Split ClassMultiage Class

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Split Class/Multi-age Class

• By DaLaena Hall
• and
• Jessy Kennedy

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What is a Split Class?

• Multiage -- grade combination -- split level --
  mixed grade -- multi-age -- continuous progress
  -- vertical grouping -- family grouping --
  ungraded classrooms nongraded -- are all names
  for virtually the same thing. 
• They are classrooms where there is a mixture of
  ages and abilities, all sharing in learning. 
• In a multiage classroom, varied approaches to
  learning become the norm, and are valued and
  celebrated.

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What is a Split Class?

• A multiage classroom is technically one in which
  the developmental range is wider than that in a
  single-grade classroom.
• Grade levels may range from first through third
  grade, third through fifth, and so on.
• Students remain with the teacher for more than
  one year, starting as the youngest in the
  classroom and finishing as the oldest.

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Origin

• Our earliest American schools were multi-aged. 
• They included all the children of the village,
  from ages 6 to 16.  Even the rural school rooms
  of 25 to 50 years ago contained children of a
  wide variety of ages with just one teacher.

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John Dewey

• John Dewey was one of the early 1900 vocal
  opponents. 
• He felt that children learned best from their
  elders and that mixing the ages of the children
  was a natural way of learning. 
• He felt that the current schools of the time
  (l930s) needed to be liberated from their
  inflexible conceived subject matter

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Advantages

• Teachers are trained have observed other
  multiage classrooms.
• Teaching a diverse group of students demands
  individualized instruction.
• Parents who sign their children up for a multiage
  classroom are usually very supportive of the
  teachers and are more involved.
• Same classroom and teacher(s) for several years,
  so do not waste time at the beginning of each
  school year getting to know the students,
  teacher(s), parents, etc.
• Teachers can observe students developmental
  changes over a longer period of time.

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Advantages

• Students are peer-tutors, which can boost their
  self-esteem
• Older students are guides and mentors, which
  requires higher levels of thinking
• Younger students exposed to older students
  material
• Allowed to work at own pace and level
• Mixed ability grouping
• Variety of groups used, such as large, small,
  interest, pair, etc.
• Focuses on strengths, not weaknesses
• Students success increases their self-esteem
  confidence

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Advantages

• Safe, accepting, diverse environment with less
  competition, so students feel they can take risks
• Students makes friends with children of a variety
  of ages
• Learn to work with others, as well as
  independently
• Fewer anxieties may develop because the
  educational atmosphere is conducive not only to
  academic progress but also to social growth.

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Disadvantages

• Teachers can be frustrated if they are forced to
  teach in a multiage classroom, especially if they
  are given little training.
• Parents may fear their child will not be given
  the attention he/she would be given in a
  traditional classroom.
• Traditional classroom teachers feel frustrated
  and left behind. They feel that the
  administration favors the multiage teachers.
  They feel jealous of the materials and schedules
  the multiage classrooms may get before the
  traditional classrooms.

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Disadvantages

• Could separate the staff, no feeling of unity
• Requires a lot more planning time and materials
  for individualized curriculum
• If the students, teacher(s), and/or parents do
  not form a positive relationship, they are
  stuck in that environment for two or more years.

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Ten-step Program for Setting up a Multi-Age
Program

• Understand what multi-aging means.  Do the
  research.
• Discuss multi-aging with administrators, parents,
  and other teachers.
• Determine the age breakdown for each classroom
  unit.
• Condense the curriculum into a one year realistic
  set of goals.  Concentrate on mandated goals and
  objectives for the oldest child in the room.
• Match eligible children into each age unit.  Be
  conscious of social and emotional growth as well
  as cognitive growth.

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Ten-step Program for Setting up a Multi-Age
Program

• Check the heterogeneity of the classroom
  mixture.  Each room must contain a mixture of
  ages, ability levels, and social needs.
• Avoid placing all discipline problems or lower
  level children in the same classroom.
• Determine the teaching strategies which will best
  serve the mixture of students.  These will change
  as class groupings change.
• Design special project areas or learning centers
  which can cover a wide range of ability levels. 
  These should be problem-solving, hands-on
  experiences.
• Determine three evaluation strategies that will
  provide authentic, diagnostic information for you
  and the parents.  Be selective in trying
  everything that is new.

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Managing a Multi-age Classroom

• Here are some important principles for teaching
  in a multiage classroom
• No Ability Grouping
• Let children adapt their learning to an
  assignment.
• There isn't one right way and experiments are
  acceptable and encouraged.
• Choice
• Not only do students choose what to write about
  and what to read, but they are also able to
  choose how to solve any problem through
  manipulatives, drawings, fingers, algorithms,
  talking through a problem with a friend, or
  mental imaging.
• Challenge Students
• Make expectations clear.
• Expect all students to take risks.

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Managing a Multi-age Classroom

• Presentations
• Sharing and presentations are vital across the
  curriculum in a multiage classroom.
• Presentations foster a respectful community of
  learners and deepen understanding of concepts.
• When you have to explain something to those with
  varying abilities, you really have to understand
  it.

