3. Learning materials:
Learning materials comprise one or a combination of the following:
· Modularised
small school learning materials.
· Standard
textbooks for the ordinary school.
· Supplementary
learning materials developed in the local areas by groups of teachers.
· Local
content brought into the school by local resource persons.
4. Curriculum material:
A number of different strategies are used to modify curriculum materials; for example:
· They
are revised with input of local environment through sets of workbooks and teacher guidebooks for all subjects.
· The
usual sequence is used, although sometimes lessons are omitted because of limited time.
· Special
curriculum materials, including lesson plans, must have been developed to assist the multigrade teachers. Skills and competencies
in each subject are realigned for grade clusters to facilitate lesson planning and instruction.
5. Modification to curriculum
and teaching/learning material:
· Teacher
guide books are necessary.
· Self-made
teaching aids use local materials.
· The
curriculum can be the same but a modified timetable is used. The same textbooks and materials can be used, but additional
materials and exercises in different subjects and grades are necessary.
· Although
the same curriculum materials are used, Minimum learning competencies materials assist teachers by aligning the same skills
of varying difficulty level across grade levels. This assists in the planning and organizing of lessons.
6. A teacher as material
designer:
Multigrade teachers will need to develop their own additional materials. These additional
materials serve the purpose of meeting actual and concrete needs of multigrade teaching within the local context. They also
assist in making a national curriculum more relevant to the local needs of the community.
Examples of such curriculum materials include the following:
· designing
and making small boards, flash cards, etc. to save time in the classroom and to maximize the time which pupils spend on learning
tasks,
· using
local materials to develop instructional materials and to encourage pupils to make their own,
· designing
workbooks which are suitable for student use within the local context and conditions, and
· including within these locally designed materials
and workbooks activities and knowledge which are relevant to the local culture.
7. Experiences
from the field:
The INDIVIDUAL WORKCARD or WORKBOOK model.
Method: The teacher writes instructions for things that the children must do on a set of cards.
The children read the card and do the work. When they have finished the teacher marks their work and gives them another card
to do.
The children work through the cards, often alone, sometimes in pairs or perhaps in small groups.
By writing different sets of cards for each grade -children can be given an appropriate card for
the age group they are in.
Problems: This takes a long time to set up as the teacher has to write everything that every child
will need to do during each day, each week and each term for the year. But once this has been done teaching is relatively
easy -just sit back and hand out the cards.
The WORKBOOK model is even easier. Just hand out the workbooks that have been written for the grades
in the class -ask the children to turn to which ever page they were working on last and carry on from there.
This sounds very simple -so where is the problem?
It is at this point that we must consider what the job of a teacher is. And I would answer that
question by saying that a teacher's job is to teach!
The biggest problem with the workbook or workcard model is that it gives very little opportunity
for actual teaching. The teacher becomes a manager dealing with simple, low-Ievel administrative problems such as finding
the next card.
The children must attempt to teach themselves. They read the instructions on the card or in the
book and complete the exercises. If they do not understand, they go and ask. Queues form around the teacher who has only a
few seconds for each child to give a word of advice here and there. And each child comes with a different card and a different
problem, so there is no continuity of teaching or opportunity to expand on explanation for the benefit of a wider audience.
The only time that a teacher knows that a child has a real problem is when they come with finished
work that is all wrong. This is the worst form of teaching, where children are exposed continuously to failure.
Where is the enthusiasm to get involved with work? The children must try to motivate themselves;
working at their own pace -or perhaps not working at all, the actual contact time with their teacher may be reduced to a few
seconds a day.
Instruments of 'New School, an example.
Self learning method is not possible to introduce the students in Grade 1 because they are still illiterate. Therefore,
traditional teaching method is used for Grade 1. 'New School' method is used for Grade 2, 3, 4 and 5 (primary levels in Colombia are Grade
1 to 5).
Grade wised learning guide for four subjects (language, mathematics, science and social studies)
and a book for self evaluation for the students are developed. The learning guide consists of several units. Each unit consists
of goals, A (basic activities), B (case studies), C (experiments) and D (free activities). Each student follow the four activities
with own pace. Following the instruction, occasionally 4-6 children make
a small group and work together.
The students, at first individually and then in a group, are required to observe, think and write.
Then they compare their own notebooks and the examples in the learning guide to correct their answers for self evaluation.
If it is necessary, they ask for advice from the teacher. The learning guide is based on national curriculum, but introduction
of local contents which relate to the life of the students is recommended.
In order to supplement, the following facilities are considered the standard facilities for 'New
School:' (1) school library
with about 100 books including dictionaries, reference books, children's literature, books on rural development and health, (2) learning corner in the four corners of
the classroom demonstrating local products and materials which the students made or collected from the community, (3) special order made desks to work with
a group easily. In order to foster social attitude, democratic behavior, and corroboration, activities in student government
such as library management, cleaning of the school, sport activities, wall newspaper, school newsletters, are encouraged.
The teachers were trained mainly through three one-week workshops during a year in order to get
the necessary theory and skills for 'New School.' The teacher training is practice-centred rather than knowledge focused.
The training manual edited in the same format with 'learning guide' for the students was used for the teacher training.
Journal writing
Journal writing is an excellent example of how a whole-class
activity can lend itself to the developmental level of each student. In writing about personal experiences, a beginning elementary-aged
student may start the year by drawing pictures; later he/she may write the initial sound of important words. Over time, journal
entries reflect the child's growing capabilities in writing mechanics, descriptive abilities, and the ability to think about
and reflect on experiences.
