Has anyone had experience with lower elementary class sizes of 28-29? How does it work?

[Anonymous]

This is a spinoff question; I am the OP of the question on another thread asking about class sizes. Thanks to some helpful answers to that post, I now understand how class size determination works, but now am freaking out about my second-grader next year in a class of 28-29 students, which is what is projected. Has anyone had a similar experience? How did it work? How in the world can one teacher, even with good parent volunteering numbers, give sufficient attention to teach that many kids? Please help talk me off the ledge!

[Anonymous]

Former third grade teacher here. I usually had 26 or 27 students in my classes each year. I had one or maybe two parent volunteers the entire year and only one a month or so. By second grade, the kids are much more independent and most of them are decent readers by then. They don't need their hands held like K and first graders. They are also easier to group by then since the range of readers isn't as great as in K. In K, you have kids who don't even know how to hold a book the right way to kids who can read fairly fluently. By second grade, most kids are probably on or close to grade level and may be 1-2 grades above. But they can all read so the teacher can instruct the whole class at the same time and differentiate instruction as needed. I was in a class in ES of 33 kids (Catholic school) for a few years and we all did well. I might be concerned if your child had special needs but otherwise, it isn't a big deal. A good teacher can handle it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former third grade teacher here. I usually had 26 or 27 students in my classes each year. I had one or maybe two parent volunteers the entire year and only one a month or so. By second grade, the kids are much more independent and most of them are decent readers by then. They don't need their hands held like K and first graders. They are also easier to group by then since the range of readers isn't as great as in K. In K, you have kids who don't even know how to hold a book the right way to kids who can read fairly fluently. By second grade, most kids are probably on or close to grade level and may be 1-2 grades above. But they can all read so the teacher can instruct the whole class at the same time and differentiate instruction as needed. I was in a class in ES of 33 kids (Catholic school) for a few years and we all did well. I might be concerned if your child had special needs but otherwise, it isn't a big deal. A good teacher can handle it.

OP - I think a "good teacher" would have more skills to handle a class that large (as in whole group management) but meeting the needs of individual students would be difficult unless students had the same educational foundation.

I'm secondary English, and although in general, the students are more mature (Sometimes that word doesn't apply to high school students.), it's very difficult to differentiate when most are at different reading levels.

So although school systems will say that teachers can manage larger class sizes, many students will be overlooked in the public system. In private Catholic schools, as PP noted, class sizes are large. But the schools have a right to say no to students who may need/currently have IEPs or other accommodations b/c they don't have enough skilled staff. So the students who are enrolled are usually on the same page academically.

BTW, PP, why former?

[Anonymous]

I think the key is that the school needs to be providing (hopefully) excellent resource teachers to step in to meet the special needs of indivdual children. That also means that the parents need to make sure their child's need is identified. In a large classroom a teacher can not give extra time/attention but that is where small group pull-outs come in. If the class is large and there isn't sufficient support, I think special needs can be ignored dispite everyone's intentions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former third grade teacher here. I usually had 26 or 27 students in my classes each year. I had one or maybe two parent volunteers the entire year and only one a month or so. By second grade, the kids are much more independent and most of them are decent readers by then. They don't need their hands held like K and first graders. They are also easier to group by then since the range of readers isn't as great as in K. In K, you have kids who don't even know how to hold a book the right way to kids who can read fairly fluently. By second grade, most kids are probably on or close to grade level and may be 1-2 grades above. But they can all read so the teacher can instruct the whole class at the same time and differentiate instruction as needed. I was in a class in ES of 33 kids (Catholic school) for a few years and we all did well. I might be concerned if your child had special needs but otherwise, it isn't a big deal. A good teacher can handle it.

OP - I think a "good teacher" would have more skills to handle a class that large (as in whole group management) but meeting the needs of individual students would be difficult unless students had the same educational foundation.

I'm secondary English, and although in general, the students are more mature (Sometimes that word doesn't apply to high school students.), it's very difficult to differentiate when most are at different reading levels.

So although school systems will say that teachers can manage larger class sizes, many students will be overlooked in the public system. In private Catholic schools, as PP noted, class sizes are large. But the schools have a right to say no to students who may need/currently have IEPs or other accommodations b/c they don't have enough skilled staff. So the students who are enrolled are usually on the same page academically.

BTW, PP, why former?

I have 2 small children so I am currently a SAHM. These days, lots of students have IEPs whereas in the past, many of them used to be pulled out by the special ed teacher. Not so much anymore so teachers have to wear many hats these days. It is certainly possible but quite tiring. Throw is a few ESL kids and it can be a challenge to meet everyone's needs. But I have many years of experience doing it so it was possible. The problems are state testing requirements have made most of the year about giving assessments and very little instruction time. MSAs in MD are in the spring but the rest of the year it seems like it was one assessment after another. Also, the school where I taught had some great parents who were helpful and acted as partners in the child's education and then there were parents who seemed to know everything and had no qualms about telling me what to do. They were very bossy and not open to working with their children on the areas they needed help with. The testing and the parents made me happy to leave so I could have a bit of peace and quiet at home with 2 screaming kids The notion of individualized instruction is relatively new and newer teachers would probably struggle with a class that large. Also, remember the resource teachers are there to help the kids and the parents. Our reading specialist was awesome and I've emailed her once or twice to ask her questions about my DD who recently started reading. Get to know them and ask them questions too.

[Anonymous]

My 2nd grade teacher had a drinking problem. I had 20 kids in my class. It did not matter - she was horrible and it was a wasted academic year. Fast forward 10 years - the Valadictorian of my very competitive HS had been 1 of the 20 kids in my class and I graduated in the top 5%.

I am not saying it is going to be an easy year for you. If you are not happy with it, you might want to look at some private schools that might have an opening. Some times Catholic Schools have space available at that point.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

"resource teachers?"

What resource teachers? Resource teachers and para-educators positions were mentioned for possible cuts due to the budget crisis. In any case, in my experience, there were never resource teachers available to work directly with kids on the high achieving end. "Literacy coaches" and the like were meant to mentor and coach the teachers. Poorly performing kids got extra one-on-one. High achievers? Not so much. Often the assumption was that they could take care of themselves just fine.