Literacy in Lockdown: Learning and Teaching During COVID-19 School Closures

Read Teach. 2020 Nov-Dec;74(3):243-253. doi: 10.1002/trtr.1961. Epub 2020 Nov 22.

Abstract

Across the globe, students have been away from schools and their teachers, but literacy learning has continued. In many countries, students' literacy proficiency is often measured via high-stakes assessment tests. However, such tests do not make visible students' literacy lives away from formal learning settings, so students are positioned as task responders, rather than as agentive readers and writers. The authors explore the fluidity and diversity of literacy events and practices for students and their teachers observed during the recent period of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

Keywords: 1‐Early childhood; 2‐Childhood; Audience < Writing; Children’s literature; Content literacy; Graduate education; Home–school connections < Family literacy; Methodological perspectives; Modes < Writing; Motivation/engagement; New literacies < Digital/media literacies; Text types; Writing; graduate programs < Teacher education; professional development; text features < Content literacy.