Blended Learning Environment

Blended learning is a practice of combining digital/online learning experiences with other classroom techniques to create a single lesson. Tuva data sets and lessons are a perfect fit for the digital/online portion of these activities. This article is intended to provide one example of Tuva integration in a blended learning environment.

Grouping Students

Assigning students to purposeful groups is the first step to effectively implementing a blended classroom. A pre-assessment is necessary in determining the skills and content knowledge of students prior to the lesson. A Tuva data set and activity can be a great tool to use at this point. Based on the results, group students into 3 ability groups (low, mid, and high).

Three Stages of Blended Learning

During the first stage, the mid and high level students begin working on a self-guided Tuva activity. The low level students work directly with the teacher. This allows the teacher to address the gaps identified in the pre-assessment before those students begin the self-paced activity.

Stage two rotates the groups so the low begins working with Tuva, the mid group gets direct instruction from the teacher, and the high group begins working on a hands-on activity. The mid-level group should be working with the teacher to discuss the topics and concepts introduced in the Tuva activity. The hands-on activity for the high level group could be a lab or another inquiry based learning experience. Students could use the data from Tuva to develop a question for their own inquiry.

The final stage brings the high group to the teacher, and the low and mid groups to the hands-on activity. The teacher should work with the high level students to go through the concepts of the lesson, providing the appropriate extensions to the material.

Using Tuva Throughout Blended Learning

• Tuva Pre-assessment- use Tuva to assess your students and form skill based groups
• Tuva for Digital Lesson- use Tuva as the digital portion of the blended learning process
• Tuva to Guide Hands-On Activity- Have students use Tuva data sets to form a question or guide their hands on activity. Tuva can also be used to collect, display, and analyze data from these hands-on activities