How do you feel about the multi-age approach to teaching?  Feel free to chime in. Here's a story on the subject that appeared in the March 8 edition of the Villager: 

Younger, older students learn from each other

What are benefits

of ‘multi-age’ approach?

By Chuck Friedbauer

Correspondent

Fifth-grade student Emily Sasik confidently completed her Anne Frank presentation to a Victoria Elementary School fourth-grade audience.

After a brief silence, one fourth-grade student, Sydney Kaye, began to ask questions in amazed disbelief. “She was really only 15 when she died? How could she do all that at 15?” Soon, other fourth- and fifth-grade students joined in a discussion over Frank’s heroics.

District 112 elementary schools target interaction between students from different grades and use various programs to create what it calls “multi-age experiences.”

“As in real life, we need to learn how to deal with people at different ages,” said Cathy Gallagher, District 112 K-12 curriculum coordinator. “It is part of the process to make our way though life respectfully.”

 While each school uses different methods to generate these experiences, the goal of creating meaningful relationships is the same, said Gallagher. “The buildings take our core requirements and decide how to use the strengths of the people they have to meet those requirements,” said Gallagher. “Each school is different because teachers and administrators have different interests and experiences.”

“We have a range of freedom, within reason, to develop our multiple age experiences,” said Clover Ridge Principal June Johnson. “I believe we can learn from our variations. If we all did the same thing, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to find something better.”

While schools promote multi-age learning experiences, some parents are concerned about negative side effects.

Karrie Shroyer, a parent of a fourth-grade Victoria Elementary student, said students lose touch with half of their social community.

“The kids want to be with friends at school, but they don’t see half the kids their own age,” said Shroyer. “My daughter’s best friend is in the same grade and lives just down the street, but because she’s in another community on the other side of school, they never see each other.”

 Victoria Elementary

Victoria Elementary has a small number of classroom groupings designed to promote a more personal, community feel within the school. While each classroom in these “communities” includes students from the same grade, all communities except third-grade include classrooms from different grades. (See sidebar discussing other approaches of other District 112 schools.)

For example, one community has two classrooms of fourth-grade students and two classrooms of fifth-grade students, while another community has the other fourth- and fifth-grade classes.

The community setup provides activities within and outside of the same grade level, said Principal Nancy Wittman. “On any given day, the students participate in activities with students from their same grade, like flex groups, speakers and celebrations along with activities with students from another grade.”

 ‘Represents life’

“(Different) opportunities help build an expectation of diversity, as opposed to sameness,” said Wittman. “The mixed-grade communities more closely represent life, like in a neighborhood, swim class or church group.”

Fourth-grade teacher Stacy Busch said experiences differ from homerooms, individual grade activities and communities with other grades. “We have scheduled monthly interactions between children in different grades. They range from low-key activities like watching movies to more involved service projects. Each grade gets a chance to teach the others.”

Busch, a former middle school teacher, said some fourth- or fifth-grade classrooms are on opposite sides of the building, which helps the students prepare for middle school. “It is good practice to get from class to class,” said Busch. “It’s not every class and learning time is not impacted because there is typically a short break between subjects anyway.”

‘Wasted time’

However, Shroyer said same grade classrooms on opposite sides of the building wastes class time. “Some kids have to walk to the other side of the school to get to a class,” said Shroyer. “That time spent in the hallways is wasted. It can be upsetting for my daughter and others, to be continuously late for classes they enjoy, like art.”

Another fourth-grade parent, Jeannine Cone, volunteers at the school and has seen the wasted time. “It takes several minutes to gather their things, walk the halls, and move from one class to another,” she said.

Cone said the setup could be positive if it truly did what it’s designed to do. “The school would say it helps build mentorship in the students, but I don’t think it’s working like they say it does.”

“Comments I’ve received from other children and their parents are there is less mentorship and more mean treatment, like fighting siblings,” said Shroyer. “Since they’re so close in age, they act more like competitors. Having grades farther apart might lead to more mentorship.”

‘One big family’

Other parents like multiple grade communities. Helen Zenobian, a fifth-grade parent, said any child will gain from a leadership experience. “They do presentations by fifth-grade students to fourth and vice versa,” she said. “Fourth-grade students can see what older kids do and gain familiarity for next year. Fifth-grade students can learn to respect those younger than them as well.”

“Another factor is that some kids develop faster than others, in terms of height or whatever,” said Zenobian. “The younger kids can see the older kids change, which will make it more comfortable for them when they go through it.”

Students have opinions on the subject as well. “It’s good for (fourth-graders) to look up to us,” said Sasik. “Even though it has its ups and downs, it makes us like one big family.”

Kaye used to attend a different elementary school. “I would see kids making fun of the younger ones there. That doesn’t happen as much here because we know each other better.” Kaye said she wishes she could see other friends more than just at recess or on the bus.