1st and 2nd combined class?

[Anonymous]

anyone has any idea/experience of combined class? my DD is in 1st grade and she is assigned to a combined class with half class of 2nd graders.

[Anonymous]

It can be a great situation if the kids assigned to it are more independent.It would be hard if you had a struggling 1st grader. When I taught one in California, we had a awesome set up because after lunch the 2nd graders would go have social studies/science/specials with the other 2nd garders and I had my 11 1st graders alone for the afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:anyone has any idea/experience of combined class? my DD is in 1st grade and she is assigned to a combined class with half class of 2nd graders.

Jamestown in Arlington was doing this. It wasn't that successful and the school is trying to phase it out, which has only resulted in it being viewed by Type A parents as a hot commodity. Which is kind of annoying.

[Anonymous]

My DC is in a combined 1st and 2nd grade this year. We are experiencing it from the 2nd gr perspective. I do not understand how it works because they all appear to be taught the same stuff. DC was picked for class as they were independent learner, not disciplinary problem, no special needs. We are not at all excited about it but said we would give it a chance. I will have plenty of questions at Open House this week.

[Anonymous]

Are the schools where this is being done overcrowded? Or perhaps suffering from unanticipated 1st/2nd grade population bulges that make this a more convenient solution than hiring another teacher and having slightly underpopulated1st/2nd grade classes?

[Anonymous]

I've heard of other schools that had problems with maintaining a dual-age population because parents want their Exceptionally Bright Children in with the older kids, but then when their kids *are* the older kids, they're sure their kids are being held back.

Montessori classes are multiage because of the independent learning and because of the social aspect -- older kids are supposed to learn to be helpful.

[Anonymous]

I heard that it's because of the school budget cut, they can't afford to hire 1 more teacher.

[Anonymous]

My child was in a K-1 class. There were only 8 K and maybe 15 1st graders. Also, all of the 1st graders had had this teacher for K. So the K parents were happy that their children were given a chance to advance more if needed. And the 1st grade parents were happy because it was mostly 1st students and they got the same teacher again. It was a very well respected teacher. And since the teacher knew all of the kids, she could start "teaching" right away. I have heard about looping, where each kid has same teacher for 2 years and i would have loved this. But, by the next year, the numbers worked out and then did not need another combination class.

Overall, my thoughts, nothing to worry about and maybe something to be excited about.

[Anonymous]

It has worked pretty well at Louise Archer. My kids were not in the combo class but I know kids who were and the parents were happy with how it worked out.

[Anonymous]

It worked well at Churchill Road School. My take was that they chose the older children carefully to be nice kids and also smart enough to teach the younger ones. And they had a first rate teacher, as well as more attention than other classes, because there were breakout sessions for each grade. It was a very good experience, though we weren't thrilled when it was first suggested to us.