Kristen Bradshaw and Jessica Smith

Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

EDUC 605

Literature Review Draft

Dr. Shargel

March 16, 2023

Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

Abstract

The COVID-19 Pandemic continues to be a tumultuous disruption to public education.

Though the Pandemic began in 2020 the lasting effects continue to agitate student learning.

Specifically, the requirement of extended virtual learning impacted foundational literacy skills of

elementary learners, by altering their ideal environment for reading instruction and limiting their

access to physical instructional materials. Because of this, researchers have spent time

discovering what specifically needs to be done, from within school systems, to help restore the

necessary foundational literacy skills in K-5 students. Through the inclusion of altered curricula

and instructional pacing, incorporating precise reading interventions, and increasing home and

school communication, school districts are finding that their elementary learners are beginning to

show signs of literacy restoration post-virtual learning.

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

Visual Map(s)

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

Literature Review

Introduction

The COVID-19 Pandemic not only spread illness like wildfire, but it also rocked the

world of education. School systems were expected to immediately shift their entire education

process to virtual learning. Administrators, teachers, and families were constantly juggling the

difficult expectations of the new normal for education. As elementary teachers, we know that

young students were challenged the most during this time. Their formative learning years, both

socially and academically, were affected by this abnormal style of schooling.

Through research, we strived to explain how virtual learning has negatively impacted

foundational literacy skills of elementary learners (K-5). We discovered that virtual learning

modified the ideal learning environment for reading instruction and limited access to physical

instructional materials for students.

In the early weeks of the COVID-19 Pandemic, school systems were trying to put a

bandaid on a bone break. The lack of preparation and resources required for schools to make a

complete virtual transition of learning was very eye-opening. One of the most difficult aspects of

virtual learning was that it happened unexpectedly and no one knew how long it would last.

These uncertainties made long-range lesson planning almost impossible, and limited

instructional resources were accessible outside of the traditional classroom setting.

When learning from home, many students did not have access to functional technology

like Chromebooks or in-home Wi-Fi, appropriate home support, or adequate learning materials.

Through qualitative research, numerous perspectives agreed that certain houses were not

“suitable for education” (Özdemir & Önderöz, 2022). Compared to a practical school building,

there were more distractions in the home-learning environment, as observed by school

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administrators and teachers. They described the homes as noisy and chaotic (Klosky et al., 2022).

These types of distractions limited the childrens’ focus and affected their ability to retain

information during virtual learning. Most of the time, for success in the virtual format, student

microphones were expected to stay on mute. This allowed for the teacher to have more control

over background noise/audio feedback during the virtual meetings. For many families, having

separate areas for children to simultaneously attend their virtual classes was impossible, thus

complicating the home distractions. As for specific skills, such as reading and writing, face to

face education is a “must” (Özdemir & Önderöz, 2022).

Socioeconomic status has always drawn a divide between various schools and

communities within a county, or even a state. During the shift to virtual learning, this divide was

more evident than ever. Socioeconomic differences in households had an impact on student

access to materials, such as books and tutors to supplement virtual instruction (Kuhfeld et al.,

2022b). For some families, the language spoken by the classroom teacher at school was different

from the language spoken in their household. Imagine being a Kindergartener, having an issue

with a virtual assignment, and not having anyone at home being able to understand the language

to help. These struggles were happening constantly for so many young learners. The inability to

have adequate support immensely affected the development of their literacy skills.

The access to materials was another aspect in this divide of student success during virtual

learning. Having age-appropriate literacy materials at home are significant tools to facilitate

children’s engagement in literacy activities. They also support parent/child interactions in

regards to reading (Dunn et al., 2022). When school buildings shut down, students were no

longer able to check out their weekly media books, and foster their own love of reading. In turn,

the progression of student literacy levels fell below grade-level expectations because some

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families did not have the economic means to provide reading materials for their students during

the COVID-19 shutdowns.

