Shared by Dorit Battaglia, First Grade Teacher, Central Union School District

My students are excited to become better readers even though we are distance learning! I am able to utilize the skills I learned from the Lindamood-Bell in-person and  online workshops. The biggest bang for our buck was receiving Seeing Stars, Visualizing and Verbalizing and On Cloud Nine coaching through a school partnership. 

My students receive charms that I place on their desks and are able to “cash” in their charms for virtual dance parties and virtual extra recess. I am also going to add “Lunch with the teacher” as one of the rewards. I also throw in a couple of charms in their work packet just to keep things real!! 

Speaking of keeping things real, I have a classroom aide that is also trained in Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing. We break the class into four groups and she takes two groups and I do as well. I have one group turn off their video and turn their volume down just a bit while they work on independent work aka seatwork and the other half is receiving a Seeing Stars lesson. I am trying to replicate a live classroom as best as I can. The independent workers are hearing me and are able to switch with me after about 20-30 minutes.

In addition, I have a student that has never been to school and we are working with her, one-on-one for 20 to 30 minutes a day and, after 5 days, she already knows 10 letters and sounds. She will be joining one of our four groups in no time!That is how fast Seeing Stars can help students become better readers! 

We also divide the class in half and teach Visualizing and Verbalizing. In order to reach every student, we keep track of who we call on to make sure we make contact. Don’t forget to be even more animated teaching virtually than you did when teaching in person! I plan on utilizing the Seeing Stars workbooks soon. I will be pulling out a few pages and sending them home in their weekly packets and using my document camera to direct them to the right word or to make sure they know where we are. I will try to jot down what else is working and what is catching on with the students.

Do you have tips to share from your successful transition to online teaching?
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