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Flexible Grouping Patterns for Learning.

• Within a typical multiage classroom of 25 to 30
  students, children work in various grouping
  patterns--as individuals, pairs, triads, small
  groups, large groups, or whole class.
• Such short-term groupings are based on interest,
  needs, learning style, problem solving, skill
  instruction, and reinforcement.
• In this approach to grouping for learning, the
  teachers choose the grouping strategy that is
  most appropriate for the learning situation and
  facilitates learning for each individual child.
• Suggested grouping patterns for various learning
  strategies include individual work for
  independent study or working one-on-one with the
  teacher groups of two to five students for
  cooperative learning situations five to eight
  students for a task force, committee, or project
  12 to 15 students for a discussion or
  decision-making activity and a large group for
  listening to, attending, or viewing a lecture,
  video, play, or reports.

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Continuous Progress

• In a multiage classroom, children learn in a
  continuum they move from easier to more
  difficult material and from simple to more
  complex strategies at their own pace, making
  continuous progress rather than being promoted
  once a year or required to wait until the next
  school year to move forward in the curriculum.
• Developmentally appropriate schools are flexible
  in their expectations about when and how children
  will acquire certain competencies (National
  Association for the Education of Young Children,
  1996).
• Children are viewed as individuals, and
  expectations are adjusted for each child.
  "Instruction, learning opportunities, and
  movement within the curriculum are individualized
  to correspond with individual needs, interests,
  and abilities.

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Continuous Progress

• Continuous progress promotes social, emotional,
  physical, aesthetic, and cognitive development.
• It is success oriented, avoiding the problems
  associated with retention

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Professional Teamwork

• A key to successfully meeting the needs of all
  students is the development of collaboration
  among teachers and other school staff.
• Regular time set aside for planning and sharing
  by staff members is essential for a successful
  multiage approach.
• Ongoing professional development can provide
  teachers with practical knowledge of
  instructional delivery systems such as team
  teaching, collaborative teaching, and peer
  coaching, which are appropriate in multiage
  classrooms.
• All school staff--including resource teachers,
  special services professionals, librarians, and
  art and physical education teachers--can
  participate in long-range planning and open
  communication regarding the multiage program.

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Authentic Assessment

• Any type of assessment that requires students to
  demonstrate skills and competencies that
  realistically represent problems and situations
  likely to be encountered in daily life.
• Students are required to produce ideas, integrate
  knowledge, and complete tasks that have
  real-world applications.
• Such assessment is ongoing and diagnostic,
  yielding information on a student's strengths and
  weaknesses so that the teacher can tailor lessons
  to the student's specific needs.
• Authentic assessment considers the child as a
  whole (socially, emotionally, physically, and
  academically) and encompasses a wide range of
  options, such as portfolios, exhibits,
  presentations, demonstrations, and other types of
  performance assessment.

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Qualitative Reporting

• Consists of regular individualized school-to-home
  communication describing "how and what the child
  is learning, individual accomplishments,
  interests, abilities, and attitudes.
• Progress is related in terms of the continuous
  growth and development of the whole child"
  without comparison to others.
• Qualitative reporting is based on how well
  children meet developmental and educational
  standards.
• These reports can be provided in a variety of
  formats, such as formal progress reports,
  portfolios, developmental checklists,
  parent-teacher conferences, anecdotal records,
  and videotapes.

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Parent Involvement

• Parental involvement and understanding of
  multiage education is key to a program's success.
  
• Opportunities exist for parents to be involved in
  all aspects of a multiage program helping with
  at-home learning, volunteering in the classroom,
  supporting fund-raising strategies and bond
  issues, and participating on school committees.
• The continuous exchange of information is
  critical to maintaining parental support and
  involvement.
• Partnerships between parents and schools are
  formed when parents not only are informed about
  school practice but have a role in the program as
  well partnerships are enhanced and solidified as
  a result of the extended time parents and
  teachers have to get to know each other.

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Developmentally Appropriate Practices.

• Teaching methods and curriculum components that
  are based on a child's developmental abilities.
  Such practices include active learning
  experiences, varied instructional strategies, a
  balance between teacher-directed and
  child-directed activities, integrated curriculum,
  and learning centers.

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Web Sites

• Multiage Education www.zepcom.com/michelle/multiag
  e.htm Links to multiage-classroom information.
• ProTeacher www.proteacher.com/020058.shtml
  Articles from experts and veteran multiage
  teachers.
• TeacherNet http//data.teachernet.com Bulletin
  board talks on K-8 multiage classes.

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Books

• Making Problems, Creating Solutions, by Jill
  Ostrow (Stenhouse, 1999).
• Methods That Matter, by Harvey Daniels and
  Marilyn Bizar (Stenhouse, 1998).
• A Workshop of the Possible, by Ruth Shagoury
  Hubbard (Stenhouse, 1996).
• A Room With a Different View, by Jill Ostrow
  (Stenhouse, 1995).
• Exploring the Multiage Classroom, by Anne A.
  Bingham (Stenhouse, 1995).

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• Questions?