What do you think about multi-age classrooms?Especially anyone that has had a child in a K-1 class or teachers

Question

I have just found that my son is going to be in a multi-age classroom this year. I had already known he'd be with the same teacher from last year and I had said that I thought that a multi-age classroom might be good for him. I had read about some benefits including overall more acceptance of differences and of peers, less peer pressure, the fact that children grow and learn from siblings that are of different ages than them, it can promote leadership, and nurturing qualities. As far as I know they will all be learning the first grade curriculum.(Children Kindergarten age that are ready to begin learning first grade skills already will be in this class along with the 1st graders.) I can see how it could benefit a child like my own who entered school at an early age and give them extra time to mature at their own rate...And I like that he will still be learning 1st grade level work. I was also wondering if anyonelse had any thoughts on this or anyone that who has experienced this could

Answer 1

I used to teach at a school that had 4 rooms and was grade K-8. I taught Special Ed there so I didn't have experience in the classrooms, but I did observe them. It was K-1, then 2-3, then 4-5, then 6,7,8. I think it really helped the kids being in those kinds of classes. They would have frequent study times while the teacher taught the other side of the room. I subbed in one of them before and it went really smoothly. The kids played together well. If you have the right teacher and limited students, I think K-1 would work well :)

Answer 2

I haven't experienced it but my cousins were in that kind of classroom. I kinda like the idea because if your in the younger grade even just hearing what the grade above you is learning you will have an easier time the next year and if your in the higher grade you get the review from the younger one. The only thing I don't like about it is there is alot of kids with 2 grades put together. GOod luck. Hope this helps

Answer 3

When I went to school in the 70s because we lived in a very small german town grades 1&2 were together and so forth. I graduated HS at 16 with honors not sure if the "multi age" class rooms had something to do with it or not because when we moved to the US I was able to test higher and skip grades do to it.

My father grew up in a very rural area and they also had all grades mixed together he said he remembers (and you know how older ppl are about telling childhood stories) being his first yr of school and his older brother being in his last yr of school sharing the same school room.

I do remember though if someone had a problem there was always one on one time and many times another student would help out the younger ones. I have nothing negative to say about it, worked for me.

Answer 4

My sons were in a 3/4 classroom and I thought it would be great. They had the best teachers in the school. 3rd grade was fantastic for each of them. 4th grade, however, was horrible. They were bored out of their minds. The teachers had promised that 4th grade would be completely different and that they would touch on different points of the curriculum, but that is not what happened. They did many of the same experiments and even tests. The 4th graders were expected to do a little more, but they were still relearning the same things. I've heard that it works great in many school systems, but my kids did not benefit from this at all. I think it's good for the younger grade in the classroom,but not for the older.

Answer 5

I've seen the benefits and downfalls of a multi-aged classroom as a teacher with kids ages 2-5 and 5-7 and a parent with of my sons.
I've have taught grades Pre K-3 and a child development class in high school. I worked at a private school one year and my class was kindergarten and 1st grade. At first I thought it was a wonderful idea. The younger kids would learn through example of the older kids and they'd have a greater acceptance for the younger children. When I started teaching, I saw both of these situations begin to happen but I also saw many of the younger aged children suffer. Of course they were ready for the level of work the class had but they were by NO MEANS physically and maturity wise ready. I felt that it wasn't fair to some of the older children because myself as a teacher had to constantly reprimand the younger ones who couldn't behave and shouldn't be in the class. I felt that instead of putting these kindergartners in with first graders, they should be put into a separate class for academics and together for electives (music, art etc) and recess.
My oldest son's 1st class was the same way. He has some learning issues so him being in the class with both younger and older children gave him a chance to mature. But when he got into 2nd grade, the first couple of months were a struggle because now he was only with kids his age.
Montessori Schools do this with their pre-school aged children. Children ages 2-5 are all in the same classroom because of the learning styles and methods of the school itself. I was a little iffy about putting my 3yr into the school because of my experiences with multi-aged children, but I find that it's a much more successful teaching method when children are 2-5 than when theyre kindergarten, first grade age.
Best wishes =]

Answer 6

I think this is a great thing for children. It allows the older children to go back and practice skills that they may be weak in as well as allow younger children to move forward. I taught multi age classes several times in my career. It is much more work for the teacher but the good results for the students made me feel it was all worth it. Socially it allows the shy child more interaction with older kids that like to mother and at the same time reduces the bully his time to be bossy. It's not as much fun to bully kids you see everyday. It's a win-win situations.