Do any of you departmentalize your subjects across five teachers at one grade level for elementary level? I was just curious as to how that would work with all the subject areas to teach.
Here are just some things I was curious about:
Do you have English/Language Arts as one class?
Do you combine social studies and science as one class or do you teach those content areas in reading? If you teach them as part of reading, how do you manage fitting in hands on activities, too?
Do you have more than one teacher teaching the same subject due to the high numbers/ability levels of the kids?
How do you handle the time factor?
Do you have to split up class times because of integrated arts classes, lunch, etc?
We aren't permitted to do this, but I was interested in finding out more about how other districts may do this so we could perhaps "plead our case" if/when the opportunity arises! We were departmentalized when I taught third grade in another district, so I know there are pros and cons about it, but I'm not sure how we'd handle it with five teachers.
At my school, we team taught. Each team consisted of two teachers. One taught math/science the other reading/ELA. We each taught social studies to our own homeroom. I loved this set-up. I felt as if I could become an "expert" in the areas I taught and it really helped cut down on prep time.
We departmentalize but two teachers share two classes. In the morning I have my homeroom to teach Math/Science and my partner teaches her homeroom LA/Soc. St. We switch classes at lunch and repeat. We love it! In my other school, we used 4 teachers and rotated 4 times. Too much travel and loss of time in transition. I like the 2 much better! Good luck with whatever you decide!
We do this in our sixth grade at our school. They're broken up like this:
1. Math
2. Health and Science
3. Social Studies
4. Writing and Grammar
5. English (focus on Reading and Spelling)
We used to do just always 5 periods a day -- but because of requirements and the way the middle school does it, they've experimented with a block schedule (math every day, 2 of each of the other periods) and others...
We don't teach the same subject twice because we have the same number of teachers we would have if we had self-contained classes, so most of our class sizes are around the average anyway -- does that makes sense? Everyone rotates through, so at any given time we've got the grade split 5 ways.
We have one period around lunch that gets strange b/c of specials. Music and PE are 35 minutes each and art is 55 minutes. So on the day that the kids (grouped by homeroom for specials) have PE or music, they have silent reading time or study hall time or other homeroom activity in that 20 minutes that is different to allow all 6th grade to go to lunch at the same time. This way also provides the teachers common planning time 5 days per week (every other grade level is jealous).
Does this help? Another way we've done it at the 5th grade level when we had 6 teachers was to pair up and each of us chose ss or science. If I taught ss to my class and my partner's class, she taught them both science. We ability group for math (compacted, mixed, supported) and then everyone teaches their own total language arts block (spelling, writing, reading, oral language, etc). So theoretically a kiddo could have 3 different teachers (math, ss/sci, homeroom) in 5th, then move to the 5 differnet teachers in 6th and be prepped for all 8 difffernet teachers they will have in middle school grades. Make sense?
What we did before we were told to stop, was each homeroom rotated together. One teacher(a former accountant) taught math. Another teacher taught science( she had a sciences backgrround), and I taught Social Studies( history fan and Civil War reencator ). Everyone taught their own reading and language arts. Principal and families loved it Above destroyed the program because they didn't want"tracking", excuse me? Homeroom groups stayed intact,and were hetrogenously grouped. I don't understand it. Now that same shortsighted person is now running the system.
the largest number of classes we've had for sixth at our school is 3.
we've done the following groups (entire class rotated together):
science
math
social studies
social studies
math
language (just writing/grammar--no reading)
and then it's switched up a bit the years we've had only 2 classes/teachers.
right now we have 2 and i teach science/health while my partner teaches social studies. for math we use flexible grouping where we either pretest or look at state test scores to put them into about 4 groups at their ability level (for that UNIT only)
and for reading, they are ability grouped (using fluency test, state reading test, reading basal test, STAR test, and professional judgment) into about 7 groups where they've stayed for over 1/2 the year--we'll move a couple around next week.
i have never taught reading and language together--well, one or two years i had a huge block, but i really only taught either one or the other.
we have always loved the departmentalizing (we only didn't do it one year when we had completely new curriculum and wanted to feel that out). it gives us a chance to work really hard on that one subject and let our talents there shine and ignore a subject we don't like/aren't as good at. and less prep-work is great!
our parents always liked it--they felt it prepared students better for jr. high.
i think it would be difficult with 5 teachers because it's harder to be flexible then--with 2 or 3, one of us could say, i really need to cancel or shorten today because i want to....but with 5 you really need to respect the needs of everyone because it affects so many people and subjects.
