Now that we’re well into the first half of the school year, teachers and parents are seeing the significant impacts of the pandemic on K-12 student learning. According to a McKinsey & Company report, students were on average five months behind in math and four months behind in reading by the end of the 2020-2021 school year.

This Instagram meme showing the last normal school year for kids highlights the impact on learning from the pandemic:

Last Normal School Year

It’s not surprising that so many kids are struggling in school already this year. And not only academically. They’re also feeling the social and emotional strains of being in school.

In McGraw Hill’s 2021 Social and Emotional Learning Report, educators say they’ve seen more emotional distress and attendance problems with students. According to the survey:

  • 53% of educators said COVID-19 and/or the shift to remote learning has caused their students emotional distress and created attendance problems.
  • Administrators and educators: Students have “given up” on school and show signs of depression, loneliness, and anxiety.
  • Educators: Student confidence has plummeted, and it is common for them to disengage from learning.

 When kids doubt their own ability to succeed in school, it can do a number on their self-esteem. And if catching up to grade-level learning feels like an impossible task, they’ll quickly lose hope and give up, which only sets them up to fall further behind in school.

Math, especially, is a subject where kids can quickly lose ground to the point where it feels futile to even try to catch up. Take heart: here are some ways you can help get your students caught up on essential math skills quickly so they can get back on track with the rest of your class for grade-level learning.

Make the Grade

Remediation, or teaching content and skills that students didn’t master in previous grades, is a common approach to achieving learning recovery. But a recent report from TNTP (formerly The New Teacher Project) shows how accelerated learning instead of remediation may be a more effective approach. 

Accelerated learning doesn’t mean you speed through lessons to cover everything students didn’t learn in previous grades. It means you move forward (accelerate) and teach kids current grade-level work and back-track (remediate) only when they show signs of unfinished learning from an earlier grade level. 

According to HMH, an educational publisher, It’s not “just-in-case” remediation. It’s “just-in-time” scaffolding—a way of providing support to assist students in meeting a specific learning goal. This “just-in-time teaching” ensures students spend more time on the work of their grade—the key to ultimately catching up. 

For instance, if you’re trying to teach students how to divide but they never mastered multiplication facts, they’re going to slip behind quickly in their current grade level learning. Instead of stopping progress for your entire class, you could provide targeted help to students who missed critical math skills, such as learning times tables.

Multiply Yourself

I know, you’re probably shaking your head and thinking, this sounds good in theory, but there’s only one of me to teach my whole class. How can I multiply myself to teach students grade-level subject matter and help them catch up on what they should have learned at different grade levels?

We understand your dilemma. How about an independent learning solution that would allow you to select students who need targeted help to catch up? Online Times Alive is a computer-based program that helps students learn their times tables independently, so you can continue teaching grade-level material to the rest of your class. This digital program delivers our award-winning Times Tables the Fun Way picture-story method to the student in an 18-lesson format with movies, music, quizzes, and games. Most students master the times tables by the time they take the final post-test.

For your peace of mind, Online Times Alive keeps track of progress and student scores. You’ll be able to check students’ progress reports later to make sure they’re staying on track. Also, students can log on at home or at school and pick up where they left off.

Online Times Alive is the most effective way for you to remediate where you see gaps in your students’ mastery of multiplication facts.

Kids love our picture-story method for learning math facts not only because the stories are fun and entertaining; students feel instant success because they’re able to remember the facts. You’ll see your students’ confidence and self-esteem soar as they get back on track with their classmates.

Teachers love it because your students can get the additional help they need without creating more work for you.

Ready to give Online Times Alive a try? Start your free trial membership now!