'Lots to learn': Schools try to keep up with children's reading material (2023)

ATLANTA (AP) -- Michael Crowder stands nervously outside his third-grade classroom, his mustard yellow polo shirt buttoned up.

"Give us some vowels," says her teacher La'Neeka Gilbert-Jackson. His eyes search a chart that lists vowels, consonant pairs, and word endings, but he can't find an answer. "Let's help you," says Gilbert-Jackson.

"A-E-I-O-U," she and the students say in unison.

Michael missed most of first grade, the first year of learning to read. It was the first case of the pandemic and Atlanta only offered online schooling for months. Michael's mother had just had a baby and there was no quiet place to study in her small apartment. He also missed a good portion of the second series. So, like most of his classmates at his Atlanta school, he doesn't read at the level expected of a third grader.

And this is an urgent problem.

Third grade is the last chance for Michael's class to master reading with the help of the teachers before being subjected to more stringent expectations. If Michael and his peers are not proficient in reading by the end of the school year, research has shown that they are less likely to graduate from high school. Grade 3 has always been pivotal in a child's school life, but pandemic-related school disruptions have made that much more difficult. Across the country, third graders lost more ground in reading than lower graders and recovered more slowly.

To deal with the loss of learning caused by the pandemic, Atlanta became one of the few cities in the country to increase class time: 30 minutes a day for three years. It's more time for Gilbert-Jackson to explain the confusing ways English words work and tailor lessons for small groups of students based on their abilities.

She hopes that's enough. The school year has been a rush to prepare your students for future classes, where good reading is a gateway to everyone else's learning.

"Yes, I work hard," he says of his students. "Because we have a lot to learn."

___

SLOW PROGRESS

With the December break approaching, the Gilbert-Jackson gang is haggard and visibly tired. A handful of students don't come to school in anticipation of the long recess. One girl has been absent for weeks; now, back in class, he puts his arm across the table and tries to fall asleep.

"You have to wake up, little girl," Gilbert-Jackson tells her calmly. "You have to tell Mommy to get you to bed."

The lethargy is palpable, but Gilbert-Jackson continues with her classes. There's a lot to learn.

Review suffixes, how to spell words that end in -ch, -tch, and how to pluralize different words. Some students memorized the spelling; For those who don't know, Gilbert-Jackson explains the spelling rules. It's a phonics-based program that the district now mandates for all third graders, in line with science-based curricula that are gaining ground across the country.

Last year, the district began requiring the same curriculum for all first and second grade students. It can be dry and boring, full of obscure jargon like "digraph" and "trigraph". Good readers nod and respond during these sessions, but students who are still learning the basics seem lost.

To add fun to the lesson, Gilbert-Jackson turns it into a quiz game. Students are excited as they try to configure their laptops.

"Teach," calls Gilbert-Jackson. "Like spell?"

Students have to choose between "teach" and "teach".

"Yes!" Some of the children scream from their desks when the results appear on their screens.

Says Gilbert-Jackson, "I don't know why I get so many yeses when only half are right."

___

LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS

With the end of the first semester, 14 of its 19 students do not meet reading expectations. That includes Miguel.

Gilbert-Jackson has one big advantage: She has known Michael and most of his peers and his parents since the first outbreak of the pandemic. She taught them first and second grade and saw them through third grade. She knows how many of them missed school and why. The strategy was adopted by Boyd Elementary to give students consistency during the crisis.

Worth it. The committed relationship helped her adjust her focus and care for her students at a school where 81% of families receive food stamps or other assistance from the government. "I know what they know," she says.

The long-term connection, or perhaps just continuing to go to school every day, helped Michael to start reading. By the end of first grade, I knew two of the so-called "visual words": "a" and "the". By this time of year, first graders must have memorized 200 of these high-frequency words that aren't easy for new readers to figure out.

Now, in the middle of third grade, he's reading like a first year, two years behind schedule. But, says Gilbert-Jackson, it's progress. "You can see the wheels turning," she says. "Sometimes he draws a space, but he still tries."

When not at school, Michael stops by his apartment complex's community center most afternoons to read books for the staff who promote pizza party activities. His credentials show an improvement. His parents noticed his growth.

"I see a change in him," says Michael's stepfather, Rico Morton, who works as a landscaper and runs a late-night pizzeria. Morton says he sometimes asks Michael and his brothers about tests and multiplication tables. "He's matured. Now he speaks in complete sentences," says Morton. "I feel like he has the potential to be somebody."

But Michael's third-grade days at Gilbert-Jackson are numbered, and he still falls far short of what's expected of a third-grader.

This is a big turning point. By the end of third grade, teachers often guide students to improve their reading and writing skills. After that, students are required to read more demanding texts across all subjects and improve their reading skills independently. Researchers found that students who are not proficient in reading in third grade are four times more likely to drop out or not finish high school on time. And when a student doesn't graduate, the stakes increase. For example, untitled adults are more likely to end up in prison.

Michael is not the only student in this dangerous zone. A handful of your peers also read or understand in first grade.

