Blended Learning--Credit Recovery and Adolescent Learners

As our district begins a pilot summer credit recovery program, a blend of online and f2f  learning, I wondered about the types of learners who would enroll in the class.   I know from teaching struggling readers in an AP class in a f2f full year class, adolescents with low literacy do not thrive with online text.  In fact I believe they struggle more.  I also know that teaching the strategies of skimming, scanning, and predicting does not work with  students whose Lexile scores are often two to three levels below grade level, especially when they encounter dense text.  When we teach them to skim or scan, they simply omit huge portions of text.
While the online hybrid course, created for the district by a national vendor, has multiple types of media, there are few literacy practices built into the course.  I also noticed that many of our students are considered at-risk:  ELL, students with disabilities, students with low concentration levels, etc.  I began to wonder about the strategies we will use in both the f2f and online environments.  According to INACOL research, the students need to be able to move at their own pace after taking a diagnostic, need checklists, need parental coaching, motivational coaching, and constant feedback.  Due to pacing and time restrictions the diagnostic tests were removed from the course.  The students also need socialization during the course through chat, interactive discussion, etc.  The course has no such element.  Teaching the students will be challenging, and the success of the students is definitely incumbent on the teachers.  

E-Tools for Teacher

When I first began this assignment, I kept getting sidetracked, linking to other sites from the assigned sites.  A few days ago, I finally forced myself to concentrate and complete the assignment without more searching--much less fun, but utilitarian. 
So, the first site I played with in more depth was TimeToast.  As a history teacher it love assigning timelines for homework.  Before web2.0, I ask the students to make collages, layers, etc on a typical poster.  This year I tried using Glogster--great for posters, but not for timelines.  Then I found Dipity, a very interactive timeline, with the ability to add videos, music, blogs, photos, and many other features to a timeline. Students can share, and allow others to edit, which makes it a great group project assignment.  Students can also find existing timelines, but need to check the accuracy. Timetoast is very similar, and appears simpler, however, it has fewer features.    When  tried to set up an account with Timetoast, I waited over 30 minutes and no email was sent to allow me to interact.  Will try again.

The second site I where I searched for a great while was Ideas Wisconsin Teachers.  The site beats our Maryland site, Thinkfinity, hands down.  It is much more user friendly, the resources are easier to categorize by age, grade, and subject.  The lessons are mostly links with review by educators.  I was looking for lessons about foreign policy and found a whole repository of primary sources at Mt. Holyoke College.  I think this site caters to actual teachers, with input from teachers more than other state websites I have visited.  It allows suggestions and dialog, which are very important to teachers in the 21st century.  Although Maryland standards are not the same, the Standards tool, which organizes lessons, if far superior to the current MSDE site. 

I highly recommend both sites for secondary teachers!