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A Parent’s Guide to a Combined Grade Classroom

Your child is learning in a combined grade classroom. This fact sheet is designed to help you understand how this type of classroom works and answer questions you may have.

Schools group students from two or three grades in one classroom to balance class size across the school and to keep the number of students in primary classes (kindergarten to grade 3) at or below 20. Combined grade classes are not new—they have always been a common part of the school experience.

Teachers are highly trained to balance individual learning needs

Walk into any classroom, and you will find children at various stages of social, physical and intellectual development. No two children are exactly the same, even if they’re the same age. Each child has unique learning needs—strengths and areas that need improvement. Learning styles and preferences are unique to each student. That’s true of same-grade classrooms, just like combined grade groups.

Teachers are highly trained to adjust the learning program in the classroom to the needs of each student’s individual learning needs. In combined grade classes, teachers use these same strategies to teach the curriculum for both grades.

Teachers use a variety of strategies to balance the needs of all grades

Students in a combined grade class follow expectations for their specific grade. Just as in same-grade classes, teachers in combined grades use a wide range of teaching strategies to make sure they cover all of the curriculum expectations. Children in combined grade classes will spend time learning as a whole class, in small groups and individually. Sometimes they will be grouped based on a specific task and other times the teacher will group them based on their learning needs. Here are some examples of how a teacher of a combined grade class might cover the curriculum for three grades.

In all areas of the Ontario curriculum, the overall expectations do not change from one grade to the next, but students learn the skill with a greater level of complexity as they progress from grade to grade. In a combined grade 3/4/5 class, all of the students would spend time reading to improve their comprehension. The grade 3 students would be learning to make inferences about texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts as evidence, while the grade 4 students make inferences about texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts as evidence while the grade 5 students will us stated and implied ideas in texts to make inferences and construct meaning. The same students might then do a writing assignment. The grade 3s would be expected to use joining words to combine simple sentences, while the grade 4s would be required to use sentences of different lengths and complexity. The grade 5s would be asked to provide evidence or an extension to the sentence.

The teacher may have the whole class participate in a common activity, followed by small group or individual work on grade-specific curriculum expectations. For example, in a grade 1/2 combined grade class, when teaching the life systems strand of science, the teacher might start by showing a video about a specific animal. The grade 1 students would do a follow-up activity to identify the characteristics and needs of living things, while the grade 2 students would focus on growth and change in animals.

Students are not always learning new information or concepts—they also need to review, consolidate and refine their learning and build on previous learning to do a more complex task. In a grade 6/7/8 combined grade math class, for example, the teacher might review the concept of place value with the whole class. Then the students would work on the grade-specific expectations. Grade 7 and 8 students would be practicing solving problems involving the multiplication and division of decimal numbers to thousandths by one-digit whole numbers, while grade 6 students would work on problems with place values up to 1,000,000 and decimals to thousandths. Or if working on measurement, the whole class might work on an activity requiring them to estimate, measure and record perimeter and area of various items. The grade 7 & 8 students would need to demonstrate a greater level of accuracy, based on the curriculum expectations, than the grade 6s.

Even in subjects, such as social studies and science, that have different topics to cover in different grades, the curriculum expectations in each grade are not just about the facts students are expected to learn. There are many common skills for students to learn, such as research, scientific inquiry, experimentation and problem solving. The teacher might present research skills to the whole class, then assign grade-specific research projects.

At other times, the teacher will present two or three different lessons to the students, based on the different curriculum for the two grades. While working with one grade level of students, the teacher will have the other students do individual or group projects or work in learning centres in the classroom.

Studies show that students in combined grade classes learn as well as other students

You may be concerned about how well your child will learn in a combined grade class. Years of research show that students in combined grades do just as well academically as students in single-grade classes. In fact, some students actually do better in language and reading.

You may also wonder about the emotional impact on your child—will your child receive the same amount of individual attention from the teacher in a combined grade as in a single-grade class. It’s important to understand that the number of students in the class, not the grade structure, determines the amount of time the teacher has to spend with each individual student.

Students in combined classes often do better emotionally and socially. Combined grade classes have been found to foster greater independence, better social skills and increased motivation to learn.

In our experience, parents may be concerned when their child is first placed in a combined grade class, but once they become familiar with the concept, they feel more comfortable, and they’re pleased with their child’s progress and school experience as the year progresses.

Help your child succeed in a combined grade class

You’re important to your child's success—in a combined grade, the same as a same-grade class. The more you know about your child’s education, the more you will be able to help your child learn and succeed.

Here are some ways you can support your child’s learning.

• Become familiar with the curriculum for your child’s grade. You can find it on the Ministry of Education website at www.edu.gov.on.ca or in your school library.
• Read information from your child’s teacher and school. Ask your child to tell you about schoolwork that is brought home. Talk with your child about her school experience.
• Communicate with your child’s teacher about his individual learning needs. If you have questions, talk to the teacher about the strategies that are being used to cover the combined grade curriculum.
• Connect with the school. Attend parent information nights and other school events. Volunteer at the school if you have the time. Attend a school council meeting.

