Reimagining School after COVID

Mini-Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Opening Reflections

Set the stage for a conversation about reimagining school using one of the options below: 

• Many educators have instituted a regular journaling practice with their students this year. If your students have been keeping journals, invite them to spend ten minutes reviewing their previous entries. Ask them to consider these questions: 
  • Are there themes or patterns that stand out in your journal? 
  • What did you write about your experience of school this year? 
  • Did your feelings about school change over the course of your journal entries? 
• What is school for? Invite students to think about the multiple roles that schools play in their lives and in the life of the community by creating a concept map for “school” as a class. Ask them to think about a typical day or week at school, pre-pandemic. What are all of the different activities, experiences, and interactions that happen at school? After students brainstorm a list, use a wraparound to elicit their ideas and add them to the concept map.  

Activity 2: Explore How School Changed during the Pandemic

Ask your students to reflect on the following prompt in their journals:

• How has school changed for you over the last year or since the pandemic began? What has been challenging about the changes? What have been the benefits? Were there any surprises? 
• Have you discovered anything about yourself as a learner? Have you discovered anything about your school community?

Then, create five sections on the board or a wall in your classroom and label them “challenges,” “benefits,” “surprises,” “what I discovered about myself,” and “what I discovered about my community.”

Ask students to write aspects of their reflection that they wish to share on sticky notes and then place the notes under the relevant heading. 

Once students have finished, read over the notes as a class, and reflect together on what you notice.

Activity 3: Imagine What School Could Look Like

Place your students into small groups and ask them to brainstorm one change that they would like to see in schools after the pandemic. (Note: If it is not possible for your students to work together in groups due to social distancing requirements, they can work individually and then share their ideas with the full class.)

Students can use their reflections from the first activity to help them generate ideas, and they can use the following questions to guide their discussion:

• What change do you propose?
• What would the benefits of this change be for students and the school community?
• What are the potential challenges of making this change? Do you have any ideas to help overcome these challenges?

Once they have finished, ask each group to present their idea to the class.