The Distance Learning Playbook for Parents. Rosalind Wiseman
good because that means you are learning,” or “I see that you did well on that test, and it’s because you put in the extra effort and worked hard to take notes and reread the book,” or “This makes me think about _______, what about you?” Parents don’t have to be teachers, but they can be formidable influencers in helping their children learn to learn.
As a teacher, I need this lesson too. I can’t expect my students to be able to learn independently before I’ve taught them how. Just because they’ve reached a certain age or grade level doesn’t mean they’ve been taught how to solve that kind of problem, how to read that kind of text, how to make that kind of breakfast. I can’t hand out assignments and pick them up and call that online learning. Instead, I need to focus on creating learning experiences, not tasks, for my students. As susceptible as I am right now to the pull of efficiency, I can’t confuse that with the nuanced and individualized learning experience my students most need.
PARENTS DON’T HAVE TO BE TEACHERS, BUT THEY CAN BE FORMIDABLE INFLUENCERS IN HELPING THEIR CHILDREN LEARN TO LEARN.
Our children have a part in this lesson as well. We need to teach them how to ask for help. We need to give them permission to be uncertain, confused, even frustrated. We need to model that frustration isn’t failure; rather, it’s a sign that learning is about to happen. We need to remind them that their parents aren’t responsible for fixing the frustration, but we can listen with patience and curiosity as they figure it out.
Together, we are the ecosystem that will secure success for our students, our children, and ourselves this year. This book will help you see exactly what your part can look like. With their calm and reassuring advice, Rosalind Wiseman, Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie help frame what’s ahead and offer concrete, practical advice for creating family and classroom systems that enable our students to thrive.
And—in case you’re curious—the time it took to teach my son how to make his own breakfasts instead of just telling him what to do has paid off. He’s self-sufficient and less hungry—and he’s taught his younger brother how to do it, too. The magic is in the mess, my friends.
—Sarah Brown Wessling, NBCT
English Teacher at Johnston High School, Former National Teacher of the Year, and Laureate Emeritus for Teaching Channel
Letter From the Authors
Dear Parent/Guardian
In the midst of this global pandemic, we know that it may not be possible to have your child physically at school full time. We want nothing more than to bring your children back to our schools and engage them in meaningful learning activities. We miss your children. We miss those shared moments of success and the struggles that result in learning breakthroughs. We miss the smiles and watching social skills develop and unfold. We miss the opportunities to see your child play, learn, and grow. But we also want you to remember something very important: you are, and always will be, your child's first and primary teacher.
We will always be here to do our part–to do everything in our power to provide a robust education for your child. But more than ever, we need you. Over the years, we have come to know we can steadily rely on you to make sure your child comes to school on time, fed, clean, well-rested, and with completed homework in hand. We have welcomed with open arms your involvement in school activities, your desire to help run the PTA, your attendance at sporting and cultural events. But now we need you as partners on an even deeper level–as partners in learning and developing the language of learning, with us doing it together as a team.
We know that many of you have full-time employment or other stresses that may come with financial and housing difficulties, with the challenges of looking for work, caring for multiple children, or supporting other friends or family members in need. We also know you were not trained as teachers–that you love your kids but also sometimes admittedly realize they are just not enamored with schooling. We know our government made it compulsory for them to come to school–and that this was in part built around an assumption that as trained teachers we are, on average, better equipped that you may be to handle and navigate the role of educating your children. But this crisis has reminded us again just how valuable and irreplaceable your role is, too.
We are not asking you to become the teacher. We are asking you to partner with us however you are able and to support the learning opportunities we provide. We will continue to learn about what works in education and we will apply our best knowledge, the knowledge generated from decades of research, to build your child's social, emotional, and academic skills.
You are probably hearing a lot of talk about the lost learning during mid-2020 or about what some are calling the “COVID Slide.” And there is even more talk about the loss of learning if students are not physically in school immediately. The fact of the matter is, we are teachers and our superpower is knowing where children are in their learning journey and supporting their continued growth. We did not forget how to teach. And our little secret is that about 50 percent of the instructional minutes in school are spent on things that students already know. Thus, this year, our task is to focus on what students need to learn and use the precious time we have with them to focus on that.
We also know that you all went to school and that after 15,000 hours in school, you too are experts and have strong views about school. Some of you did not have great experiences in schooling. Some of you had some brilliant teachers that changed your life course, but some of you missed these marvelous teachers. We realize that you, and our current society, expect much of schools, and schools attempt to solve many problems. Today's schools have a major focus on developing the skills of learning and on finding ways to teach students to work collectively in groups. Employers want graduates to know how to work in teams, to collaborate, to demonstrate high levels of empathy and respect for others, and to be able to “walk in the shoes of others.” They want employees with high levels of respect for self and respect for others. We are good at developing these skills, but we need you too.
Acknowledgments
Corwin and the authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the following reviewers:
Barbara Buswell, MA
Executive Director, PEAK Parent Center
Gloria Ciriza, EdD
Assistant Superintendent, Instructional Services
Aiesha Eleusizov
Parent
Frederick Johnson, MD
Pediatrician
Farrah Lin
Parent
Sylvia Porras
Parent
David Sleet, PhD
Professor of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences
Former Director of the Division of Injury Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Cultures of Dignity teen editors Gus Kraft, Jake Chang, Radhika Khemka, Sara Davis, Trinidad Pavez, and the Cultures of Dignity Team who made our contribution to this book possible.
How to Use This Book
We want this guide to be as useful for you as possible. You might choose to read it from beginning to end; others might want to dip in and out of the sections that they’re most interested in. The four sections provide information on different aspects of the distance learning experience.
We begin this resource focused on the basics. Household routines have been upended and finding balance has been a challenge due to external and internal stressors. We make recommendations for creating learning environments and routines.