Hybrid Teaching & Learning with Saddleback

One way to help our students become strong readers and writers is by providing them with books to read. We cannot expect our students to embrace reading and grow academically and linguistically if they do not have the resources to do it.

This is why I am always trying out different ways to get books in my students' hands! Through Donor's Choose, Amazon wish list, and asking for donations, I've obtained books for students to read. And not just books, but compelling books, authentic books, and text that my newcomers CAN access, especially when they are attending school in a hybrid model (synchronous and Asynchronous). 
So, when Saddleback Education Publishing reached out to me and invited me to try out their new digital books platform with my students, I was super excited. Not only because it's material I am familiar with, but because these are books my students are familiar with too. We've used these books pre-COVID, and they knew how helpful this resource can be.
​I knew they were going to be as excited as I was.

Navigating the New Saddleback Digital Platform 

Once I was familiar with their easy-to-navigate platform, I began creating our first lessons for my newcomers. I couldn't wait to introduce the Saddleback Digital platform to them as a new resource to read and learn. To get my students comfortable with the platform, before sharing our lesson, I gave them the link to the digital platform and provided them with a class login and code I had created.
Students logged in and clicked around looking at all the books available to read. As students clicked around, I was able to help students who needed a little more guidance getting into the platform. It is not complicated to get in, but if students attend school virtually, this might be a little more challenging to see if they are entering the correct information. Once students were all logged in, we played a game. The game consisted of a scavenger hunt. This was just to get students used to navigating the platform without any issues. 

Our First Lesson Using Saddleback Digital Platform

Our first lesson was all about school language since we had students who had never been to a USA school and or not familiar with a specific USA school structure. 

Since we had students who were new to a USA school and were unfamiliar with our USA school's structure, our first lesson was about school language.

Slide one: To explain the difference between one and the other, I had one slide where I explained how some books are stories made up by the author and how some books are research teaching us about a topic. Using images of books, I had students access the slides and sorted the book covers based on the category we thought they should be placed. 

We used sentences like:
I think the book ___________ is fiction because _______________. 
I think the book ___________ is nonfiction because _____________. 
After modeling one or two books, students were all able to take turns and share a sentence. 

Slide two: I introduced the two books we were focusing on for the following days and had them find each book on their own and scanned the book to get an idea about the content. 

Slide three: I took this idea straight from the teacher's manual but because students were not on campus, I couldn't use the worksheet (and I don't like worksheets). As we read the text, we completed our informational web with all the details from the text. I'd read the text aloud first, then I'd have students read after me a couple of sentences at a time. 
The slides were completed by students with my guidance while sharing my screen and supporting them in finding the information. It was a great way for me to see who was paying attention and who was understanding what the text was teaching us. ​​

Using Jamboard to Assess comprehension

After completing slide three, I gave students a link to a collaborative Jamboard to check for comprehension.  See Jamboard HERE

The assessment was simple: 

1. Unscramble sentences based on the text we had just finished reading.  I'd read a word aloud then students would take turns dragging the word I'd say until the sentence was complete. 
2. Using the information in Google slide #3, students dragged the characteristic to the correct school. After matching, students were able to use complete sentences to tell about their work. "Public schools are close to home." "Private schools are not free."

We did the same thing the next day for the school levels chapter and school staff.

Slides four & five: We talked about comparing and contrasting. How some schools and levels have things that are the same and different. Students took turns completing the information and practiced speaking using simple sentences such as: "Public schools and Charter schools are the same in that they both ________________." "Publish and Private schools are different in that one is ______________ and the other is _______________________. 

Slide six: This slide was a discussion on school levels. Though this was something all students were familiar with, we had a lot to discuss since they had vast background knowledge. 
I asked shared scenarios like: "I am 6 years old. What school level should I go to?" or "I am 15 years old, what school should I attend?" 

This lesson was just the nonfiction part of the lesson. Stay tuned for the second part where I'd be sharing our fiction lesson using Bus 17 book. 


Thank you for reading!