Additionally, certain specialist-provided therapies and educational adaptations were not

accessible to meet the learning needs of students receiving special education services (Klosky et

al., 2022). While learning in-person, resource teachers or specialists could easily integrate into

the classroom or meet with students for small group instruction. Their materials and tools to

support students, such as specialty devices, chairs, fidgets, or adaptive technology, were not

supported in homes. Educators needed to think creatively to support their students, and even

with those tireless efforts, major gaps formed with these students and their ability to read.

Thus, we wanted to further explore what approaches support elementary learners to

improve their foundational literacy skills. It was determined that the approaches needed to

support these students were altering the curricular expectations and instructional pacing,

providing targeted and intensive reading interventions, and increasing the communication

between schools and families.

Pacing and Expectations

Curricula is often structured around expectations for both teachers and students, as well

as, the pace at which the content should be delivered. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic has shown

to have significantly altered the learning stride for students, it makes sense for grade-level

expectations to also be reshaped. Shifting from an in-person learning environment, to completely

virtual, and back to ‘normal’ again, dramatically impacted the amount of curricular content that

teachers were able to deliver to their students in a given school year. Adjustments to future

curricula and the pacing of lessons needed to be made to best support the needs of the students

(Kuhfeld et al, 2022b). For instance, if a second grade student, during virtual learning, was

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unable to complete the measurement units because of changes to their scheduled math time and

the limitations of instructional delivery, then it would be necessary for the third grade curriculum

(the following school year) to teach those foundational skills, prior to instructing the expected

third grade standards. Speaking from experience, it was evident that students missed critical

literacy content during their virtual and hybrid instruction. The format for teaching literacy skills

online was not conducive for small group instruction, therefore the expectations for future years,

when returning to the in-person classroom, needed to be modified.

Another effect of the virtual learning environments and Pandemic, were the social

emotional needs of the learners. Students really struggled to interact with other peers during the

Pandemic era, and for young elementary learners, those years were some of the most critical ages

for social development. There were many uncertainties for families during this challenging time,

including stressors with work, health concerns/restrictions, and overall global panic. Due to these

years being an unprecedented time, families were often unsure about how to handle the

Pandemic. Coming off of this tough time, a suggestion was to modify the curricular pacing to

allow students to express their thoughts and feelings regarding their experiences with the

Pandemic. These adjustments could be made in the literacy content areas (reading and writing).

By allowing the children to express themselves, it involves them in both their education and

social emotional learning (Harmey & Moss, 2021).

Many classroom teachers felt that their priority, when students returned to in-person

learning, was targeted towards the students’ social skills and well-being. It was important to

listen to the students and have the time available during the school day to have those meaningful

conversations, which meant sometimes altering the pacing of curricula. The learner needed to be

taken care of before any academic learning could take place.

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

Reading Interventions

When you hear the term ‘reading intervention’ what comes to mind; a program, a

strategy, or even an activity? Reading interventions are critical in providing below grade-level

readers the opportunity to flourish in their personal literacy levels. After assessing students post

virtual-learning, it was evident that an abnormally large amount of students needed to participate

in a reading intervention, when that might not have been the case prior to the 2020 school year

(pre-Pandemic).

For all people (teachers, parents, administrators, students) connected to the education

world during the Pandemic, it was obvious that literacy instruction did not transfer well to virtual

learning. During the virtual learning months, there was some literacy instruction embedded in the

daily schedule, but it was not reflective of the pre-Pandemic language arts instruction. Being in-

person, it was easier for teachers to deliver daily, small group instruction. There were in-print

reading materials for students to access at their specific reading levels. Teachers were also able

to confer with students daily to listen and give targeted feedback about their reading progress.

Almost all of these teaching methods and strategies were eliminated for two years during the

Pandemic.

