Changing the Narrative: Addressing Learning Loss after COVID19

We’ve Missed You!

Hello friends! Happy Friday from @theteacherteam, and welcome back to our new series Changing the Narrative. This week we will be discussing how we as a community- educators, parents, and caretakers alike-will be addressing learning loss after the COVID19 school year. This is an extremely important and complex topic, so we will continue to return back to this subject here on the blog as time goes on! Let’s get into it!

Oh, What a Year!

Schooling during this past year has been a whirlwind of complication and change. We’ve all had a multitude of different experiences; some of us have been fully online, some of us have been fully in person, some of us have been half online and half in person, and everywhere in between. Educators had to make a whole new set of curriculum able to fit the needs of their new “school” environment and students have been trying to keep their heads above water. With all the commotion teaching has changed, learning has changed, and the standards of “where students should ideally be at each grade level” have also changed. So where do we go from here?

Learning Loss- A New Reality

Unfortunately, we’re dealing with a lot of different types of learning loss in every grade. For our little ones just learning how to speak is difficult. Articulation will be a mountain considering we’ve all been wearing masks. Because of masks, children have been unable to see how we create words/sounds using our mouths. Throughout 1st-6th there’s been a huge shift in reading loss. As we’ve talked about before on this page, reading affects our writing, language arts skills, grammar, and so much more. Usually when we have a loss in one area, it affects a lot of other areas too.

Students have also been extremely impacted not being able to be hands on with subjects such math, science, and the arts. Being hands on allows students to critically think and collaborate with other students. Being online this past year has changed the way students socially interact with one another. The students in John’s and my classroom have greatly missed seeing their friends which has made our hearts break. Being hands on and social interaction stimulates the brain that we can’t exactly replicate online.

Educators Are Innovators!

Before I move on let me express my gratitude, appreciation, and thanks to every single educator, principal, tech support technician, caretaker, parent, classroom aid, office manager, tutor, supervisors, (and so many more!) who have worked endlessly throughout this pandemic. This was no easy feat, and we all did our very best to be there for our schools, class, and community. John and I will be forever grateful as well as inspired by your handwork and dedication. You guys seriously rock! 🙂

So how do we address all of this change to our educational sphere and learning loss? Like I said, this is a complex topic, and there’s no one specific answer. I think a good place to start is catching up in any way we can. First we have to see where our students or children are to figure out a plan. Our next step is to be patient and work together as a unit to figure out our students educational needs. Tutoring will be essential in the next couple of years to get students where they need to be and confident in their studies.

As far as the bigger picture is concerned, what are the resources school districts will need to provide to help students out in the classroom? Do we need to start at a different place rather than the standard grade level they’re in? These are both questions we will need to really think about and put into action ASAP.

As always thank you so much for stopping by! We hope you enjoyed this blog post, and always be sure to comment or chat with us on our socials: @theteacherteam #theteacherteam

See you soon on Changing the Narrative!

John & Carol