TEACHING MULTI-GRADE CLASSES

Topic 19. Administrative strategies to support multi-grade schools

Making use of alternative sources

It is obvious that a combined class of students differs a lot from the conventional type of a
student class of a single grade. That means that the way that the students of the multigrade class
should be taught must be different as well. It is true that the function of the teacher in the
multigrade classroom is multidimensional or to be more accurate it is much more complicated and
demanding than the role of the teacher in the monograde school respectively.

This is the main subject of the MUSE project to assist teacher professionals to be able to
work effectively in the multigrade school environment and be trained on teaching in the different
ways referring to the multigrade classroom. For children to learn effectively in multigrade
environments, teachers need to be well-trained, well-resourced and hold positive attitudes to
multigrade teaching. Multigrade teaching in many views represents a more demanding teaching
situation and special attention should be given to it. However, many teachers in multigrade
environments are either untrained or trained in monograde pedagogy; have few, teaching and
learning resources; and regard the multigrade classroom as a poor cousin of the better-resourced
monograde urban schools that are staffed by trained teachers. In addition, at the majority of the
cases, the multigrade teachers are very young without significant experience, "chosen" by the state
to teach at the specific rural areas. These teachers are left alone without resources and support to
handle the demanding multigrade classes. The former has serious negative impact on teachers'
psychology and attitude towards the multigrade class, and affects in a negative way their teaching
performance.

The effort should be focused by the educational authorities to reverse the teachers' negative
view for multigrade teaching and the rural school and provide them with the resources and support
to be able to overcome any difficulties. Teachers should attend special training programs before
introduce themselves at the multigrade classroom and try to adjust to their multidimensional role
as multigrade teachers. A training program like the MUSE project which represents an effort to
address the specialized needs of the multigrade school teachers ought first of all to record and
analyze the multiple role that these teachers possess in the multigrade class.

Multigrade Teacher training is

almost close to non-existent here in
the Philippines. With the universities
and colleges just offering a semester
for this kind of subject, it is easy to
overlook and to not take MG teaching
seriously. Most of the time, MG
teaching is seen as some sort of extra-curricular activity and not as parallel to a mainstream,
traditional education.

With that being said, how do we manage to put together an effective MG lesson plan? Where
do we find the resources? How do we go about it? Well, aside from looking for answers on the
internet, we can actually find time to delve more and find people who have actually experienced
handling and managing a multigrade classroom. It is better to get the facts straight, firsthand. If no
one is available to mentor you, then, tough luck, we’ll just have to rely on other countries’ curriculum
and guidelines and try to fit it in the Philippine MG Education setting.

To help lessen your problems in how to make an effective MG lesson plan, here are some of
the tips I’ve found:

For each grade level for which the teacher is responsible, he or she must determine the
answers to the questions:

1. Whom do I teach?
2. What must I teach?
3. How do I teach?
4. When do I teach?
5. Why do I teach this?

This does not only analyze and assess each learner’s prior knowledge; it also lets us know
how we should teach them in a way that they can understand. Once these questions have been
answered, only then we can devise a lesson plan that would suit the needs of our learners.
 Integrated approaches assume that multiple resources will be used by students during the
course of the lesson. Textbooks will be one of these resources, but these will be supplemented by a
variety of additional print, audio-visual, and community and human resources. Field trips,
community speakers, videos, library books, newspapers, and magazines may be used as resources
if available in rural, remote areas. Learning how to use a variety of resources to find information is
one of the intended learning outcomes of integrated learning.

When developing a sequence of learning activities for an integra ted unit, you have to aim
for maximum variety. In the course of a thematic unit, therefore, students in different grades will
need to work as a whole class, in small groups, in pairs and sometimes individually. Students will
interact with you, other students, members of the community, and various learning materials. The
core theme and sub- topics are seen as natural contexts for students to use and further develop
their skills and abilities in language and literacy, arts/social studies, arithmetic, science, and the
creative arts.