Some, like Michael, haven't taken Zoom classes. There are two girls who attended the classes who seemed fine at the time. But Gilbert-Jackson believes that their parents did some, if not all, of the work for them, and that the girls did not learn to read or write.

One of those girls is now reading in second grade, but her comprehension is closer to that of a first grader in mid-year, says Gilbert-Jackson. "Words just bounce off of it," says Gilbert-Jackson. “She doesn't internalize what she reads. For me, that's harder to fix."

The other girl, whose mother likely did her homework while studying online, reads at the level of a first grader. Gilbert-Jackson worries about her. “Say he's in fourth grade: nobody's going to read to him,” she says. "I don't want to set them up for failure."

___

THERE ARE NOT MANY ALTERNATIVES

Good options are few. On paper, Atlanta County's policy is to encourage elementary school students to be "fluent" in reading, math and other subjects. But it's not clear how often the district actually retains students. Atlanta's school system did not respond to requests for data.

Getting students to repeat is no longer a practice across the country, even though more students are being held back due to the pandemic. Pre-pandemic research has shown the practice has mixed academic results, can stigmatize students and cause stress for families. It is also costly for school districts because it may require adding classes and teachers.

These students may attend four weeks of summer school, but that probably won't be enough to get them up to third grade reading level. And participation of children enrolled in summer school is notoriously low across the country.

When students enter fourth grade, their schools will assess their reading and math skills and "be informed of appropriate interventions," according to the district. Faculty and students will have an additional half hour of class each day for the next year, the last of Atlanta's three-year plan to deal with the pandemic setbacks.

Before leaving for the Christmas break, Gilbert-Jackson began talking to the students' parents to discuss how their children are developing and what may or may not happen to their future fourth graders. Although it is rare, she tells them that she can recommend that a student be held back or that a parent apply.

She encourages parents to continue working with their children, purchasing workbooks from cheap stores and, in some cases, agreeing to be tested to determine if their child needs more specialized help.

The parents of some of your difficult readers don't answer your calls or don't show up for parent-teacher conferences. In most cases, says Gilbert-Jackson, "they think they mean well."

"But I think some have the attitude, 'I'm going to send you to school and you better listen to this lady,'" she says, "but there's not a lot of support at home."

___

NO EASY SOLUTIONS

While Gilbert-Jackson seems to have a plan to promote most of his students, two new students put the veteran professor to the test. This time of year, your challenges resist easy solutions.

One day in late February, Gilbert-Jackson asks her students to review a story they've all written about a glowing rock. Most start working quickly.

A new student, a boy with a 100-watt smile and a fringe of flowing hair, transferred from another Atlanta public school in November. Instead of picking up her story, she chooses a book from the class library and starts writing in her notebook. A few minutes later, he hands his notebook to Keione Vance, the teacher's assistant.

"So you copied this from a book?" she asks. "I know you just copied."

She asks him to read it to her. A breezy start to the book, an "easy read" aimed at a first grade reading level. He struggles with words: beautiful, true, voice, safe, does, out and why.

When he arrived in November, it felt like "I had to learn everything from first, second and third grade," says Gilbert-Jackson. In class, he often lowers his head. “I'm getting more work from him now. But you can tell when you hit your limits. He says, 'uh-uh.'”

While most of the class is writing, the other new student, a tall girl with long braids that curl at the end, is sitting at her desk, looking away and humming to herself.

"She struggles," says Gilbert-Jackson. "There's something I can't identify."

Gilbert-Jackson is concerned that he is not serving his two new students as well as he would like. "What they need would require my full attention," she says. “This train has been running for three years. I can't start over."

___

ONE LAST CHANCE

As the other students in the class continue to work, some ask Gilbert-Jackson to read their stories. Some are written in full sentences with few errors. Others lack punctuation and capitalization and are spelled incorrectly.

After several other students ask Gilbert-Jackson to verify their stories, she gets the attention of the class.

"Genial, genial", diz Gilbert-Jackson.

“Yes, yes,” the class responds.

"Genial, genial, genial", diz Gilbert-Jackson.

“Yes, yes, yes,” responds the class. And then the teacher says words that can be very scary for some of them.

“Ms. Gilbert-Jackson can't be the one to say when the final draft is done,” he says. “I won't be there when you're in fourth grade. I won't be there when you're in fourth grade. Run tests."

Gilbert-Jackson and the other third-grade teachers are so concerned about their students' literacy and math skills that, after Christmas break, they decided to cut social studies and science to give students extra tuition and practice for the rest of the year. year to give of the year. It's your last chance to help them before they switch to another teacher and expect them to read everything themselves.

The extra time may have helped some students cross the border. Now, only seven of the 19 students are below grade in reading. Of the students still behind schedule, Gilbert-Jackson is the least concerned about one: Michael Crowder. She trusts that he will find a way to navigate the new world ahead, a world in which she needs to be more independent, even if there's a lot to learn.

"He wants to," she says. "He'll catch up."

____

The Associated Press Education team is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. AP is solely responsible for all content.