We've assembled some suggestions and created new resources to help you support students with their writing during hybrid and distance learning!
💡 If you're looking for help getting students logged in to NoRedInk from home, check out this article!
Resources for remote learning
Our team created a library of new resources to assist you with creating lessons and supporting your students while you can't be with them in the classroom.
Quick Write Challenge
Eleven weeks of engaging, 15-minute prompts to help students get started writing quickly.
- Teacher Plan (includes assignments you can create with a click)
- Student Plan (can be used offline)
Day-by-Day Lesson Plans
20-80 minutes per day of mix-and-match activities that can be assigned with a click. Activities include skill-building, informal writing, and essay writing.
Self-Directed Learning Guide for Students
This guide is for students who want to work independently at home without teacher support. The practice plan includes 9+ weeks of daily recommendations that students can independently access with a click.
- Tips for students: Using NoRedInk at home (includes the following resources)
Resources for using Guided writing assignments remotely
- Best practices for using Guided Essays remotely
- Sample Unit Plans for Remote Guided Essays
- Handout for Students: Tips for Using Guided Essays at Home
Interactive tutorials
NoRedInk’s tutorials are interactive mini-lessons that break writing and grammar concepts down into manageable chunks. Check out our tips for using tutorials with students remotely, as well as a library of tutorial links that can be shared with students, here: Strategies for using interactive tutorials.
Printable Practice Worksheets
To help provide equitable learning opportunities for students without reliable access to the internet or devices, we've created 20 printable worksheets that cover our most popular skills and can be used in place of a Practice assignment on NoRedInk. The worksheets, along with tips for implementation, are available here: Printable Practice Worksheets
🍎 We'd love your feedback! How well are these resources meeting your needs? What would you like to see more of? Let us know in this 1-question survey.
Best Practices for Distance Learning with NoRedInk
Below are some suggestions for leveraging the various assignments available on NoRedInk to keep your learners engaged with their writing!
1. Assign work quickly with our sample units and lessons
Looking for ideas of how to sequence NoRedInk assignments into units or to accomplish different learning objectives? Check out our sample plans here!
- They include pre-made assignments that you can create by directly clicking on them, and many of these plans can be adapted for at-home use.
2. Master skills via Practice assignments
Assigning Practice to your students
An engaging way to build or reinforce skills is via mastery-based Practice. You can choose some topics you’d like students to focus on and create a Practice assignment.
🎯 You can filter by grade level in the Standards & Tests section of the Assignment Library to make sure you're assigning topics appropriate for your classes!
Student-led practice
Using their Learn page, students have access to a variety of lessons for each topic. Students can also practice topics on their own to make progress towards mastery. It may be helpful to share this article on accessing the Learn page directly with students: How do I practice topics on my own?
- You can also monitor student progress from your Student Data page by following these steps!
💡Encouraging students to complete practice is a great time to offer extra credit or challenge students to see who can master the most topics! You can also use our Leaderboards feature to view a count of mastered topics by student for each class.
3. Keep students writing with Quick Writes
Assigning a Quick Write is a lightweight way to keep students writing by providing a prompt and a few focus areas. Learn more about Quick Writes here!
- This is a great time for students to reflect on how they are feeling, or for them to respond to one of our existing prompts listed here!
- After students submit their writing, you’ll be able to view their work and leave a comment while grading.
✏️ Our team put together a Quick Write Challenge that includes eleven weeks worth of 15-minute prompts to help your students stay engaged! The teacher plan includes assignments you can create with a click, and the student plan can be used offline.
4. Provide support using Guided Essays
We know it’s tough to guide your young writers while away from school, and there’s no replacement for a skilled teacher! However, if you can't be there to support your students one-on-one, our Guided Essays can help by providing students with scaffolded tips and exemplars as they draft. Learn more about Guided Essays here!
- Once your students have submitted their drafts, you can provide some feedback remotely by leaving comments on their work and requesting additional revisions.
- You can even view students’ revision history after they complete multiple drafts of their work.
✏️ If you're looking for some ways to use Guided Essays with your students remotely, our team has put together some best practices here! We also have a sample lesson plan for distance learning using Guided Essays.
Here are some additional resources you may find useful when assigning a Guided Essay:
5. Review skills with Passage Quizzes
Our Passage Quizzes allow students to practice their skills in an authentic setting comprised of high-interest, nonfiction content, with subjects ranging from "Taylor Swift: Fan Favorite" to "The Accidental Invention of Chocolate Chip Cookies."
- Since students will test their skills in the context of a longer piece of writing, Passage Quizzes make great culminating assignments if you've assigned students practice on multiple topics within a Pathway!
- You can learn more about Passage Quizzes here.
✏️ If you're looking for some ways to use Passage Quizzes with your students remotely, our team has put together some best practices here!