Get more information

• Talk to your child’s teacher or principal.
• Visit the Ministry of Education website at www.edu.gov.on.ca.

Learning Matters for May 2012

HOW CAN I SUPPORT MY CHILD’S MATHEMATICS LEARNING?
Everyone can learn math. First and foremost, believe in your child’s ability to learn mathematics. Everyone can improve when provided with good teaching, coaching, encouragement and practice.

Do have high expectations for your child. Research shows that when you believe your children can learn, they will rise to the expectation.

Do talk with your child’s teacher about how you can help and support your child’s mathematical development.

Do talk about mathematics in a positive way. Your positive attitude and valuing of mathematics are infectious.

Do share your day-to-day math experiences with your child, and discuss:
• video and computer games
• television shows, e.g., the learning channel
• travelling (calculating distances, destination estimation, budget, gas prices)
• banking (loans, mortgages, interest rates)

Do encourage personal responsibility for learning. Emphasize that effort is as important as ability.

Do support your child through homework by listening and asking questions:
• Allow your child to struggle through the process of problem solving.
• Discuss mistakes as learning opportunities.
• Help your child by asking questions:
• What do you need to find out?
• Tell me what you know…
• Show me what you started…
• What can you try first?
• Can you make a drawing or picture?
• Will a list or table help?

Do encourage persistence. Some problems take time to solve. Taking a break often provides fresh enthusiasm and alternative strategies.
Do build on your child’s strengths and what he/she already knows. Make links between math and daily life.

Do engage in math-related home activities:
• Play games - Chess, Checkers, Cribbage, Bridge, Euchre, Memory Games, Backgammon…
• Make puzzles.
• Involve your child with shopping.
• Engage in the mathematics of cooking and baking.
• Plan and execute home renovations.

Do explore your child’s thinking process:
• Why did you…?
• What can you do next?
• Do you see any patterns?
• Does the answer make sense?
• Tell me in a different way…
• What would happen if…?

Do appreciate the value of not knowing and use these occasions as opportunities for growth rather than anxiety. Develop strategies and resources for getting help with the problems.

Do encourage your child to experiment with different approaches to a problem. We learn a lot from our errors when we examine them.

Source: EduGains, Ministry of Education of Ontario
For more details:
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/brochure/earlymath/

GRAND CONVERSATIONS
Oral language is the foundation for the complex literacy skills that are critical to a child’s success in today’s knowledge society. The capacity to analyze rich text (including media and digital representations), to explore different perspectives, to negotiate meaning and to critically question authors (and authorship) are all expectations of today’s literate learner.

A different method to incorporate oral language into the classroom, one which has the potential to foster higher-level comprehension of text and improve students’ attitudes to reading, is termed a “grand conversation.” (Eeds & Wells, 1989) Grand conversations have many names – literature circles, book clubs, reading response groups, literature discussion groups and so on. Students come together to talk about a text they have read (or have had read to them) in order to question the text as they examine it from different points of view. Read alouds also fuel grand conversations about text.
The grand conversation refers to authentic, lively talk about text. The teacher initiates the discussion with a “big” question or interpretive prompt. The talk pattern is conversational – the teacher asks fewer questions, but the questions she or he asks are an authentic response to what students are saying. Turn-taking occurs spontaneously with students taking responsibility for shaping the content and route of the discussion. Decisions about who talks, in what order and for how long, flow naturally as students and teacher alike exchange ideas, information and perspectives. To be successful, grand conversations require a safe and inclusive classroom environment that can support students in freely expressing their ideas and opinions and collaboratively constructing meaning.

Student engagement increases when students are given opportunities to think deeply, articulate their reasoning and listen with purpose in conversations about issues that are important to them. When teachers open up a conversation that allows students to take the lead, the classroom becomes a place where learning from one another is the norm, not the exception. Involving students in collaborative structures and teaching students how to engage in meaningful conversations about text makes a difference in student learning and achievement, supporting the development of the higher-order
thinking skills which are so critical to today’s learner.

Capacity Building Series, Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, Ministry of Education, April 2011

ECO-CORNER
BROUGHT TO YOU BY: DSBN ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE
Energy Conservation
May is a wonderful time of transition when nature gives us glimpses of the Summer season that is just around the corner. With increasing temperatures also comes our growing demand for electricity as we begin to make regular use of our air conditioners. In Ontario, our electricity is generated from a variety of sources (hydro-electric, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, etc.). When individuals, families, and schools take action to reduce their consumption it lessens the overall strain and human impact on our environment. Get involved with any of the following Energy Conservation initiatives and resources:

The Power Pledge: http://www.powerpledge.ca/
Kid’s Corner Energy Conservation Site: http://kids.everykilowattcounts.ca/en/index.html
Visit the DSBN Environmental

COLOUR HOUSE POINT TRACKING

	SEPT - DEC	JAN - MAR	MAR- JUNE
RED	97	82
BLUE	105	70
YELLOW	96	80
GREEN	80	75
ORANGE	87	72
PURPLE	74	80