Practical Ways Schools Can Support Student Learning Now (Opinion)

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Opinion Contributor, 澳门跑狗论坛

Larry Ferlazzo is an English and social studies teacher at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif.

The new question-of-the-week is:

Two years into the pandemic, what are practical strategies schools can implement now to help students achieve academic success?

Many of our students have learned soooooo much during the pandemic that is not necessarily reflected in standardized-test scores, including about responsibility (when they had to get jobs to help support their families or take care of younger siblings or older relatives); technology (when sizable numbers got their own laptops and internet access for the first time); and racial injustice (witnessing George Floyd鈥檚 murder and other shootings and deaths, anti-Asian attacks, and more). Seeing these kinds of student gains has been one of the reasons I have been .

Nevertheless, are caused by the pandemic, though to so-called 鈥渋neffective鈥� distance learning (since has found that out-of-school factors are what has had the most impact on student academic achievement).

There are practical and immediate steps that can be taken to help students. However, I do not believe that the strategies now being bandied about are likely to work in most places now, including 鈥渉igh-dosage鈥� tutoring, summer programs, reduced class sizes, and extended learning time.

Districts that want to do in-person tutoring are having a 鈥攍ike just about every other employer. And it doesn鈥檛 appear to be getting any easier. That鈥檚 not to say it鈥檚 a bad idea鈥攔esearch has found that, done well, it can . But a good idea is just wishful thinking if you can鈥檛 find the people to do it.

Summer school can work, but, generally, the . There鈥檚 no reason to think that won鈥檛 continue to be the case, and, even if it weren鈥檛, if you thought exhausted educators didn鈥檛 want to teach last summer, wait until 鈥渉elp wanted鈥� postings go unfilled this time around.

Though some noneducators claim smaller class sizes don鈥檛 benefit students, there appears to be . However, though data on the Great Resignation鈥檚 impact on teaching is still not clear, I think that a lot of educators will be leaving the profession. And data is clear that Skilled districts are developing 鈥済row-your-own鈥� and teacher-residency programs, but the pandemic has shown that . So, I鈥檓 not sure where the additional teachers to support class-size reduction would be coming from鈥攁t least, in the short term.

And has found that extending the school day or school year hasn鈥檛 generally worked before. The big problem is that when that kind of extension happens, it usually means that schools just do more of the same thing that didn鈥檛 work very well in the first place.

I鈥檓 all for continuing to push some of these strategies for the longer term, primarily tutoring and class-size reduction. But those are not going to help educators, students, or their families now.

So, if those ideas aren鈥檛 feasible鈥攁t least in the short term鈥攚hat should we do?

For what it鈥檚 worth, I would make two recommendations:

One, do intensive professional development on accelerated learning. I鈥檓 talking about the kind of teaching that ELL/ESL educators and other experienced teachers have been doing for years and that I鈥檝e written about previously at and that Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher have written about here at Five Strategies for Implementing Accelerated Learning. You can find other resources at .

Two, schools can start classes and programs to develop and support peer tutors and peer mentors. At our school, for example, we have had one or two peer tutors in our English-language-learner classes to provide academic assistance. This year, however, we added as

The tutors, many of whom are either more advanced English-language learners or participants in our school鈥檚 International Baccalaureate program, receive credit as an elective class. They provide the kind of personalized instruction and support that isn鈥檛 possible for a teacher to give because of class numbers. Peer tutors perform numerous invaluable roles, including working with ELLs in small groups on practicing academic conversations; being the audience and a source of supportive and critical feedback with whom students can practice presentations prior to giving them to a larger group; and doing first reviews of student writing.

Many, though not all, tutors speak the home languages of our ELL students and are able to use that ability strategically to facilitate learning. Some students who might be reluctant to ask a teacher for help because of school culture in their home countries (or because of feelings of embarrassment), seem to be more comfortable talking with their peers. Just this past week in my class, we did an oral-language activity where students learned the word 鈥渟ufficient鈥�:

Do you get sufficient support in this class to be successful?

Yes, I do get sufficient support in this class to be successful. For example, _____________.

No, I do not get sufficient support in this class to be successful. I would like ____________________.

Almost everyone wrote and said they did get sufficient support and attributed that to the work of the peer tutors.

Though the pandemic has made comparison data difficult to identify, it seems pretty clear to us teachers that students have progressed more quickly than in past years as a result of that kind of support.

In addition, students from several of our classes have been able to act as mentors鈥攑roviding social and emotional support鈥攖o younger students. Each Thursday, students are released from some 11th grade classes to take a 9th grader for a 10-minute walk. In addition to a general checking-in, 9th graders are asked to share the two best things that happened to them during the previous week and one 鈥渘ot-so-great鈥� thing. Mentors also have a different 鈥渇ocus鈥� question each time: 鈥淗ow would your teachers/parents/friends describe you and how do you feel about that?鈥� 鈥淗ow are you feeling about the grades in your classes and is there anything you can do differently?鈥� Mentors then complete a short written report for the 9th grade teacher.

Mentors report that they are energized by providing the support and can identify with many of the challenges their mentees share. Many mentees say they appreciate having someone close to their age who supports them and they can learn from. And teachers comment that they have gained important information about their students that they can act on鈥攊ncluding by providing more flexibility to students who they learn are experiencing personal challenges, modifying lessons based on what students have told mentors, and following up by connecting students to local school counseling staff.

Peer tutoring/mentoring is not a one-way street. S in previous years, have demonstrated that peer tutors/mentors tend to increase their own academic achievement, also.

I鈥檓 not saying either of these two recommendations is a panacea.

However, they are certainly more immediately realistic than most of the other ideas that are being discussed and can be implemented pretty quickly.

During my 19-year community-organizing career prior to becoming a teacher 20 years ago, we regularly spoke about the importance of living in the 鈥渨orld as it is鈥� and not in the 鈥渨orld as we would like it to be.鈥� That doesn鈥檛 mean we shouldn鈥檛 also work to create the world that we want in the future. But it does mean we focus our immediate energy toward making people鈥檚 lives better now.

Our students and their families are currently living in the 鈥渨orld as it is.鈥�

I think our districts should, too.

Note: A much of this post previously appeared on my resource-sharing blog.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it鈥檚 selected or if you鈥檇 prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at .

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The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of 澳门跑狗论坛, or any of its publications.