We must get students reading

DEBBIE JACOB

SOON, we will need to face the impact of the covid19 pandemic on student learning. Studies in the US already show “a troubling impact” on students’ reading skills – especially in the youngest students from kindergarten to Grade 2. I can only imagine the impact on our students who were not in school for the better part of two years.

In the US, a series of new studies show that about one-third of the youngest students fell behind on reading benchmarks.

A study done by Amplify, a US-based curriculum and assessment company, said that among kindergarten students, the percentage of students at the highest risk for not learning to read rose eight per cent during the pandemic, from 29 per cent in the middle of the 2019-20 school year to 37 per cent in the middle of the 2021-22 school year.

The study showed that lower income children were “disproportionately impacted.”

Independent studies conducted by individual states within the US describe the students’ digression in reading skills as “alarming.”

Even more worrisome was a study conducted by Curriculum Associates and published in November, which concluded that in early elementary grades students returning to school after covid19 lockdowns “have not yet caught up to pre-pandemic on-grade level performance.”

Studies attributed the loss of skills to repeated disruptions in learning during the pandemic. Younger children now in the early stages of learning how to read suffered the greatest loss because parents did not know how to teach the initial stages of reading.

In general, the studies showed that “more students are underprepared for grade-level work compared to historical benchmarks and pre-existing inequities in learning that existed…in lower-income communities before the pandemic are being exacerbated by the condition of education during the pandemic.”

Studies showed that maths scores declined in students at all levels.

The number of studies about the impact of the pandemic on reading levels in the US is hardly surprising. Since the 1950s, the US has tracked reading levels. A pile of data exists, but doesn’t seem to have done much good in addressing declining reading levels over the years.

Here in Trinidad and Tobago we need to collect data on reading, make use of those findings and push reading skills that have been neglected even before covid19. Reading is the foundation for all learning. While we strive to build back those reading skills, we need to keep in mind that comprehension and analytical skills can be developed by reading to children because children can process auditory information at a higher level than what they can read.

This is why parents and teachers must read to children at all levels of elementary school – and even in secondary schools at least from Form One through Form Three. I am often asked by school librarians or English teachers to read excerpts from my books to elementary and secondary school students, whose curiosity always amazes me.

Academic reading should not be confined to English classes, and it definitely must transcend textbooks. Science and history classes should have required reading, but students must have the opportunity to choose books for their interests and at their reading level. English classes need to offer non-fiction reading because many students prefer biographies and other non-fiction to fiction.

Elementary teachers and parents need to read a picture book to students every day. Each school day should devote 20 minutes to silent, sustained reading. This should be for a student’s book of choice. The whole school must participate at the same time.

Schools need more reading specialists in schools to work with students who struggle with reading. Above all, it is time to take elementary school libraries seriously. Every elementary school must have a library with a trained librarian. The NGO Let’s Read has done admirable work in developing elementary school libraries and stocking them with books.

Author visits and reading activities like authors’ fairs encourage students to read. Secondary schools with enthusiastic librarians inspire students and encourage reading through book clubs. Mucurapo East is one of my favourite school libraries because of its vibrant book clubs.

We all learn about books and choose our reading by discovering what other people read. School visits from well-known people talking about their favourite books in their lives and their current reading choices can spark reading ideas.

There are many ways to encourage children to read – as long as books are exciting and relevant to their personal interests. We face many challenges getting students back on track after this long pandemic.

We cannot afford to neglect reading any longer.