"Last
year my daughter was introduced to multiplication in her multi-age classroom, and it just didn't click. Trying to memorize
those times tables seemed impossible, because she didn't understand what they meant. Now it has been reintroduced, and she's
taken off with it. She's truly ready for it now."
Zambia has a wonderful resource in the variety of its natural habitats which provide an
excellent backdrop for learning in context. These resources are within easy reach of many classrooms. Studying bream, for
instance, can bring reading, writing, and math to life when children use these skills to follow the day-to-day development
from hatching to spawning. While the skill levels of the children will vary in a multiage classroom (or any classroom, for
that matter), all students can be reading and writing, researching and analyzing, and producing evidence of their understanding
of a common and exciting theme, yet at levels which are individualized so that they challenge but do not frustrate.
Building on
past experience yields long-term results
Some teachers have found that when working with building blocks to teach physics and simple machines, girls need time
to experiment on their own because most of them haven't had the long-term experience many of the boys have had with these
kinds of building materials. When girls and boys have been mixed together for this activity, teachers have seen the boys simply
take over - not being mean - but in enthusiasm because they are so familiar with this kind of activity. The girls tend to
draw back and become watchers. With this catch-up time, the girls have gone on to be successful in this typically male arena.
Why is developmental education important?
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One of the obvious benefits of developmental education is that
the child becomes an active learner who is fully involved with his/her education. A developmental classroom seeks to challenge
a child's interest and understanding, while at the same time match skills to the child's developing abilities. Learning in
this kind of environment expands a child's world, increasing his/her ranges of interest and motivation for learning essential
basic skills. Active learners such as these are found to take more responsibility for their own learning and to adapt more
readily to different school environments as they progress through elementary, middle, and high school.
Another goal of developmental education is to avoid the "skill
deficits" that may occur when trying to make children master academic skills for which they are not ready. Remember that the
brain activates itself in layers, with each layer able to handle more and more sophisticated skills and concepts. Naturally, we want children to plug each piece of learning into the best system for that particular job. If the right
system isn't yet available or working smoothly, the brain may adapt by using a "lower" system that might never allow for complete
understanding and use of that skill. It would be like asking your child to walk without his toes; he will walk, but he may
never run.
Let's take the example of the child trying to learn multiplication facts. She didn't "get it" and became confused and
frustrated. The teacher saw this and wisely backed off. Now her systems are ready for this, and she's flying with it. What
would have happened if the teacher had continued to force multiplication last year? She probably would have eventually learned
her multiplication tables. What she also would have learned was that this was something she was not very good at and that
it was useless knowledge she had acquired. She would not have known how to use those facts she worked so hard to memorize.
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8. Instructional organization.
Students in multigrade situations need to be
· Self-directed
· Motivated
· Responsible
learners.
They need to be able
· To
help one another
· Set
and complete learning goals
· Follow
teacher directions
· Stay
on task with a minimum of teacher supervision.
· Independence
· Cooperation
· Self-direction
Are essential for instructional success.
Determining actual learning time
Time allocated for learning
-
Noninstructional time:
Transition
Behaviour
Routines
Or socializing
=
Academic learning time
70 % of class time is spent on instruction.
About 20 % is spent on classroom routines.
5 % on behaviour.
3 % on social activities.
2 % varia.
9.Student tasks in a multigrade classroom:
1. A common worksheet for a class, where
students must work
alone and are graded individually.
2. Reading groups with different textbooks,
where students within
each group complete identical assignments individually.
3. An individualized program where all students
are expected to
complete the same assignments independently but at different
rates.
4. Whole-class recitation or a common worksheet,
where
students are allowed to interact, but each child completes
a separate worksheet.
5. Reading groups with different textbooks,
where students can
interact while completing their separate but identical assignments.
6. An individualized program where students
may work together
on assignments, but each child must produce a separate product
7. Small groups or the entire class work
on a common assignment,
and individual products are not demanded.
8. Different groups within a class do different
assignments, and
a group product, not individual products, is required.
9. Different roles (either within small groups
or the entire
class) for students that require coordination to produce the
joint product.
10.PRINT-BASED
INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES
OBJECTIVES/AIMS
- Identify four print-based instructional resources
that can be used in a Multi-Grade Classroom.
- Prepare a worksheet and semantic map for
classroom use.
- Outline in writing procedures for managing
instructional resources.
- To set up and use a classroom library/reading
corner
- State why visual aids are useful in the Multi-Grade
Classroom
- Produce a semantic map
11.METHODOLOGY
(AND ACTIVITIES)
Participants to be in groups of five after individual activity.
- Trainer exposes participants to some
print-based instructional resources by brain
storming. What is probably the most familiar
instructional resources in a
Multi-Grade Classroom? (Individually)
- Give two reasons why textbooks are
important.
- The individuals explain how they textbooks
are used
- Trainer introduces the worksheet by
showing a sample.
- The group individually produce a worksheet
in one subject area of their choice for any grade.
12.GROUP WORK
- Trainer asks the group to give some advantages
of worksheets.
Plenary.
- Brainstorm: why is a reading corner
or classroom library essential in Multi-Grade teaching?
- What things should be included in a library/reading
corner?
Plenary.
- The groups to explain what are visual aids
by giving examples.
- Let the group give suggestion as to why visual
aids are useful.
- Explain what a semantic map is and ask the
group to produce one individually.
13.SUMMARY OF
CONTENT
- Textbooks,
reading material and
- Worksheets
are some of the print-based resources. These are self study materials.
Textbooks are
important because they present information in a structured manner with
Adequate scope for practice.-
- Textbooks also offer scope for learning
at ones own rate.
