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Engagement is More Challenging Than Ever
You're a fifteen year old, left at home to learn online while your parents are out at work. You have a pantry of snacks in the kitchen and your favorite video games in the den. Your bed is warm and cozy in the other room and all you want to do is jump into it. Your laptop is on the couch in the living room and class starts in five minutes...what are you going to do?
Now multiply that decision making by 9 class periods a day, for 3-5 days a week.
Can you blame kids for not being able to stay engaged in your online lesson? Willpower has its limitations.
Engagement is more challenging than ever, especially in the virtual and hybrid settings. Today I want to share some strategies I use to engage ALL learners in hybrid learning.
Principles of Hybrid Learning Engagement
I have adopted these principles as ways to guide my instruction to make sure my students have equal opportunities to engage in class.
It is crucial to explicitly engage BOTH types of learners equally - virtual and in-person.
BOTH types of learners must be able to collaborate.
Wait time needs to be given to both groups.
Here are the strategies and resources I use to implement these principles.
1. Engage BOTH types of learners equally
The chat box is my biggest source of input from my virtual students in whole-class discussions. I find my students prefer to type their responses and I get more students participating than I do if I ask them to unmute. Unmuting can be awkward because there are no cues to go on to determine order of speaking and it's easy to just let the same person unmute each time.
I directly ask questions to either my in-person students, or my virtual student to explicitly put responsibility for engagement on them. One of my favorite strategies is to ask my virtual students to answer in the chat and then I ask my in-person students to predict what they wrote. "What do you think they said in the chat?!"
To make sure that the same student or two isn't holding the brunt of the responsibility for engagement I like to use tools like the website Flippity to hold students accountable. Flippity has many features but the random name picker is my favorite!
I constantly poll both types of learners. I ask students to rate their understanding throughout class on a 1 - 5 scale. In-person students hold their number up on their hand and virtual students type their number in the chat. I also ask in-person students to give me a thumbs-up often if they had success with the skill we are practicing. I will then ask my virtual students to "throw some celebration in the chat" by typing something like “woot woot” or “let’s gooo!” Then I shout out them out to congratulate them. The Google Chrome Extension, formally called Nod, is a great way to create opportunities for this type of engagement too. The extension offers a few small reactions like thumbs up, thumbs down, celebrate, etc.
2. Allow BOTH types of learners to collaborate.
I use Google Meet breakout rooms to connect students and allow them to engage in group work. I've found that giving students very specific instructions and structured time is key here to ensure everyone is engaged. I caution you to think proactively about your students safety in these breakout rooms since they are very difficult to monitor. If your students are responsible and you have established a level of trust then it's definitely worth a try. If you have concerns you could also craft breakout rooms so that at least one member of the group is learning in-person so that you can still monitor the group.
Jamboard is one of my favorite tools for collaborative work. You can read more about this strategy in my past blog post. The photo to the right shows an activity that I used in breakout rooms to engage all learners. Students were assigned one task to complete as a group and each student had to complete a section of the Jamboard, which encouraged prolonged engagement and discussion as students held each other accountable to properly complete the task.
3. Wait time needs to be given to both groups.
Wait time is a crucial component of effective instruction no matter the setting. To allow for wait time in the chat on Google Meet I use a strategy called the "Waterfall Chat." First, ask students to think of their answer to a question. Next, they will type their answer in the chat but they will wait to hit send until you give the cue. This wait time is intended to help everyone have a equitable chance at participating and sharing their thinking. You can use whatever goofy way you want to let your students finally hit send. My favorite is "3...2...1...waterfall!" I learned this strategy from the incredible Emma Pass, educator and author of The Hybrid Teacher: Survival Guide, which can be downloaded for FREE here!
I've found the biggest equalizer for wait time is allowing all students to contribute their input using resources like Pear Deck, Desmos and Padlet. I went into depth about these tools in a prior post, but I can't say enough how important they have been to allow students the proper time to complete their thinking and to stay engaged in the lesson.
Share your questions, comments and experiences in the comments below!
Share you wins and challenges of hybrid teaching!
What is your go-to tool for engagement?
What questions do you have about hybrid teaching?
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