Here you will find two different styles of lessons. These lessons were created with my 2020-21 Kindergarten class in mind. I took into account the various needs and skill levels of the students I have been working with over the last year, as well as the things they enjoy doing and the level of home support they receive. These students have experience creating videos in Flipgrid and know how to upload photos and video into google slides. They are also experienced with logging into the sites independently. I decided it was important to use two different platforms for my lessons to demonstrate the different ways in which material can be organized. The first lesson I am presenting is in Google classroom, which is what we typically use in class and when we have gone remote. The second lesson I set up is in Canvas. I haven’t used this with my students, but I do like the layout of it.
The Google Classroom lesson incorporates all areas of instruction, but also includes opportunities for students to participate in songs, story time and yoga. This is to help break up the learning activities. The advantages to this form of lesson planning is that the day is laid out for families and they just need to follow along with each of the activities. It also has breaks for students built in for students. Typically, when presenting a lesson in Google classroom I will create a presentation for each day. However, it would be possible to reconfigure this to present the material differently depending on the needs/wants of the school or families. One option would be to create a presentation for each subject for the week (module style), or everything in one-week long presentation. I believe that a week-long presentation for all areas would become cumbersome. I have been working with the daily style simply because it has allowed me to check on the work daily and I am able to set it up to resemble our day. Since we have only used Google classroom when we have been in quarantine, I feel that this continuity has been important. Another important component with this lesson is that it is designed with a more blended approach in mind. These lessons are not intended to stand alone. When using Google Classroom I am also meeting each day with the students to work on skills together prior to them working on them online. It is also flexible enough that it can be used to support classroom activities.
The lesson presented on Canvas is a week-long module on shapes. This requires parents to manage the flow of the lesson and to divide up the instruction to ensure that it is completed by the end of the week. Even though it is hosted in Canvas it does link to google slides at various times for activities to be completed. One of the things I really like about the week-long module style set up of Canvas, is that it flows well and feels cohesive. It is easy to see how the beginning and the end of the week fit together. One of thing that presented an obstacle was that the links in the accessibility docx links to YouTube videos and that may allow some students to get off track. This is avoided in the Google Slides since those videos can be directed embedded in the slide itself.
Ultimately, it comes down to what works best for you, your students and their families.
