Hello! I will be teaching 6-8 language arts at a Catholic school this upcoming year. I will have two classes: lower level 6-8 and higher level 6-8. These are also extremely SMALL classes (5-10 students per class). I have never taught multi-grade classes before and I have some questions/need advice. How do you work on differentiating the curriculum? I have several books on this topic, and I am used to working with students of multiple levels in my classroom (from Kinder to college-level). In the past, I've taken one concept/skill and modified it. They use a novel-based curriculum, so I plan on doing a combination of the whole-class novel and literature circles (cycle them). In the past, I've done mini-lessons and then had students work together in their groups to apply the concepts to their reading. My concern with this is that I will have some students in class with me for three years and others for one year, so 1. I want to make sure I'm preparing the older students for the demands of high school and 2. I do not want to simply repeat the same things every year for the students I have for 3 years. With so few students, I could do individual plans (similar to Montessori), but I really like when my students work together on concepts, especially at this age, and I only have them for 50 minutes. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance!
It's easier to do for Language Arts. I taught 5th/6th Language Arts before. I taught them the same curriculum, but of course when I graded it I took their grade level into consideration. I would have daily writing prompts, writing journals (based on books they read), and taught them how to write all the different types of essays. I could have had a high-school aged student in the room and they would have been just as challenged. It may be that your lower level kids will need more one on one. Whatever you do, make sure that you never "dummy-down" the curriculum when you have advanced students. In the end, all my students made excellent gains at the end of the year. Maybe the best differentiation you could do is group them into different reading groups.
