The Benefits Of Multigrade Teaching

Treat the classroom as a family, and all students grow.

I have been in love with the concept of the “one-room schoolhouse” since watching Little House on the Prairie as a child.  Although these made for television versions (it got Disney-fied!) often glamorize a system of education that was sometimes primitive, often abusive and probably inadequate, their appeal for me was the family dynamic between the various aged students and their teacher.  I love my multigrade classroom because I witness this dynamic every day, as students support, encourage and care for one another.

The multigrade classroom requires a lot of preparation and organization to enable each student to meet their individual grade level goals as well as fostering an environment where students feel comfortable sharing their opinions, experiences, and questions.  We will get deeper into the specific planning required to teach students of different grade levels in this blog.

If you have reservations about teaching students in different grades in one class, think about an average grade level classroom.  These classrooms contain students that perform higher than their peers, students that are on grade level and others that are struggling to keep up, not to mention ELLs and those with learning disabilities.  In the same way a teacher would differentiate for this diverse group of students, is the way that I teach my class.  Small groups, mixed ability partners, leveled reading passages are just some of the common ways to offer each student the tools they need to succeed.  I just believe they get more on the social, emotional and personal growth side than the average student.  I love the way that we learn together.  More on multigrade teaching coming soon!

Lots of everything good,