Karen Fournier - Engaging Students for On-Line Learning

School:: Van R Butler Elementary
Subject:: Virtual Learning Classroom Assistance
Teacher:: Karen Fournier
Students Impacted:: 22
Grade:: 5
Date:: May 21, 2020

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Board of Directors of Walton Education Foundation - $50.00

Goal

COVID-19 has forced educators to reimagine how we deliver an engaging learning experienced for students. My goal was to develop interactive reading lessons and provide an extrinsic reward motivator to keep students engaged and participating in their new virtual learning environment.

What will be done with my students

By using a mix of content delivery methods, such as video conferencing with shared text, videos, and extrinsic rewards to my learning platform, I kept the element of surprise alive for each lesson. Motivating students to learn was part of the challenge through COVID-19, and giving rewards resulted in more effort on the part of my students.

As an example, my first video conferencing lesson involved the "art" of an interaction between a Clown Fish and anemone. The reading passage described the symbiotic relationship between both. Students were required to match definitions heard in the context of the passage with new vocabulary. I then shared on on-line video to show this relationship. At the conclusion of my lesson, I was able to show students my saltwater aquarium that contained both species.

A second lesson was a follow up to an on line reading activity, "A Black Hole is Not a Hole". In this lesson I shared a reading passage and video on the birth of a Black Hole. Students engaged in discussion then participated in a question and answer sequence.

To keep this "element of surprise alive" in this lesson our music teacher was also brought in as a surprise guest. He brought to the platform a variety instrumental music that mimicked space sounds. He also shared via our school Facebook page, the National Air and Space Museum YouTube concert event, that shared songs about space and isolation to celebrate how extreme situations can bring out the very best in us all and why there’s no challenge we can’t face together.

Benefits to my students

Even learners with the best intentions can get distracted when they're suppose to be paying attention. They may procrastinate when it was time to log on and do their classwork. By engaging in my interactive lessons and through a reward based system (hands-on activities to continue the learning experiences at home), student showed interest and increased participation in their new on-line learning experience.