2. OBJECTIVES:

After reading this chapter and practising through given exercises, readers should be able to:

2.1.   scheme conveniently for any kind of grade combination (composite class).

2.2.   forecast for any kind of composite class employing all the teaching options.

    2.3.   prepare lesson plans correctly in accordance with the teaching options.

   2.4.   prepare and interpret a Multigrade time-table for any given composite class.

2.5. explain the suitability of the formats given above defending them with

principles.

3.CONTENT:

31.   Scheme of Work:

·        What is a sheme of work?

·        Format

·        Principle

3.2.   Weekly Forecast:

·        Format

·        Principle

3.3   Lesson Plans:

·        Format

·        Principle

3.4.   Time-table

·        The special nature of the time-table in Multigrade teaching.

·        The principle of time-tabling.

·        Examples and analysis of selected time-table.

4.SCHEME  OF  WORK:

A young newly trained teacher Mumba Nkole was posted to one of the schools in the remotest part of Luapula Province.  In a letter of engagement with the Ministry of Education, he was instructed to report to his District Education Officer in Mansa District on a certain date for briefing.  The following is a duscussion which took place at the D.E.Os office:  Mumba Nkole (new teacher),  Sir, my name is Mumba Nkole.  I am a bearer of this (he shows it to the D.E.O) which instructs me to report to you for briefing.  The D.E.O,  Good morning Mr. Nkole it is good you have complied.  Where did you train?

The D.E.O,  Mr. Nkole, this office is excited to receive you here because we have

planned to post you to Mutwewankoko School

Mr. Nkole,  Where is that Sir

The D.E.O,  It is about 220 kilometres from here.  Although it is on the plateau

it takes 2 days to get there cycling.  There are a total of 42 pupils.

The D.E.O,  No, young man you are very mistaken.  These pupils spread across

grades  1 7

Mr. Nkole,  How Sir?

The D.E.O,  The composition of the grades is as follows:

Grade    1  -   7   pupils

Grade    2  -   8   pupils

Grade    3  - 10  pupils

Grade    4  -   5   pupils

Grade    5  -   4   pupils

Grade    6  -   5   pupils and

Grade    7  -   3   pupils.

Mr. Nkole,  How many other teachers shall I find there?

The D.E.O,  Mr. Nkole, you are a very inquisitive young teacher.  There is one

untrained teacher there.  You will be the second one and a head as you can

rightly quess because you are trained

Mr. Nkole,  Thank you Sir you sound convinced that the two of us will be enough

staff for the whole school.  Work the whole night Sir?  No!  Not even the double session arrangement will work.  I shall need 3 more teachers to complete staffing for my school

The D.E.O,  Look, you will be teaching using Multigrade methodologies.  This

is not only in terms of class management, but also in documentation.  We

have documentation formats for most of what you require, but for now study the scheme of work format.  Respond to all the exercises which follow.  I would suggest that in all this study you will be under supervision of our District Inspector of Schools, Miss Twizibe Mwale to whom you should go now.

The District Inspector of Schools;  yes, Mr. Nkole I am told that you

(Miss Twizibe Mwale) have had a long discussion with the D.E.O.

concerning Mutwewankoko School you have been posted to.  Now let us go

straight into business.  Look at this scheme of work and on a separate sheet of

paper write the exercise which follows:

MATHEMATICS SCHEME OF WORK FOR GRADES  1 AND 2.  TERM 1.

PROVIDE     A     SCHEME

 

EXERCISE:

1.   What is the structural difference between the Multigrade scheme format given

above and the one you are already familiar with?

2.   Give a justification (principle) for this difference.  After Mr. Nkole had finished

writing the exercise, he gave his written work to the inspector who upon examining

the answers to the 2 questions had the following to say:

I am impressed that you were able to notice 2 things.  Firstly that work for the

2 grades was horizonally written for each subject.  Secondly that the topics ere not

necessarily the same for the different grades.

The discussion which the Inspector of Schools, Miss Tweizibe Mwale and Mr. Nkole is an interesting one.  We can wind up in this way that in Multigrade schemes, it is advisable that topics of each subject of every grade of a composite class should be shown side by side.  However this does not suggest the option to be axed.  The side-by-side layout only gives a teacher a broader overview of the subject content.  This is a point Mr. Nkole did not address himself to may-be because it is too new an idea.  It is, infact the answer to the second question Mr. Nkole was given.

On being convinced that Mr. Nkole had understood the principle of scheming, Miss Twizibe Mwale quickly switched to the Weekly Forecast format.  With the approach understood, she gave Mr. Nkole a Weekly Forcast format shown here under:

She told him to study it and answer the following questions:

5.1.  What is the structural difference between this format and the one

for the scheme which you have just studied?

5.2.       What is the meaning of the 2 words used in column No. 10?

5.3.  Compare the Mathematics Forecast to that of Ici-Bemba.  What

do you think is the difference between how this teacher will

teach Mathematics and Ici-Bemba?   (Ref to the notes on the Teaching

Options)

It was expected Mr. Nkoles answers were without any interpretation of what this arrangement actually meant to him in his class situation.  He told Miss Mwale the following,

In the first question the difference is that the details in the forecast are

arranged vertically grade by grade i.e. the work for each grade is shown one

one below the other whereas in the scheme format the work for the different

grades was horizontally arranged, that is one beside the other.  Secondly, there are

more details in the Weekly Forecast thn in the scheme of Work Format

The third point you should note about this format is that the pupil-teacher

contact times are indicated by the use of the words DIRECT and INDIRECT

against each topic.  Direct refers to the need for a teacher to have more

contact with that grade whereas INDIRECTrefers to little time a teacher

will spend with a particular grade.  What helps a teacher to determne

whether or not a topic should be taught directly or indirectly is how familiar,

easy or difficult the topic is.

