• Field Guide
  • Blended Learning
    • Blog
    • Certification
    • Phase One
  • Dynaguide.org
  • Free Workshop
    • Field Guide Coaching Series
    • Student Engagement Workshop
    • Small Group Workshop
  • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Store
  • Newsletters
  Blended Learning With Marcia Kish
  • Field Guide
  • Blended Learning
    • Blog
    • Certification
    • Phase One
  • Dynaguide.org
  • Free Workshop
    • Field Guide Coaching Series
    • Student Engagement Workshop
    • Small Group Workshop
  • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Store
  • Newsletters

Weekly Blend August 26th, 2021

8/27/2021

15 Comments

 
Picture
Welcome to another school year and another edition of the Weekly Blend with myself, Marcia Kish. I am excited that you have found this blog and hopefully subscribed to our YouTube Channel. My goal is to share, guide, and be the idea person for Blended Learning that you are looking for to help support your classroom, school, and district. 
​
With the Hybrid teaching behind most of our schools, I am looking forward to implementing Blended Learning into the onsite and virtual classrooms again this year. As I move forward with Coaching the Three Phases of Blended Learning, I remind teachers that even though the COVID shutdowns effective our classrooms, that Hybrid Teaching was challenging, and that moving back into a social distance classroom is complex, that all educators are true heroes. Without our educators being brave and willing to try something new, the children would have suffered. So first and foremost, thank you. Thank you for being Brave. Thank you for sticking your neck out there and trying. Thank you for failing and trying the next day again. Thank you for being the amazing human beings that are guiding support for our children. Thank you. 
Picture

Getting Started with Blended Learning 

Wow, what a summer of professional development learning opportunities for schools across the country.  With both virtual and onsite options, I was on the road meeting people for the first time, introducing myself to educators that I worked with for 365 days, and connecting again with educators from pre-COVID days.  It feels great to be back.  

In this weekly edition, I will be sharing out ideas for
  • Getting started with small group instruction with our Weekly Deployment Plan 
  • Phase One in action from Splendora ISD
  • Organization Tips and Tricks 

Getting Started with Small Groups

The idea of adding in one thing to another hectic year is unreasonable.  However, small group instruction could actually eliminate some of the stress from the "COVID Slide" or Learning Gaps.  In this section of the Weekly Blend, I am going to talk about how to start small with breaking apart the lesson and meeting with groups of students while other students are working on independent practice or digital content.  I call these different activities learning studios. 
Picture

Studios Explained


The Small Group Studio is conducted by the classroom teacher with a small group of students. The classroom teacher pulls back four to eight students to reteach or teach the content standards. During the small group studio, the teacher will look for misconceptions and teach new content to the group of students or even to an individual student. The teacher will showcase the content standards through anchor charts, manipulatives, dry erase boards, sample reading passages, and so much more. Throughout the Three Phases of Blended Learning, the teacher will eventually include quick exit tickets, use data to drive the instruction, as well as use the small group studio time for a data meeting with each student to explore progress, data from online programs, and to set individual academic goals.
Picture

Picture
The Independent Studio provides time for the students to practice, explore, research, read, and process the content that has been provided through other studios, during whole group instruction time, or from previous lessons. Examples of independent learning activities can studio include silent reading, practice problems, writing, researching topics, extended response questions, online games like Kahoot, GimKit, Blooket, Quizizz, and BoomCards. ​

Now let’s take time to explore the Digital Content learning studio.  Out of all of the learning studios, I find myself explaining what is and what is not consider digital content.  The definition of digital content according to the Three Phases of Blended Learning is a learning environment where the students are learning, relearning, or using an adaptive online program that aligns with the small group standard.  A digital content  website or application should also provide the teacher with some form of data.  That data then could be used to help form the differentiated small group studios.
Picture

Picture
Are you ready to learn about the Future Ready Studio? For whatever reason, the Future Ready Studio tends to be one of the biggest hold-ups for educators while deploying the Three Phases of Blended Learning. But let's take a moment to explain, showcase, and provide concrete examples of future-ready activities deployed in the studio. It might make the studio a little bit easier to create.  
According to the Three Phases of Blended Learning, the definition of future-ready activities states that the studio contains an aspect of creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, or connection to self, school, city, county, state, country, or the world. The future-ready skills are the Four C's of learning. ​

Deployment Plan

What I am about to showcase is a GUIDE and a RESOURCE.  I am showcasing examples of how to deploy small group instruction through the Three Phases of Blended Learning Model.   Please use the is Deployment Plan as it aligns to your curriculum and pacing guide.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me for help. 
Picture

Picture
Week One:
  • Start out slow - Pick One class, one Prep, or one subject area to try out the Blended Learning Studios 
  • Try to Deploy Two Studios two different days 
  • Make sure to include Small Group Instruction each Studio Day
  • Add a checklist for the students to mark off as they travel through each studio

Picture
Week Two:
  • This week try to implement another type of Studio. (I recommend Digital Content)
  • Continue to practice routines with the students 
  • If your groups are too big, you can always run two sets of studios at the same time.  Meaning, Groups 1 and 2 are one side of the room and Group A and B are on the other side of the room.  Both groups are running through the same studios. 

