During the CoVid shutdown, I collaborated with a group of Grade 3-4-5 teachers and two ELL teachers to create a unit on narrative fiction writing. I had started planning this with one of the teachers before spring break. When the shutdown happened we decided to continue online, and three other teachers joined us for various parts of the unit. Two ELL teachers also contributed material and ideas at different points.
It is a very different experience collaborating online, mostly because we couldn’t count on showing students how to do things in class. It was necessary to create low-barrier instructional materials that would work asynchronously online so students would be able to do the activities at home.
Here is the video I created to introduce the unit, and following that is a short video created by Nancy Kwan that became the centerpiece of the unit: Story Elements.
In total, I made about 12 instructional videos, plus two read-aloud videos for the two stories we used as exemplars. Most of these videos were accompanied by worksheets which were posted in the class TEAMS, and which could be completed online. Students watched one to three videos each week, depending on how much work the related tasks required, and then completed the tasks. The teachers I was collaborating with contributed to this material, supplemented this material with their own material, and used as much or as little of this as they needed.
Unexpectedly, I discovered that this was one of the most personally satisfying projects I have worked on. I found the collaboration with colleagues was creative and comforting during what could have been an isolating time. The only thing that could have made it better would have been the opportunity to work in class with students (or small groups of students at a time) to make sure they understood the activity, had access to the materials, and felt confident experimenting with the technology available.
I see this as one of many possible ways librarians can support teachers going forward in the fall: collaboratively planning and teaching this kind of material as blended instruction. One thing I would add to the in-class instruction is demonstrations of how to create PowerPoint presentations like this so students could tell their stories in this format if they chose.
Thank you to Beverly Lee, Cynthia Johansen, Meredith Mckenzie, Kim Baker, Jason Woo and Nancy Kwan for being such generous partners and so willing to join in this experiment.