I'm wondering about people's teaching experiences based on class size. Is there a size beyond which a split class or modified multiage (some shared lessons ,some split by grade level) gets too big? Conversely, are any too small?
I had a class of 10 ranges in grade k to 8. Once I figured out how to teach them it went well. I think I could have had about six more and been ok.
Wow- there are SO many factors with multi-age! Some of it depends on your students- can they work independently? Can they work in partnerships or groups well? A group of 20 students working well together might be easier than a significantly smaller group not working well together.
I have two grades with one student each. I would venture to say that's too small...because then it narrows down the number of activities you can do. The largest group I've had was 7, with an aide. I thought that was about ideal--busy, but ideal. Of course, those grades were spread apart...a kindergartner, four first graders , and two fourth graders. If I had two grades that are close together I think ten would be about ideal.
You have to look at state standards. There is a set limit in Ohio but not sure for all states. I have a AU room and I can have no more than 6 students with 1aid. They also can not be more than 60 months apart.
I taught classes with a three year spread, from 16 to 20 kids. The curriculum had a social studies core that involved having the kids design model communities and take inter-active roles in them. For this kind of program, more is usually better, and everything ran better with 20 than 16, but skills teaching gets more difficult beyond that. For this program, having 3 or 4 classes of 20 covering the same age-range would have been ideal- the classes could cooperate on the social models, but not be overloaded for other things.
Should multiage classes have fewer students? I am wondering if, through experience, anyone has learned whether multiage classes should try to have fewer students than what is generally considered ideal for single grade classes? If your school generally runs 20 in a K class should it also run 20 in a K-1? If it runs 27-30 in a 5th grade should a 4-5 run at the same size? I have always assumed that a slightly smaller number would work best for multiage but am looking for real world experiences to say yay or nay to this perception.
Multi-age (or split) classes are becoming the norm here as it is often the only way we can organize our classes with our staffing allocation while still leaving room for growth. Our split classes are the same size as "straight" grade classes; I started the year with 31 in a split grade 7 and 8 class. I've taught "splits" more often than I've taught straight grades; for me, the secret has always been to not to try to run two programs within one classroom, but to look for commonalities in goals and concepts and focus my teaching there.
I did my student teaching in multi age (1-3). There was 6 of each group; maximum class size was 18. This was a really good size - big enough for small/larger group activities, yet small enough to be able to get to all the students, if necessary.
No multi-age class, just 45 5 year olds for almost 6 months, until they split the class and employed another teacher (plus 2 aides). This year they have split the class early (43 5 year olds) but the Grade 2 teacher is now doing it tough, 46 with an aide (to be split in July). 22 would be ideal for me.
We have multi-age here... K is seperate, then we do 1/2, 3/4, and 5/6. Math is taught straight grade, the teachers split who does which grade level and the kids rotate to that teacher. This year, we went from 4 sections down to 3, so they're splitting some of the classes for "theme" as well (mostly that's their social studies/science topic, but sometimes it's other things too)... 2 classes share a movable wall, so they open the classroom when they're doing both classes together. They went down to 3 this year based on enrollment, but we've continued to grow. I'm not sure of exact numbers, but I know 3/4 is bursting. The teachers are getting really stressed out... Next year, we're going to a modified straight grade. Homerooms will be straight grade, but they'll still do multiage for theme and such. We're getting new reading curriculum next year, and they didn't want to have to learn that as well as split up the theme topics, field trips, etc. they've been doing together for years.
I teach K-8, with no 2nd or 8th this year. There are 14 students total, but it's not the number of students that's tough in my opinion...it's the number of grade levels!
I could have up to 30 next year in my 1/2. I have to decide whether to ask for thirty or stick with a smaller size. If the other classes fill while I have the smaller size I can get kids from anywhere if I fill it up and the other classes do not fill more then I have the problem of a lot of kids for my first year teaching a 1/2. Any suggestions????
You have a choice in your class size? Our primary (grades 1 to 3) classes have a hard cap of 20. Grades 4 to 6 can go up to 30 (give or take a couple) and grades 7 and 8 up to 32.
