Single Grade Classrooms: Will they work for your child?.

Soon your child will be going to a new classroom: will it be the type of classroom that matches his or her learning needs?

What is the most effective and motivating learning environment for your child?  That depends on how your child learns best and how different types of classroom meet different learning needs.  Here is a quick run down of how single grade classrooms can create benefits and barriers to learning for a child.

Single grade classrooms

This is the type of classroom that you are familiar with. All the students are the same age and are taught by the same teacher for the whole year.

Benefits

* Children stay with their friends as they move up the school.  This can give them a sense of security.

* The curriculum is straightforward, all the children are taught the same thing.

* Teachers do not have to prepare multiplee lesson plans

* It is easier to understand your child’s progress against other children of the same age

* Teaching can be very directed and focused on specific curriculum aims

* You were probably taught in a single grade classroom so yo will not feel anxious about your child being in one.

*  If you have had other children in the same grade you know what goes on in the classroom, and what to expect from the teacher

Barriers

* Not all children develop at the same pace. The level of the material being taught might not match what your child needs to learn

*  Your child may be stuck with the same ‘unfriendly’ student as last year

*  Children do not get the benefit of working with older, more experienced students

* Children have only one standard to measure them selves against, that of the whole class

* These classes tend to be teacher centered.  The teacher sets the curriculum and delivers it. It can be hard to accommodate individual differences

*  The children who just scrape into this grade because of their birth date may always be the ‘babies’ and the ones who are not ready to learn

What type of learner benefits most from single grade classrooms?

The child who -

* has parents who understand and expect their child to be in a single grade classroom

* has the same close group of friends in and out of class

* is an ‘average’ learner because this is who the teacher directs her class lessons to

* who has brothers and sisters at home who provide different perspectives on learning

* who learns best in a traditional, directed way

What type of learner does not benefit from a single grade classroom?

The child who -

* is either an ‘above average’ or ‘below average’ learner because he or she may be bored or confused by lessons directed at the grade level

* the more mature child who needs friends who are older than him

* the immature child who still needs the type of teaching approach used in earlier grades

* likes a more self directed approach to learning

* has been left out of the groups of friends in the class

* the ‘different’ learner who does not learn the same way as the majority of the other students

You may not have a choice about the type of classroom your child goes into, but  understanding how it will help or hinder your child’s learning,  gives you an insight into your child’s learning issues.

Next post – mixed grade classrooms and the benefits and barriers they offer to learning.