I would really like to try departmentalizing again. As some of you mentioned, it just gives the teacher the opportunity to become more of an expert at the one or two subjects he/she is teaching. We would really be able to go further with differentiation tactics because we wouldn't have to stretch our time among other subject areas. Of course, being able to focus on a favorite subject or two also makes it that much better!
Thanks posters for your help. I'll share these procedures with my teammates, who also would like to try this. If anyone else can explain how you also departmentalize, I'd like to hear more ideas!
Everyone taught Reading
3 teachers taught math
1 teacher taught science
1 teacher taught social studies
We had three blocks or periods.
1st period was Reading
2nd period was Social studies OR science OR math
3rd period was social studies OR science OR MATH
everyone had math every day.
Students had either social studies or science every day for half a year.
halfway thru the year, the social studies and science classes switched to the other subject/teacher.
This meant that the math classes were small (b/c there were 6 math classes total) which admin and the math teachers liked. The social studies/science classes were a bit larger.
Six math classes! That'd be great! I could see where test scores could really improve with those smaller class sizes.
How did your team handle getting all the standards covered for the state testing for social studies and science with beginning one subject area halfway throughout the year? I'm trying to think about what admin. might ask.
We don't have a state Social Studies or Science test so it didn't matter. I'm in Maryland. Next year, we are starting a state Science test so things might change. BUT the Science test is only in grades 3 and 5 (I teach 4th) so it should still be fine.
Sorry I couldn't help you there.
I guess maybe an alternative would be to flip flop the kids after every unit so they get at least equal amounts of each subject. But a problem I see with that is if the social studies and science units aren't of equal length, a lot of switching for the kids (esp those with ADHD), and getting enough grades for report cards.
We have to do the "flip-flopping" thing with our content areas. Sometimes we go a couple of units in science, for instance, before we move on to social studies. There does tend to be a problem with trying to make sure we have enough social studies/science grades, but most units are around two to three weeks long, so we usually can get through a couple of science and social studies before the end of the grading period.
I spoke with my team members during lunch today about this post. They are all very eager to departmentalize, but they're not feeling hopeful. Unfortunately, even though our district did this in the past, our district admin. now frowns upon it. I just want to be ready in case I see them start to "buckle"!
My first year of teaching was departmentalized (I taught 4th) and we had 4 teachers. All of us taught reading to our homeroom - as soon as school started. It helped that the classes were ability-grouped. Then we each had another subject to teach - mine was science.
We switched every hour, I believe, and ended up the last hour with our homeroom again. That way we started and ended our day with our homeroom. It made it easier for attendance, early check-outs, bus/car rider notes, etc...
Whatever class we had at lunchtime was the class we took to lunch. Same thing with activities.
With 5 teachers I would suggest each teacher take a different subject, and give about 50 min. for each. That gives you time for activities and lunch as well. Your first class would be your "homeroom" to make any announcements, attendance, etc... You'd have 15 min. extra in the first class to cover that. Here's a sample schedule for one teacher:
8:00-8:15 - homeroom
8:15-9:05 - Group A
9:10-10:00 - Group B
10:05-10:55 - Group C
11:00-12:25 - Group D (and lunch split into 30 min. shifts)
12:30-1:20 - Group E
1:25-2:15 - Activity (off)
Really, what that does is gives each teacher a different block off for planning time. Each "homeroom" would have a different time for going to different places. Another teacher would have 8:15-9:05 off, then Group A, etc... Does that make sense?
Third Grade...we use 3 and I can see using 4, but not 5.
with 3, one teaches Reading, one teaches Math, and I teach Grammar/Writing and Science and Social Studies.
with 4 you could do Reading, Math, English, Science/S.S.
I guess with 5 you could have Reading, Math, English, Science, and S.S.
But for us in 3rd, Sci/S.S. aren't promoteable so it doesn't really take up the full 90 minutes that our classes are. I teach 60 min of English then 30 min. of Sci or S.S. We do 4 weeks of each then switch.
I'd like to have 4 teachers and have one teacher do Science and S.S.,but since it's not a subject that if they fail they'd be retained, they won't let us have a teacher do those.
02-17-2007, 06:39 PM
). Everyone taught their own reading and language arts. Principal and families loved it Above destroyed the program because they didn't want"tracking", excuse me? Homeroom groups stayed intact,and were hetrogenously grouped. I don't understand it.
Now that same shortsighted person is now running the system.
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