Picture
Week Three:
  • The day before the test, try to deploy three studios. 
  • Before the test think about adding in a mini project that allows the students to showcase the learning and understanding of the content through a Future Ready Activity. 
  • Make sure to set the timer for 10 to 12 minutes for each studio. 
  • Good Luck, You've Got This.

Picture
Week Four:
  • Once you tried three studios, try them two more times. 
  • Talk to the students and explain the studios
  • Reinforce the classroom procedures
  • Don't for get to generate a checklist for each studio day. 

The Deployment Plan for the rest of the year will be posted through out upcoming Blogs and in the Three Phases of Blended Learning Guide Book. (Coming Soon) 

Phase One in Action

My first onsite coaching session of the 2021/2022 School year was at Splendora ISD in Texas. I had the pleasure of visiting with High School, Middle School, Intermediate, and Elementary classroom teachers. For only three weeks into the school year, these teaches were rocking checklists, learning studios, and so much more. I am so proud of the hard work that they all accomplished in such a short amount of time. 
My journey with Splendora ISD started in July with a three-day workshop with a cohort of educators. Together we went through getting started with Blended Learning, Phase One, Phase Two, and using data to drive the small group instruction examples. We even had time to plan together a lesson to be used at the end of August. 
​Below are examples and photos of all of the educators' hard work. 


ELAR Classroom In a Phase One 

All of the Splendora ISD Blended Learning Cohort Team did an amazing job.  Each team member earned their Phase One Blended Learning Sticker. --- Congratulations.  

Below I am showcasing one classroom that had all four studios up and running.  This is a quick view of Ms. Martin's 7th Grade ELAR classroom. Some of her key elements of her Studio Day include: 
  • Studio Experts
  • Checklist 
  • Small Group Instruction 
  • Future Ready Activities
  • Flexible Seating
  • Data Trackers
  • And so much more. 
15 Comments
Matt Gallaway link
10/11/2021 07:42:29 am

Thanks for the learning opportunities.

Reply
Henry Stolly link
10/11/2021 07:43:26 am

Great learning opportunity!

Reply
JROB
10/11/2021 07:44:27 am

Good Ideas!

Reply
Mark Brunswick link
10/11/2021 07:44:36 am

Great learning

Reply
cody Sigrist
10/11/2021 07:45:27 am

I'm trying to be better on the deployment, and your guide is helpful, thank you!

Reply
Jeremy Clifton link
10/11/2021 07:46:26 am

Thank you for the new information. Resourceful in regards to small groups

Reply
Jen Brown
10/11/2021 08:03:20 am

Thank you for the videos and all of the visual help.

Reply
Stacey Holycross
10/11/2021 08:13:26 am

Thanks for the ideas.

Reply
Leslie Regula
10/11/2021 09:30:18 am

Great video with lots of helpful tips. It's great to see it in action in a real life classroom!

Reply
Erin Hoyng
10/11/2021 10:44:23 am

These are great ideas! I appreciate the breakdown in this blog!

Reply
Desnee Wolters
10/11/2021 11:48:00 am

Thanks for the great examples to help us implement blended learning in our classrooms.

Reply
April Easton
10/11/2021 12:04:15 pm

Is a Studio Expert an absolute necessity? I can see my high schoolers in some classes not wanting to do this, as they will want to get started at their own studio as quickly as possible.

Also, how do you choose the Studio Expert?

Reply
Jim Hughes
10/11/2021 12:06:28 pm

Thank you for the introduction. I am working out how to use these strategies in my room.

Reply
Robin Boots
10/11/2021 03:12:53 pm

Thanks for the reminder on Future ready activities. That's the one I always forget.

Reply
Mary Noffsinger link
10/12/2021 07:17:34 am

I like the idea of a studio expert for the future ready studio.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    AuthorS

    Marcia Kish - Blended and Personalized Learning coach that designed the Three Phases of Blended Learning

    Jeff Kish - Coding Expert that showcases how to implement coding into the classroom. 

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Created By:
DSD Professional Development 
All rights reserved 

E: marcia@blendedlearningpd.com
w: blendedlearningpd.com
w: dynaguide.org
T: @dsdPD

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Field Guide
  • Blended Learning
    • Blog
    • Certification
    • Phase One
  • Dynaguide.org
  • Free Workshop
    • Field Guide Coaching Series
    • Student Engagement Workshop
    • Small Group Workshop
  • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Store
  • Newsletters