With the aim of improving these alarming literacy statistics, it was suggested that school

systems needed to create interventions and monitoring systems to address the literacy gaps of

many students, not just individual student interventions (Sparks, 2022). The current third grade

students were in kindergarten and first grade during the majority of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

These formative years are critical in a student’s development of literacy skills. In one of our

elementary schools, two-thirds of the students were reading below grade level at the beginning of

third grade. In order for gaps to be closed, serious interventions were required, specifically in

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

Phonics instruction. Historically, the delivery of these interventions were provided to students in

kindergarten through second grade.

During the 2022-2023 school year, our county, AACPS, expected teachers in third grade

to deliver phonics interventions, such as the Fundations Wilson Language Training program.

This specific program incorporates tiered, structured interventions, which serve to provide

extensive research-based techniques in aiding to lay literacy framework skills (Wilson Language

Training, 2023). Some of the strategies used in the program are building words, learning specific

spelling patterns and rules, and decoding multisyllabic words to read fluently.

To deliver those interventions with fidelity, it was apparent that upper elementary

classroom teachers needed to receive additional training, resources, and support (Kuhfeld et al.,

2022a). In our county’s example, upper elementary teachers were expected to teach an entire

phonics curriculum for the first time and they felt woefully unprepared at the beginning of the

school year. Third grade teachers were given a two-hour professional development training for

the intervention, whereas the previous school year, primary teachers attended a three-day training

seminar. The two-hour versus three-day comparison proved that there was inadequate support

provided to these new facilitators. Not only were upper elementary teachers feeling pressure to

advance their students’ reading levels, but they needed to spend additional hours training

themselves on appropriate instructional delivery.

As the school year has progressed, and this same group of students received this targeted

intervention for several months, data has supported the ideas of these researchers. After assessing

students on their leveled reading ability, and using a digital diagnostic assessment mid-year, half

of the students receiving the reading intervention made enough phonics progress, to graduate

from the intervention program, and are currently reading on-grade level. It is evident that

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

modifying curricular expectations and providing additional training to educators, has supported

the growth of elementary students’ literacy skills.

Home and School Communication

As if home and school collaboration hasn't always been important, now more than ever

families need to be involved with and informed about their child’s schooling. During the

challenging time of the Pandemic, school administrators were critical leaders in offering support

for the needs of their students and communities. (Harmey & Moss, 2022). Schools were expected

to increase their communication with parents/guardians, and be more creative in the ways to

connect with families virtually. Parents were able to meet with teachers virtually for conferences

and back to school night. Not only were the families preparing to help their children succeed

academically, but they were also supporting their children by fostering growth after loss. Many

children faced incredible losses during the Pandemic. These challenges were social, emotional,

academic, and sometimes even physical.

The hardest part for many parents during virtual learning was finding a balance to support

their children. Some parents tried to support their young learners too much, which resulted in a

learned helplessness and over-dependence when challenged. Other parents were not able to

provide the time, or understand the content and digital learning platforms enough to help their

students be successful. Researchers, Tahiroǧlu & Özer (2022) deemed that school culture,

learning environment, and obviously the teacher support, are not sufficient in conditions

surrounding distance education. These lapses supported the need for constant home

communication. Teachers spent hours creating informative resources, recording video tutorials,

and hosting additional video meetings to support parents during the Pandemic. They needed

these resources to support their child’s ability to learn from home.

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

Reading practices in homes across the U.S. were diversified during virtual learning. All

over the world, students of lower and upper socioeconomic backgrounds were forced to learn

from their homes. Students of wealth were sure to have more access to resources than their lower

economically challenged counterparts. Thus, a wider gap was created, requiring an increase in

discussions about literacy between teachers and parents. The goal was to help parents rebuild

reading practices at home (Sparks, 2022) and continue their child’s literacy progress.

Conclusion

The COVID- 19 Pandemic affected multiple aspects of daily life, especially children's

typical school routines. This has been an on-going recurrence since 2020, and we are still

experiencing the effects several years later in 2023. Virtual learning was detrimental to the

progression of foundational literacy skills in elementary learners. In order for these students to

repair the infrastructure of their literacy skills, school districts must alter their curricular

expectations and instructional pacing, provide targeted and intensive reading interventions, and

increase the overall communication between the schools and families.

