To: Dr. Plass Williams and Dr. Kimberly Johnson

From: Robyn Tompkins

Date: September 3, 2020

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Dear Dr. Williams and Dr. Johnson,

In our classrooms, students cannot pause a teacher to collaborate with peers, or rewind the teacher to hear what they said again, without significant disruption to other students. If the teacher slows down, she loses the fast-paced students. If the teacher speeds up, she loses the students who are struggling. Our current model of lecturing from the front of the class also allows our scholars to be passive learners instead of active learners.

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Add to this our current Covid-inspired situation of teaching hybrid classes, where half of our students are learning remotely, and half are in our classroom. In a perfect world, our students would have dependable internet connections allowing students and teachers to communicate without disruptions in service. However, since we cannot account for internet service in the student’s location, we need to find a way to teach students in a format where they can pause and rewind, without missing the message.

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I would like to address these issues by providing our students with a lesson format that allows them to move at their own pace and get immediate feedback on what they have learned. I want this format to make our students active participants in listening to ideas and engaging in rigorous discussions to share their ideas with others. And I want this format to help relieve the anxiety and frustration our students may face with internet service interruptions and distractions at home.

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I propose using interactive videos and activities to introduce lesson topics to enable students to learn at their own pace and allow more class time to be used for discourse and questioning to increase rigor.  Interactive videos and activities increase student engagement and provide feedback to students throughout the lesson about their learning. Students control the pace they move through the information and are able to slow down or rewatch/replay it if needed.

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We are currently implementing a station rotation model of blended learning on our campus. In my classroom, students would participate in the interactive video or activity I create during the “digital content” station. Then, during the “mini-lesson” station, instead of lecturing to students, we can have deeper, unscripted discussions about the learning, transitioning my role from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side.” Students would move in groups through the class providing an opportunity to support struggling learners while allowing faster-paced learners to progress at their pace. 

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Ultimately, my goal is to reduce learning anxiety and increase learning by allowing students to move through lessons at their own pace, provide feedback to them as they move through a topic, and allow students the opportunity to have meaningful discussions about their learning. This will help the mental and emotional fitness of our students as well as make them active participants in their learning.

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I would like your permission to employ interactive video and activities in my classroom during our digital learning station time to allow our scholars to learn at their own pace and provide time for rigorous discourse.

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Thank you,

Robyn Tompkins

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