In the age of remote and online teaching, it is more important than ever that we find ways to encourage group work in our lessons. While we can no longer rearrange desks in a circle or send groups of students into different classroom spaces, we need to find ways to create these similar collaborative and horizontal learning experiences for our English learners (ELs).

As more and more educators rely on video conferencing to host their online, synchronous courses, now is the time to think creatively and strategically about how we will encourage student discussion and small group work. One beneficial function to many video conferencing programs is the option to create a breakout room. This enables educators to divide their course into smaller groups, for example completing “get to know you” activities in small groups or discussing a chapter in a novel with guided discussion questions. More and more, the breakout room is becoming staple of the online, synchronous classroom. However, there less traditional ways that we can take advantage of this useful online teaching tool, and this blog aims to draw attention to three innovative ways that you can embed breakout rooms in your online teaching. Continue reading →