VOLUME 19
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ISSUE 6
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JUNE 2021
THE TOOLBOX A Teaching and Learning Resource for Instructors
WRITING TO LEARN IN THE COVID CLASSROOM T
he COVID pandemic challenged the longRyan Korstange established norms of college teaching. One Zachary Nolan Middle Tennessee State University uncomfortable result of policies and practices undertaken to quell the spread of COVID-19 is broad-based isolation. To be sure, these policies are appropriate and important as we work together to quell the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, these policy decisions had a dramatic impact on instruction. The reality is that COVID mitigation policies serve to isolate students from each other, from faculty, and leave them tenuously connected to the institution. These changes have promoted innovation across the university – but certainly required a new approach to teaching and learning. The depersonalized lecture built on the assumption that learning only requires motivation and proximity to compelling new information is recognized as ineffective afresh. Engaging pedagogies are increasingly necessary – though engagement is itself challenging in the distanced COVID classroom where students are necessarily distanced, either chronologically (as in asynchronous instructional approaches), or spatially. Group work cannot take the same form, nor can think-pairshare and other quick formative activities that give the instructor vital information about what the students are learning or where they are struggling. As a result, new instructional approaches must be constructed. Effective teaching requires more than simply transmitting information to students clearly and effectively; but requires that students be actively involved in their learning (for a summary of strategic teaching moves see McEwan, 2010). Of particular importance are discursive moves including inviting student participation, teacher revoicing, student revoicing, probing a student’s thinking, creating opportunities to engage with another’s reasoning and using wait time (Herbel-Eisenmann, Steel, & Cirillo, 2013). These moves create an intellectually and personally engaging space where students know they are valued, where they productively struggle with difficult information, and where they deeply learn. Collaborative writing provides a useful technique for engaging students in significant learning while respecting the social distancing standards teaching during COVID requires and is easily transferable to the post-pandemic instructional toolbox.
National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. — Helen Keller
www.sc.edu/fye/toolbox
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