Right now many schools and other educational institutions are closed (or open at minimal capacity depending on where you are in the world). It’s a tough time for everyone. As a teacher, it can be quite challenging to come up with activities and work for students to do while they’re at home. If your school opens up for classes (either in-person or online), you should prepared with lessons and other materials.
I searched for some ideas and came across a great article from Teaching Tolerance’s website. I’ll link the full article below, but I’d love to share with you a few of the ideas and articles that I liked.
For hands-on learning:
“Do Something” Projects
Our website features 34 “Do Something” tasks. Most of these are adaptable to distance learning and homeschooling. They are designed to allow students to apply their knowledge to real-world issues. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Oral History Project, in which students can conduct interviews at home to see how personal experiences intersect with something they are studying;
- Buddy Share, in which students could share art or writing with an online classmate;
- Identity Artifacts Museum, in which students can create a display of items from home that represent aspects of their identities.
For reading articles about Coronavirus affecting various types families and people
Articles With Recommendations About Equity
We know that—with such little time to plan—the absence of school programming or the implementation of distance learning may threaten equal resource access for a wide range of students. We know that students experiencing poverty, students with disabilities, English language learners, students living in food deserts, students with elderly caregivers and families without work flexibility are particularly vulnerable. In the coming weeks, we hope to produce or share articles and resources with recommendations for ensuring equity for these students and families.
Today, these resources may prove useful:
- Coronavirus and Rights of Students With Disabilities — Disability Rights Texas
- Best Practices for Serving English Language Learners and their Families — TT
- Family and Community Engagement — TT
We cannot predict how the spread of coronavirus will affect schools tomorrow, next week or months from now. But we feel reassured by the knowledge that social justice educators have always been leaders in building our communities up. So we stand alongside you in not letting this crisis keep us down. To the extent that we can, we will humbly face this unknown with you and strive for a better tomorrow.
For students who have Internet access at home
Resources Students Can Use Online*
“[I need] any online resources that students in grades k-12 can use at home.” –TT survey respondent
Amazing Educational Resources
This crowdsourced document lists education companies that are offering free subscriptions during school closures.Free Online Learning Resources for Schools Affected by Coronavirus/COVID-19 — Tech Learning
This list includes hundreds of free e-learning platforms and resources that cover a wide range of grade levels, subjects and needs, including topics such as sex education, drama and language learning.125+ Amazing Online Learning Resources — We Are Teachers
This list includes sites with ready lesson plans and activities for all grade levels, as well as e-learning platforms.*there are many more resources in this list I didn’t include, you can see them in the full article
The full article has these and plenty more! I encourage you to check it out and also look at all of the resources they provide!
https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/teaching-through-coronavirus-what-educators-need-right-now
So, You Think You Can Teach ESL? 