Whole Group Instruction with Kira
Just because you're using a platform-based curriculum does not mean that you cannot still teach your students in a whole-class setting. In fact, Kira has grown as a platform so that you have more control than ever - including customizing your content!
Generally, a whole-class, synchronous setting follows a more traditional classroom model where teachers lead most lessons and students remain on pace with each other. In a Kira classroom, this often means that the majority of videos are watched as a group, and the teacher may use different assignment, access, and progression features to keep students on the same class pace.
Note: Don’t want interactive videos in a course? You can change them to regular videos, or remove them entirely, using the Ask Kira AI. Our article on Customizing Content has more information. |
Whole Class Example Instruction
Let's take a look at a sample lesson from our high school course. Below is a table of activity steps in the lesson, broken down into different "chunks" based on the teacher adjusting the content locking feature and leading the class through the activities.
Below is an image of these steps with colored lines and locks representing where the access lock has been set at various points in the lesson.
Class Entry & Do Now
There are many ways to start a class. In this example, we will assume we plan to have students on Kira the entire time. If that’s not your preference, you can adjust the flow accordingly - and if you’re not sure where to start, you can work with the Homepage Chat to create an unplugged, offline warm-up to present to your students!
Starting the Lesson Together
Teacher Tip: It can be an adjustment learning to teach from a class that is screen based in any subject area. A best practice is to be specific in your instructions on when students should be using a computer, and when they should not.
If you need student attention, consider asking them to “clamshell” or “45 degree” their laptops, so you have a clear visual that they’re not still working and can correct accordingly folks who may still be distracted.
Be sure to also give clear instructions on when they should open their computers and begin working again, too! |
Independent Work
As the students work, the teacher circulates. The teacher can talk to students based on need or issue, but may wish to prioritize a conferencing schedule or calendar to ensure all students receive a touchpoint during the week.
Partner Work
As a best practice, we recommend having an opening and closing routine to begin partner work. For example, "Turn to your left - this is your new partner. Tell them you like their shirt and then begin working." or "Great job working with your partners - tell them their code is amazing before coming back to the group."
Group Share & Closing
Note that in this Kira Lesson, I did not build in a specific exit ticket - but I could add one, build a separate one, or choose to have my students do a paper-based exit ticket, Post-it note check, or similar if there was more data I wanted to gather before releasing them for the day.
A Note for Fast Workers
Even with a dynamically chunked lesson that relies on content locking, you may have students who finish ahead of the class and get bored not being able to move on. Normalizing sponge activities - or supplementary activities students complete to soak up extra time when they finish - can help with classroom engagement and management.
Some students - independently or as pairs - may finish earlier than others. That’s a fact of life! It’s useful to have sponge activities baked into your classroom plan - this is what students are expected to do if and when they finish early. Some ideas:
Typing skills - your school or district may have a preferred platform for this, but many free ones exist. You can even use Action Tiles to make learn-to-type activities on Kira!
Consider making a batch of activities for an entire Unit; you can label them as mild, medium, spicy, or by the skills they should know to attempt them.
Weekly Error Assessment - ask students to submit their favorite error (flawed code) or write a coding challenge. At the end of the week, work 1-2 of these into an end-of-week error assessment task.