Reimagine Deeper Learning in SFUSD with Seesaw

Students are provided with time, space and support to set goals, assess learning, track progress and present their growth. Students are seen as co-designers of their assessment, owning and sharing their learning.

Student learning, choice, and voice is made visible in Seesaw. As a creative portfolio and learning management system, it authentically captures student learning over time, thus making authentic assessment of student learning possible.

The feedback loop between students, teachers, and families take place in the following ways:

• Providing specific and actionable feedback in the comment box
• Marking and providing video and/or written feedback directly on the activity
• Adding a rubric at the end of an activity as a summative assessment
• Utilizing the built-in translation feature in the comment box to connect with students and families of multilingual backgrounds

A deeper spiral of learning is enabled by the Send Back Work feature so students can continually revisit concepts and demonstrate mastery over time.

As families follow their child's learning journey on the Family App, conferences can become an opportunity for students to share their portfolio of work. Transform conferences by providing opportunities for students to reflect and curate a Best Work Folder in preparation for conferences. 

A Best Work Folder is a place for students to:

• Add work that shows strengths, progress, or areas for growth
• Share reflections of their work 
• A space where students can continue to add their own work to the folder

Resources:

• Seesaw training video on Folders 
• Conferences Reflection Activity

Curricula is designed and instruction is delivered to ensure access for all and cognitive demand for “each and every” student, supporting independence, not dependence.

As designers of learning experiences, teachers design supports that reduce the barriers to nurture and empower student voices. Seesaw's multimodal tools embraces the multiple intelligences of each and every child to enable meaningful learning to take place. Meet every child where they are at with the following accessibility strategies:

• Multimodal instructions 
• Scaffolds on each activity page
  • sentence stems
  • video instructions
  • mini-lessons
  • screencasts as demonstrations of learning

Culturally responsive pedagogy promotes walls and mirrors that reflect the lives of students. When students see themselves in the work they are engaging in, their affective filters are lowered and they are more engaged in their education.

Students interact in meaningful ways through conversation, or participation in collaborative structures. The educator serves as facilitator and a collectivist or communal approach is used. 

A meaningful exchange of ideas is essential to enable complex instruction. Seesaw Blogs and Connected Blogs can expand the walls of the classroom to spark collaboration between students in classrooms across schools in San Francisco, across the country and globally. 

Everything happens within Seesaw, so it is simple, safe, and teacher-moderated.

Find a classroom to connect with on the 2021-2022 List of Seesaw Connected Blogs.

The thinking and questioning of students is the focal point. Students build connections to prior learning and experiences, and are independent learners who make their thinking visible.

Students build connections to prior learning by asking questions that stretch their proximal zone of development. Teachers create opportunities for students to make observations, ask questions, and investigate topics that matter them. To cultivate a sense of wonder, teachers can support student inquiry in a safe and secure digital platform like Seesaw by:

• adding links to resources like ebooks and videos
• designing activities that invite students to interview family and community members 
• incorporating open-ended prompts to activities

To sustain student inquiry, teachers can incorporate the collaboration features for students to provide one another feedback, connect with other classrooms using the Connected Blog feature, and invite families as partners to comment and share student successes.