Ways To Have Students Participate Digitally.

Many of us are either already teaching virtually or we will soon be doing that.  I also know that many school districts are switching back and forth between in person and virtually so it is important to know of ways to keep student participation up in a virtual climate.  

It is important to do this because you have students who will always try to be the first one in with the answers and others who will never say a word but for students to learn, they have to participate.

Digital platforms also make it harder to carry out conversations because you can't "see" others who raise their hands, or who just unmuted to talk but the host can see it.  In addition, not everyone has the ability to participate digitally so when we discuss participation, we have to talk about having everyone involved, not just those with access to Zoom or Google. Since most people have cell phones, it is possible for students who do not have good internet or a computer to call in via phone so they can still participate in synchronous learning.

Lets start with ways to get students involved virtually or via synchronous learning.  One way is to provide the material to students ahead of time to read and answer associated questions.  When the online meeting starts, students share their responses with each other while the teacher draws a picture or web showing the flow of the conversation.  At the end of the conversation, the teacher shows students the web so they can analyze it and reflect upon who spoke, who listened, and who used ideas as a foundation to build upon.

Don't be afraid of using the chat feature in Google Meet or Zoom.  One can ask a question, let the students put their answers in the chat box but not send them until the teacher says share.  Teachers can also to check for understanding by having students provide a thumbs up or thumbs down. Chat boxes are also great for having students ask questions, provide answers, or even answer True or False questions and providing justification.

It is possible to do Think-Pair-Share digitally by providing prompts and having students divided into smaller rooms to discuss things and come up with answers they recorded in google documents on on google slides for accountability.  When they returned to the group, volunteers from each group shared their conclusions.  One can take this a slight different direction by assigning small groups of students a math problem to complete.  Once they've gotten an answer, they share it with others using the information in the document or slide.

One can also combine asynchronous with synchronous learning by having students watch videos and completing online activities at home before coming to class digitally. Once in the virtual classroom, students can ask questions, split them into smaller groups for small group work, and clarify misunderstandings.  

As for asynchronous learning, use the question feature in Google classroom to ask students questions and have them answer.  In math, the question might be something like "In this problem would you distribute or divide first?  Explain your answer."  or it could be asking students to ask questions about what they didn't understand in the lesson.

One can also have students create a short video showing how to solve an assigned problem.  The teacher would up load the videos to say google classroom so students can watch each one and they are required to post a question to two other videos.  

It is good to know there are ways to increase student participation.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  have a great day.