WHAT ARE YOUR CHALLENGES WHEN TEACHING ONLINE? PART 3

How can I teach Writing on lIne?

this was another question/challenge lined up.

One thing may be, that my idea of 'learning writing' is pretty unique.  I don't believe in tracing or copying.  It has never worked for me, and my own children suffered the conservative style of cramming writing to an extend, effecting health.

So, I believe with all my heart that learning to write must be joy.  'Joyful' means something different to each student, so teaching writing is pretty individual and one-on-one.

In a normal classroom environment, with 8 students (in my case) and 60 minutes teaching time, (10 minutes for reading and writing, because speaking comes and has to come first!)  there is just no way to give each kid the time it needs to write.  Even if it is just a little tiny bit or word.  What takes one kid 10 seconds can take another one 5 minutes or more.  Checking each one and giving thumbs ups takes another 5 minutes, and nothing new has been learned yet.

These days though, I find it really easy and fun.  We can cover the content they will need to write in class (on line/zoom) and then they can go ahead and write after that.

Mostly I close our zoom lesson a bit early and tell them to do their writing practice right there, and then send it in.

Then I can take my time to look at it and write encouraging comments.

Actually I have 2 classes who had not done any phonics at all when we started learning via zoom class.  I decided to give it a try and since March I am doing 5-10 minutes of phonics instructions per week.  They are amazing.  I have never progressed this quickly and to this extend in such a short time.  
So, I actually think that even if hopefully at some point we get back to normal classes, I would start a system where I can teach writing the way I do now.  I just love it.

As always, let me know if you have questions.