Nell Duke quoted in EdWeek on the unique challenges facing first graders after the pandemic
In an article outlining the challenges that incoming first graders and their teachers will face after a year of remote schooling—or, in some students' cases, no formal schooling at all—EdWeek quoted Professor Nell K. Duke on some of the interventions that educators can employ to make sure all students are ready to learn.
“We don’t want to be so caught up in catching up that we don’t take the time to develop those supportive relationships, which kids probably need more than ever,” Professor Duke said.
The Education Week article reviewed the unique situation of first grade classrooms for the 2021-22 school year, even beyond the unprecedented challenges students and teachers at all levels faced in the previous year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to beginning to learn basic facts in reading, math, and other subjects, kindergarten is also a time for children to learn how to become students, getting used to classroom rules like hand-raising and the like. But with kindergarten enrollments significantly down in 2020-21 and those who were enrolled finding themselves in any number of environments that might include direct parent support, learning pods, or near isolation from their peers, there will be a lot to learn in first grade.
Duke told EdWeek that teachers must first discover what their students did and did not learn over the course of the previous year. Some students may have learned applicable skills outside of the classroom, such as acquiring number sense by cooking with their families. “There’s an opportunity to build on what kids did learn last year and to build on the interests that they may have developed that are not necessarily part of school learning,” she said. Duke also suggested integrating subject areas so that reading lessons also contribute to their learning in social studies or science, for example.
