Educator Resource: Use a Get Ready, Do, Done Plan For Remote Learning Success

Remote learning is hard! There's no denying that we'd rather be learning together in person, but until that becomes safe, we here at Khan Lab School want to share the tools andstrategies that are helping us support students' learning from afar. Some of the strategies we've implemented are unique to these circumstances, but others we hope to continue using when we get back into classrooms together.

This first tool we're highlighting is a simple but powerful Get Ready, Do, Done chart.

Inspired by professional development sessions with executive skills guru Sarah Ward, IL3 Advisor Michael Hurley made these editable templates to help our Lower School students. Be sure to scroll to the end for your own downloadable template.

This tool helps even our youngest learners learn how to plan with the end in mind. KLS Advisors teach their students to begin by envisioning what "done" looks like. For an assignment, this might mean students are imagining what their final product will be. What will the product look like? What elements will it include? How will the student feel about this final product? All of this thinking is described in the red "Done" column.

After we've envisioned our final product, then we think about what steps we need to take to get to that final product. We list these steps in the green "Do" column and plan out how long we think each step will take.

After their plan is written out, students start at the left-hand yellow "Get Ready" column and follow their plan until they're done. We use the final "Get Done" box to include things like submitting an assignment to an online learning management system or cleaning up their workspace. This helps students make sure they've completed every step of the process.

This simple process helps our students first plan their work, and then work their plan. We not only use this tool to have students plan out their work on assignments but also to help students plan out remote learning skills like logging in on time for a Zoom class.

Here's a Get Ready, Do, Done chart I made for my ELA 3 students as we talked about preparing for Zoom class during the first week of remote learning:

As pictured in the green column above, it can be helpful to have students first write out the time they estimate tasks will take and then record the time those steps actually take. This was a game-changer for some students who struggle to get to meetings on time. Honestly, it's useful for adults too! It's a rule of life that finding the right Zoom link always takes twice as long as you think it should. That's just how it goes, but if you plan enough time to find the link, you can still be on time.

Downloadables: If you want to try using these charts for yourself, you can get your own copy of the blank Get Ready, Do, Done templateshere. You can make a copy of the Preparing for ELA 3 Zoom Class examplehere.

We hope these can be useful to other educators, families, or anyone else supporting a child during remote learning. Let us know how you plan on using your own Get Ready, Do, Done charts in the comments!

P.S. Educators, have you heard thatour founder Sal Khan is going to be one of the keynote speakersatCanvasCon Online 2020? It's happening on October 15, 2020, and you can registerhereto attend for free.