Teaching reading lessons on your video conferencing platform (e.g., Zoom) using only a shared screen is challenging. It is best if you can have each student reading on their own device at their own pace, which involves having two screens up: their Digital Reader and the Zoom screen.
Here's how to set this up:
- Start a Zoom (or Google Meet, etc.) meeting with your students.
- Have students log in to their Digital Reader accounts and open the book (so they are ready for reading).
- Share your screen so that you can do a book introduction.
- When it's time for Read and Prompt, unshare your screen but stay in the Zoom meeting so that you can observe the students reading.
- Mute all your students, and unmute them one at a time as you listen to each of them.
TIP: If you want to be able to make eye contact with your students, have students use Gallery Mode and then shrink the Zoom screen so that it is just at the top of their window, with their Digital Reader book open below that. Note that this takes a bit of practice and works best with older students.
Breakout rooms can also be used where each student in placed their own room, and then moved from one breakout room to another for the independent reading portion of the lesson. For students using iPads, there isn't a two-screen option, so the breakout rooms are necessary (students can toggle between the two screens using the Home button).
NOTE: Each student must have their own license for group instruction/access.