I think we can all agree that students who were already challenging didn't get any less challenging during this distance learning, right? These past few weeks I've been hung up on, muted out and yelled at and let's be honest everything is different and students are stressed. Stressful brains can't learn nor do they want to engage with someone who has previously been known to teach them things. I've felt like distance learning has brought me back to the beginning with some of my students. Is it frustrating? Yes. Do I have any control of it? Absolutely not. Right now I'm making the best of the time I have with my students and my time with my students is over Zoom. Here are my top 5 ways I'm keeping my most challenging students engaged over zoom:
1.) Structure and choices! Make your zoom call predictable. Students are more likely to engage in things that are familiar when everything else around them is chaotic. My structure varies from student to student. Some students we do a social story, some calming strategies and then a game. Some of my students respond well to a feelings check in, academic work review and then a game. I also give my students a sense of control in their sessions. 'What do you want to do first, your social story or a game?' Many of these students with control insecurities are really struggling during this time as they are constantly denied privileges due to the restrictions we are currently facing. Do what works best for each student and make it consistent!
2.) Check in and validate feelings, but don't dwell on them. At the beginning of sessions, I do a feelings check in. Some students are able to process and tell me how they've been feeling and others respond better to visually supported prompts to pick an emotion. Once I feel students have told me what they wanted to, or not wanted to, we move on. If I continue to dwell or dive deeper into their feelings I tend to lose the flow of our session and can be intruding on their feelings.
3.) Play games! Every student loves a game (even your most reluctant students, I promise). It's taken me a bit to figure out what each student likes, however it's been worth it and has prolonged many of our sessions. You can even do games that don't have a definitive winner for those students who struggle with winning and losing (ex: I spy, scavenger hunt, hangman, etc.). I've found my students are more likely to comply and engage when they know we are playing a game. My students and I have been playing virtual connect 4. This game can be found in my TPT store!
4.) Ask questions! Some of your most reluctant students just respond well to conversation that keeps them guessing and intrigued. Ask what if or this/that questions! For example: Would you rather ride a skateboard or go swimming? What if you could buy a pet, what pet would you buy? You can google and find lists of fun questions to ask students. One of my students loves to start his session with 2 questions and end our session with 1 question. It keeps him engaged the whole time knowing he still has a question to answer.
5.) Be prepared and keep the pace quick. Have all the documents/pdfs you want to share pulled up and ready, outline the session to your students and keep at a pace that is best for your student. Throw a quick visual schedule up on the screen showing what you are going to do! I've found a more intentionally set zoom session goes better and more efficiently than one where I have had nothing prepared or have planned to just check in on their feelings. Students want to see you, but they also need to stay engaged. They have so many distractions going on at home right now, think about the best ways to keep them in that moment with you.
Above all else, the number one thing I feel I keep stressing is relationships. Focus on maintaining and growing relationships with your students. Focus on those physiological and safety parts of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. This will make the transition back to school that much easier. " Kids don't learn from people they don't like " - Rita Pierson. And they can hang up the zoom session on teachers they don't like too.
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