Related: What parents need to know about the research on how kids learn to read Used to working on tablets or laptops for much of their day, many of these students were also behind in fine motor skills, struggling to use scissors and still working on correctly writing numbers. Her students were also not as independent as they had been in previous years. “That’s just caused a lot of disruption during the school day.” “So many kids are missing that piece from last year because they were, you know, virtual or on an iPad for most of the time, and they don’t know how to problem-solve with each other,” Miller said. ![]() “My kids are so spread out in their needs … there’s so much to teach, and somehow there’s not enough time.” Heather Miller, first grade teacher Finally, she resorted to an activity she used to use in kindergarten: role-playing social scenarios, like what to do if someone accidentally trips you. She stopped class repeatedly to mediate disagreements. More than a month into this school year, Miller found she was spending extensive time on social lessons she used to teach in kindergarten, like sharing and problem-solving. Some were among the tens of thousands of children who sat out kindergarten entirely last year. “It’s where they build their confidence in their fluency.”īut about half of Miller’s class of first graders at Doss Elementary, a spacious, bright, newly built school in northwest Austin, spent kindergarten online. “They really grow as readers in first grade, and writers,” Miller said. ![]() Credit: Jackie Mader/ The Hechinger Report Heather Miller’s students frequently write in notebooks to show their progress in writing skills. The benchmarks are similar to those used in the more than 40 states that, along with the District of Columbia, adopted the national Common Core standards a decade ago. In contrast, first grade concentrates on moving students from pre-reading skills and simple math, like counting, to more complex skills, like reading and writing sentences and adding and subtracting numbers.īy the end of first grade in Texas, students are expected to be able to mentally add or subtract 10 from any given two-digit number, retell stories using key details and write narratives that sequence events. And in many states with third grade reading “gates” in place, students could be at risk of getting held back if they haven’t caught up within a few years.Ĥ0 percent - The number of first grade students “well below grade level” in reading in 2020, compared with 27 percent in 2019, according to Amplify Education Inc.įirst grade in particular - “the reading year,” as Miller calls it - is pivotal for elementary students, when their literacy skills “really take off.” Kindergarten focuses on easing children from a variety of educational backgrounds - or none at all - into formal schooling. ![]() Research shows if children are struggling to read at the end of first grade, they are likely to still be struggling as fourth graders. While experts say it’s likely these students will catch up in many skills, the stakes are especially high around literacy. In classrooms across the country, the first months of school this fall have laid bare what many in education feared: Students are way behind in skills they should have mastered already.Ĭhildren in early elementary school have had their most formative first few years of education disrupted by the pandemic, years when they learn basic math and reading skills and important social-emotional skills, like how to get along with peers and follow routines in a classroom. A student works on a writing assignment in Heather Miller’s classroom. ![]() “Your paper is upside down, let’s turn it,” Miller said to a student who was trying to write letters while leaning sideways, almost out of her seat. Another tested her own way of writing the letter: one line down, cross in the middle, then another line down. One student watched his tablemate before slowly copying down his own H’s. Her 25 students set to work on their own. “When I do an H, I do a straight line down, another straight line down and then I cross in the middle,” Miller said, demonstrating on a projector in a front corner of the classroom.
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