COMPREHENSIVE DISTANCE LEARNING FALL 2020
4J schools will start the year with comprehensive distance learning for all students for at least the first trimester. Students will learn from their homes five days a week with a combination of live full-class instruction and small group work, as well as independent learning activities.
Grade-level teams of teachers, specialists and administrators have worked to develop daily learning schedules that will provide students with high-quality, teacher-directed learning opportunities every day and every week while they are learning at a distance.
These schedules have been developed with teacher workgroups in partnership with the Eugene Education Association to enable our educators to develop and provide exceptional learning opportunities and connections for all of our students and families. The district is posting draft schedules now while continuing to engage in ongoing bargaining with the Eugene Education Association about certain details.
Students’ online school days will feature a mix of live class time and independent learning. Responsive to feedback from families, real-time learning opportunities will be staggered with elementary synchronous learning time mostly in the morning, middle school in the afternoon, and high school in the morning—to reduce demand on bandwidth and potentially allow older students to support younger siblings. Grab-and-go meal service will be available for an extended time, coordinated with school schedules, to enable families to access school meals without missing live instruction.
Daily schedules and instruction plans are designed with values including:
- Providing high-quality and age-appropriate learning opportunities for students
- Offering a blend of online and offline, synchronous and asynchronous learning
- Balancing a healthy amount of screen time for students
- Ensuring learning opportunities for students who don’t access class time synchronously
- Providing social and emotional learning and support
- Ensuring programs provide for students’ special needs
- Building in interventions with students who need additional support
- Connecting with students who are not fully engaged
- Providing planning time and professional development for teachers to prepare for teaching in a very different remote learning environment
- Supporting parents to aid their students’ learning at home
- Offering robust learning with schedules meeting state required instruction hours
Note: Once schools resume hybrid learning on-site, daily schedules for students during their remote learning times will be different, likely with less synchronous learning time. The schedule for on-site school days also will be different.