Reading and the recovery curriculum!
As the foundation for accessing the curriculum and engaging with learning, there is no doubt that reading will be an important part of the recovery curriculum over the coming months. But, how can you ensure you have effective resources and routines in place in your classroom to support children returning to learning.
In terms education, COVID-19 had been hugely disruptive and the pandemic has certainly made us look at the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ in an entirely new light. The blended learning that has been going on throughout the country has highlighted the many different roles that people play, parents juggling work and home learning and educators teaching those in school as well as children working remotely.
But, in terms of access to books, good quality internet, computers and support, not to mention access to a hot meal and a quiet place to work, there is no doubt that children have had greatly different experiences over lockdown. The National Literacy Trust, in their recent report on the impact of the pandemic, highlighted how such disparities will have ‘inevitable impact’ on learning across the curriculum.
Anyone working with children will highlight the necessity of good speaking and listening skills which lead on to high quality phonics, which in turn supports reading development. This then greatly impacts upon writing skills. In a curriculum that is based upon reading and writing across the board, the importance of this cannot be underestimated.
As the great intellect Dr Seuss succinctly said: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
So where do we go from here? First of all, we need to know where the children are at right now and be aware that this may not be where they were in September or even December. We’re finding staff are already keen to get an immediate baseline assessment of their pupils’ literacy skills and our paperless, fully objective assessment can do just that! To find out more, make sure to book a quick demonstration with a member of the team – here.
For more tips and advice, you can also download our FREE Recovery Curriculum Guide to Reading below…