Republic of the Philippines

North Eastern Mindanao State University

LIANGA CAMPUS
Lianga Surigao del Sur, 8307
Website: www.sdssu.edu.gov.ph

MODULE 1
Lesson 3 : CATERING DIVERSE LEARNERS THROUGH MULTIGRADE TEACHING

Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

 identify the crucial elements in a multigrade classroom;

 discuss the role of the teacher in a multigrade classroom; and
 explain the classroom management of a multigrade classes.

If your school is one of two schools in the district of Marilog, Davao City, you are assigned to
teach six to nine years old. The other school has a class for children in grades IV to VI. The
nearest school with a complete elementary school is located three barangays away from where
you are. If the situation is similar to that of your school, then yours could be one of the estimated
thousands of public elementary schools in the Philippines which are incomplete elementary
schools.
Incomplete elementary schools can provide multigrade classes to respond to the needs of
Filipino children who have the right to quality education at all levels. Then secretary of Education
culture and Sports, Armand Fabella, in 1992, launched the multi-grade program,, to meet this
need. Much is to be desired in finding out the quality of instruction in these multi-grade and
combination of classes and whether teachers, parents, and other community volunteers, under the
leadership of a teacher-in-charge and the district supervisors, perform their respective functions to
protect and fulfil a very basic right of every child: the right to education as provided for in the United
Nations Convention of the Rights of the child. Every child has a right to education.
Through multi-grade classes and single-teacher schools, the possibility of teaching the young
ones came to existence. These two kinds of classes are both present in developed and developing
countries around the globe. On the contrary, developing countries often lack educational tools,
effective trained teachers and effective supervision and management. Teachers are receiving
rarely in regard with training in dealing with a large number of diverse learners at different ages
and levels of learning.
There are certain situations in remote areas in the Philippines where it is not possible or viable
to open and maintain a complete elementary school or high school in a particular barangay where
enrolment per grade is less, multi-grade classroom is a viable alternative to fulfilling this important
responsibility of the government to give everyone access to education –the EFA or Education For
All.

The Multi-grade (MG) Classroom as Learning Environment

 Basic information about the multi-grade classroom in several (two or three) grade levels
with one teacher for an entire school year. Simply put, multi-grade schools are those
which have classes that combine students of different ages and different abilities in one
classroom. There may also be other adults who assist the teacher to mobilize parent or
community involvement.
 In the Philippines public school system, classes with two grade levels within one
classroom with one teacher are referred to as combination classes. Those with three
grade levels are called multi-grade classes. Multigrade classes can also be multi-level
classes.
 This means that a multi-grade classroom clearly involves children with different skills
and abilities, different developmental levels and needs, learning and working together
with the guidance and supervision of one

Where the idea of MG schools did came from?

 Multi-grade schools were actually the first kind of schools in North America. The one-
room school house was the most common model of formal educational programs for
elementary children before the 1800‟s until the Industrial Revolution brought about
large scale urbanization and other changes in the countries of North America.

 Multi-grade classes tend to be associated with the developing countries, but they are
also found in other countries across the world. Some place in which they are found are
Peru, Sri Lanka, Norway, Vietnam, England, France, the Caribbean. India, the United
States, New Zealand, Columbia and Samoa. These classes exist for a wide variety of
reasons.

 Rationale in organizing multi-grade classes in both public and private schools when
most of the classrooms are single grade classes.

 Two-third of the classroom in public school system are single-grade classrooms. MG

classes were organized as a matter of necessity for remote Barangays’ where the
number of children to be enrolled could not meet the required number to organize a
single class and assigned the necessary teacher for each class. Estimated number of
barangays without school is 9, 240.

 In 1990, the department of Education Culture and Sports considered the continuing
operation of MG classrooms all over the country within the framework of the efforts to
provide Education for All Filipino children. The policy is important considering that of the
32, 630 public schools in the country, 11, 800 are incomplete schools.
  The Department of Education viewed MG as viable means to reaching as many
children as possible, especially for the elementary grade levels in order to provide
primary education for as many Filipino children as possible. Thus, efforts to address the
special needs of MG classes and to improve quality of instruction have begun in the
form of investments in training programs, curriculum development, and development of
learning materials.

 MG classrooms have been organized in some private schools in the Philippines as a

matter of choice because of the advantages of interaged grouping or multi-level
classes. MG classes are considered equally effective in the industrialized countries
where they are part of the educational system, especially in sparsely populated areas.

