I am the teacher of a multi-age class of first- and second-grade class. I have twenty children in the class-- the youngest has just turned six, the oldest is turning eight. Some are just beginning to sound out words, others are reading chapter books. Some are struggling with counting to thirty; others love to solve mental math problems about numbers in the thousands. Each of these children has a different set of needs and abilities and as the teacher, it is my job to meet those various needs and challenge their various abilities. This can be daunting!
Of course, I realize that this range of skills is not that much more significant than the range one would find in any other classroom. When I taught a straight-graded first-grade, there was a smaller age span, but the range of needs and abilities was almost as wide. I'm sure in the older grades this range is even wider.
Because the children in my classroom are technically in different grades, I am required to differentiate my instruction. In a straight-graded classroom, it might be possible to get away with a one-size-fits-all model of instruction, but in a multi-age setting there is no other way. Neither parents nor administrators would stand for a program that did not account for a variety of needs. So although, I never set out to tackle differentiated instruction, teaching in a multi-age classroom forced me to try.
Differentiating instruction can be incredibly challenging, but it is undoubtedly best practice. Teaching in a multi-age classroom has probably made me a better teacher because it has forced me to adapt, change, experiment, and innovate in an effort to provide a program that meets the needs of all my young students.
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