Grade-level expectations and academic achievement took a backseat to “treading water” after March 13, 2020, according to my colleagues in K12. It was hard enough to move to virtual learning, much less ensure completion of grade-level knowledge and skills.
We have learned that our children didn’t learn enough last year, or in the years before that.
Our daughters came from a difficult place, earlier in life. But, they’ve been with us since preschool. Their educations have been our responsibility from the start.
We anticipated struggles. The youngest was late to speak, for example. They both have some challenges that required special supports.
Yet, we know the girls can meet grade-level goals. They just need extra time and practice.
This isn’t a problem solved with yet more technology, or even better-designed technology.
In the end, grade-level mastery of knowledge and skills requires doing the work.
It isn’t a popular truth among some teachers, but the reality is that to become good at anything you do need to practice and do the drills. This really does mean memorizing some knowledge until it becomes automatic.
Basic mathematics needs to be drilled. You can use games only so much. Eventually, a student has to memorize the multiplication table. Everyone hates worksheets, just as they hate musical scales, but that practice helps later in life.
Our daughters are not where they need to be, and they aren’t alone.
We’re discovering they need to practice math until basic addition and subtraction are automatic. Counting on fingers is a good problem-solving technique before second or third grade. When you’re trying to do multiplication and division, single-digit addition needs to be memorized for instant recall.
We’re using some games (Math versus Zombies, School Zone Math), some flashcards, and some old-fashioned worksheets to reinforce those basic skills that slipped out of our eight-year-old daughter’s mind. She needs repetition, as so most children. If you don’t use it, you really do lose it. That’s definitely true of math.
The oldest struggles with English skills. She’s an excellent reader, but reading isn’t comprehension. She can read a paragraph perfectly, and then fail to identify the main idea or the theme of the paragraph. It takes time to develop comprehension skills. It also takes time. Teachers need to discuss readings with students, guiding the young minds towards an understanding of how to decode a text.
I have used the checklists for the Texas and Common Core grade-level expectations. The girls’ abilities align with the middle of the 2019-20 academic year, and we’re now starting the 2020 school year. Even working all summer on review and reinforcement, they remain behind expectations.
As parents, we know the schools did what they could. Still, we are extremely concerned that our girls need to catch up and get back on track this year.
We’re going to use a lot of paper worksheets and workbooks. We’re not going to use technology as often as the schools do.
We need to make up entire years of science and geography. Why? Because those simply weren’t the focus of the schools. I don’t know if this is because only math and English are tested; some teachers have complained that other subjects are neglected to make room for test preparation.
It isn’t just academics. Our daughters cannot run. They cannot skip. Watching them throw and catch a ball is painful. It turns out, physical education didn’t really do enough physical activity. How is that possible?
Our oldest informed us that the P.E. teacher allowed students to walk around the track.
She needed to be running. She dangles her arms, instead of swinging them. She stumbles and falls. This is a child who had physical therapy and occupational therapy to develop body strength and coordination. We assumed the school was providing daily activity, which is essential.
We have a scheduled school day, and have since March. It includes English and math at the start. We also added social studies, science, and physical education. We will incorporate art and music, too.
The homeschooling and virtual learning situation illuminates how much our daughters need to accomplish this year. We’re disappointed they didn’t make more progress within the public schools, even before the coronavirus pandemic interrupted their school routines.
Teachers with 20 to 25 students couldn’t focus on the needs of our daughters. The girls aren’t that far behind and they aren’t that disruptive. The girls faded into the system.
Homeschooling would not have been our choice. Now, we’ve discovered it might be the best way to teach what wasn’t learned during the previous three or four years.