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

Vision for Change

Further Research

After researching and diving deeper into the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic,

we felt motivated to continue our research. We wanted to pinpoint how our students’ lives and

educational progress were affected. Therefore, we have decided to conduct our own research

using a survey, to collect data from the perspective of our students, their parents, and our

colleagues, both teachers and administrators.

For our method of data research collection we have decided to focus on a mixed methods

design. We plan to have a single research focus, but will collect data using both qualitative

(open-ended) and quantitative (scaled) formats. For student and administrator responses, in-

person interviews will be conducted. For parent and teacher responses, the Google Form will be

used as the collection tool. This allows for families and teachers to participate without having to

physically connect with the data collectors. Some questions on the survey are classified as

qualitative means of data collection because of the descriptions and personal observations

involved. Mixed methods is an ideal form of data collection because it provides a stronger

understanding of the research question than when collecting data from either type individually

(Creswell & Creswell, 2018).

Our data will be collected over an extended period of time. Creswell & Creswell (2018),

describes this type of data as a longitudinal survey. The desired timeline for data collection

would be at the beginning (August-September), middle (January), and end (May-June) of each

school year, for two consecutive years. This allows us to see progress over multiple school years,

and how some interventions have impacted student literacy skills.

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

To gather data from the student perspective, we would establish a plan to meet 1:1 with

students that are currently enrolled in the elementary school, but were also enrolled there during

the school years that involved virtual learning. For example, current third graders (2022-2023

school year) were enrolled as kindergarteners (2019-2020 school year) when the mandatory

COVID-19 Pandemic required all public schools to close on March 12, 2020. Most importantly,

we want to examine individual perspectives on how students are doing with their current

foundational literacy skills.

Similarly, interviews will be conducted in-person with school administrators. This data

collection will be done within schools. Either within the students’ classrooms, or in the offices of

administrators. By scheduling the interviews in familiar environments, the data collection will

happen at the site where students learn and administration observes daily, in hopes to receive the

most honest results. Our goal is that interviewees will be able to share their ideas freely, as

opposed to being constrained by any type of data collection tools (Creswell & Creswell, 2018).

The main purpose of these interviews is to help establish a theme between the various

perspectives and the progress of the students’ fundamental reading skills. Because of this,

Creswell & Creswell (2018), describes how the overall research process should be “emergent”,

so that phenomena can be investigated at deeper levels of understanding.

For the parents/guardians and teacher data collection, the survey’s design and method of

implementation should follow a standardized survey format (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). These

quantitative approaches require a ridgid set of variables/scoring scales to be established, so that

the audience is able to make a selection where their students best align to the research questions.

Our online survey will be created using Google Forms. The main purpose of this survey is to ask

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

parents/guardians and teachers about their feelings in regards to student achievement since

returning to an in-person learning environment. Areas of interest on the survey will include

social-emotional learning, academics, behavior, responsibility, work ethic, etc.

Collecting this data from students, administrators, parents, and teachers, will allow us to

make connections between our own school environments, and the research from our literature

review. We are hopeful that, in time, our students will recover from the major obstacles from

learning during a global pandemic.

Survey Questions:

Survey Questions ● Rate your child’s current reading performance.

for Parents: ○ 1 - struggles to read grade appropriate books on their own
○ 2 - can read grade appropriate books with some assistance
from an adult
○ 3 - reads grade appropriate books on their own with ease
● Has your child participated in a reading intervention program since
returning to in-person learning?
○ Yes
○ No
● What is the name of the intervention program (if applicable)?

● What aspects of education do you feel is challenging for your

child, and would like to see improved? Provide explanation.

