Student and family engagement in learning activities, during remote learning.

Using Solution Fluency to Reflect on Remote Learning

Define
The challenge we faced was how to provide students with easy to understand and supportive instructions, for independent reference, during remote learning tasks – to promote engagement in learning.
Since Lalor Primary School is from a community with high numbers of English as and Additional Language families, there was a need to ensure instructions for learning activities were able to be understood by individuals with limited English literacy skills. We were concerned about the number of students who were not submitting learning activities to their Wabisabizen portfolios and needed to rectify this problem.

Discover
The 1/2 teaching team were in constant communication with each other regarding the issue of engagement in learning. We were able to take what we had learnt through remote learning #1 and adjust our teaching and learning practice to work for remote learning #2. This included taking on information from the Wabisabi learning community about synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning. The families also provided verbal feedback about what they felt worked best for them – this included clear and simple instructions.

Dream
I envisioned successful asynchronous teaching and learning as a solution. I wanted students and their families to be able to open up the Wabisabizen learning activities and know how to complete tasks. I didn’t want the students and their families to feel overwhelmed with a feeling of the inability to tackle the tasks because of a lack of English literacy skills.

Design
The steps used to support asynchronous teaching and learning included:

• lots of images to accompany limited text on Wabisabizen.
• audio files to accompany images and text on Wabisabizen learning activities.
• YouTube videos showing instructions and steps for Wabisabizen learning activities.
• examples of completed work for students to reference.
• choice with work presentation.
• revamped maths lessons to mirror literacy set up – based on parent feedback.

Deliver
Students learnt about health and were provided with 5 healthy food group posters and a YouTube video to watch. Their task was to design a healthy lunch box. The instructions for the task was recorded as an audio file and attached to the activity. A teacher example of work and alternative lunchbox design options were also provided.

Examples of student work:

​Debrief
Upon reflection, what my team and have achieved does begin to satisfy the original criteria. We have had significant increase in student understanding and engagement in learning activities. The audio, video, image and work example support has meant the quality of work has been at a higher standard. Over time we have moved from audio files to YouTube videos to provide instruction and this has impacted positively. I plan on using this method of asynchronous planning of teaching and learning when remote learning has ended and we are back in the classroom. It is a valuable resource that shouldn’t be shelved exclusively for remote instruction, therefore it will impact on my face-to-face teaching in the future.