Giving Compass' Take:

• As schools are preparing for the fall semester and how to successfully create classroom experiences, structured time, and unstructured time will be critical to student growth and learning. 

• How can donors contribute resources that will help educators craft the best learning experiences for students? 

• Learn about attendance rates for remote learning.

As schools look to the fall and how classes will operate, creating a structure for students to safely express their feelings will help them feel supported, Sara LaHayne, founder of Move This World, a social-emotional learning program for pre-K-12 educators and students, writes for Edutopia. Whether students will be in a classroom, a distance learning environment or a hybrid of the two, there are steps educators can take to help them work through their feelings.

LaHayne writes one step is to allow students to express feelings any way they choose — even by drawing a picture — and then thank them for sharing. Educators should also consider watching news with students so they can ask questions and get immediate feedback.

Meanwhile, educators may want to mirror routines from the classroom in a remote space, like a good morning message, and focus on positive things still happening in the world. Finally, teachers should remember that in order to help their students, they need to ensure they’re also taking care of themselves.

Structure is important for young learners. That can come in many forms, from school administrators building a snack time young children can count on every day, to educators creating opportunities where students can set their own structure, like picking a group for a project or prioritizing tasks to finish an assignment.

Unstructured time is also important, as ensuring young children have time for play also helps foster creative and critical thinking. Yet unstructured and structured activities don’t have to be exclusive. They can be woven successfully together to help foster social skills, as demonstrated by the path taken at Eliza Chappell Elementary School in Chicago, which used recess as a way to help students develop resilience and conflict resolution skills.

Read the full article about structure in curriculum by Lauren Barack at Education Dive.