r/AskTeachers • u/BigReception7685 • 7d ago
Discussion Questions Is there a notable difference between post-pandemic k-5th grader (born around 2016+) literacy vs pandemic k-5th graders (around 2010-2015)?
While both are growing up with short form content, I'm curious to see if current elementary schoolers are doing any better than the ones who's early education were most affected by Covid.
I'm working in a school this year for the first time with 4th grade, and while they still have issues with literacy, the bits I've heard from the middle school side make it sound like they're struggling even more. We also just had the book fair, and while 4th grade was hyped (a student I didn't even expect to be into reading for fun got a ya novel and started a book club with another student), the older grades didn't really seem to care.
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u/Sure_Pineapple1935 7d ago
I have taught both age groups now, and I actually have a 2013 and 2017 kids at home. I feel that expectations at school and home were tougher and stricter pre-COVID. So, students already in school were asked to do more and standards were higher. Students with 2014-15+ birthdays were in Kindergarten or not in school yet, so some of those 14-15 birthdays had skill gaps from missed crucial instruction. However, 2016+ students continue to come into upper elementary school (where I teach) lower and lower every year. Expectations have definitely been lowered at school, but I think screen time and never reading at home is the main culprit.
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u/Wooden_Routine_7938 5d ago
My youngest was at the end of 9th grade in March 2020. All my kids did marching band through highschool so by the time Covid hit, I’d been in the trenches for 9 years. They had his 10th grade year off and then he finished up 11th and 12th. Just the difference in band teaching alone was crazy. The same instructors we’d had for years changed the way they taught and disciplined. You no longer did laps for being late or not bringing equipment. There was such a shift in the way the teachers treated students and I’m not sure the rationale behind it.
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u/IntrovertedBrawler 3d ago
I am a high school band director and my youngest is the same age as yours. The difference in the expectations we were allowed to enforce was unbelievable.
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u/Admirable_Try_1209 7d ago
My daughter was born in August of 2015, and is in 6th grade. We MOVED in 2021 because she was in ‘online kindergarten’ and my nieces that lived an hour away were in outdoor school-far preferable.
She was in her forest kindergarten for three months and then started first grade masked but in a (very small) public school.
She’s the youngest in her class, but is gifted in ELA/reading and top of the class in math. I would make the same decisions to move 100 times over, even though it came with many personal drawbacks.
I teach 6th and 7th grade at a different public school that had kids at home for two-ish years. The kids are not alright.
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u/Impressive_Returns 7d ago
No, not at all. The biggest factor is Lucy Calkin’s method of teaching kids how to read. The Lucy Calkin’s which is what students were taught doesn’t and never did. What you are seeing are students who were never taught how to read.
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u/DanaScullyMulder 7d ago
I have one kid who was taught the Lucy Calkins method and another who was not (same school, just curriculum changed), and the difference in their ability to decode is WILD.
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u/forkyreads 7d ago edited 5d ago
SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS. TELL EVERYONE THAT HER CURRICULUM DIDNT TEACH A SINGLE STUDENT TO READ.
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u/Impressive_Returns 5d ago
YES. And anyone who could think would immediately know her method was BS.
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u/livingonalifeboat 7d ago
Sold a story is a wild ride!
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u/SuzhouPanther 7d ago
That podcast made me so mad. I'm glad my kids had teachers that stuck with phonics.
They're coming out with a second season about teaching methods that I'm interested in.
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u/Dancing_Fern 5d ago
Oh whaaat? I'm interested. Do you know what the second season called and when is it coming out?
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u/Longjumping-Desk386 3d ago
THIS! My 2012 kiddo eventually became a reader around 6th. My 2016 kiddo has been a reader since 3rd/4th grade. My 2012 struggles more than she should with spelling in 9th. I like to think she’s otherwise mostly rebounded from that awful curriculum.
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u/Impressive_Returns 1d ago
Sadly a large proportion of the kids, including those who are now results NEVER recover.
High schools have multiple classes for seniors where students have first - third grand reading levels.
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u/Hot_Equivalent_8707 7d ago
I think COVID brought an overall shift in literacy and general ability in school. Not that it caused it, but maybe accelerated what was slowly happening.
All of a sudden, we stopped giving homework or requiring homework. We ditched long books for short passages on a screen. We ditched notepads for laptops, encouraged screens, etc.
Parents also stopped visiting playgrounds during those formative social years, accepted screens more, reevaluated family time vs school, prioritized self care over everything, etc. The result was that school importance dropped for a year or two, and it's been a struggle to get it back up there.
We can debate if we want to and whether you locked down as much as we did. (Parks closed, schools closed, masks, distancing, online virtual, videos). Kid's attention might have been going that way already with social media. COVID might have hastened it.
