Go Beyond Minutes, Get to Purpose
By Brooke Allen, Executive Director
A real estate agent’s signature phrase has become my recent rallying cry, “Location! Location! Location!” As we move into a season of remote learning, we can maximize student growth by recognizing the significant shift in setting that is taking place and the resultant shift in needs that we must meet. Virtual classrooms have the potential to take on many different forms and expand our current views of what school can be. Centering our plans on renewed understandings of what students and staff will need within this remote environment will unleash the creativity we need to find better solutions.
We know that the learning environment has a significant effect on student achievement. We see this in the daily efforts we put into rearranging our classrooms, our investments in materials, and even in how we schedule specialized services for students with diverse needs. We make these investments and continuous adjustments to the learning location purposefully. Safe, organized, predictable, and focused environments lead to greater student success.
In my current work supporting schools in reentry planning processes, I am finding a common theme -- we are getting stuck on replicating classroom minutes rather than maximizing outcomes. We are often missing the change in location of learning as a both a challenge and an opportunity. If a student had access to 60 minutes of reading intervention in the school building, that hour of reading intervention via remote strategies is an equitable provision -- right? Perhaps, but also maybe not. We might ask ourselves instead: What was the purpose of those minutes? What curriculum was used, methods applied, and outcomes achieved? We can start with purpose, not with minutes, to achieve a much greater effect.
Here are some examples of reframing our work:
A child with a disability is educated within a co-taught classroom for 45 minutes of daily math, with a goal of developing greater independence. Within this setting, he has access to accessible materials, smaller groups, and prompting as needed, putting this goal within reach. Beyond 45 minutes of two teachers in a video class (likely to be less than effective), what if we considered the purpose of this service? We might instead alter math materials to those that are self-correcting and supportive of off-screen independent practice. We could convene a small group ahead of class time to teach a prerequisite skill so that he is able to participate in the full group lesson. Both ideas reach for purpose and consider the new setting.
Another child has difficulty regulating her behavior during times of change between classes in school. She has an assigned paraprofessional to support her during these transitions. A shift to a virtual setting opens up a range of creative possibilities to support this student! Instead of replicating minutes of support, what if we altered her schedule to reduce the number of transitions necessary? We could design a schedule that included extended courses (3 hours of science on Tuesdays with a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning vs. a daily 30 minutes) to encourage deep, focused work and minimize transitions. We could partner with her parents to design a predictable schedule and consistent work space. Neither of these are “minutes” but serve the same purpose.
We must continue to collaborate with families (they know their child and this new setting best) and monitor progress to know if the new approach is working. We measure the success of a service against its purpose, not its compliance with minutes, and adjust support where we need to get the desired result.
Some resources to support your persistence in this work (because it matters!)
We rearranged the DLC resource site and added many new resources, as well as access to all past and upcoming Coffee Chats. These power sessions focus on supporting diverse learners in the transition to remote learning.
As we shift to remote learning, consider how you will provide support for your team. The Diverse Learner Teacher Cohort launches soon!
Many schools have continued to reach out for support in designing and implementing plans for a new school year, including requests for leader coaching, team building, and service design. Please be in touch if this is a need for your team.
Want to make sure you never miss a future blog post? Subscribe to our newsletter and receive a monthly round up of our blog posts straight to your inbox!