  One of the most frequently-cited reasons for the cost of effectiveness of MG classes is
the cost-effectiveness of the scheme in terms of being able to meet the needs of a
community’s children, as far as education is concerned. One of the obvious reasons for
this is the savings in terms of staffing patterns with only one teacher responsible for
several grade levels in one class, compared to one teacher for each grade level with an
erratic or small number of students enrolled per class.

Crucial Elements in a Multi-grade Classroom

1. Modified Curriculum and Instruction

2. Teacher’s Role
3. Classroom Physical Arrangement
4. Classroom Management and Discipline
5. Planning a Lesson and Evaluation
6. Community Participation

1. Modified Curriculum and Instruction

A. Subject Staggering
 Option Subjects requiring more teacher pupil interaction are grouped with those
requiring less.

B. Subject Integration Option

 Subjects are integrated through a theme.
 A thematic lesson for Araling Panlipunan can be developed by integrating concepts
in Music, PE and Health, Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao.

C. Common Time Table

 A subject is presented in all grades by the teacher in a given schedule with each
grade having prescribed work program by age-level or ability.
 Time 7:00-7:30 7:30-8:30 8:30-9:10 9:10-9:30 9:30-10:30
 Grade I - GMRC, Mother Tongue, Art, Math
 Grade II - GMRC, Mother Tongue, Art, RECESS, Math
 Grade III - GMRC, Mother Tongue, Art, Math

D. Integrated Day Option

 No fixed time table
 Pupils are free to choose what subject to study and when
 Children are allowed to choose an activity based from the weeks theme.

E. Subject Grouping Option

 Subjects using Filipino as medium of instruction are taught Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday while subjects using English are taught Tuesday and Thursday.
  Monday, Wednesday, Friday Tuesday and Thursday Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao
Araling Panlipunan Mother Tongue, Filipino

2. TEACHER’S ROLE

The Teacher as: Facilitator

 The word “facilitator” is based on the Latin word “facilis” which means easy.
 Facilitating learning means making academic and social learning as easy as
possible for children.
 Teacher should try to remove the obstacles or roadblock to children’s learning so
that it will be possible for them to learn.
 The teacher designs instructional strategies that make learning processes
interesting.
 A facilitative teacher should be aware of the multiple intelligences of learners.
 He/she allows and encourages children to learn in different ways about different
topics depending on their own needs, interest and learning styles.

The Teacher as: Manager

 Managing a child-centered classroom which is an effective MG classroom is more
complex than a single-grade classroom.
 One single movement strategy cannot be applied throughout all activities
throughout the school year.
 Flexibility is the most important ingredient for a teacher’s success as manager of a
learning environment.
 Freedom and independent decision should be introduced gradually.
 Involve the children to develop rules for the classroom day to day.
 Choose children’s work because it matters to them.
 Manager provides rich and wide variety of activities available to teach concepts and
skills that are age-proportionate that meets children’s needs and cater to their
interest.

The Teacher as: Observer

 In an effective MG classroom which is learner-centered, a teacher should make the
most of every opportunity to observe children at work, at play and other activities.
 The information gained from observation is then essential to evaluation as well as
curriculum planning.
 Furthermore teachers who are keen and careful observers are able to anticipate the
needs of the children and achieve a more complete understanding of the
development of the whole child.
 The role of a teacher as instructor still involves transmitting knowledge, but the
teacher chooses means and moments that are appropriate, demonstrating the use
of new materials, reading a story aloud to the class, sharing important information
that is given more effectively when done directly.

The Teacher as: Planner

 In order to fulfill the roles of facilitator, instructor, manager and supervisor of
independent learning and evaluator the teacher must invest in planning that is
knowledgeable, efficient, comprehensive and well-orchestrated.
 A good planner is also flexible enough to make the necessary changes depending
upon the feedback from observation of the children at work within a day or from day
to day and based on more formal means of evaluations.

The Teacher as: Evaluator

 A conscientious and effective teacher always wants to know of the goals of the
curriculum are being achieved and how well learning is being achieved.
 So, a plan for evaluation is very important.
  Evaluation is necessary to find out if and how children have learned what they are
supposed to learn.

2. PHYSICAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE CLASSROOM

Elements that contribute to successful MG classroom:

Learning Centers
 These are semi-private, (partially enclosed by a low blackboard, shelf or easel)
areas for small groups to work together.
 These are work situations that the children use with or without teachers
guidance or supervision depending upon the nature of activity.
 For example, a Science experiments would require teacher supervision but
mathematics or reading game or activity card that has been introduced earlier
may not require constant teacher guidance.
 One advantage of learning centers or areas would be the fact that they allow
and encourage children to work in a self-directed or independent way.

Learning Materials

 Learning materials are among the most important part of the physical environment
within which effective MG teaching can take place.
 These are textbooks, reference books, periodicals, digest magazines, teacher-made
materials, board games, puzzles, activity cards and toys.
 Supplies and raw materials for children’s project, such as colored paper, glue,
Popsicle sticks, and recyclables like plastic straws, bottle caps, toilet paper spools,
cardboard boxes, and plastic containers are considered learning materials.

Furniture and Equipment

Ideally, furniture (desks, tables, chairs) in a multi grade classroom should be of the
movable type so that there can be a greater flexibility in arranging and rearranging them
and the classroom layout will be able to provide for the following activities:

 A whole group period, like, class schedule for the day, special projects, classroom
rules, problems that must be dealt with as a group, introduction of new materials
and topics.
 Small group activities for working on tasks or activities for specific subject areas,
including discussion, writing, reading, arts, crafts, experiments;
 Individual or independent work so children can read, write, work on individual
projects;
 Indoor games, dramatization, and role play

3. Classroom Management and Discipline

Classroom management and discipline are two very closely related issues.
Classroom management is concerned with structuring a classroom’s life, including all the
elements in the classroom as a learning environment that is conducive to teaching-learning.

Discipline involves setting and defining clear expectations about student behavior
and setting limits (e.g. rules, guidelines, instructions) that enable them to behave
appropriately.

Classroom Management

1. Organizing physical environment

 Providing the necessary furniture, equipment and learning materials involve

arranging these in such a way that they are neatly arranges to serve a purpose.
 The children will only learn how to use classroom equipment and materials if they
are shown how and given the opportunities to use these.
 Try out variety of classroom arrangement to adjust to the emerging needs;
 Arrange furniture to provide for convenient flow of traffic.
  Label areas in the classroom and container of materials clearly so that children will
eagerly learn the functions and can return them easily.
 Involve children in classroom maintenance by using ‘’Job Chart’’.
 This helps develop a sense of responsibility and discipline in taking care of the
physical environment.

2. Organizing Time
 A predictable schedule that students feel is useful and clear to them, and takes into
consideration a piece of working that they can handle is one of the important ways
of helping children learn to manage themselves in the classroom.
 Discipline in the Classroom Discipline involves doing what is expected of you at a
specific time whether there is someone watching over you or not.

Tips:
 Adopt a problem-solving approach to discipline issues, particularly those that
involve breaking clearly stated classroom rules.
 Help children look at these instances as problems that can be solved rather than
situations that mark them for life.
 Involve the children in figuring out how to help other rather than putting them
against one another.
 When children break rules, it is better to walk to them privately.
 Public scolding only humiliates children and damages their self-confidence.
 The most effective approach to discipline is positive.
 Reinforce what children do correctly.
 Proper behaviors result if they are rewarded by recognition or praise.
 The ultimate goal of classroom discipline is self-discipline.

Planning a Lesson Evaluation

One of the most important tasks for the MG classroom teacher is lesson
preparation. There are three important resources available for the teacher to use in
preparing a lesson. The K to 12 Curriculum Guide where the standards and competencies
are stated. This is an organized list of objectives. They are organized in sequence
according to the four grading periods within one school year.

Sample lesson Plans for Multi-grade Classes

Sample lesson Plans for Multi-grade Classes

 HEALTH - Grade I Grade II Grade III
 Human Person Human and His Health I

Subject Matter/Materials Concept:

 Some parts of the body (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, hands)
 Pictures of body parts

Procedure (With teacher)

a. Present the pictures of each body part.
b. Tell story about what each one does
c. Sing „‟ I have Ten Little Fingers‟‟

Generalization:
 Touch the parts of your body that we talked about and tell the use of each one.

