Preparation
Interactive lessons can be completed in one classroom period or spread over two or more periods. You can also assign an IL as homework. Some ILs are accompanied by Teaching Tips to help orient you to the lesson and to provide suggestions for maximizing student learning. Read through these beforehand.
Although ILs have been specifically designed to scaffold learning, you can customize the way in which you use the lesson. For example, you can determine how much background information your students need before starting the lesson, how much time your students will need to complete the lesson, which parts you want to guide them through, and which parts they will work on independently.
Some ILs are particularly well suited for students working in pairs and small groups. In addition, as Paula Halligan explains in the video, ILs allow students to work at their own pace—which can make the experience better suited to individual student learning styles.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
In order to make the most effective use of ILs, you will want to assign them to your students through PBS LM. (You will need internet access and multiple digital devices).
Once the lessons are assigned, you can monitor whether students have begun or completed and submitted the lessons, and you can also view the work they have saved in their lessons. Note that teachers—and their students—must be logged in to be able to use, assign, and monitor lessons. Follow these steps to assign lessons to students and monitor their work.
You will find detailed instructions on how to set up and manage accounts, class rosters, and assignments in the Help section of PBS LM.
Take Notes
What challenges do your students have when working independently? Write down how the IL can support those needs.
