Dealing with learning loss is a huge challenge during this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

There is a wide range of skill gaps and needs above and beyond what is normally seen in a school year.

In order to determine learning loss, students must be assessed….. Which can also be a challenge. Assessments look different based on the different learning models we are experiencing right now. Here are some of the models that we are experiencing in many of our schools:

MODELS

• Students in School, full-Day, five days a week
• Students in School, full-Day, but less than five days a week
• Hybrid Model daily- Students ½ day in school and ½ day learning from home.
• 100% virtual.
• Some students are physically in class all day and some students virtual, at the same time, all day. This is our model.

Assessing students who are physically in your classroom is the easiest… it’s old-school. Students work on an independent activity and you assess your students, one at a time, around a kidney table.

Assessing virtual students is a whole other ball game. What we decided to do was use a document camera to share the assessment with the one child at a time. In our Google Meet, we establish one “break out” room and pull in students one at a time. In the breakout room, you “present” your screen to the one student you are assessing in that breakout room. The other virtual kids are in the main room and you assess the one student in the break-out room. In our case we have students in the classroom doing work as well as the virtual kids, with one student in the “breakout room” at a time.

In my next blog post, I will discuss what I do with the data once we gather it.