Application:
 Show different cut-out of faces with some parts missing, then ask: What parts are
missing?
 Practice further naming of the body parts

Evaluation
 Copy and write the name of each body parts in picture.
  Evaluation of the Student Learning
- Keeping track of how students are learning every moment is part of the teaching
process.
- Knowledge of results and errors made is valuable to effective learning.
- Feedback is an informal evaluation.
- It helps learning because it focuses the learner’s attention on certain important
aspects of the learning process and raises the interest of the child.
- For this reason, a major task of the teacher is to find out whether the objective of
the lesson had been carried out.
- Evaluation is bringing together form different sources all forms of information on
pupil performance.

There are two kinds of Evaluation:

a. Informal Evaluation
b. Formal Evaluation

Informal Evaluations
 Rebuilt in or part of the learning activities, like formative test which is given after
every lesson development.
 Another example is when a teacher read a story. She immediately asks questions to
find out if there was comprehension.

Other useful activities for informal evaluation:

 Observer students while working; children react differently in situations.
 Engage the individual in information reaction with children as they work on some tasks.
 Provide follow-up activities that encourage application of skills or concepts learned and
observe how children are able to apply these skills.
 Let the children do some designs on varied games.
 This is to find out if they had retained what they learned.
 Ask the children to write a diary about what they learned in school.
 Inspect all works of a child to monitor whether he/she has learned something.
 Always give assignments for children for enrichment of lessons learned.

Formal Evaluation
 This is an evaluation which is more objective and not affected by bias or subjectivity.
 These are test like unit test, short quizzes, long exams, district test, and national tests,
like the NAT.

Things to consider while preparing a test:

 Lesson objectives
 Nature of learners
 Type of test to prepare
 Number of items
 Level of difficulty
 Key to correction

Community Preparation
The multi-grade classroom, like any school in any community is an important part of
life in a community. However, there can be more to the relationship between a multi-grade
classroom and the community. Since it is usually located in a rural community with
relatively small population, it can more integrated into community life and his integration will
be benefit the school, as well. The quality of the relationship between the school and the
community depends upon the ability of the MG teacher and the administration of the school
system.

Parent Involvement
 In the Multi-grade classroom Two ways by which parents can be involve:
 As parents of their children and as parents who are concerned about
supporting the MG classroom.
 Both ways of involvement will result in improvement of the children’s
performance in school.
Group meetings
 Gathering parents as a group in a parents meeting, at least twice or thrice a year,
will help strengthen a sense of community among them.
 Parents will be aware of the goals of the MG classrooms.
 They can also be organize as Parent Teachers‟ Association (PTA)

Individual Parent-Teacher Conference

 Parents are often called by the teacher if their child has a problem in school,
typically, if there child misbehaved, but individual parent-teacher conferences
should be ideally held, not only when children have problems in school, but also to
have an opportunity to discuss individual student’s progress with their parents.

Parents as Classroom volunteers

 Parent volunteers provide valuable additional support in the classroom.

Appropriate activities for parent volunteers would be:

a. Reading a story to a small group of children
b. Playing a game with small group of children in one of the learning centers, e.g. a math
game
c. Assisting during fieldtrip
d. Helping prepare instructional materials, e.g., cutting or pasting, gathering materials in the
environment
e. Helping children with projects, like: gardening, woodworking, caring for animals, arts and
crafts.

Community Participation
 Community life and school activities lead more easily to mutual integration since
multi-grade schools are located in the communities with small population.
 The parents are involved in their children’s education, the more they would likely to
succeed in school.
 MG schools have lesser resources, thus, the need to involve the community as
sources of information and in providing for services and materials to improve the
school.

Educational Implications:
 Like in all learning environment, students bring a great diversity to mono-grade
classes or multi-grade classes.

The following list reflects some of the diversities found among students which need to
appreciate by the teacher:
1. Age
2. Ability
3. Development level
4. Background
5. Experience
6. Motivation
7. Interest

 A teacher must be able to observe the children individually at certain times and as a
group to learn more about their involvement in the classroom activities, to gain
information about how they relate to other children, and to gain more insights into
the quality of their work and their way of thinking.
  Teachers who are keen and careful observers are able to anticipate the needs of
the children and achieve a more complete understanding of the development of the
whole child.
 For evaluation to be comprehensive and relevant to the purposes of improving the
quality of instruction, a combination of formal means of evaluation is highly
recommended.
 Read the budget of work and look at how the instructional objectives have been
arranged in sequence according to the four grading periods.

Activity
1. Identify and explain the crucial elements in a multigrade classroom.
2. Discuss the role of the teacher in a multigrade classroom.
3. Explain the classroom management of a multigrade classes.