HayU Blog
Hayutin Educators Share Tools for Executive Functioning, Math and Reading
March 18th, 2021
We are immensely grateful to our team of talented educators who have been supporting students with virtual learning for the past year.
To highlight some of the incredible work our team has done, we reached out to ask about the most effective tools they have been using and how students have benefited.
Below, you will find resources and anecdotes to support students with executive functioning, math and reading.
Executive Functioning
My two favorite virtual tools are Google Docs and using my iPad as whiteboard extension in Zoom.
Google Docs allow my students and I to access and work on the same document simultaneously, be it a calendar/planner, an essay, or an imported worksheet. Using my iPad as a whiteboard extension during allows me to interact with my students as if I were in-person with them.
I have created planners and calendars with all of my students via Google Docs since we have been working virtually this last year. I find it so useful because the student has complete control over what they want the planner/calendar to look like (so their buy-in for engaging with the tool is much higher), and the document can be viewed from anywhere, so there is no danger of losing any of the information. Using Google Docs enables me to do the exact same job and interact with my clients in the exact same way as if we were in-person. My students and I can collaborate on Google Docs, as we would if we were sitting right next to each other. In a similar fashion, I use my iPad to share my screen and show students anything - a paper or paragraph they wrote that I am editing as if I had a pen and were sitting next to them, an example of a math or science problem, examples of underlining/highlighting and note taking while reading or watching a lecture, etc. An additional benefit is that they can take a screenshot of my shared screen to reference after the session.
For younger learners (grades 3-5), I recommend what sounds like the most basic tool of organization—checklists—but trust me, these are so effective! My students have made so many adjustments to their lives this past year, like doubling their bedrooms as their study space. Change is hard, and elementary-aged students benefit from intentional routines and procedures to accommodate these changes. I've worked with my students to create daily checklists and nighttime routines that they make visible on their walls. This structure takes away their mental burden of knowing and remembering what to do. Checklists have been the perfect tool for my younger students who are learning how to learn and building good habits!
I have found using Google Sheets to be one of the most valuable tools to me as an Educational Therapist during virtual learning.
I love Google Sheets because it helps students create To-Do lists and organize assignments by priority and due date all in one place. Students create separate sheets for their upcoming work, graded work, goals, and even information that they’d like to keep nearby, such as teachers’ emails and passwords. When students create To-Do lists, they are transferring homework, test dates, and project deadlines into one place. Google Sheets acts as their digital planning sheet and supports executive functioning.
Using Google Sheets as a planning tool has supported many of my students with executive functioning deficits. We have created a space to organize daily assignments and a space to keep track of grades and goals. This tool has helped many of my students track priorities, effectively manage their workload, and monitor progress and growth. This planning tool allows students to feel better equipped to take on new challenges and less overwhelmed by the accumulation of late assignments. It has led to grade improvement and more importantly, the development of autonomy and ownership of learning.
Math
A website/app that has been most valuable to me during virtual learning is Brainingcamp. It is full of virtual math manipulatives that can be used with students of all ages. What I appreciate most about Brainingcamp is the brief tutorials and lesson examples that they provide for each manipulative. I am even able to prepare a lesson, save it, and share the link with my students for them to complete either independently or during our session together. This is a real time saver and makes me feel in control of my teaching rather than constantly borrowing digital lessons from the web.
An example of my use with Brainingcamp is teaching fractions using pattern blocks. The student first learns to identify each polygon presented. We then discuss how many equilateral triangles it takes to form a trapezoid. This leads to the understanding that three equilateral triangles are three equal parts of the trapezoid, meaning one triangle represents one-third in this context. I then allow the student to explore the remaining polygons to find other fraction representations. I love being able to model the skill then put the tools in their hands to give them more ownership of their learning.
Didax Virtual Manipulatives have been a game-changer for my math lessons. Without physical manipulatives, it is often difficult for my students to visualize math in the virtual learning environment. With Didax, however, students can explore concepts and show their thinking through virtual unifix cubes, numbers lines, fraction strips and base ten blocks. These tools have empowered my 4th graders to master traditionally challenging topics like place value, fractions and multiplication despite distance learning.
While I typically use Didax manipulatives to support elementary-aged students, I have also utilized the number line feature to support a middle school student who initially had difficulty adding and subtracting negative numbers in Pre-Algebra. Plotting the steps of addition and subtraction equations on the number line allowed the student to understand negative numbers conceptually. By the end of our sessions together, this student felt confident and ready to tackle operations with integers!
Mathshare is a relatively new tool, which is continually being improved. It is a great resource for virtual learning and supports students with dysgraphia, fine motor difficulties, and working memory deficits. Mathshare is especially helpful for students who have trouble writing and showing their work on a remote whiteboard and also those with dysgraphia who find it difficult to write on paper. The screen is very clear with few distractions. Keying in the answers, even fractions, is relatively easy and I have found that this process allows students to think about what they are doing
Teachers can create their own assignments and there are also easy to use premade activities. Students can solve each problem step by step and explain their answers. Teacher-created assignments can be loaded to Google Classroom and other learning management systems. It works best when students use a laptop rather than an iPad or a Chromebook. The tutorials on the website and on YouTube are very clear and easy to follow.
Reading
The website I find most valuable while working with my elementary aged students in the area of reading is Raz-Kids. The site provides benchmark passages that help me quickly gauge students' reading levels, and then it provides numerous on-level texts to support their learning. The books come in a wide array of fiction, nonfiction and some are translated in Spanish with a quick comprehension quiz; if you are working on that as a goal. For each story, the site also provides pre-made activities covering the Big 5 and beyond. I thoroughly enjoy this educational site and love having access to a virtual learning library.
During virtual learning sessions I utilize this website with most of my students. One activity I particularly enjoy using with upper elementary students is the Close Reading Passages. I use this activity to support reading comprehension goals, and I can easily modify it to meet a student’s needs to downshift or increase the rigor.
My favorite iPad app for virtual learning is Blending Board. The biggest challenge for me as a Reading Specialist moving to online teaching was how to implement the auditory sounds and blending drills of the Orton-Gillingham program. In-person, this activity involves individual cards arranged in a group of two or three to create both real and nonsense words, which are then blended and read by the student. The app can be customized by the teacher to build decks of cards that are tailored to the phonics skills that are being practiced and reviewed by the student. It includes consonants, vowels, digraphs, blends, vowel variants, and common affixes. It's a fun and fast activity, and I am currently using it on Zoom as part of the opening routine for instruction and plan to continue to use for in-person learning.
~Courtney Wittner, M. Ed
Director, Hayutin & Associates