Lesson planning for multigrade teaching depends on the number of grades combined in the
classroom. But whatever the number of lesson plans needed per day, there are three stages of
planning to consider: planning activities before the lesson, during the lesson, and after the lesson.

Before the Lesson

Set the objectives of the lesson, know the materials needed (if there is none, create one).
Decide on the methods of presentation and prepare all the needed materials beforehand.

During the Lesson

Present the Lesson and continue to monitor each student’s progress.

After the Lesson

Evaluate the lesson plan. Note the things that needed revision and think about what went
well and what did not so that it can help you prepare for a better lesson plan next time.

Also, here are some practical tips for teaching Multigrade Classes according to UNESCO:

Strategy 1: Teach all groups together

Strategy 2: Teach one grade while others work independently
Strategy 3: Teach one subject to all grades and at varying levels of difficulty
Strategy 4: Develop activities for non-taught groups
Strategy 5: Develop peer, cross-age and cross-grade teaching strategies
 Strategy 6: Relate learning with daily experience

To teach in a Multigrade class effectively, it is

important to put the learner’s needs first and consider
everything else from there. A multigrade teacher
should not just stop at researching for materials and
effective methodologies out there, he/she must also
question why and how things are. It is by
understanding that we would know what to do and
how to do things effectively.

Lesson Planning…An Overview

LESSON PREPARATION is one of the activities that a multigrade teacher should master.

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN PREPARING A LESSON

characteristics of the learner’s basic principles of mg teaching effective instructional strategies

• Identify Groups of Competencies

• Assessment and Evaluation Strategies
• Making Connections Across Subject Areas
• Cultural Context
• Class management Strategies

Definition of Terms

1. Instruction – methods and processes used to direct learning

2. Instructional planning – the process of systematically planning, developing, and managing
the instructional process by using the principles of teaching and
learning
3. Daily Lesson Log (DLL) – template teachers use to log their daily lesson
4. Detailed Lesson Plan (DLP) – a teacher’s roadmap for a lesson; contains a detailed
description of the steps a teacher will take to teach a
particular topic.

Lesson Preparation

A. The Instructional Process:

o Planning instruction
o Delivery of instruction
 o Assessment of learning

B. Lesson Planning:
o Visualizing a lesson before it is taught
o Prediction, anticipation, sequencing, simplifying
o Hallmark of effective teaching

Importance of Lesson Planning

1. Confidence in carrying out the lesson successfully.
2. Reflective practice
3. Mastery of learning area content

Plan with the end in mind

Wiggins and McTighe (1998) suggest a backward design model for planning that begins NOT
with the lesson, but with our expectations for the END RESULT. There are three basic steps to
designing a lesson using backward design:
1. Identify the desired results.
2. Determine acceptable evidence.
3. Plan learning experiences and instruction. (Tileston, 2004)

Elements of a lesson plan

1. What should be taught? (Content)
2. How should it be taught? (Process)
3. How should learning be assessed? (Assessment)

Basic Parts of a Lesson

A. Before the Lesson

a) Review of the previous lesson/s
b) Clarify concepts from previous lesson/s
c) Introduce the new lesson
d) Inform class of the connection between the old and new lesson
e) State the new lesson’s objectives

B. Lesson Proper
a) Main part of the lesson
b) Teacher explains, models, demonstrates, and illustrates concepts, ideas, skills, or
processes
c) Continuation of a previously introduced topic
 C. After the Lesson
a) Closing or end of the lesson
b) “wrap-up” activities
c) Summary of the lesson
d) Recall lesson’s key activities and concepts
e) Reinforce what the teacher has taught
f) Assessment of what learners have mastered

Specific Parts of the Lesson Plan (DO 42, s. 2016)

After every lesson…

1. What went well?

2. What could be improved?
3. Was the preparation adequate?
4. Are the learning objectives clearly defined?
5. Are the instructional materials, equipment, techniques, and strategies
appropriately selected?
6. Are the procedures clearly stated?
7. Was the lesson developed logically?
8. Are the assessment activities directly and explicitly tied to the stated objectives?
9. Were the learners motivated? Interested?
10.Was the style of delivery correct?