Literacy and Heterogeneity

teacher discourses on didactic strategies in the return to in-Person teaching

Abstract

The article, an excerpt from a master’s research project completed in 2024, focuses on the teaching of reading and writing in 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade classes at municipal public schools in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, after the Covid-19 pandemic. Our hypothesis was that students in these grades were directly impacted in their literacy processes due to remote classes during the pandemic. Our objective here is to highlight the teaching strategies developed by teachers in response to the challenges faced. As a methodological approach, we conducted a virtual focus group with four teachers: one from a multi-grade class (2nd and 3rd grades), one from a 4th-grade class, and two from 5th-grade classes. We found that students' learning difficulties worsened due to the pandemic and social inequality, which prevented low-income students from accessing remote classes, as evaluated by the teachers. In response, the teachers developed actions to address the wide heterogeneity in students' knowledge, beginning with welcoming the children and their families, conducting diagnostic assessments, and implementing playful and varied activities with the support of literature and even the possibility of additional pedagogical support. We concluded that the teaching strategies implemented by the teachers are not new and, although they took on a leading role in a delicate context, these strategies are embedded in traditional literacy practices.