We are NOT a 3/4 split - We Are a Multiage Class!

We have many visitors at our school. Every time we have visitors, it seems, someone asks, "So this is a 3/4 split?" And I answer, "No. We are a 3/4 multiage." And invariably, they give me a confused look.

We are not a split class. There are not two groups sharing one classroom. We are one learning community. We all work together on the same big ideas at the same time, and our own personal learning is shared and enriches everyone's understandings.  This may make it seem like the "smart kids" carry the "not-so-smart kids". But what we understand in our community is that everyone is a "smart kid" sometimes, and that the reverse is true, too. Sometimes natural talents play into this. Sometimes it is a passion for a topic or a way of thinking that provides leadership. Everyone's ideas get considered, and everyone's thoughts are valued.

Of course this means that I need to be a teacher of children first, not of curriculum. I need to know every child as an individual, and need to know what experiences and explorations will support their thinking and growth. I need to create structures that allow children to work at their own "just right" level alongside their peers who may have a different "just right" level. Every good teacher knows that in a single grade class, there will be a range of reading abilities of at least four grade levels, and often more. And this is just in the area of reading. So it doesn't matter whether there are one grade level, two, or more in my classroom. If I am to support, encourage and inspire every child, I need to teach in an individualized manner. So we read in a reading workshop, where we learn how to choose books that are just right for us, and spend most of our time reading them. I supply short mini-lessons on targeted skills that everyone can benefit from, but spend most of my time conferencing with individual readers, diagnosing their reading behaviors and skills, and helping them to broaden their abilities in ways that make sense and are immediately applicable to the meaningful reading they are doing.

But the most important benefit of being a multiage classroom is that it gives us a luxury of time. Children who come to our class in grade 3 continue here the next year as grade 4 elders. This gives me time to know them as learners, and as human beings. There is little "transition time" in September. Elders help to teach our class routines and expectations to the youngers, giving me time to get to know our newest classmates. We can approach curricular topics such as science and social studies concepts in a natural manner, as they come up in daily life. This requires that I know these outcomes well, and am ready to recognize and develop an opportunity when it is meaningful to our class community. Some topics, like plants, soils, leadership, and living in Canada come up regularly. Some, like magnets, structures, life in the North, are triggered by the interest a student shows, an item in the news, or by invitations and provocations I might set up to pique curiosity. In this way, we uncover the curriculum in our everyday lives, rather than cover it in an artificial or superficial way.

I hope I never teach a "split" class. Where in our real lives as adults, do we divide ourself by birthdate, and refuse to share our interests, passions, and knowledge with others who would like to share in them? Why would we ask children to do so? We live in a multiage world, and we learn in a multiage classroom.

What's the Most Important Subject?

A radio show recently asked the question - What's the most important subject for children in the early grades? I've been mulling this over, and my answer is.... curiosity. If children have curiosity, all else will come naturally. My most important job as an early years teacher is to facilitate this.

Children are hard-wired to explore. Newborns explore with smell and touch. Babies taste everything. Three-year olds need to know why. By the time children enter my grade three/four classroom, they have observed, experimented, and concluded trillions of times in their short lives. As a teacher, I have to choose whether to shut down their curiosity in the name of "classroom management" or to facilitate it.

If children have curiosity, they will want to know how things work (science), why things happen (social studies), how much/how many/how big/how small (math), what those books with the interesting pictures are telling them (reading), and will want to share that information with others (writing, the arts). From curiosity flows our entire curriculum.

As teachers, our most difficult job is to help children find answers in a way that encourages their curiosity, rather than stuffing them with information that we assure them they need. At the end of a school day, do our students need to take a break from learning? Or do they hunger for more?