We understand that making a sudden switch to remote learning is very difficult, but we're here to help! This four-step guide will get you up and running with Whooo's Reading for at-home learning.
Step 1 - Create or update your goals:
How you communicate your reading and writing expectations to your students is important. For example, if you want your students to read one book per week, then assign them one quiz per week. We highly recommend assigning at least as many practice questions as quizzes to increase engagement.
You can customize your goals by clicking on “Edit Goals” in the upper right of your dashboard.
With schools closed, students may have more time to read, so consider assigning more rigorous goals. Here is what your students see when you assign goals:
Step 2 - Any reading content applies:
While students are in school, they likely have access to a wide array of books from the library. At home, they often have fewer options. One of the beauties of Whooo’s Reading is that students can log any piece of content, not just trade books.
This means that if there are magazines lying around the home or if they have access to any online content (like DOGO News, Epic!, or Newsela) they can do quizzes and practices for that content on Whooo’s Reading. (Note that some online reading material companies are offering free access during the Coronavirus outbreaks).
Here is how to search for content and add reading material that is not already in our system.
Watch this video that explains how to answer questions for any online article.
Step 3 - Keeping tabs and staying in touch...remotely:
If you have Whooo’s Reading Silver or Gold, you have access to a number of different reports that will help you keep tabs on the reading and quizzing your students are doing.
Two of the most helpful reports are:
- Dashboard: Refer to this to see which of your students are on track to meet your goals.
- Text Table: The text table will list all the books and work done by each student. You can click on the “View” button to see their written answers. This is the most efficient and effective way to see each student’s work:
For those on the Starter plan - we have put together an email that will send you your students’ quizzes and scores each week. If you have would like to opt into this weekly email, look for an email from us with the subject line: COVID-19 and school closures: Whooo’s Reading wants to help - or reach out to us to be added to the email list.
There are three features that allow you to stay in touch with students via Whooo’s Reading:
- Send notes - On the Roster page, select students with the checkboxes and click the Send Note button at the bottom of the page. You can message all students at once or individually to offer positive feedback or suggestions. You can even award them coins:
- Comment on student work (Silver or Gold only) - leave comments for students on any piece of writing they complete. This is a great place to explain to students how they can improve their answers or reinforce what they did well.
- Finally, you can suggest books for your students to read by going to Teacher’s Picks in your settings.
Step 4 - Keeping parents in the loop:
Having parent support can go a long way, especially when learning outside of class. We have prepared a parent letter that goes into more detail that we highly recommend sharing with parents.
The big three things for parents to know:
- Encourage their child to stay on track to meet the goals set by you.
- Ensure their child has adequate access to reading content and a computer or tablet to access Whooo’s Reading.
- Follow parent update emails from Whooo’s Reading (available in Silver and Gold).
One of the best ways for parents to help keep their child accountable to your goals is to log in to their child’s Whooo’s Reading account. The student dashboard will show them all the work their child has completed and what’s left to do.
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With the four steps outlined in this guide, you should have the tools to effectively manage your students on Whooo’s Reading from a distance.
Here are additional resources that may help:
- Letter to parents and guardians
- Social and fun ideas to keep students connected
- Best practices video for teachers
- Video about how to quiz on any text
- Best practices for implementing Whooo’s Reading remotely (printer-friendly version of this help article)
Please send us any ideas we might have missed, and don’t hesitate to let us know what else we can do to support you during these challenging times.
If you need access to Silver to help with distance learning, we can help with a free trial. Reach out to us if you're interested.