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“Hey Mom, what’s on Netflix . . . I mean, EdFlix . . . today?”
Ok, so the overlap is probably a stretch at best, but Henrico County Public Schools officials are hoping that students will find their new online learning initiative just as engaging . . . well, somewhat as engaging, perhaps, as the popular movie and television show platform with a similar name.
The school system later today will unveil what it is calling EdFlix, a platform designed to offer weekly optional learning exercises primarily for elementary school students through the end of the school year. (The platform also outlines options for middle and high school students, but most of those will be completed on other online platforms.)
The site essentially is a resource with grade-relevant topics, projects and exercises that students may complete partially online and partially offline. School officials have designed the lessons in two-week increments and are referring to them as “seasons” to fit the Netflix theme. (Season 1 ran from March 16 to 27; season 2 begins today and concludes April 24).
Elementary school teachers have been told by school system officials to facilitate discussion sessions with students two to three times a week for a total of an hour at the kindergarten and first-grade levels and for a total of 90 minutes for second- through fifth-graders. The sessions are optional for students.
Elementary school activities
At the elementary school level, students will have a performance task and a choice board from which to select and complete various lessons. For example, for their performance task, second and third grade students are asked to describe a “global citizen” to family members after:
• viewing a slideshow;
• using a linked online program to read a biography of the person;
• creating a graphic organizer to summarize the person’s life;
• and then creating a visual component (a game, video, trading card or 3D “paper person”) to enhance their final presentations.
Choice board activities direct students to select one assignment from each of four subjects – language arts; math; science and social studies; and library/art/music/physical education and social/emotional. For fourth and fifth-graders, these choices include ideas like creating a personalized license plate for a northeast state using seven letters or fewer; exploring the Ring of Fire by reading an article on an online platform; and turning the shape of a shoe into something else through drawing.
The site is broken into categories for pre-kindergarten; kindergarten and first grade; second and third grade; fourth and fifth grade; sixth through 12th grade; and a section for families, which includes links to a number of guides and online resources for parents.
Secondary school activities
For middle school and high school students, the plan is for their individual subject teachers to provide through the online Schoology platform “optional opportunities for enrichment of content that was previously taught” through June 12, according to school officials.
Middle and high school students who want to improve their third marking period grades in any class will have through April 24 to complete “recovery” assignments in Schoology on previous content from the period.
From today through May 5, teachers at both levels who taught a high school credit-bearing course are responsible for planning and developing “learning experiences that address essential missing content that would have been taught after March 13,” according to the EdFlix website.
Then, from May 6 through what would have been the last day of school (June 12), seniors who are otherwise on track to graduate but who were actively enrolled in, or hadn’t yet completed, one of the following courses will complete what officials are terming “required new learning experiences” to cover essential missing content that would have been taught after March 13:
• a U.S. or Virginia history course;
• a fine or performing arts course;
• a career and technical education course;
• a second of sequential electives;
• and/or an economics and personal finance course.
The content won’t be graded, according to an outline posted on EdFlix.
All other students enrolled in courses that award high school credit will follow similar guidelines to complete required experiences, which also won’t be graded. For students who aren’t able to complete the required components by June 12, another opportunity will be provided in the company school year, according to the site.
High school seniors who are taking Virtual Virginia or Edgenuity online courses in either U.S. or Virginia history, fine or performing arts, career and technical education, a second of sequential electives, and/or personal finance will be expected to complete the course with a passing grade in order to earn a standard credit. Due dates are June 12 for Edgenuity courses and vary as shown in the Virtual Virginia academic calendar for that platform.
Other Virtual Virginia students will follow similar directives, according to the site.
Seniors enrolled in other Edgenuity courses will earn credit for a course if they have successfully completed 45 percent or more of it with a passing grade, while those who haven’t completed 45 percent or who have but don’t have passing grades will have until May 1 to do so in order to earn credits. Other students earning high school credit through Edgenuity will be required to complete the entire course by June 12 with a passing grad in order to receive the credit.
