A recent article in the new Fort Worth Report focused on the inevitable setbacks for grade school students after they lost a year of in-class instruction. Estimates from the Texas Education Agency show students have lost at least five months of learning, but, the article submits, the impact could be much greater.
Two Texas Christian University School of Education faculty gave their input.
Jan Lacina, associate dean of graduate studies and professor, said that reading is surely to be greatest casualty.
“They’re missing out on phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and that all impacts their comprehension instruction, and that connects with all of our content areas,” Lacina said.
Virtual instruction simply isn’t the same for second graders learning still learning how to read, since hands-on activities and classroom conversation suffer.
“They can’t learn how to read complex informational texts — which we’d want them to start reading in third and fourth grade — if they don’t have those foundation skills,” Lacina said.
Curby Alexander, associate professor of professional practice, agreed with the loss that comes with virtual instruction.
“There’s really no replacement for just having students in class and being able to work with them one-one-one interpersonally,” he said.
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