Dayton Elementary Moves to Multi-Age Classes

DAYTON - The Dayton Elementary School will in­troduce new multi-age class­es next year, putting 2nd and 3rd graders into combined classes and 4th and 5th graders also into combined classes. The school's principal, Pam Lindsley, announced the changes earlier this month.

Lindsley said that the new class configuration allows class sizes to remain low while making efficient use of teaching staff. Each grade combination will have three classes, with each class hav­ing fewer than 25 students.

Lindsley said that the goal of the combined classes will be to "create balanced classrooms academically, behaviorally and socially.

"There has been a his­tory of large and small class sizes for a number of years in the district," she said. "Implementing multi-age classrooms will stabilize the class size issue and create flexibility for placing stu­dents in classrooms."

In most cases, Lindsley said, students will have the same teacher for two years. Students will be placed in classes so that they are evenly distributed by grade, gender and academic ability.

Lindley said that multi- age classes differ from multi- grade classes. "Teachers are expected to teach one curriculum over a two-year period, and students work at their skill level on the con­cepts taught," she said.

She said she has been working with the elementary school teachers for several weeks to put the plan to­gether for multi-age classes, and preparation will con­tinue over the summer. The three 2nd/3rd grade teachers will be Ginger Bryan, Dawn McGann and Polla Laib. The 4th/5th grade classes will be taught by Wendy Richards, John Lindsey and Clayton Strong.

"The teachers are under­standably apprehensive," Lindsley said. "It's a big change, but they're commit­ted to it."

Lindsley said that the teachers in each grade com­bination will work together to create their curriculum. "Science and social studies units will be rotated over a two year period," she said, "and will also be integrated into other content areas such as reading, writing and math. I think math will be the big­gest challenge for teachers."

Students will often work in small groups, depending on the academic level they've reached, Lindsley said. "You can walk into any of our sin­gle grade classrooms today and find students learning at different levels," she said. "That would be no different than what you might see in any multi-age class."

She also pointed out that multi-age classes will allow some students to become leaders and role models in their second year in the class. "The focus will be on what students can do," more than their age or grade level, she said.

Lindsley said she had a meeting with parents last week to discuss the new class configuration. "They had a lot of questions and concerns, but they were gen­erally supportive," she said.

"We're working hard to make sure this is suc­cessful," Lindlsey said of the new multi-age classes. "Ultimately, the success or failure of this rests on my shoulders."