EDUTOPIA Article: 4 Ways to Keep Students Moving Forward

4 Ways to Keep Students Moving Forward

A look at a few ways to guide elementary students who may still be struggling with their learning after the last two turbulent years.

The last two years have been difficult for students, and even though we’re well into the current school year, some students may not be quite at the developmental place that educators expect. The challenge for teachers is how to truly meet every student where they are so that they continue their progress.

Here are four strategies that elementary teachers may find useful in taking on this challenge and bridging any learning loss that students may still be managing.

1. REDUCE STRESS

The pandemic has created a great deal of stress and anxiety. While students of color and low-income students were inordinately impacted by the pandemic, students across all identities and family backgrounds experienced loss of loved ones, family stress due to job losses and financial strain, separation from friends, and fear of a global illness that was out of their control.

The link between stress and executive function is undeniable. Executive functions include memory, attention, planning, and organization of thoughts, skills that are essential for both schoolwork and daily life. When executive function is impaired, students may experience difficulty with following directions, regulating emotions, and even just paying attention. Knowing this is important because if children are stressed, they’re not ready to learn. In order to create an optimal learning environment, therefore, we must find ways to reduce stress in the classroom.

We can do this in numerous ways, including building a community of support and trust in the classroom, using warm-up activities, incorporating breathing exercises and other mindfulness practices, and creating low-stakes/formative assessments that help students build their skills and promote a growth mindset. Take advantage of this stage of development as one where students are excited about learning and being playful. Being stuck at home might have limited the time they could socialize and play with others. Leading with ways to reduce stress through community building and playful social interactions is always a good idea but perhaps needed now more than ever.

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