When we began social distancing my 11-year-old daughter Abby pitched the ideas of getting a Tik Tok account. Anticipating many of our counter-arguments, she put together a presentation to persuade us with all the things she would learn, how she would be safe, and how she would manage her time. Abby is no stranger to the Internet and will tell you that she basically taught herself to bake by watching YouTube videos but up until now, she had never had her own account. We weighed the pros and cons and in the end, we figured that now was as good of a time as any to be able to have her learn while we had greater visibility and could provide guidance since she is with us all day long.

Over the last few months, I have seen her make many new recipes, live stream her cooking lessons with her friends, create some beautiful paintings, and design some new face masks. I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a whole lot of consumption and mindless things she watches but I would also be lying if I didn’t acknowledge the same is true for me as well. As she is consuming content, she is also learning new things that I don’t have the expertise in and wouldn’t be very good at teaching her. Instead of being limited by what I know and can teach her, she has access to a wide range of expert artists and chefs and many other talented people. Based on her interests and questions, she is exploring, learning, and creating. 

As I see Abby expanding her horizons and learning in many ways, I also know that what school will look like in the fall is weighing heavy on the minds of educators and families alike. This spring, the type of instruction and access to teachers and curriculum was varied at best. In particular, there are many concerns about the gaps in student learning, and what has been come to be feared as the COVID Slide. I am not going to argue that there won’t be gaps in what students know and can do in the fall but I want to acknowledge the reality is that these gaps have always existed. For example, in my 7th grade classroom, pre-COVID, I often have students reading at 2nd-grade levels and students reading at 12th grade and beyond. In this article, Shining the Competency Education Light on Education in the Time of COVID-19 Chris Sturgis reminds us, 

“That is true, every student will start the next school year in a different place. As they have every year. What’s different is that they may have received different exposure to the curriculum and spent different amounts of time on task. The pandemic is forcing us to look at a truth that has always existed. Our traditional system mistakenly equates the delivery of curriculum with learning.”

What any teacher will tell you is that these gaps have always existed in our classrooms and as we go back to school in the fall, we now have wide acknowledgment from families, administrators, and policymakers that students will be in different places. As we redesign systems, policies, and curricula for remote, hybrid, and in-person instruction, this is an opportunity to shift our thinking about pacing guides and curriculum coverage to demonstrations of learning. 

Here are three steps we can take to shift our thinking and our practices from coverage to mastery.

1. Move from a deficit mindset to strengths-based mindset

When students come back to school in the fall the instinct might be to figure out how we can accelerate the curriculum and double up on assignments and homework to “catch students up” from what they missed. What if instead, we flipped this instinct to find out what they learned? What if we take the time to understand what they do know and what they have experienced? What if we hear their questions and ideas about the world they have experienced during the spring and summer where our world has changed dramatically? What if we understand what new hobbies they picked up or the skills they learned? Our students are learning many things that we haven’t taught them. They are learning about the world in ways many history books would never describe. 

2. Teach the skills needed to be independent learners

One comment that has stuck with me throughout the last few months is that the pandemic has shone a light on the passivity of our students. Zaretta Hammond describes this as the difference between dependent and independent learners. When students are dependent learners, the cognitive load falls on the teachers. To get through the curriculum and stay on pace we often over scaffold the learning process, especially for learners who we consider to be behind, and often students fail to develop or use skills to solve problems and engage in the productive struggle that learning requires. An independent learner has strategies, habits, and skills to tackle challenges. They seek resources to solve problems such as mentors, videos, books, and experiences and have the ability to navigate the challenges and persevere. To be independent learners, we need to ensure that we take the time to model and guide students to develop skills like time management, goal setting, focus, and self-regulation to become independent learners. 

3. Use a mastery approach to learning to move forward

Of course, we still have goals and grade-level competencies that we want students to achieve but learning is not a linear path from one chapter to the next. Real learning that sticks is messy and personal. Instead of focusing on students being behind, let’s just figure out where they are and acknowledge the jaggedness of their profile. When we put learners at the center and have a clear picture of where they are and they are seen for who they are, then we can support them with the tools and resources to learn, fail, grow and demonstrate mastery of concepts instead of just teaching, testing, ranking, and sorting.  

As we know, just because we taught something doesn’t mean that students learned it but we also have to remember that just because we didn’t teach it, doesn’t mean that students didn’t learn it either. As you reflect and plan for next year, consider these 3 questions: 

Do I believe students can learn without me? 

Do I teach them the skills to learn without me? 

Do I have high expectations and hold them accountable for demonstrating what they learn? 

If we shift our focus from teaching to ensure learning and mastery of key knowledge, skills, and habits are at the heart of our work, we can acknowledge where students are and help move them forward. Or more simply in the words of a Hayden, a high school student, “Less assigning, more learning.”