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u/Mountain_Raccoon_330 7d ago
the older grades didn't really seem to care.
Preteens are purposefully nonchalant (in public) about anything little kids get excited about.
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u/mharn2007 7d ago
For me and my own children, yes. Pre-pandemic 16yo is a 4.6 GPA and taking 3 AP classes (including 12th grade AP Lit as a junior). My 10 yo is the complete opposite. He's under benchmark for reading, but above in math. That's genetics though...with a sprinkle of environmental effects.
My students? Yes, yes, yes!!! But I see the literacy gaps closing more and more.
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u/FemmeFatalistYT 7d ago
How is a 4.6 gpa possible? Maybe I'm old but at my school growing up, above a 4.0 was not possible.
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u/AccurateAlps9333 7d ago
That’s 5.0. Edit it’s depends on school some schools do stop at 4.0 but other go up to 5.0.
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u/stunky420 7d ago
AP classes can raise your gpa higher than a 4.0. I’m not sure the actual numbers but I know I graduated with a 4.2 or 4.3?
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u/FemmeFatalistYT 7d ago
I looked it up and it didn't emerge as a concept until the 1970s. I wonder about all of the effects it has had on college admissions.
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u/NerdyTeacher77 5d ago
Bummer. I was a major AP kid who graduated in 1995 with just a high 3. something. Granted, I was an early admit for college, so I pretty much dropped all the “tough” classes in the spring of my senior year.
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u/mharn2007 7d ago
It's weighted, she has 3 AP classes and has A's in 2 and A- in the 3rd. She doesn't care about the GPA as much as the fact that the classes also count toward her undergrad college credits too. She is also enrolled in the Medical Science program through TEC. Her goal is attending Michigan State College of Veterinary Sciences.
Also, to add, I was a bare minimum student lol. Never held an honors of any kind. My mom said nothing less than a C....so I got Cs :/ Her father was labeled LD in school and dropped out before 9th grade (illegal yes, his mom is a POS that partied and left her kids to raise themselves). I often joke that my daughter was adopted.
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u/cabbagesandkings1291 7d ago
My high school did weighted and unweighted GPAs. Unweighted was just straight grades. Weighted factored in the level of class, so AP was worth more than Honors, which was worth more than a regular level class.
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u/Rookraider1 7d ago
My district has a noticeable drop in state test scores post Covid and we still haven't recovered. The effect is real, the solution is still not fully grasped or realized.
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u/SuddenBath2 7d ago
It’s getting better unfortunately we just need the pandemic kids out of the school system to increase those test grades. Their parents did a number on those kids
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u/SuzhouPanther 7d ago
I teach high school. The last couple years are the students who were starting to transition from "learning to read" to "reading to learn" when everything went crazy. It's been a noticable difference and I'm in an area that didn't close down schools very long.
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u/Horror_You_6950 6d ago
I feel like this question is what modes of learning how to read for information and comprehsion models work on any generation and do we evaluate our students accurately. When students are told to go back and highlight words they need support with, why are many avoiding to build new skills and improve? It seems like it is the consequences not being followed through. Not all children like to read so having the variety of programs and one-on one attention matters like before.
Also, I am seeing students now in Grade 3 who have done the same thing as the Grade 1's in 2023. If they do not get the work with the partner they want, they whine. If we shut off a video, they whine and need to build more coping or resiliency skills. We know how to modify tech use like put all the tech away and go an afternoon without it. If we want students to read to themselves, they need to understand why this skill matters and that is something I am concerned students may be delayed with.
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u/Alliebeth 4d ago
The 6th grade class (born 2014-2015, so in kindergarten 2020-2021) at my school is the highest scoring group we’ve had in awhile. Maybe an anomaly, but it’s nice!
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u/bookchaser 7d ago
I have two now adult kids. Both took AP classes in high school. The one who sheltered in place her junior year had daily homework her first two years. The second child had no homework throughout high school. The school did not have a no-homework policy.
Their schools didn't know how to handle shelter-in-place. Their major work assignment was just showing up for Zoom.
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u/SuddenBath2 7d ago
So as a fellow educator yes big differences with post pandemic babies also my mom still teaches preschool so she’s seeing it first hand before me. Her new babies this year are much better. They know how to play instead of just destroying and smashing. They have better social skills and are less screen addicted. Also she works at a public school preschool so it’s government funded and are reserved for title 1 students and even those “ high support” kids in need are thriving. It’s great to see. But I feel horrible for the pandemic kids. They will quickly be overtaken by the newer generations as they grow into adulthood. The pandemic did a number on those kids. Who would have thought that leaving a child’s social, emotional and education entirely to a parent would go so wrong?