In this post we looked at how to start the planning process so we’re ready for disruption in our teaching situation. Today we’ll look at an emerging framework for planning distance, hybrid, and in-person learning experiences.
The Problem
Many educators are being asked to plan for multiple instructional pathways simultaneously. One is in-person, which can come with some real restrictions on activities. The other is virtual, which might take place synchronously through Zoom or another platform, or asynchronously through a myriad of platforms.
Already we can see there are plenty of variables involved in lesson planning for either of these situations, and the possibilities (and limits) for instruction seem endless.
However, there’s another instructional situation that can add more complications: hybrid learning. In hybrid learning, the teacher must simultaneously plan for in-person experiences (with all the restrictions that come with it) and virtual experiences (with all the restrictions that come with it).
Teachers are being asked to plan for situations vastly different than anything we’ve experienced before. Yet, the time we have to plan for instruction and prepare for these new situations hasn’t increased. In fact, in some cases we’ve seen it decrease as schedules shift.
In-person, virtual, and hybrid learning are all accompanied by severe restrictions on activities. Teachers need more planning time to prepare engaging and meaningful learning experiences.
Your Thoughts:
Is this a good description of the problem? How would you phrase the problem teachers are facing right now?
Type your answer in the form to share your thoughts privately, or leave a public comment at the bottom of the post.
iNTERACTIONS, LONG-RANGE PLANS, AND PLANNING ONE TIME
There’s a new term that has emerged in the past months regarding how teachers can manage curriculum given the vastly different scenarios and restrictions we face.
This term is called Resilient Pedagogy. I first heard about this from Angela Watson’s Truth for Teachers podcast.
At the time of this post, there seem to be three important components of planning a curriculum that is resilient and ready for disruption:
Interactions: Michigan State University describes Resilient Pedagogy as a framework where an educator plans first for the types of interactions students will have, rather than simply the content instruction itself.
Learning Goals: Carlton College describes a process of creating long-range plans that outline specific concepts and skills, as well as evidence of learning.
Planning Once: Josh Eyler, Director of Faculty Development and Director of the Thinkforward Quality Enhancement Plan at the University of Mississippi, describes resilient pedagogy as planning one time for all three learning scenarios: in-person, virtual, and hybrid.
This is the same approach as the one inside The Planning Binder, which is why I describe the library as something that will help make a plan for the year - no matter what the year looks like.
At first glance, this approach to education seems intuitive: we have to plan for many scenarios, we don’t have much time to plan, so we’ll plan once for all situations.
However, like we talked about in this post, we often start planning by what we want the class to look like in terms of daily activities, instead of being grounded in the big-picture.
This leads to searching for things like “music activities for Seesaw” or “distance learning music games for elementary music.” These resources, like these video lessons or this set of games, are wonderful as quick-fixes when we need a band-aid. However, when we only plan for isolated activities, we’re stuck in a week-to-week planning hamster wheel.
Now let’s imagine we’re trying to run on three lesson planning hamster wheels at once: in-person, virtual, and hybrid.
Resilient pedagogy can be the framework we need to find a better solution.
RESILIENT PEDAGOGY IN ELEMENTARY MUSIC
Leaders in resilient pedagogy recommend thinking through the types of interactions students will have, creating long-range plans (like in this post), and planning once for all three learning scenarios.
Let’s break down the recommendations and consider how they could be applied in elementary general music.
Planning for Interactions
This comes back to your value system.
The actual content in our lessons is crucial, but so is the social experience of our students.
These roles inform the types of interactions students will have.
Interactions with You
In an elementary setting, one of the most important interactions students have is with *you,* the teacher. How can we give instruction so students see your face and hear your voice?
It’s likely that video will be a part of this interaction, whether instruction happens synchronously or asynchronously.
Logistically, the video can ensure that all students see and hear from you in the lesson, even if there are obstacles in the learning setup. For example, the video can play as students sign into the virtual classroom and as other students get settled in the in-person classroom so the lesson interaction can start right away. If you’re on a cart this could be especially valuable since loading and unloading materials can be time consuming and distracting from the actual lesson.
Another benefit of using videos is that you can take time to touch base with students who may need to hear from you. While the video is playing, you can quietly pull that student aside for a chat.
Teacher - Student Interaction Ideas:
Create a welcome video that shares a morning message
Video your warm up routine
Video yourself singing a known song
Video yourself giving directions to a practice activity
At the end of the lesson, you might also consider an exit slip that asks students how the lesson was for them. In-person students can do this with a pencil and paper. Virtual students might do this through a google form.
Interactions with Other Students
Another important interaction students have is with each other. This might be tricky to imagine with the natural restrictions of distance and hybrid learning.
Depending on the age, students might video themselves doing assignments, then (after your approval) they can be posted on the classroom Seesaw page for other students to see.
Students could also play each other’s compositions, they could write a known song in graphic notation and explain their thinking to the class, they could play an ostinato pattern, or they could sing a story and have classmates continue the story.
All of these interactions can take place in-person, or using Seesaw, Flipgrid, or Zoom.
Planning with Learning Goals
This goes beyond a specific activity to teach notational literacy, or a specific national standard. When we back up and look at the big-picture plan, we can get clarity on what in-person, distance, and hybrid experience should accomplish. When we know our curricular goals, it’s easier to be creative about how to reach them.
Music teachers in The Planning Binder work through a curriculum that is designed for in-person, distance, and hybrid scenarios. We start with the big picture, then break it down to actionable teaching strategies that can engage students no matter what medium the instruction uses.
Resources for Planning Learning Goals:
PLANNING FOR THREE SCENARIOS:
What learning experiences can students engage with, regardless of the mode of instruction?
In music class, there are a set of actions we take to keep learning active. These are the musical skills we use to realize musical ideas:
Sing
Play
Read
Write
Move
Improvise
Compose
Arrange
Listen
To plan once for all three scenarios, we’ll think about which musical skills could be experienced in distance, in-person, and hybrid learning.
Active Music Learning for Three Scenarios:
With the exception of singing in some cases, we can still keep learning active by using all the skills we normally use.
Here’s what that could look like:
Singing a new song, or speaking a new song with inflection
Playing body percussion
Reading graphic notation or standardized notation
Writing a known rhythm with manipulatives or paper and pencil
Moving in an ABA structure
Improvising a new rhythm to the teacher’s example
Arranging building blocks to create a B section
Composing an ostinato to accompany the song
Listening to a new piece of music from a new musical culture
When we look at these skills, we see that - just like in this post - we have all the ways to express musicality that we had pre-pandemic.
The medium of delivery looks different. But we can look at our foundational teaching philosophies and find ways to exercise them regardless of the circumstances.
Other Music Resources
Use these ideas in your classroom, or use them as a springboard for your own resilient planning.
Click there to look into The Planning Binder. This is a collection of long-range planning documents that are designed with virtual learning in mind. This means that if your school is disrupted, or if you have some students on a virtual plan, they will receive the same instructional content as your students in person.
Click here to look at a growing collection of video lessons. There’s a code for a free lesson so you can see what we’re working with. With a coteacher delivering instruction and engaging students, you’re free to do what only you can do - build relationships with students, provide meaningful feedback, and document student progress.