Teaching A Combined Grade Class - Making the Curriculums Work For You & Your Students
Written By Abena Sey
July 27, 2023
You have been assigned a combined grade class to teach in the upcoming school year. If this is your first time doing so, and your are feeling a little anxious about this new challenge, my hope is to provide support and insight on how you can create the best teaching and learning experience for you and your students this school year. If you are not new to teaching a combined grade class, but still have some questions about how to improve on your practice, you can also find support. As you prepare for this school year, my initial suggestion to you (before you accept resources from well-meaning teachers of those grades who empathize with you and are happy to share them), is that you start by understanding the curriculums that you will teach this year and developing your own approach to meeting the standards for both grades. Teaching a combined grade class involves a tremendous amount of differentiation strategies, but it is not the same as differentiating your lessons and assessments to meet the learning needs of your students of a single grade. Your new assignment involves differentiating your instruction to meet your students' needs as well as satisfying different learning standards for multiple grades. This is why your best first step towards success in this teaching assignment is having a clear understanding of your various curriculums. Here’s what you should do during this part of your planning:
Begin with the curriculums
Gain a full understanding of the curriculums for each grade that you are teaching this year. While you read the curriculum standards for each subject, learn the progression of each skill / learning outcome and think of potential strategies that you can use to teach them.
2. Compare the curriculums
Look for similarities and differences in the curriculums of the grades you are teaching. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you read: Can I identify how the skills in each subject progress from one grade to the next? Can I identify areas where the skills in the subject overlap between the grades? As you answer these questions, think of strategies that you can use to teach the skill progressions and overlaps to your group of students.
3. Create a curriculum plan for your school year
Now that you have an understanding of the curriculums and potential teaching strategies, create a curriculum plan for the school year. Your curriculum plan might include the units you will teach, your assessment plans, the materials you will use to teach the units, and the reference to the curriculum that your units will cover. Be intentional in your planning. If designed effectively, your curriculum plan will help keep you accountable and organized this school year. It can help you pre-plan within the month or term so that you can anticipate when it is time to prepare the materials needed for the next unit and will support your efforts to meet deadlines, such as reporting periods.
4. Use cross-curricular teaching as much as possible
Cross-curricular instruction is one of the most efficient strategies to teach the standards for more than one subject area and grade. It is also helpful for students to gain a deeper understanding of the content and see the transferability of the skills learned in one subject to another. This requires creativity and intentionality as you plan, and reaps many benefits. Look for possibilities to implement cross-curricular instruction as much as you can to use your time blocks effectively and to reinforce skills from various subjects.
You are joining the fearless group of teachers who have the unique opportunity of teaching multiple grades in one classroom during one school year / semester. After getting over the initial trepidation about the potential challenges that come with teaching more than one grade, you can feel a sense of hope at the possibilities that await you once you reframe your thinking about this teaching assignment. Beginning with the curriculums and being intentional in your planning are the best initial steps to designing a successful school year as a combined grade teacher.