time. Or click on ‘Give Students a Link’ below the big pear and send the link through a Zoom/Meet chat or in your learning management system, like Google Classroom.

Now you are ready to play! We suggest pairing your Pear Deck with a colleague to try it out before using it with students. Let us know what questions you have! Check back on Thursday to learn when to use instructor-paced and student-paced sessions!

DLGWAEA's Pear Deck One-Pager
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck Handbook
Edtech Take Out: Episode 81: Perfect Pear Deck Presentations

We'd love to hear how you are using Pear Deck! Let us know in the comments below!

​~Mindy, Amber, and Beth

Why self-assessment?
Self-assessment provides students the opportunity to build awareness and reflect on what they understand and do not understand. Self-assessment provides students the opportunity to empower themselves through:

• Promoting the skills of reflective practice and self-monitoring. 
• Promoting academic integrity through student self-reporting of learning progress. 
• Developing self-directed learning. 
• Increasing student motivation. 
• Helping students develop a range of personal, transferable skills.
• Learn more about self-assessment from Cornell Center for Teaching Innovation

What is a single point rubric?
The first step is making sure students are able to identify where they are in the learning through self-assessment. This means providing them with a tool like a single point rubric. We first learned about single point rubrics from the amazing Jennifer Gonzales at the Cult of Pedagogy blog. With a single point rubric, you, as the teacher, provide students with one column of a traditional rubric and the students reflect and decide on whether they match it, or are below or above that place. Learn more about single-point rubrics from Jennifer Gonzalez.

• Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics
• Meet the Single Point Rubric

Why would we want to share a single point rubric with students?
By focusing on one criteria, it narrows and simplifies the learning path for students. This self-reflection through the single point rubric helps to determine if the student is on the path, off the path and needs reteaching, or ahead of the pack. Students will step up to the responsibility of identifying where they are at on this path and share their reflection and evidence back.

How will students use a single point rubric?
To introduce students to the use of a single-point rubric, consider the ‘I do, we do, you do’ structure. Providing students with a body of work (with low cognitive load) and working through the single-point rubric to assess gives students the opportunity to practice.
As students move to independently use a single-point rubric, giving them a space and giving them time to work on this within the classroom is essential. Whether you are asking them to physically look at work or giving them a digital space where they can compile their work, you need to make space for this reflection to happen with work that they have already completed. This process will not work overnight and will require modeling, patience, and perseverance.

• Digital Space through Google Slides coming during Part II of our series

What will teachers learn about the students when they go through this process?

• Identify where the gaps are in the instruction.
  
• Learn where instruction is the strongest. 
• Begin to see how students can be learners in the learning community.

What will students learn about themselves when they go through this process?

• Learning is a process.
• Identify personal gaps in the own learning. 
• Make personal connections across content lines.

Be part of the conversation! Share in the comments or reach out to us on Twitter--@DLGWAEA

~Beth, Amber, and Mindy

1. Concept maps are NOT graphic organizers. Instead, it is the process of organizing thoughts and key ideas.
2. Concept mapping is a scaffolded process facilitated by the teacher. Teachers help students identify the relationship between key terms by asking probing questions and providing language stems.
3. ​It is crucial to honor student voice and choice when concept mapping to support personal visualization of the connected concepts.

​~Gina Rogers
~Mindy Cairney