The challenge of learning recovery – let’s remember to make it fun

As the pandemic eases and schools start thinking about reopening, one of the biggest questions is how to address the “slide” of learning. Many students have fallen behind where they would have been if they had stayed in classrooms, particularly in maths and literacy, but across other core subjects too.

As school leaders set out to meet this challenge, we want to be the voice that reminds us that this can be done in a fun and engaging way—and we have some thoughts on how to achieve this.

Learning loss

You might have seen this topic referred to as learning loss, or the learning gap - but we prefer the term learning recovery (it sounds more positive!). Research has shown that this is a growing concern for districts and many are making plans to address this. A study in November 2020 by NWEA found that although most students did show learning gains in reading and maths since the pandemic started, the gains are generally lower than an average year, particularly so in mathematics.

The effects of the pandemic have been wide-ranging in education, contributing to this need for learning recovery. A survey of 375 US school districts by RAND in December 2020 showed that 82% of school leaders believe that the pandemic had impacted student attendance, and only 8% thought that they were setting aside enough budget to appropriately support students that have fallen behind.

This is consciously being reflected at home too - 38% of parents surveyed by the National Parents Union felt that their children were learning less at home than they would during a normal school year.

The issue of student engagement is intrinsically linked to mental health and social-emotional learning - which we know have become issues of great concern since the pandemic. Stressed out, anxious and exhausted students are naturally less likely to be engaged in learning. (The same could be said for teachers too!)

So how do we go about increasing student engagement? I like the way this teacher puts it:

Children make better plans than teachers. Fact. This week we followed the pathway of a great idea. When we let the children take the lead they are engaged and so much learning happens. Please read our @BookCreatorApp book here. https://t.co/2UExpp19AF

— P1, Mrs Jalland, & Ellie Elephant🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@ElliePrimary1) March 5, 2021

Let's keep students front and centre of the planning process to ensure that they are engaged in their own learning recovery.

Ideas for making learning fun with Book Creator

From our own experience at Book Creator, we know that there are certain ingredients that boost student engagement:

Giving students an audience beyond the classroom

We’ve seen time and time again that students are more motivated when they can produce work that will be seen not just by their teacher, but by their peers, and even beyond. Publish work online and students will put that extra effort into making it better than just “good enough to get a pass grade”.

How to share your work online with Book Creator

Jon Smith has first hand experience of this, as a special education teacher who was struggling to get his students motivated to write. The moment he told them he was going to publish their work for the world to see, they suddenly realised they wanted to make it good! Listen to his amazing story below.

Differentiation of content

In their report on 'The impact of COVID-19 on student equity and inclusion', OECD found that among the top priorities for school leaders are:

• Supporting education of disadvantaged students
• Supporting education of students with special needs
• Supporting students whose parents have limited command of the language of instruction

All of these groups will have been disproportionately affected by the impact of remote learning and lockdowns. Prioritising our response to these groups when addressing learning recovery is key to ensuring equity.

From our perspective, the solution here is differentiation. It’s not just about students as creators. When the teacher is able to create tailored materials that directly fit the needs of their learners, these students will be much more engaged in the lesson. You might find that using one of our new templates will help kickstart your own creativity, or may just fit the topic of your lesson.

Check out these teacher-created books below:

Book Creator is designed with the principles of Universal Design for Learning, which makes it the perfect tool for creating differentiated material and especially for catering to the needs of students with special needs. And because Book Creator supports work in all four domains of language learning - reading, writing, speaking and listening, it is a popular choice for teaching English Language Learners in schools.

We have also used books to build reading fluency. The key to our usage shift was incorporating our school's curriculum when using Book Creator. This helped schools see that Book Creator can be used as a tool to support their current teaching instead of an "extra thing". Teachers loved the ready-made templates with teacher notes on the margins. They were able to clearly see how Book Creator could be used daily. Now that teachers see the amazing benefits of Book Creator the natural next step is for students to use Book Creator as a creative way to display their learning and growth. Christina Mahar, EL Resource Teacher, Learning & Language Acquisition

Explore how to design engaging lessons with Book Creator

Book Creator is a popular choice with teachers, particularly during remote learning, because it offers these three principles in a toolset that is simple to use. These principles of a wider audience, voice and choice, and differentiation are all wrapped in a familiar concept - the idea of authoring a book. Becoming a published author is a motivation for people of all ages!

Book Creator named Winner of the 2021 Best Remote Learning Tools

Sharing favorite recipes

Students each share a favorite recipe -- one they’ve cooked themselves, one they have cooked with their family, or a recipe they found online and want to try out themselves. This project is a great way for students to share something special to them and learn about their classmates during a transition back to in-person learning. You can make connections to math skills with measurement, and literacy skills with ELA connections. This activity features the new Cookbook template from Book Creator.

App Smash with Math Learning Center

Take a spin on a math journal by introducing an “app smash” with the apps from the Math Learning Center. Students can use the Math Learning Center’s online, free web apps to explore a variety of math topics -- like the Geoboard or Base Ten blocks. They can create visuals to accompany a math problem, snap a screenshot, and add it to their math journal. This project is a great way to give students options for how to share their learning in the math classroom. Give students options for how to talk about their math problem-solving steps including audio and voice-to-text.

Here’s the full list of lesson ideas to be covered in the webinar. Hope you can join us!

• Create a vocabulary notebook (literacy)
• Writing math word problems (numeracy)
• Goal setting journal (communication)
• Sharing imagined stories (literacy)
• App smash with Math Learning Center (numeracy)
• Cross-curricular ABC book (literacy)
• Create a book with a partner (collaboration)
• Sharing favorite recipes (template: cookbook)
• Share a story about yourself (template: yearbook)
• Create an “all about me book” with favorite things (literacy)
• Counting book with images of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. items (numeracy)
• Making a list of things students are curious about (creativity)

Check out our webinar recording with EdTech Consultant Monica Burns (@ClassTechTips) where she shared even more fun, engaging lesson ideas to support learning recovery 👇

What do you think about the issue of learning recovery? How is your school facing the challenge? Do you have any ideas or suggestions of your own for making learning engaging and fun? Share in the comments below