Education Week - August 25, 2021 - 9

Virtual Learning Was Better for Some Kids.
Here's What Teachers Learned From Them
By Alyson Klein
Kareem Neal, a 24-year veteran educator,
noticed something surprising
when his school went all virtual last
year: Not only did most of the students
in his self-contained, special education
class navigate the change better than
he expected, three of them blossomed
academically.
All three are on the autism spectrum
and have a tough time navigating the
social aspects of school. But during virtual
instruction, " they were fine with
just hours of academic instruction happening
at home, " said Neal, who works
at Maryvale High School in Phoenix
and was an Arizona teacher of the year
in 2019. " All of those other things were
off their plates, and there was just their
work, and they loved it. "
Many students didn't make much
progress-or flailed-in online learning
during the pandemic. But a subset
who may have struggled with in-person
learning in the past-like Neal's trio
of kids-actually thrived. Now many
of those students, some of whom have
learning and thinking differences or
mental health conditions like social
anxiety, must return to the traditional
classroom, an environment that did
not work for them before COVID.
So Neal and other educators around
the country are thinking about how
they can adjust their practice, or their
approach with individual kids, to help
these students retain the success they
experienced online now that they are
back in school in person.
As educators and parents think
through how to best serve students
who thrived in virtual learning, they
should turn to the obvious experts: the
kids themselves, said Claire Schu, the
manager of implementation support at
the Collaborative for Academic, Social,
and Emotional Learning, a nonprofit
that supports educators in social-andemotional
learning.
" That's where a district or school
should start this, by actually asking
students what worked for them, " she
said. Schools could either survey all
students, or target kids who did demonstratively
better during virtual
learning, she added.
" You might find they really benefited
from the freedom to use their
time more flexibly or focus without
interruption, " Schu said. " If that's
what you're hearing, you might consider
changing up the way that the inperson
class period is structured, [or]
giving options for how and even where
students can learn within the school. "
Teachers can keep up with what
worked
Neal, for one, is giving the three students
who seemed to relish the solitude
of online instruction the option
of spending lunch and other free time
in the classroom doing some enrichment
work, rather than having to face
unstructured social time.
Neal also noticed that many of his
students, who are typically on the autism
spectrum, have Down syndrome,
or have other significant cognitive differences,
liked that he tended to structure
his online lessons more or less the
same way every day, kicking off with
a video, moving onto some teaching,
then a writing activity.
Now he's hoping to find ways to offer
" rich and varied lessons, but still give
[students] the kind of consistency that
they want in class, " said Neal, who is
also a teaching fellow at Understood,
an organization that works on behalf
of students with learning and thinking
differences.
And Neal is planning to offer his students
more opportunities for one-onone
teaching, something that many of
them seemed to embrace online.
Technology may have motivated
students
Some students who thrived in a virtual
setting appreciated the autonomy
they had, said Amanda Morin, the
director of thought leadership and expertise
at Understood. They liked the
ability to choose their own schedule,
go back over lessons at their own pace,
or take a break when they needed one.
They also liked being able to prioritize
their list of tasks-perhaps getting
difficult work out of the way early, or
saving it for later in the day, Morin said.
What's more, many kids had the opportunity
to take in content in whatever
way worked best for them. In a
traditional setting, " it's really easy [for
teachers to forget to provide multiple
means of access, to provide visuals, to
provide videos, to provide written instructions, "
Morin said. " If you're in
a classroom, we often just default to
talking. "
Online learning also allowed for
more personalized interaction. Students,
particularly those with learning
differences, appreciated the opportunity
to get some individualized attention,
either through breakout rooms
or one-on-one Zoom meetings, said
Julian Saavedra, who worked last year
as an 11th grade history teacher and is
now an assistant principal at Roxborough
High School in Philadelphia.
Now that he's an administrator, Saavedra
is encouraging his teachers to
reflect on what went right for their students
during the pandemic. His school
has gone 1-to-1 with tech devices-
which was seen as a necessity, thanks
to COVID-and he's hoping teachers
will embrace technology as a student
engagement tool.
" You have your quizzes and your Kahoot
... everybody's using these gamified
ways of producing lessons, " said
Saavedra, who is also an Understood
teaching fellow. Those types of activities
can be " more intuitive to a lot of
our kids, especially our boys, because
so many of them are gamers anyway.
Traditionally a lesson that would be in
a classroom setting might not speak to
as many of them, but having this gamified
format helped them a lot. "
Some kids also relished the fact that
they were able to be around their family
and that virtual learning was " just a
slower pace of life, " said Ellen Braaten,
the director of the learning and assessment
program at Boston's Massachusetts
General Hospital.
She suggested teachers try to replicate
that environment as much as possible,
by asking students to do a couple
of minutes of meditative breathing, or
just by taking a bit more time with each
lesson. " I know that's going to be hard
for many teachers, " she said, " Knowing
there are lot of kids who need to
catch up " academically.
'Everybody's coming back
a little awkward'
Even the most extroverted kids may
need help getting back into the swing
of things socially after an extended
period of relative isolation at home.
Schools could help by reviewing some
social skills with all students.
" Everybody's coming back a little
awkward, " Morin said. " It may level
the playing field and give an opportunity
to really reteach those skills to the
entire group of students. "
School districts may also want to
consider just how much social interaction
kids need in order to learn. Do
introverted students really need to face
an awkward lunchroom or playground,
or should they be given alternatives?
" Are we really putting kids in a situation
where they are expected to socialize
when some kids maybe just don't
feel comfortable doing it? " she said.
" We need to ask kids those questions,
about how social they want to be. I
think that for some people, being alone
is their comfort place. And acknowledging
that is important, too. "
Coverage of students with diverse learning
needs is supported in part by a grant from
the Oak Foundation, at www.oakfnd.org.
Education Week retains sole editorial
control over the content of this coverage.
EDUCATION WEEK | August 25, 2021 | www.edweek.org | 9
"
That's where
a district or
school should
start this,
by actually
asking
students what
worked for
them.
CLAIRE SCHU
Manager of
implementation support,
Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional
Learning
Kareem Neal leads a class at
Maryvale High School in
Phoenix, Ariz., last week.
Ash Ponders for Education Week
http://www.oakfnd.org http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - August 25, 2021

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