Which grades were most affected by covid?

amother

Turquoise

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 11:06 am

amother OP wrote:

So the grades that I've heard/noticed being different are:

Looks like there's some agreement on the first two. The last one is only relevant to me because I have a daughter that age, was born in lockdown. Her last year's playgroup was a mess, socially and behaviorally, at least the boys in it.

The others seemed to have missed pivotal years. There are other students who have academic gaps, but I think that's more based on the schools and whether they made sure to fill them in later on. For example, some kids never learned how to read script aleph bais well, or memorized their multiplication tables, or whatever. The schools should have stepped in and made these part of the next year's curriculum. But K and 9th are so important that missing those seems to have been more catastrophic.

Infants during covid?

Sorry, that makes no sense.

Infants are usually home or with a babysitter. They got to be home during covid.

amother

DarkViolet

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 11:13 am

I think the students who missed many months of first grade are most behind. I teach different age levels and taught straight through the covid shift to remote and then a year with masks, and I think the first graders just really missed out academically. The ones who missed kindergarten seem to have a little more trouble with social things and respect for spaces, but I don’t know if that’s covid or just some cultural shifts.

GLUE

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 11:15 am

amother Turquoise wrote:

Infants during covid?

Sorry, that makes no sense.

Infants are usually home or with a babysitter. They got to be home during covid.

It might be because the mothers were under a lot of stress at that time.

A few people who gave birth the first Peach told me that the recovery for that baby was a lot longer then usually. One mother told me how she is still traumatized a few years later.

amother

Begonia

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 11:16 am

amother Turquoise wrote:

Infants during covid?

Sorry, that makes no sense.

Infants are usually home or with a babysitter. They got to be home during covid.

Depending on the community and how cautious they were, and all.
A speech therapist last year told me that many Covid babies, then 2 year olds were dealing with speech impediments due to being surrounded by caregivers wearing masks. They were dealing with stunted development due to the average baby staying home with a nanny or parent and not going on trips, play areas, Mommy and Me.

amother

Bluebonnet

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 11:21 am

My daughter was in kindergarten/pre-1a (the year before 1st) when covid started. She was in 1st grade the year when everyone had crazy long quarantines. She definitely was affected. Even with working extra with her, her reading and spelling are definitely weaker than my older kids at her age. I think my other kids who were then in high school (various grades), upper elementary and playgroup were really OK and not affected much academically.

amother

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 1:21 pm

amother Turquoise wrote:

Infants during covid?

Sorry, that makes no sense.

Infants are usually home or with a babysitter. They got to be home during covid.

I don't know. My infant was home with two caregivers who were emotionally overwhelmed, thinking the world as we knew it was going to end. Recovery was harder because no one could help me in any way. My older kids were all home from school on zoom, or not on zoom and going crazy, which didn't exactly make for a calming environment. My husband was trying to work from home, as was I once my maternity leave was over, while the kids were running amok. It was a very stressful time, and I can't imagine it wasn't impactful.

She wasn't with other babies in playgroup, but my babies never are. But she also never saw or was held by anyone else other than me or my husband, as opposed to my other babies who were held by grandparents, aunts and uncles, were around their siblings' friends or around neighbors. I remember when I first took her to the grocery store when she was six months old (we'd been ordering in since then), she looked around at everyone like she'd never seen other people before! Which wasn't too far off the mark. And even when we did see people after that, they were all wearing masks and staying far away from her.

amother

Cappuccino

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 1:56 pm

I have a dd who just left for seminary whi was in 9th. We were so glad they had a real graduation and left for Israel in an uncomplicated way. Their class didn't really come together missing the end of 9th and so much weirdness in tenth. They told the 9th graders who asked them as seniors how the year would go that they didn't know, they had never had a full one.

I have a dd entering tenth who was in 6th. Their 9th grade year was a smackdown, because they never really developed the paper writing, studying, test taking and organizing skills taught in middle school. And both girls had massive staff turnover too.

My ds in 8th who was in 4th is ok. The last couple years, they worked on shoring up their skills. I think if a 4th grade girl would be worse off, with all the social issues at thar age.

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 3:47 pm

amother OP wrote:

So the grades that I've heard/noticed being different are:

I have kids at all these levels 🙂
Including 2 boys in 8/9 during covid lockdown...

My third grader I don't think is missing anything and I don't see her class being different than my kids' classes pre-covid.
They were in pre-K and so they didn't miss learning how to read. I think a lot of kids elsewhere don't start school yet at that age so it's less affecting to be out.

My 3.5 yo was 6 weeks old (adjusted age of 2 weeks) when we were locked down.
I noticed and so did others with babies born the same time that their play looks very different. At a very, very young age she was doing dramatic play and problem solving way beyond her years, interactive play vs parallel as well. I attribute this to her being home for months with older siblings vs peers.

amother

Snowflake

Tue, Aug 29 2023, 3:59 pm

My husband and I both teach in high schools, and in each of our schools the most impacted grades have been the kids entering 11th grade now.

They were in seventh grade for the spring of 2020, and then they were in eighth grade for 2020-2021, the school year when they were in masks, with partitions and quarantines and cohort pods and a great deal of either the teacher on zoom, some students on zoom, or everyone on zoom.

The kids who were in eighth grade that year seem that they never gotten back their focus on middle school learning for almost a whole year and half.

The strong kids did just fine, but the weak students came into high school without learning any math or Ivrit or writing skills in eighth grade.

Now, entering eleventh grade, most have gotten back to speed, but this group was the most behind group we'd ever had to teach in my school. And in my husband's school it was the same.

The incoming senior class, who entered high school wearing masks, had a delayed social group formation as a result, but by now they're doing just fine.