Exploring The Multiage Classroom

If you are planning to move into multiage or have already made that transition from a conventional classroom, you will welcome the honest, practical advice that makes Exploring the Multiage Classroom a genuine handbook -comprehensive, realistic, and accessible. You will see what teachers find rewarding in multiage teaching and why it works so well for children who can learn from the models provided by the literacy and learning of other children around them. You will discover:Ideas for working with the entire class on a topic while guiding and accepting a variety of responses determined by the ability and developmental level of each child.Ways children can work effectively on an individual level, with partners, in small groups,and as a whole class.Suggestions for adapting all subject areas in your curriculum to a multiage setting.Chapters on integrated themes, oral language, student choice, literacy, math, assessment, moving into a multiage organization, and teaming.Contributions from other multiage teachers that give a picture of different ways of adapting school programs to include two to four grade spans.Appendixes that include a classroom materials list, sample schedules, and room layouts, and bibliographies of professional resources and children's books.Grounded in the relevant philosophy, research, and theory, Exploring the Multiage Classroom is a treasury of ideas derived from Anne Bingham's wide classroom experience. Using the models she provides, you will understand how to create a classroom that celebrates diversity, continuity, and community-all characteristic of multiage education.

Presenting a compelling case for changing our system of education from a graded, curriculum-centered approach to a multiage, child-centered approach, Understanding Multiage Education is a comprehensive exploration of the philosophy and foundations of multiage education. Veteran educators Stone and Burriss examine the "why" of multiage education, exploring how multiage classrooms' structure, environment, strategies, and assessments unfold and complement the multiage philosophy and pedagogy. Delineating the differences between a standard and a mixed-age approach, each chapter features Inside Insights, short vignettes, case studies, examples of multiage in practice and discussion questions challenging readers to engage with the core concepts and examine how we might define success in a multiage classroom. Designed for graduate-level students of early childhood, elementary, and general education courses, as well as experienced practitioners, this is an essential guide for anyone interested in understanding the rationale, implementation, and benefits of multiage education.

Teaching and Learning in the Intermediate Multiage Classroom describes in practical detail a creative and effective teaching practice in multiage elementary classrooms, one that integrates challenging academics with personalized teaching and learning. Written by David Marshak, an educator who has studied multiage classrooms for over 12 years, and Alice Leeds, who has taught in multiage classrooms for over a decade, this book describes methods for teaching in this type of environment that provide a better form of education than the conventional age-graded classroom. Leeds and Marshak examine the benefits of multiage classrooms by exploring how such classrooms function and provide a detailed description of an individual unit designed to maximize the potential of this non-traditional form of intermediate education. By describing the benefits multiage classrooms provide in terms of personal, social, and academic achievement, plus outlining a process for teachers to become successful in this environment, this book is bound to interest administrators, teachers, and researchers in education.

From philosophy and rationale to sample lesson plans and evaluation forms, this complete design for the mixed-age primary classroom provides practical answers to teachers', administrators', and parents' questions about planning, implementation, environment, curriculum, management, assessment, and evaluation. Reproducible forms and assessment tools ease use. Grades K-6. Index. Bibliography. Illustrated. Good Year Books. 277 pages.

In this book the authors discuss both the philosophy and practicality of multiage grouping.

Reinvent public schools with proven, innovative practices Our homes, communities, and the world itself need the natural assets our children bring with them as learners, and which they often lose over time on the assembly line that pervades most of the public education system today. We see no actions as more important in school than developing, supporting, and reinforcing children's sense of agency, the value of their voices, and their potential to influence their own communities. In Timeless Learning, an award-winning team of leaders, Chief Technology Officer Ira Socol, Superintendent Pam Moran, and Lab Schools Principal Chad Ratliff demonstrate how you can implement innovative practices that have shown remarkable success. The authors use progressive design principles to inform pathways to disrupt traditions of education today and show you how to make innovations real that will have a timeless and meaningful impact on students, keeping alive the natural curiosity and passion for learning with which children enter school. Discover the power of project-based and student-designed learning Find out what “maker learning” entails Launch connected and interactive digital learning Benefit from the authors’ “opening up learning” space and time Using examples from their own successful district as well as others around the country, the authors create a deep map of the processes necessary to move from schools in which content-driven, adult-determined teaching has been the traditional norm to new learning spaces and communities in which context-driven, child-determined learning is the progressive norm.

Noting that the recent call for holistic models of schooling dictates a thorough investigation of more natural groupings of students, this collection of articles reviews available literature on multiage, nongraded, continuous progress classrooms. Divided into six sections, the chapters explore the overriding concerns and the pros and cons of such instruction, delineate the procedures and practices associated with multiage instruction, illustrate actual classroom practice, and examine issues of evaluation and accountability in such classrooms. The chapters are: (1) "The First 30 Years Were the Fairest" (Connell), tracing the history of schooling from Sputnik to the late 1980s; (2) "The Dual-Age Classroom: Questions and Answers" (Woelfel); (3) "The Return of the Nongraded Classroom" (Anderson); (4) "The Pros and Cons of Mixed-Age Grouping (Lodish); (5) "On the Merits of Multiage Classrooms" (Pratt); (6) "A Study of Multi-Age or Family-Grouped Classrooms" (Milburn); (7) "The Benefits of Nongraded Schools" (Pavan); (8) "The Nongraded Elementary School: Great Potential, but Keep It Simple" (Slavin); (9) "Nongradedness: Not Simply a Grouping Scheme" (Pavan); (10) "A Look at Multi-Age Classrooms" (Cohen); (11) "Grouping Students and Helpful Suggestions for Combination Classrooms" (DelForge and others); (12) "The Nongraded Classroom in Practice" (Gaustad); (13) "Teaching and Learning in the Multigrade Classroom: Student Performance and Instructional Routines" (Miller); (14) "High Expectations for Multi-Age Classrooms," a reprint of five papers by Anderson, Fogarty, Rae, Chapman and Schrenko, and Schrenko; (15) "A K/1 Class Can Work--Wonderfully!" (Nachbar); (16) "A Nongraded, Multi-Aged Program That Works" (Oberlander); (17) "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Combination Class" (Freeman); (18) "The Integrated Technology Classroom: An Experiment in Restructuring Elementary School Instruction" (Held and others); (19) "Student Achievement in Multigrade and Single Grade Classes" (Brown and Martin); (20) "The Consensus Classroom" (Sartor), on student decision making in the classroom; (21) "Kidwatching: Observing Children in the Classroom" (Goodman); (22) "What Is a Portfolio?" (Burke); and (27) "How Do We Know We're Getting Better?" (Jeroski and Brownlie). (HTH)