Here's one for my Devoted Readers who support multi-age classrooms:
The classroom that holds 21 fifth- and sixth-graders is unique at Garden City Elementary (MN). Teachers Karen Wifler and Shella Huggett are excited about the class they team-teach, and the progress they’ve seen since the beginning of the 2003-04 school year.
Wifler, who taught fifth grade in past years, is in charge of fifth-grade math and reading. Huggett works with sixth-grade math and reading. In previous years, she has been a talented and gifted program team teacher.
But not all the students who are in fifth grade are doing fifth-grade level work.
“We have a fifth-grader doing sixth grade work, and four sixth-graders at the seventh-grade level,” Huggett said.
That’s the reason for the mixed classroom, Wifler explained.
“That’s the advantage of this class,” she added. “Some are doing grade-level curriculum, some are moving more rapidly.”
Huggett admits that some kids don't do well in this format, and students were chosen specifically for this classroom. Students do both independent and cooperative work, and the setup can be challenging. I've no doubt that it works very well for some students, though, and apparently their TerraNova test scores looks pretty good.
Posted by kswygert at April 1, 2004 01:25 PM