Survey Questions ● What percentage of your students are currently reading on or

for Educators: above grade level?
○ 0-25%
○ 26-50%
○ 51-75%
○ 76-100%
● What interventions (if any) or different approaches have you
implemented since returning to in-person instruction post
Pandemic? Provide explanation.
● Describe your observations of and interactions with parental
involvement in regards to the students’ literacy skills.

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

● During recent parent-teacher conversations, have you had

parents/guardians ask for literacy resources or suggestions to help
their child foster a love of reading at home?
○ Yes
○ No
If yes, provide examples of resources or suggestions you have
given to families.

Interview ● What percentage of the school population is currently reading on

Questions for or above grade level?
Administrators: ○ 0-25%
○ 26-50%
○ 51-75%
○ 76-100%
● How has the percentage of major incident reports changed since
returning to in-person learning (2021-2022), compared to the
2018-2019 school year?
● Since the beginning of the current school year, how many parents
(or guardians) have you talked with individually regarding their
child's school performance?

● Describe the level of parental involvement at the school.

Interview ● Do you read at home for fun?

Questions for ○ Yes
Students: ○ No
If yes, do you prefer to read alone or with a family member?
○ Read alone
○ Read with a family member
● How often do you go to the library or bookstore with your family?
○ Once a week
○ Twice a month
○ Once a month
○ Once a year
○ I’ve never been
● How do you feel when you read independently at school?
● How do you feel when you are asked to read aloud in class?

● Do you prefer to read books in print or digitally online?

References

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Restoring Foundational Literacy Skills in K-5 Learners Post-Virtual Learning

Creswell, J.W & Creswell, J.D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed

methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. (5th edition).

Dunn, K., Georgiou, G. K., Inoue, T., Savage, R., & Parrila, R. (2022). Home and school

interventions aided at-risk students’ literacy during COVID-19: A longitudinal analysis.

Reading & Writing, 36(2), 449–466.

https://doi-org.proxy-tu.researchport.umd.edu/10.1007/s11145-022-10354-7

Harmey, S., & Moss, G. (2021). Learning disruption or learning loss: using evidence

from unplanned closures to inform returning to school after COVID-19. Educational

Review, 1–20.

https://doi-org.proxy-tu.researchport.umd.edu/10.1080/00131911.2021.1966389

Klosky, J. V., Gazmararian, J. A., Casimir, O., & Blake, S. C. (2022). Effects of remote

education during the COVID-19 pandemic on young children’s learning and academic

behavior in Georgia: Perceptions of parents and school administrators. Journal of School

Health, 92(7), 656–664.

https://doi-org.proxy-tu.researchport.umd.edu/10.1111/josh.13185

Kuhfeld, M., Lewis, K., & Peltier, T. (2022a). Reading achievement declines during the

COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from 5 million U.S. students in grades 3–8. Reading and

Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1–17. https://doi-org.proxy-

tu.researchport.umd.edu/10.1007/s11145-022-10345-8

Kuhfeld, M., Soland, J., & Lewis, K. (2022b). Test score patterns across three COVID-

19-impacted school years. Educational Researcher, 51(7), 500–506.

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Özdemir, S. M., & Önderöz, F. G. (2022). Teachers’ opinions on teaching primary

reading and writing through distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Journal of Teacher Education & Lifelong Learning (TELL), 4(1), 34–50.

Sparks, S. D. (2022). More than 1 in 3 children who started school in the pandemic need

“intensive” reading help. Education Week, 41(23), 5.

Tahiroǧlu, M., & Özer, Y. (2022). Reading status of students learning to read and write

through distance education under the COVID-19 pandemic conditions. International

Journal of Eurasian Education & Culture, 7(18), 1513–1561. https://doi-org.proxy-

tu.researchport.umd.edu/10.35826/ijoecc.582

Wilson Language Training. “Fundations® for Pre-K to Grade 3: Literacy for all.” Wilson

Language Training Corporation, 22 Feb. 2023,

https://www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/fundations/.

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