Mr. Nkole,  That was a long and useful explanation Sir.  I now understand

fully what is expected to be done so far.

Miss Mwale,  Yes Mr. Nkole.  In English they pay,  The success of the

pudding is in the eating.  Following these principles of forecasting can you

prepare a weekly forecast for Grades 5 and 6  Social Studies and Science.

6. LESSON PLANNING:

After all these discussions on the schemes of work and weekly forecasts in

Multigrade teaching, Mr. Nkoles visualisation of what happens in an actual

composite class session became easy.  Consequently, he was briefed with more

easy on the lesson planning.  From the discussions he correctly deduced that:

6.1.       The format a lesson plan takes in Multigrade teaching depends

on the option it is writen for.

6.2.       Taking the above point into account, the guiding principle for

the Common Time-table option (L.T.O) and the Subject Staggering

Option (S.S.O) is that every step of a given grade must consider

what happens in another grade in the same step See Sample Lesson

Plan  A  Step No.  1.

6.3.       A full analysis of this lesson plan will clearly show that when a

teacher is teaching directly one grade, perhaps because a new concept is

being introduced another grade is doing some activities on its own

based on a concept and skills earlier introduced (see timetable A, period

No..........) earlier.  The latter is what would be indicated indirect in

the weekly forecast.  The suggestion that one grade should be directly taught while another should be indirectly taught should not be misconstined, to mean that a teacher must always create a situation where should be with a grade group.  The best in Multigrade teaching is like in every modern approach to teaching is to prepare a lesson in such a way that children learn without indispensably requiring a teacher.  This is what a number of chapters of this book call independent learning.

In a lesson plan, a decision about the choice of an option to be used in a particular lesson is made.  Lesson planning for the Subject Grouping Option in which two or more grades are doing the same work as for the monograde.

It may be dificult for a teacher who is introduced to this documentation for the first time to understand the theories of lesson planning given above.  The sample lesson plans A and B are given for you to practice on by doing the exercises accompanying them.

A.   SAMPLE LESSON PLAN FOR THE SUBJECT STAGGERING OPTION:

( 2 Grades)

LESSON  PLAN

 

Exercise 1.  (Lesson Plan  A). NB  A 2 grade time-table.

Briefly explain how a teacher would  handle this session from step

1       -  step 3.

Mention any 2 ways in which a teacher would handle a composite class

indirectly even when new concepts should be introduced to the grade groups of a composite class.

Answers:

See the lesson and give an explanation here

(a)    Develope self instructural materials which children can refer

to on their own e.g  Work Cards.

(b)            Use tapes the pupils can listen to.

(c)             Ask fellow pupils in a group to lead others in discussing new

concepts later they should respond to written tasks etc.

Exercise 2:       (Lesson Plan B)  NB.  A  3-grade lesson plan

Explain the possibilities of handling this class as shown in Step I

B.     SAMPLE LESSON PLAN FOR THE MULTIGRADE PROPER CLASS BASE

ON THE COMMON TIME-TABLE

OPTION  ( 3 Grades )

LESSON   PLAN      (  3  GRADES )

 

Exercise :

Give an explanation of how this class would be handled in Step  1

{  An explanation to be given based on a lesson plan yet to be developed  }

7.          TIME-TABLING

8.           

Time-tabling in Multigrade teaching is influenced by the options a

teacher decided to employ for different subjects at different times.  The more the grade combinations there are in a composite class, the more complex the exercise of time-tabling becomes.  For the purpose of practice, three (3) time-tables

(A, B and C) are given.  Try Study them by doing the exercises under each one of them.

A      SAMPLE TIME-TABLE A 2-GRADE CLASS:

A  2 GRADE  TIME-TABLE         ( Grades    1  and   2 )         P.T.O

 

MULTIGRADE TIME-TABLE  GRADE   1  AND  2

Exercise:

Answer the following questions based on Sample  A  time-table:

1.     What options are used in the following periods?

a      Monday Period  1.

b      Monday Period  2.

c      Monday Period  4.

2.     Briefly explain the difference in the presentation of the lesson for Wednesday

period 2 and the lesson for Friday period 5.

3.     Give 2 ways in which the syllabus could be organised to prepare pupils

for promotion to Grade 3 if they were taught the subject as in Period 2 on

Monday.

4.     Justify the absence of the Integrated Day Option from the time-table

Possible answers:

1.     a.     The subject Staggering Option (S.S.O).

b.                The Subject Grouping Option (S.G.O)

c.                 The Common Time-table Option (C.T.O)

2.     In period 2 on Wednesday, the Subject Grouping Option is employed.

This  means that a teacher is presenting the same subject (R.E) and the same topic to both grade groups at the same time and at the same level.  On Friday period 5 both grade groups Grades / and 2 are learning the same subject in the same period but each grade is doing different work according to the syllabus.  This is the Common Time-table Option.

3.        The option used in this period is the Subject Grouping.  R.E is seen to be   t   taught in this way twice a week see also Friday period 3.  Two ways of teaching this way is by:

i.      In the first year you teach the syllabus of the higher

grade and teach the work of the lower grade the

following year thus.