MODULE 1

Before we can implement TALE, we need to shift our mindsets about remote, hybrid, and in-person teaching. In this session, we explore the difference between emergency remote teaching (ERT), which defined teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, and teaching across learning environments (TALE) as a sustainable approach. Key to this mindset shift is adopting resilient design for learning (RDL), which guides teachers to develop learning experiences that are extensible, flexible, and redundant.

During the pandemic, we became more aware than ever of the inequities within and across our educational systems. In this session, we focus on addressing this issue within the classroom. We explore four components of an equity-centered, trauma-informed classroom: predictability, flexibility, connection, and empowerment. We then look at how we can build TALE practices that are grounded in those four components.

When we shift across learning environments – remote, hybrid, in-person – we also have to shift our practices for building and sustaining community. In this session, we explore ways to build community through the eight phases of instruction that take place regardless of the learning environment. How can you translate your effective practices from in-person teaching to remote or hybrid teaching? And how can you integrate practices from remote or hybrid teaching to more effectively build community in person?

How do we engage students across learning environments? It begins with a shift from thinking about engagement as something students demonstrate to something students experience. This shift moves us away from looking for behaviors, affect, and cognitive outcomes and toward emerging signs, such as attraction, persistence, and delight. Once we make this shift, we can explore design strategies to generate student engagement in traditional in-person classrooms and across remote and hybrid learning environments.

In this session, we explore five instructional design practices that should inform teaching across learning environments. We then look at three strategies that teachers can use to build solid instructional plans that work across those learning environments: (1) essential questions, (2) backward design, and (3) universal design for learning. These three strategies connect us to Session 1 and resilient design for learning (RDL), as the three strategies align with the three practices of RDL: (1) extensibility, (2) flexibility, and (3) redundancy.

Continuity of learning, a phrase we heard throughout the pandemic, is about the continuity of effective practices regardless of the physical learning environment. We describe these kinds of practices that are effective across learning environments as being portable. In Session 6, we explore three portable practices: (1) academic conversations, (2) checks for understanding, and (3) community-building circles.

As of June 2022, there were 9,575 edtech startups in the United States, more than 520,000 educational apps available for use by teachers and learners, and a Google search of “educational apps” tallied more than 9.35 billion results. Integrating all of this edtech into our classrooms can be challenging, as there is little time for training on and trying out technologies before they go “live.” In this session, we explore two frameworks for implementing technology that are teaching-centered, meaning that teaching guides technology use rather than the other way around.

In this session, we focus on building partnerships with families, regardless of the learning environment. We return to the four constants across learning environments that we discussed in Session 2 but from the perspective of building strong partnerships with families. We explore strategies to integrate predictability, flexibility, connection, and empowerment into communications, interactions, and collaborations with parents. And we explore them as strategies that can be used across learning environments.

In Session 4, we learned about different ways to engage students across learning environments: how to motivate students to do their work, be proactive, and ask questions. In this session, we take that a step further and discuss how to provide guidance to students and give them feedback that motivates and leads to student-centered learning and investment in their work. We explore how to leverage that student investment to fuel authentic assessments. We then look at how to ensure those authentic assessments are viable across all learning environments.

Our hard work and reflection throughout the nine sessions of this module can serve as a springboard for our professional growth. In this session, we explore how to take the knowledge and skills we have acquired to think critically about the teaching practices we would like to adopt or adapt so that our students stay engaged, active, and successful across all learning environments. Specifically, we engage in reflective practice to consider the possible changes we might like to implement in our teaching based on what we have learned.