Elementary Virtual Tips and Practices

Updates and Best Practices

April 3, 2020
ELA and Math Lessons
1. The Office of Teaching and Learning will continue to develop ELA and Math
lessons for your use.
2. We have received very positive feedback regarding providing these lessons.
However, we want to offer the flexibility for you to use the lessons that you
want and still allow for you to develop your own. When we publish them and
they synch to your Dashboard, it will reorganize your previous work. In order
to meet everyone’s needs, we will change how we share them with you in
Canvas.
• Beginning this Friday, April 3rd, we will be posting lessons as
“unpublished” lessons. We will include directions for you to publish
these lessons.

Science and Social Studies Lessons

1. Science lessons have been created for daily use in grades 3-5. These lessons
should take 15-30 minutes.
• Beginning Friday, these will be posted as “unpublished” lessons.
2. Social Studies lessons are integrated into Reading. There will be a CFU/Quiz
for available for Social Studies grading purposes.
• If teachers create additional Social Studies Content lessons, please
alternate so that students do not have both Science and Social Studies
lessons on the same day.

iReady Expectations
1. iReady for 45 minutes daily in both reading and math was only for the week of
March 23rd.
2. Current expectation is for students to complete iReady lessons for no more
than 15-20 minutes daily alternating between reading and math. The
recommendation is still to strive for about 45 minutes per week as a
supplement to your content. This will avoid burn out on the program.
 Elementary Virtual Tips and Practices

Homework Expectations
1. Do not assign homework. With the current demand on families, it is not
needed. Independent Practice work should address former homework topics.
2. Feel free to recommend fun activities or bedtime reading. We are seeing
some of that in your lessons.

Tips for Success

1. You should not expect to fill an entire school day for students. Independent
work may take longer and there is not an expectation for the same amount of
seat time as when students attend school.
2. Communicate only the lessons you expect students to complete on a single
day. This will provide parents and students clarity in understanding what
students need to complete and will provide students with a known start and
stop point. This can be done through either announcements, due dates, or
publishing and unpublishing assignments.
3. Some activities do not require evidence of completion and are meant for
practice (i.e., GoMath pages). Please provide clear directions to families for
what you expect to be submitted.
4. Create announcements to provide students and parents your expectations for
the day. The Office of Teaching and Learning are providing samples of
announcements to be used within courses as unpublished resources.
5. Use due dates on assignments. If you have an expectation that the assignment
is to be completed on a specific date, it will ensure students see it in the “To
Do” list on Canvas.
6. If you are not using the district lessons, please make sure that you only use
materials owned by SLPS. All Ready materials (Curriculum Associates) are
prohibited from publication in Canvas. As you know, Teachers Pay Teachers is
not a district approved resource and is often the subject of Copyright violations.
Elementary Virtual Tips and Practices

Sample Announcement pages for Teachers to use