Rationale

Why Focus On Reading Comprehension?

Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, students have been learning virtually, and both parents and educators agree that there has been a gap in students’ learning and mastery of content. Third graders have the unique experience of having a 100% in-person learning experience for half of their kindergarten experience. Some students might have had the opportunity to attend Pre-K or have in-person classes sooner than their peers, but it is clear that for the majority of their educational experience, third graders were one of the most impacted by virtual learning. Decline has been discussed in areas of math, and literacy, however, one of the biggest gaps has been noticed in students’ reading fluency and comprehension.

The biggest challenge for third grade teachers across the nation is deciding how to help these students master content from years prior and get them to where they need to be as third graders. Some argue that it’s important to focus on math because the problems they will be completing will only get harder as the year moves on. Others argue that social and emotional learning should be the focus because of the impact of the pandemic on relationships and students’ ability to socialize. However, reading comprehension should be the starting point on trying to combat the loss of learning students experienced during the pandemic.

Reading comprehension is an important skill, as it allows students to not only understand what they are reading, but to make inferences and use what they read to make informed decisions. Without reading comprehension, students cannot formulate their own ideas and support them using logic and reasoning. Students would not be able to understand word problems and create a plan of attack when doing math. Reading comprehension is perhaps one of the most important skills for students to build on as it will help them as they move up throughout elementary school, to middle school, and so on. This research will be discussing effective practices for improving reading comprehension in elementary school students.