Using Room 213 Products for Distance Learning

So you have lessons and activities that you’ve purchased from my TpT store and now you are tasked with teaching from home. What can you do?  (First of all, click here to get some freebies designed for online teaching).

I would love to be able to convert all of my products to digital so those of you who have them can quickly and easily share them with your students. However, it takes time, and I’m teaching remotely too. I have converted some already, and I’m going to continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have any you’d like to see converted, leave a comment, please!

Here is a list of what is already converted – I will add to it as I update products. Below this list, I’ll give you some ideas for how you can use products that I have not updated yet.

Embedding Quotations: I’ve uploaded all of the slideshow lessons and student handouts to Google Drive. If you own this product, download it again and look for the document called Distance Learning. The only things you won’t be able to do are the interactive classroom activities that are part of the product – you’ll have to save those for next year! Click here to access.

Products for Reading Workshop (all of these are part of the bundle).

Stations for Independent Reading:  You can’t set up classroom stations, obviously, but you can get your kids to complete the tasks that go along with them. All of the task cards are now individual Google Slides, ready for sharing.

You can send single task cards as part of your daily activities, or you can send all of the task cards to your students at once. Then you can instruct them to do a certain number by the end of the week, and to choose ones from different categories. Categories include: opening lines, setting, point of view, tone, characterization, author’s message, author’s style, great quotes, and questions. Each task is editable, so you can tweak them if need be.

Writing Prompts for Independent Reading

This is a big bundle of prompts that ask students to think and write about the literary elements in the novels they are reading. Then, you have the option of asking them to make revisions to their original response. The purpose of this is to get them in the habit of revising their work. The slides are now available to share via Google Docs and are perfect for giving your students daily or weekly writing prompts.

Lessons and Activities for Characterization (this is also now in the Literary Elements Mini-Lessons Bundle as well). You can read more about these activities here.

Other Converted Products for Distance Learning:

Critical Thinking Activities for Any Text  I added digital versions for this to the original bundle. If you want just the digital version, you can access it here. The product includes a variety of activities that you can use for individual and group activities, and each one requires students to use higher order thinking skills as they analyze the text they are reading.

Word Choice Lessons: This bundle has always had digital activities for the students, but now you can use the slideshow lessons on Google Drive.

Elements of Effective Writing: This is part of my Writer’s Notebook. As I convert more of the lessons, I will add to both the new digital resource and the Notebook. If you already own it, download again to access.

Writing Prompts with a Twist: These have been updated so students can use them directly on Google Slides. The prompts in this resource can be used as bell ringers, for skill building activities, or for writing workshop. Over forty different critical thinking prompts offer options for a variety of writing forms. They go beyond the initial prompt and ask kids to reflect on their writing and revise what they wrote. These revisions can happen right away or during bell ringer time on subsequent days.

Issues and Informational Text I created a bundle to be used for distance learning. It includes seven lessons that invite your students to explore current issues through non-fiction, informational texts – and are perfect for remote learning. The product provides you with several options that will engage your students as they read, view, think, and write. Topics include: Screen Time, Cyber Bullying, Anxiety and Stress, Vaping & Juuling, Climate Change, Plastics in the Ocean, and Generation Snowflake. See directions below if you already own the original bundle that was designed for classroom use.

Figurative Language Stations: These can now be used online as well as in your classroom. They are perfect for review and reinforcement of how and why authors use figurative devices in their writing.

Using Products for Distance Learning that Aren’t Converted:

As I said, I wish I had a quick and easy way to convert everything so you can use it right away with your students. I am starting with ones that I think are most useful for distance learning, and if you have suggestions, please leave me a comment and I’ll add it to the list. In the meantime, here’s what you can do. (Note, I am giving you permission to do this as long as it is via direct email to students or on a password protected site like Google Classroom. Also, this permission applies to my products only, not those of other TpT sellers.)

1. Create a new folder in Google Drive and give it a title that corresponds with the product.
2. Open that folder and create folders that correspond with the ones in the product. (this is just to keep yourself organized).
3. Then, add each file from the product to your new folders.
4. The slideshows will be quite easy to convert. Just upload them and then open them as Google Slides. When you do, you will still need to save them as Google Slides too. Once you have opened it, go to File and Save as Google Slides.
5. When you save it, add the word “Original” to your title. Then you can make a copy that you can edit if you want to. For example, you may not want to send a full slideshow to your students all at once. If not, copy the ones you want for your lesson, and create a smaller version of the slideshow.
6. Click here for more information on how to share with your students.
7. PDFs will be a little harder for you to manipulate. You can upload them to your Drive but unless you have a program that allows you to manipulate them, you will not be able to select or delete any of the pages. There is a work around for that, though, and I walk you through it here. If you want to edit or manipulate the PDF, you can open it as a Google Doc. Then, you will have access to the text. BUT…the formatting will likely be off, and you will have to do some work to fix that.

Using Learning Stations for Distance Learning:

If like me, you love to use learning stations, and you already have a lot of mine, you can still use an adapted version of them for skill building. Each of my learning stations come with task cards and student handouts. You can use the procedure above to upload them to drive.  Then you can instruct your students to complete certain tasks. The slides will have four tasks on each one. You could send out one slide a day and ask the kids to complete those tasks, or send them all out at once and ask the kids to complete each task by the end of the week.

For example, a lot of you have my essay revision stations. If you have asked your students to complete a draft of an essay, you could devote a week to revision and each day of the week could be a different “station.” On Monday you could ask them to revise their intro and conclusion, and on Tuesday, you could send out this slide and ask them to complete each task.

Or, if you have the narrative writing stations, you could do something very similar with the planning and revision of a narrative. You could also use the photo prompts to get your students to do some quick writing exercises. The slides will have two different prompts on them, so you can send out one or two slides and ask kids to respond to one – or send them all out and let them choose.

There are a lot of things you can do once you upload the slides and files to Google Drive. You will just have to go through them and figure out how you can compact the lessons a little and make an engaging activity for your students to do at home. Below is a list of stations that I think will allow you to do this:

Descriptive Writing Learning Stations

Stations for Any Informational Text

Figurative Language Stations (now updated!)

Poetry Learning Stations

I hope that helps, everyone! I’ll keep adding things as I get to them, so please let me know in the comments what you’d like to see next. I can’t promise anything other than I will do my best.

And, if you’d like some help with getting students to engage with your distance learning, click here.

Take care!