Blended LearningIn an Elementary Reading Class

Instructional Context

• Heterogeneous group of 4th and 5th graders.

• Social Studies is integrated into the 90- Minute Reading Block.

• Reading Workshop Model– Mini-Lesson (15- 20

minutes)– Autonomous Time (45 –

60 minutes)– Share (10 – 15 minutes)

Learning Goal• Students will use the

Monitoring Comprehension Rubric (left) to monitor their progress on the learning goals as we progress through the unit.

• This module focus on Learning Goal 1: I can listen to my inner conversation and leave tracks of my thinking.

Goal Setting• Before the mini-lesson

begins, students set personal goals for Autonomous Time (AT) using the page shown.

• I will be monitoring during this time and providing guidance as needed.

• Students will return to their goals after autonomous time and reflect on their progress toward meeting their goals.

Technology • Students will use Diigo to

read content related text and leave marginalia (tracks).

• Edmodo is our free-online system that will allow the students to interact, safely online.

• Evernote will be used to keep an online portfolio and evidence of student-teacher conferences.

The BlendFace-to-Face• Mini-Lesson• Student Conferences• Share

Online• Autonomous Time• Student Conferences

Mini-Lesson

1. Students set their goals (~ 2 minutes). 2. Lesson on reading strategies (~ 15 minutes)

– Above: These are examples from lessons that I did with my students last year on inferring. The first image shows student work that was either done on paper or on Edmodo. As a class we were working on rating the samples using the scale. The second image we were working on explaining why the work should be rated a certain way.

Autonomous Time

• Students share their work with their partners using Edmodo. • Students will be asked to provide feedback to their partners

in the discussion.• I will also respond to the discussion with targeted feedback.

Interacting on Edmodo

Autonomous Time

• During AT, students read content based text.

• Students will be reading text online using Diigo to leave tracks of their thinking. – Top Left: Students

can leave tracks using Diigo.

– Bottom Left: Diigo keeps all tracks recorded for easy reference.

Reading with Diigo

Autonomous TimeStudent Conferences

• Individual conferences with students (~ 5 minutes).• Some conferences will focus on things that I am noticing in their

Edmodo posts. Other conferences will focus on what I notice the reader doing at that moment.

• Students will be keeping conference notes in their personal Evernote that will be shared with me– As you can see in the video, in the past all responsibility for keeping a record

of the conference was mine, next year it will be the students’ responsibility.

Click Me

Share

1. Students reflect on their goals, give themselves an overall rating for AT and explain why.

2. I will circulate and check off on students’ reflections.3. I will also be able to help guide students with their reflections if needed. 4. Partners share their reflections and a few students share with the class.5. This is also a time, where I am able to extract what they have learned about the

American Revolution and add it to a rolling document on the Promethean to capture their learning.

Assessment

Face-to-Face• Teacher feedback through

student conferences

Online• Peer feedback on Edmodo• Teacher feedback on

Edmodo

Reading (always grounded in the rubric)

Social StudiesOn the first day of the American Revolution unit, the students will take a pre-assessment. They will answer the following question: Tell me everything you know about the American Revolution. From then on, every other week we will take time to answer that same question. Each time they answer the question, their response will be reviewed and kept in a portfolio. The reason we assess social studies this way is because it helps us keep the focus on reading. At the end of the American Revolution unit there will be a project that requires the students to use the content that they have learned over the course of the two-month unit.