Preventing the Corona Slide

Who would ever imagine we would have gotten to this point: online learning for every student in the United States of America. As an educator for 17 years, I must say this is one of the most difficult times I’ve experienced. According to a NewsWeek article, a group of NWEA researchers came up with two possible scenarios when discussing the effect of the pandemic,
“… data to project growth trajectories for the students under two scenarios: a "melt," in which students basically gained no ground during the school closures; and a "slide," in which students lost ground academically during the closures at rates similar to those seen over the long summer break.” (Sparks, 2020).
            This might sound discouraging to some parents; however, it also should not deter them from trying to lessen any negative effect a prolonged closing might have on their children returning to school in the fall, Inshallah (God willing). Being an educator, I expect for some of my students to have a summer slide due to a number of different reasons: traveling, lack of supervision, parents’ jobs, mental break, etc. I used to suggest various activities to parents that students can complete during their summer break:

• Participate in their library reading challenge
• Grade level book list
• Online learning resources: Study Island, IXL, Khan Academy, Quill, Kahoot, and Quizziz to name a few.
• Various types of book reports
• Daily or weekly journals
• Sunlight

However, I know during this difficult time, some of these activities may not be doable and it’s time for us to be creative. While lessening loss of work is important, I want parents to understand that our children’s mental health should be paramount. Make sure your child’s (ren) emotionally needs are met because some of them may be struggling to adjust to this new type of learning. Some examples are:

• Daily outside activities, with protection of course.
• Playing card or board games with family members
• Plan zoom sessions with your child and his/her friends; maintaining communication between friends is important to our children, regardless of their age groups.
• Browse the internet/Pinterest for arts and crafts activities.
• Daily family check ins to make sure everyone is OK.

After ensuring ways to make sure our children are mentally healthy, we can focus on their academics. Some school districts throughout the United States are sending home packages to students and have them complete at their pace. I am against this practice because it takes away the face to face contact some students NEED to have with their teachers. How many times, since this pandemic occurred, that we’ve become impatient with our children because they lack knowledge to understand the concept? When this occurs, students can become discouraged and not want to continue. In other districts, teachers are conducting live zoom sessions with their students. I like this way best because it allows students to ask clarifying questions and for teachers to assess who needs additional support. This way is similar to our in-class instruction so it leaves little room for loss of instruction.
Taking this model into account, we can plan to continue learning during the summer time to ensure that our children do not have a huge summer slide once we return in the fall. Some ideas to continue learning are:

• Reach out to your child’s teacher to see if he/she is having any summer class or tutoring session over the summer time.
• Have your older children have summer tutoring sessions on zoom with their friends.
• Participate in our local library or Scholastic reading challenge
• Free online Math resource for students of all grade level.
• Create a summer schedule with your child. I negotiate with my two teenagers (14 and 16) – give me three hours a day for something educational and the rest of the day is for them.
• List of online reading resources
• www.quizizz.com and www.kahoot.com
• Some schools have online subscriptions for their students throughout the summer. Please reach out to find out which resources are available for you.
• For our parents with special needs children, please visit our MACE site. Email: info@wearemace.com and website: www.wearemace.com. MACE (Muslim Advocates for Children with Exceptionalities) was created by Sabria Mills and Rasheedah Shabazz to be a voice to bridge communication between parents and schools, as well as helping parents with exceptional children find additional resources to help their children adapt to any type of environment. They also provide free educational support during this pandemic.

I am a certified teacher with 17 years of education; the last five years I have been working as an assistant principal at Al Falah Academy. I have a Master’s and Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction and English. Please reach out if you have any additional questions about ways we can ensure our students do not fall behind when school resumes: khaleeqa@alfalahacademy.com.

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Dr. Khaleeqa Bruce Ed D

My name is Dr. Gloria Bruce. I have been in education for 17 years, with the last five years as an Assistant Principal at Al-Falah Academy. I am a firm believer that learning is a continuous journey and I am always looking in areas I can improve my craft. ​